7B: Reflection on Readings

For class, we were tasked with finding 3 articles about reader’s advisory and annotating them. Reader’s advisory is the recommendation of book titles to read by librarians to patrons based upon a book a patron liked. It usually involves fiction books.

Albanese, Andrew. “A Breakthrough for Library E-Books?” Publisher’s Weekly, August 12, 2016. http://www.lexisnexis.com (accessed October 25, 2016). 

This article is about “SimplyE”, which is an app that was created by the New York Public Library. Its purpose is to eliminate the number of clicks it takes to checkout an eBook. It has a simple interface and has a good search button. It also allows the user to get eBooks from any vendor (a company that owns eBook titles). Its shortfalls are that it only works with phones and does not allow for a lot of customization by the user, although libraries that decide to use it and offer it to their patrons can customize it. The author believes now that users have a much simpler and faster way to download an eBook, they will soon want and expect more out of the app. The author thinks that users will now want the app to perform reader’s advisory. But this will not be a simple process for eBook apps to do because they do not retain and store customer data like Amazon and Google does.  

Before reading this article, I never thought that what Amazon and Google does is reader’s advisory, but it is so true! Amazon is awesome with their reader’s advisory ability. It always suggests things to me that interest me and then I want to buy what they suggest (which I then have to control myself). Sometimes it is annoying though because I have to scroll through many products of which I already own. Netflix has a “watcher’s advisory” too. However, their system sucks. Their system cannot figure me out at all. I subscribe to Netflix by DVD and one time they sent me “The Intern” which stars Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro. I wanted to watch it because it looked good, but I also like Anne Hathaway. What does Netflix do? Suggests a boatload of Robert De Niro movies for me to watch (none of which I was interested in, besides the ones I had already seen). There was no suggestion of Anne Hathaway movies at all, which would have been better for me. Even when I add movies to my queue, suggestions pop up, but I do not care about the suggestions. Netflix just cannot figure me out. I do not know why. I star a lot of movies. I think they need to invest in the same algorithm or whatever it is called that Amazon has. Facebook has a “reader’s advisory” too with its advertisements. I find things I want to buy or am interested in all the time on Facebook through suggestions. Like what the author says, people want to be able to have reader’s advisory, but at the same time we do not like the invasion of our personal data. And that is how I feel with Facebook. It has recommended awesome stuff, but at the same time it creeps me out and makes me feel like my privacy has been invaded.

Anderson, Stephanie H., Laurel Tarulli, and Barry Trott. “Trends and Directions in RA Education.”    Reference & User Services Quarterly, 55.3 (Spring 2016): 203-209. http://www.ebscohost.com (accessed October 25, 2016).

                                                                

This article is about reader’s advisory in general. Apparently, there is still discussion today over “what reader’s advisory (RA) encompasses, how it should be practiced, and how it should be taught” (page 203). Despite the fact that it is highly valued in the public library field, for some reason, it is not taught to librarians in training, because some school programs do not offer classes on it at all. The article also talks about how RA has moved to the digital world because of eBooks and social media platforms. It ends with a discussion about how there is much to improve in the teaching of RA and that it needs to be transformed if it is to survive the future. 

I think that it is odd that RA is not always a class that is offered at library schools. Though I know that RA is mostly associated with public libraries, I still think that it is valuable for academic libraries too. For one, occasionally students will come in and ask for RA. But more importantly, to me it seems like RA is just another extension of the reference interview. Learning how to perform RA would help improve and hone one’s reference interview skills. If RA is offered as a class at my school, I would take it, although my focus is more on academic libraries. What is with this fear of libraries, and now RA, not surviving the future?!?!? I am getting really tired of this theme (Maybe this is what I should write my final paper about?).

Bartlett, Jenifer A. “Internet Reviews: Reader’s Advisory Meets Social Media: Top Book Recommendations Websites.” Kentucky Libraries 79.4 (Fall 2015): 15-18. http://www.ebscohost.com (accessed October 26, 2016).

This article is a review of reader’s advisory websites. It reviews two popular ones: Goodreads and Library Thing. It also reviews other ones: Libib, The Reading Room, What Should I Read Next?, Whichbook, Olmenta, BookBub, and Book Vibe. 

I found this article to be very valuable. I already know about Goodreads, Library Thing, and BookBub. However, I never really thought of these three as being about reader’s advisory before, but then again, I did not know what reader’s advisory was before library school.  I can see now how they are related to reader’s advisory. I especially see Goodreads as definitely being about reader’s advisory. However, to me Library Thing and BookBub I don’t see solely as reader’s advisory. I used to have Library Thing on my phone and I used it as a book catalogue because I carry so many lists around with me, and there is just no possible way for me to have all the books I own or want written on a list. Library Thing is valuable because I kept buying books I already owned from garage sales and flea markets. I have never used BookBub as a reader’s advisory tool, and I probably will not in the future either. For me, BookBub  is a source that lets me know when certain authors have ebooks on sale.  I get daily emails. Of course, it does send me emails about books in the genres that I said I am interested in, so I guess I do kind of use it as a reader’s advisory tool. But I really use it to get cheap books on my Kindle (usually the free ones). BookBub is the reason I bought a Kindle because there were a whole bunch of books I was interested in, and most of them will never be available in print. I hardly use my Kindle though because I hate reading books and watching TV on screens. I just cannot focus; I prefer real books.

This article is definitely valuable to me because it reviewed Libib, which is not just a catalogue for one’s books, but it will also catalogue movies, music, and video games. THIS IS JUST WHAT I NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it allows up to 100,000 items. I am so EXCITED!!!!!! I cannot wait till I have the time to make an account and put in all of my information!!! I know what I am doing once the semester ends. Whichbook is interesting because it allows you to select what kind of mood you are in or what kind of book you want to read and then makes suggestions based upon that. I wonder if it has a sister site involving movies and music because that would also be very useful. 

In retrospect, I love reader’s advisory, but unfortunately do not get to do a lot of it. I do get to do it sometimes, though, because at work we have a browsing collection with titles that are on the New York Bestsellers list. I did do a reader’s advisory the other day with one of the librarians. She asked me which Star Wars book on the browsing collection would be a good read. Most of them were either boring or a teen/young adult genre (I loved them but did not think that she would). I asked her about other titles like “The Maze Runner” and some other titles, but she had either already read them or saw the movie and did not like them. She went with one adult Star Wars book that has two books combined into one with three short stories making the book a special edition, but I had not read it before.

What is fun about reader’s advisory is if you have read the book the patron has, then you can tell each other about other books that are just like it. So not only does the patron find another book to read, but so does the librarian! Win-win!!

7A: Reflection on Class 10-11-16

In class we had a guest speaker. Her name is Karen Reiman-Sendi and is the director of User Information and Discovery Services at our university’s library. I thought that I would be hearing about stuff I already know about, but I didn’t. She gave a presentation about reference librarianship concerning virtual chat.

 One thing a classmate asked was why live chat is so expensive. Karen said that the cost was because of technology, and not labor cost. And it can even more expensive for libraries when companies merge, because they then hike up their prices to pay for the merge. Companies that offer libraries software tools are akin to database companies. They’re in it to get rich and not for the actual service, unlike some software tools or databases that were created by librarians. I think the price is ridiculous though, especially since the money doesn’t go towards labor cost. So the computer is now alive and it needs a wage too? This has been happening much more frequently, and it shouldn’t. I understand a company might need to save money up in case the technology breaks, but that doesn’t happen very often, so the price they are charging is ridiculous.

I also learned that there was a difference at one time between live chat and instant messaging. I was reading about it in the “Conducting a Reference Interview” book and couldn’t figure out how they are not the same thing. So I raised my hand in class to ask this question. Karen explained that live chat involved downloading software and paying for it whereas instant messaging was using free services like Aim (those were the days). Now most people consider them the same thing. And why wouldn’t they be considered the same thing? Live chat means you are there chatting right now in the moment and that’s exactly what instant messaging is too. And you type on a keyboard for both.

I’ve realized recently that virtual chat can also be a big pain in the butt. The other day, my librarian coworkers were getting pranked on chat. They all said the same thing “What are you doing tonight?” yet the IP Addresses all came from different places. It makes me think that someone is a hacker and can maybe change their IP or something. It was bizarre. They were also rude. One of them put their name as “Get a life (insert librarian’s name here)!” and used foul language. The librarians remained very professional despite the ridiculousness. If I had been on there, I would have wanted to play their game and tell them that I was digging a grave, and ask if they wanted to help me. The problem about that is that they can see my full name, so if they are really awful individuals, I wouldn’t put it past them to report me for saying something like that although I’m just saying nonsense back to them.

6B: Reflection on Readings

In “Conducting the Reference Interview” book, chapter 5, it talks about how the telephone is still an important feature that is still used today even though we now have better technology (in some people’s opinions). The book states that the phone is still used because it is easier “to complete the negotiation of a complex question or to communicate detailed explanations” via phone than email or chat (page 127). This is very true at my workplace. Luckily, I haven’t had to do a virtual chat yet (now that I’ve said this, I’m sure it will happen this Sunday), but I have seen the transcripts of my coworkers and lots of times they are LONG. And you can easily see that the chat could have been cut down at least by half, if not more, if the reference interview had been on the phone or in person. One problem that causes such a lengthy virtual chat, especially timewise, is that the patron on the other end will get distracted with what they are doing on the computer and not answer the librarian right away. Other times, the chats get disconnected for a variety of reasons.

The book lists that one important step in a telephone reference interview is to LISTEN (page 132). This is a very important skill to have. A couple of months ago, we had a phone call about something and a student worker picked it up. They then transferred it to the reference librarian who ended up transferring back to the circulation desk because they didn’t know what the patron wanted either. So the student then transferred it to me. At first I didn’t understand what the patron wanted, but eventually I figured it out. They just weren’t explaining themselves very well. I felt bad, that it was bad customer service on our part because no one understood them, they got transferred a number of times (BAD BAD BAD) and I had almost transferred to someone else before realizing at the last second what they really wanted. The answer was simple. You just sometimes have to not just listen to the patron, but also analyze what they are saying and sometimes have to pull what they really want out of them; which, yes, many times, is a chore to do, but you gotta do it.

One thing I hate about the phone is it gets hard to hear the person on the other end sometimes because of static or echoes, or they love to call with music in the background blaring or they will occasionally scream at a kid or someone. Plus, I’m deaf half the time so that also doesn’t help. I hate having to ask them to spell things out all the time, especially because they then rattle the letters off too fast, and sometimes I still can’t hear them. Then they get frustrated or angry with me because they have to keep repeating themselves.

I’m surprised the chapter didn’t talk much about what you do when you are on the phone and someone comes up to you and asks a question. That happened to me last Thursday. I had a caller who kept calling back about APA style (which I’m not familiar with). I was on the phone, flipping through the style book, when a patron asked me something. I felt rude to tell him to go to the circulation desk. I don’t think he realized I was on the phone because my hair might had been covering it. He never came back so I think what he needed was something circulation provides. But I still felt bad, like I was kind of rude to him. But he had just walked right up and started talking to me.

In Chapter 6 of the book, it says that virtual chat has been around for 10 years (page 191). I had no idea that it’s been around for that long! I thought maybe 5 years, but not 10. That’s kind of surprising, but it shouldn’t be considering I had a screen name on my internet provider and I did instant messaging 15 years ago.

The book also talks about how “increasingly reference librarians have become early adopters of emerging technologies that promote reference” (page 192). I know this to be true at my workplace. Our library has accounts with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and I’m sure there are others I’m not familiar with. Some of the librarians are always talking about some new technology and if we would be able to incorporate it in our workplace. Sometimes I hear about the technology first from them before I hear about it anywhere else. The fact that librarians are employing these tools is further proof that libraries are not going to go anywhere.

The book also mentions how virtual chat is usually busy at the same times when a lot of walk-ins are coming in (page 192). This happened a few Sundays ago. The reference librarian on Sundays is a student like me and she had 2 chats going, a phone call, and people lining up to talk other. I had to help her out. Then we were texting our boss because of the crazy questions we were getting. Usually we can figure things out together, but this time we couldn’t and we felt overwhelmed. The circulation desk was also busy at the same time. Thankfully, the Sundays since then have been pretty quiet. I don’t know what was going on that day.

The book states that for virtual chat, the staff member needs to know “who is eligible to receive this service and what do users have to do to demonstrate eligibility?” (page 195). This is very important because if not, one could violate the terms of contract the library has with databases and other subscriptions. What the Sunday reference librarian does is check in our library system to see if the person on the other end is indeed affiliated with the university. I have no idea what the other librarians do (another question to add to our list that we are compiling). A lot of them don’t know the library system very well. I know that when someone who is not affiliated with the university comes in, we legally can give them what they are asking for, but I don’t know if the same rules apply to virtual chat or email.