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!!