Readers’ Advisory and the Pandemic: Lessons, Connections, and Vital Services

Lucy M. Lockley, Gregg Winsor, Kaite Mediatore Stover, David Wright, Barry Trott, Stephanie Anderson

Lucy M. Lockley, Lead Collection Development Librarian for St. Charles City–County Library (MO), is the 2020 recipient of RUSA’s Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award. She writes reviews for Booklist and co-teaches an introduction to readers’ advisory class for library staff. Find her on Twitter @colldev00. Gregg Winsor is a Reference Librarian with a Readers’ Advisory speciality at the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, Kansas. He’s presented at several local and national conferences, including WorldCon, BookExpo, and both Kansas and Missouri Library Association conferences. He’s currently serving as chair of LibraryReads.org. His TBR pile looms over him, endlessly. Kaite Mediatore Stover, Director of Readers’ Services, Kansas City Public Library is a multiple-award winning librarian and founding member of LibraryReads. She is the co-editor of The Readers’ Advisory Handbook. Follow her on Twitter @MarianLiberryan. David Wright is a Reader Services Librarian at Seattle Public Library, where he presents—and now podcasts—the library’s popular Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups. Barry Trott, Adult Services Consultant at the Library of Virginia, previously served as Special Projects and Technical Services Director at the Williamsburg (VA) Regional Library where he helped introduce online form-based RA to the library world. He is the author of Read On Crime Fiction and writes on occasion for NoveList. Stephanie Anderson is Assistant Director, Selection, for BookOps, the shared technical services collaboration of the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library.

Correspondence to this column should be addressed to Neal Wyatt, Reviews Editor, Library Journal; email: nwyatt@mediasourceinc.com.

The pandemic and resulting quarantine changed how libraries operate, including the provision of readers’ advisory (RA) service. Access to print titles initially came to a halt, rendering many users’ holds lists irrelevant, while queues for some e-books grew longer and longer. Readers lost the ability to browse and discover the physical collection, and many took up, for the first time, an e-reader to access books while libraries were closed.

Advisors found ways to aid readers in these difficult circumstances. On Zoom, Twitter, and Facebook, through their websites and newsletters, over the phone and via email, advisors continued connecting readers to books. Their work has created a new resurgence of RA, at the very moment readers had time to re-center on their reading lives. What we have discovered through this hard work and focus should not be lost. There are lessons here to hold onto and learn from.

Virtual book groups have taught us that physical attendance is a burden that stopped many readers from joining the conversation. Once they could be part of the discussion without having to rush home, change clothes, get a meal on the table, arrange for child care, and drive to the library and park, attendance jumped. It turns out the actual and metaphorical time costs of participation are keeping libraries separated from a significant portion of their user base.

We saw this not only in the rise of book group participation but also from literary programming. Virtual events such as Book Expo suddenly had thousands watching a program (both live, and significantly, via asynchronous viewing) when in prior years if a tiny fraction of that number gathered in a room it would be counted as a blockbuster. Of the many lessons to be learned, the need to create programs that allow for remote participation and viewing on readers’ schedules should top the list.

Worth stressing to ourselves, putting in every annual report, and making a special presentation to every library board in the nation: the affirmation we received of RA service itself. As readers isolated themselves, they found solace in their connection with a librarian ready to listen and chat about books. Form-based and phone-based RA created a link with the community and proved its abundant value every day, as patron after patron commented on how grateful they were for the service.

We have learned that our books stayed in constant demand, along with RA expertise. Readers turn to us for the joy and necessity of stories and for human connection in the common hour and, essentially, in the uncommon one too.

While the conversation below took place in the fall of 2020, it is September 2021 as this column goes to print, and it is still unclear when it will be safe for every reader, no matter their age or health condition, to venture back to our physical libraries. When that day arrives, we need to keep in mind the lesson the pandemic has taught us: RA is essential.

Stressing this fact and sharing their stories—from a service perspective, a cataloging perspective, and a collection development perspective—six librarians have collaborated here to detail their experiences of RA during the pandemic.—Editor

Surveying RA and Social Media

Readers’ advisory is usually thought of as an active (or passive) one-to-one interaction between library staff and customers; a way for the library to help an individual find something new to read. And it still is, no matter whether the reader comes into the physical library or is searching online. But the pandemic and lockdown has made it more vital than ever that libraries take advantage of and expand their means for connecting with readers wherever they are.

Curious to know what other libraries might have been doing recently to expand their readers’ advisory service, I posted to a listserv and to two RA-related Facebook groups. Below is a summary of what I discovered when I went looking for libraries that provide regularly scheduled readers’ advisory using social media. I am glad to report live interactive RA using social media is blooming:

• Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (KS) hosts weekly Book Chat Live evenings. A team of staff are on hand for two hours to talk about books arranged by theme and share recommendations. Afterwards they curate a list posted in the catalog using the books recommended by their community of readers.
• Olympia Timberland Public Library (WA) responded that they offer RA all day twice a month, using Facebook.
• Cuyahoga County Public Library (OH) hosts hour long What to Read Live sessions with librarians offering individual recommendations. They held these sessions weekly during shutdown and have continued the service on an irregular basis since reopening.
• Indianapolis Public Library (IN) hosts weekly Facebook RA sessions in addition to a casual but extremely popular “what are you reading” session on Sunday nights.
• Capital Area District Library (MI) holds BookSleuth LIVE sessions on Facebook. They ask readers about the last three books they have read and respond with reading suggestions.
• Denver Public Library (CO) offers a similar service they call Three for All.
• Hillsboro Public Library (OR) offers Facebook Live versions of their usual “Find Your Next” RA service. One session covers reading for children, the other for adults. Staff talk about what they have read recently and invite viewers to ask for recommendations in the comments.
• Kansas City Public Library (MO) has been doing weekly Facebook Live RA sessions since March 2020, for both teens and adults (in addition to their Zoom book club efforts).

Facebook (and Zoom) are not the only platforms supporting online RA. Twitter is the platform of choice for two long running RA efforts. Penguin Random House started #AskALibrarian in 2015. It is held every Thursday for an hour (starting at noon EST). By using the hashtag, any Twitter user can post a question asking for a good book to read. Librarians from all over the country tweet back offering suggestions, bridging the gap between in-person readers’ advisory and the world of live interactive social media.

Another Twitter event directed specifically at library staff is GalleyChat, created by Nora Rawlinson and held on her site EarlyWord. Entering its tenth year, GalleyChat hosts librarians, readers, and publishers who use the hashtag #ewgc to tweet about the Adult galleys they have read or are anticipating. A similar session for Young Adult titles is held using the hashtag #ewgcya. The lively tweet exchanges cover forthcoming titles readers will be seeking and all the titles mentioned during each session are compiled and posted on EarlyWord.

These Twitter sessions offer library staff the opportunity to connect directly with customers and network with staff at other libraries. The exchanges provide the opportunity to practice interactive readers’ advisory service online and, due to the character limitations of Twitter, they also provide practice on how to quickly “pitch” titles to readers in direct one-to-one conversations. The brevity of tweets enforces concision, a key skill that can be translated to all RA work. Library staff can use the tweets to help create intriguing shelf talkers and annotated lists or displays.

Through the pandemic and the shutdown, readers’ advisory is working to broaden and deepen the online connection with readers. These efforts are just the beginning of how libraries adapt and invent in the new age of stay-at-home readers’ advisory interaction.—Lucy M. Lockley

Zoom Book Groups

I.

The Johnson County Library (JCL) is a library system consisting of thirteen branches plus a main library, serving a mix of suburban and rural population. When the pandemic first hit, we focused on survival, staying safe and working from home, and finding ways of delivering materials to patrons. However, we had to also look long-term: how does readers’ advisory look in a world where our patrons are not able to enter the building? If readers’ advisory is an ongoing conversation we have with our patrons, how do we hold that conversation if we never see them face to face?

Our Program Manager, Joseph Keehn, put together a committee of interested staff and held a series of conversations about what online outreach should look like and what platforms might best support virtual programming. They came to the conclusion that Facebook was a natural avenue for outreach. It was the social media platform that had the largest reach and we had built a sizable audience using it prior to the shutdown. The platform could support video and needed no additional sign-up processes. Contact was thus immediate, easy, and familiar.

Next, we did some thinking about what form our online programming was going to take. Booktalks were our answer. They were easy to develop from our existing online resources. Our goal was to string several titles together with a common thread or theme—such as genre—using six titles as a loose standard; any more than that and the presentation got too unwieldy to do on the fly; any fewer and the presentation seemed too short to be truly useful. We decided to market them as “Book Parties.”

Keehn’s Programming Committee developed a one-hour training curriculum for staff, and created a private library account on Facebook so staff could practice and feel comfortable on the platform. As we all know from working with patrons, technology does not always go quite as we would like, so we held mock sessions. During these dress rehearsals, other staff would pose as patrons and ask questions and comment in the chat to better replicate the feel of a live session. This practice time was invaluable, and we discovered that the skills needed for facilitating a book group and the skills needed for appearing on camera and talking about books did not always overlap. Practice helped build those needed skills.

On top of learning new ways to booktalk, we needed to learn how to offer RA without the physical library as our crutch. It is easier to start RA conversations while in the library, where we are comfortable, surrounded by books, magazines, movies, and displays, and where most of our resources and materials are within reach. Because patrons have chosen to be there, actively looking for materials, it is also more natural to offer RA. When attempting to engage patrons online, we are competing with the vast array of the internet itself, where a video, Tweet, or song can be pulled up with a flick of the thumb without the tedious business of digging out a library card number and attempting to remember a PIN.

To help reach readers online, we attempted to make the “Book Parties” personal. Instead of just reciting a handful of book titles and descriptions to a nameless, faceless internet public, we pause and acknowledge questions in real time. We respond to patrons by name and thank them for commenting. We also attempt to encourage lurkers to type something in chat, letting them know that we are interested in hearing from them and hope to understand more of what they want from the experience. We even encourage patrons to ask other library-related questions. Since a second staff member is always on hand to monitor chat, there is no reason not to use that opportunity to connect as the patron desires.

We continued the “Book Parties” throughout the summer and took most of August off to recharge and recruit more staff. Currently, we have a rotation of six staff, which translates to roughly one offering a month, with some staff picking up extra time slots as needed. We also have the ability to post previously recorded “Book Parties” if someone calls in sick or has a technical emergency.

Even though JCL is back online and we have resumed regular circulation, we feel that the “Book Parties” are an effective method of patron outreach and will continue them in the fall. By including this new method of doing readers’ advisory into our toolkit, we’ve engaged hundreds of patrons per month that might not have ever directly interacted with us. Inspired by this, we’ll certainly be looking for even more methods of outreach in the future.—Gregg Winsor

II.

If there is one thing libraries know how to do, it is pivot. We do this every day in one fashion or another. Yet in March 2020, and for some library staff long before that, we watched our world tilt and shift and pivot with a speed that left many of us reeling. We were defying gravity.

One service that needed a hard 180 was a staple of library programs, the book club. Similar to other libraries that host multiple book clubs, Kansas City Public Library (KCPL) experienced challenges in adapting an in-person activity to an online format.

Not surprisingly, a majority of patrons had no experience with online meeting platforms and the same was true for many staff members. The learning curve for both was steep but manageable. Libraries that have not yet made the leap into the online event and program environment should take note. Work now to bring staff and patrons to a level of comfort with both online meeting platforms and electronic formats for books.

Start with offering fundamental instruction on the use of the library’s preferred online platform and on the steps necessary to access e-books and digital audio collections. KCPL hosted separate introductions to Zoom and e-formats for patrons and staff. We knew that having a casual gathering was the best approach. Attendees could check in with one another, ask general library questions, and focus solely on getting comfortable with the new setting.

The sessions walked through the finer points of Zoom: deploying the chat box, stopping and starting video, muting, using phone-in options, and following basic Zoom etiquette. We also made sure that staff knew how to “mute or boot” meeting attendees who might have distracting background noise or wandered into the wrong meeting. The goal was to make staff members comfortable enough with the software that they could answer basic questions for patrons and feel empowered to host their book groups again. It worked. Staff became so comfortable that the library started two new book groups during the shelter-in-place orders.

Another challenge was reworking the scheduled reading for many of KCPL’s sponsored book groups and supporting our community book groups. We scoured the library’s digital holdings for suitable titles, created a list, and shared it with book group and community facilitators. Groups that did not find appealing selections there were encouraged to talk about books in a particular genre or tied to a particular subject or simply about their current reads. We also sent requests to our collection development department for cost-per-circ and simultaneous-use options on some of the book group’s selections.

Based on our work supporting readers and book clubs during the pandemic, we developed practical tips:

• Customize the Zoom invitation. Once the Zoom meeting invitation is generated, it can be copied and pasted into an email. Delete all unneeded information, which can be confusing for users with less experience or comfort in finding the crucial meeting details.
• Add useful information to the invitation, such as a link to the current book group selection, supplemental information, a reminder of the next discussion, and related library programming. Make the invitation a little more personal in tone.
• Customize the meeting room password. Zoom automatically generates a password with a variety of numbers, symbols, and upper- and lower-case letters. Create one that adheres to the Zoom password requirements but is not so unwieldy for users.
• Offer support to book group members who need to join via phone. Explain how to enter the Zoom meeting using phone numbers, meeting room IDs, and passcodes.
• Enable the Waiting Room setting in Zoom. It offers an added layer of security for library staff and participants.
• The host of the meeting can change the names of the attendees. This is particularly helpful if a book club member joins with a device attached to a different user. The host can update the name of the attendee without making permanent changes to the user’s Zoom account. This is a useful trick for readers who call in. Zoom only recognizes the phone number. The host can change the screen name from 815*****37 to “Ellen.”
• If the Zoom book club has a participant who has phoned in, remind all video attendees to state their names before speaking for the benefit of the caller.
• Smile. Remember, you’re on camera and everyone in the Zoom room will look to you for guidance. Look directly into the teensy lens and smile.
• Remember that book group dynamics haven’t changed much, even if the meeting format is new. In initial gatherings, remind attendees to use the chat for side conversations, keep themselves on mute when they are not talking, and use the raise-hand feature.
• Be extra kind as you guide your patrons and staff through this new landscape. The majority of online meeting platforms are easy to use, but there is still a level of learning that can bring added stress. Be patient, mindful, and generous with your time.

KCPL staff reached out to every book group we support, both staff led and community member led book groups. We offered Zoom tutorials, guidance on making replacement selections from our digital catalog, and instructions on accessing digital items.

Pre-pandemic, KCPL supported more than fifty books groups. During the pandemic that number dropped to fewer than twenty. Most of the library-staff-facilitated book groups wanted to continue meeting. Two new book groups were started—a group focusing on LGBQ+ titles and one focusing on Kansas City history. Attendance per group has dropped for some meetings and increased for others, as expected. Several staff members don’t have reliable internet connections at their homes and a number of community book group leaders are uncomfortable using online meeting software. These groups are on reluctant hiatus. But we were surprised at the number of staff and patrons who eagerly accepted the challenge of learning new ways to stay connected to their library and reading communities.

These are the kinds of social connections that our communities are craving now. Library book clubs are still one of the easiest and most cost-effective and rewarding services we can offer. Now more than ever books can bring us together.—Kaite Stover

Form-Based RA

Readers’ advisory has always felt more chatty than reference. When RA practitioners transitioned a decade or so ago from referring to readers’ advisory interactions as “interviews” to calling them “conversations,” it was partly in recognition of this service’s more informal milieu, and to make RA more approachable for staff and patrons alike. This is not to say that these interactions call on fewer skills or resources than reference, or that excellent reference interviews cannot be conversational, as the librarian artfully fleshes out their querent’s need. But unlike reference, readers’ advisory often takes place in the context of an ongoing conversation that can last for decades, as regular patrons drop by in passing, sharing reading impressions and suggestions with staff, in what feels like a mutual exchange.

At our library in Seattle, all these conversations came to a screeching halt in mid-March 2020, as the nation’s first hotspot shut down in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Yet there was one area where these interactions took on an increased importance, in our library’s online readers’ advisory portal, Your Next Five Books. Active for over a decade, this service has always been popular, averaging around 1,800 interactions annually. In each of those exchanges, a reader of any age fills out a brief form and receives a personalized response from a librarian, including five suggested books, and encouraging the reader to share feedback. As popular as it is, the service has always been a bit under the radar, but a few weeks into the shutdown, with no physical branches to staff and enlarged capacity, we decided to advertise the service a little bit, something we’d previously been conservative about doing.

Soon, questions began to flood in. Within two months we had sent out more than nine hundred personalized lists to readers, roughly six times our usual average. The flood of readers was a little daunting at first, but also deeply reassuring for librarians working from home, greeted each morning by dozens of eager readers lined up at their virtual desks. More librarians were added to the small pool who staffed the service, and we adapted to the reality of suggesting digital formats, as our collections and chat librarians rose to the challenge of supplying and instructing thousands of new e-book and digital audio users.

Even as the crush of online traffic tempted us to rush through our responses, our patrons let us know that the time we spent truly listening to and connecting with them through personable and empathetic responses was more crucial now than ever before. This service has always received enthusiastic feedback, but now our patrons expressed real delight just to be interacting with another human. “I told my friends about this and they asked if it was an algorithm, and I could heartily say, ‘NO, it was a real person!’” Not a few readers were deeply moved by the exchange: “These recommendations honestly made me cry, brought me so much joy, and made me so grateful.” As one patron observed, “There’s something about connecting with total strangers and receiving an unexpected gift that can reinforce that inherent optimism we all have inside.” Another told us our response “has been a highlight of my months in quarantine and has buoyed my spirits.” I think the only disappointed response we got was when one reader told us “I wish I would’ve known when I was younger what a badass job being a librarian is.”

These anecdotal data were backed up by a survey of users we conducted in June 2020, in which more than 98 percent of respondents said they would recommend the service to others. Asking users which was more important: quick turnaround time or a detailed response, 83 percent of users preferred the latter. Again and again users confirmed for us the importance of the human exchange: “I hadn’t realized we could keep the conversation going . . . delightful.” One respondent opined, “My only problem is that I want to be friends with my recommending librarian so we can talk about the books, and I’m aware that’s weird.” Not so weird; librarians understand.

The pandemic also highlighted for us some weakness in our service. We are unable to serve those who might enjoy form-based readers advisory but have limited or no online access. Although it has been impractical to roll out during our continued closure, we have resolved to explore a paper option in the future, to make sure we’re not denying this service to our most marginalized patrons. We also regretted that the service, which has always used the library’s reference interface, hadn’t been custom-made with a robust platform supporting user profiles that might better facilitate ongoing conversation between readers and staff over the course of years.

One other type of question we started to see a lot of during the closure was from other library systems eager to develop their own virtual readers’ advisory services. There are many ways to design such a service, and many libraries offering examples to draw upon. A great starting place is a pair of seminal articles about form-based readers advisory published here in RUSQ.1 For all those considering it, I urge you to jump on in: I am confident you won’t regret it.—David Wright

Cataloging for RA

Increasingly, reader interaction with library collections and RA services is virtual. This trend had already been developing over the past decade, as readers made increasing use of the library’s e-book and digital audiobook collections and used the library catalog to browse and place holds, often only coming to the library to pick up their materials. The expansion of form-based RA took the reader-librarian interaction online. The increase in self-service hold pickup and RFID-based self-check meant that opportunities for reader interactions with readers’ advisors on any public service desk were decreased. As more and more people feel pressed for time, in-person library browsing and conversations about books with library staff seem to be luxuries that few people have the time for. These trends have been exacerbated by the pandemic, as libraries closed their doors for months and on reopening limited access to the physical library with services such as contact-less curbside pickup and appointment-only collection access.

With fewer personal interactions possible and less physical access to library collections and displays at this time, and for the foreseeable future, a rethinking of how to connect with readers is important to the survival of RA services. One area that should be reviewed is how libraries can connect with readers through the catalog. The library catalog is the one place where most users of the library’s collections, digital or print, come, whether or not they ever visit the physical library for more than hold pickups. Building RA content into the library catalog provides an asynchronous readers’ advisory service that will be increasingly important in the future of RA.

One of the simplest ways to incorporate RA into the catalog is to take advantage of the MARC 856 field that allows the insertion of URLs into the bibliographic record. This is an excellent opportunity to connect readers with online resources that the library has created for asynchronous RA—such as booklists, read-alike lists, author profiles, book discussion guides, and more. Any RA resource on the library’s website can be linked to book records using this field. If your library is doing RA-related programming and records those programs then the program link can be added to each appropriate book record. Most ILSs allow for bulk editing of records, so adding the 856 field does not necessarily have to be done on a title-by-title basis.

In addition to using the 856 field, another important RA element that should be in all appropriate catalog records is the series entry. Allowing readers to quickly connect with other titles in a favorite series makes for happy readers. The MARC 800 and 830 fields allow for entering different types of series notes.

In all cases using the MARC record as an RA tool, advisors should work closely with technical services staff to ensure that the records are accurate and consistent. Additionally, be sure to work with network or systems staff to make sure that the MARC fields to be used are set to display in the library’s public catalog.

For libraries that have implemented linked data, there are also options to use catalog records to create curated lists of items based on local subject headings. Dallas Public Library has made great use of this tool in developing their Personal Librarian program, developing creative lists of materials to watch, read, or listen to, and using the MARC 650 field to pull those items together. Then, using their linked data records, these local subject headings become a bib-frame Concept that can be used to create carousels and share content.2

There are also ways that libraries can use third-party tools to add RA content to the library catalog. Both Ebsco’s NoveList and LibraryThing for Libraries, available from ProQuest, offer a range of RA catalog enhancements, including book recommendations, series information, reviews, and more.

Regardless of whether a library is looking at local solutions or third-party products, taking advantage of the catalog as a place to engage readers will not only enhance existing readers’ advisory services, but may become the way that libraries commonly engage users as we move forward in uncertain times and navigate a new landscape of library use.— Barry Trott

Collection Development RA

In the pandemic era, collection development and readers’ advisory in public libraries have both come to center heavily around e-books. At BookOps, the shared technical services collaboration of the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library, this sudden shift has unearthed many challenges, but has also presented new opportunities to improve both readers’ advisory and collection development, and especially the relationship between the two practices. With reduced access to physical locations, readers’ advisory opportunities keep patrons connected to us. Collection development is key to making the most of these opportunities. It is important to remember that for many patrons, the collections are the library, especially now, so overcoming the challenges of collection development during a pandemic is key to continuing to provide a high level of library service.

One of the biggest challenges we have always faced in connecting staff and patrons to our digital collections is the unusual nature of the library e-book market. The ways in which library e-book buying is different from consumer e-book buying causes a lot of confusion and frustration. E-books cost libraries more than print books, on average, and are subject to a confusing array of license types. Understanding the world of digital collection development is a critical step. All library staff need to understand the alphabet soup of OC/OU (One Copy/One User), MA (Metered Access), SU (Simultaneous Use), and CPC (Cost Per Circ), how pricing can inhibit access, and other limitations, such as the inability to purchase licenses solely for specific patrons or groups, as we might like to do for book groups or schools. As we begin to reimagine book discussions, story times, and booklists, libraries are constrained by a very different set of parameters than we face with our physical collections. I encourage librarians who build collections to hold training sessions to share their knowledge as broadly as possible. A simple one-hour introduction, as we offered to colleagues at both NYPL and BPL, can answer a lot of questions and give everyone in the library a better sense for how the digital collections are built, and how to best guide patrons through them to their next great read.

This is not the only training and communication opportunity, especially if libraries have staff time to focus on booklists and other forms of online RA. While curation is critical for digital collections, discovery, frankly, is difficult. Librarian guidance, specifically through RA services, is needed to help patrons find the many hidden gems in digital collections. Provide training on how to build digital shelves with your e-book vendors, and in the catalog if possible. Additionally, make sure there is a clear way for staff to make requests for books that they want to include on booklists or recommend to patrons via form-based RA. The pandemic should catalyze us to remove barriers and be as responsive as possible. For example, Brooklyn Public Library uses Slack, and we instituted a #request-to-purchase channel in March 2020, which has created a more transparent method of considering and replying to purchase requests.

It may seem small, but little changes to something as basic as the purchase request process can have a big impact. With most libraries experiencing budget cuts, combined with the higher costs of digital books, digital collection development is readers’ advisory, in many ways. It is not possible to buy the same breadth of titles as we do physically, especially as we continue to balance the diverse informational and recreational needs of our patrons. Just-in-case buying with e-books is just not sustainable, so libraries need clear pathways to rapidly respond to specific requests, especially from librarians providing readers’ advisory. Now is the time to examine these library processes and remove friction.

It is not all challenges, though. We have found many opportunities. For example, to support RA and outreach, we did targeted purchasing of Simultaneous Use licenses where possible and shared the list of titles with staff so they could promote the “always available” experience, and help patrons avoid the frustration of long wait times. We have also started using SU and CPC licenses to help both of our member libraries promote high-profile programs and booklists, like the Schomburg Center’s Black Liberation Reading List, a program with Nic Stone for her new book Shuri, and BPL’s Antiracism Resources reading list. When so many patrons browse the collection by looking for anything without a holds list, purchasing an SU or CPC license is in and of itself a type of readers’ advisory—a signal that the library finds a title so important or compelling that it provides instant access for its patrons. In the current marketplace, with many publishers still unwilling to sell SU or CPC licenses, there are limits to this opportunity, but we are still seizing it wherever we can.

Spreadsheets and formulas turn out to be a surprisingly good digital RA tool, too. We ran reports and downloaded NYPL’s complete e-book and digital audio holdings, then worked with NYPL’s Reader Services department to look for titles with many available copies. These were often books that had long holds lists a year ago, and still have a lot of appeal to patrons. NYPL trained librarians to look for these titles and use them to make displays in print, and we want to take advantage of the same opportunity online. These reports are fairly easy to generate and can help a library get the most out of the often-substantial investment they have made in these titles, while also giving librarians who provide RA a new way to look at the collection.

Each community is facing its own challenges and opportunities, of course, but all libraries can benefit from approaching digital RA and collection development with as much flexibility and transparency as possible. At BookOps, this will mean continuing to find new ways to be responsive to staff and patron requests, continuing to provide training on the digital collections, budgeting money specifically to support virtual programming with CPC and SU licenses, and working closely with all colleagues providing RA. Just as with print, every e-book circulation represents a patron and their relationship with the library. Our goal is to use the tools at hand to continue to strengthen those relationships and create as many opportunities for readers’ advisory as possible.—Stephanie Anderson

References

1. Neil Hollands, “Improving the Model for Interactive Readers’ Advisory Service,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 45, no. 3 (2006): 205–12; Barry Trott, “Advising Readers Online: A Look at Internet-Based Reading Recommendation Service,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 44, no. 3 (2005): 210–15.
2. Kate Meador, Pauline Stacchini, and Andrew Wright, “#DPLWhatsNext: How Dallas Public Library Engages Readers Using Linked Data,” Medium, April 20, 2018, https://medium.com/library-link-network/dplwhatsnext-how-dallas-public-library-engages-readers-using-linked-data-1ed878e40579.