Readers’ Advisory: Thinking About Books

Abstract

I have been a student of readers’ advisory (RA) for more than 25 years. Librarianship is a second career for me, and I had no exposure to the practices of RA until I took a class in my second year of library school. It was there that I met the late Dr. Connie Van Fleet, a knowledgeable and enthusiastic professor who encouraged me to parley my previous customer service experience into public librarianship. Her RA class was the most entertaining and eye-opening course I attended in my two years at Kent State University because it was there that I embraced two of S. R. Ranganathan’s laws: every reader his or her book and every book its reader. I went on to work in Cleveland Public Library’s Popular Library, a room that held new fiction and popular nonfiction. The staff in Popular Library created booklists, led a book discussion, curated the various genre shelves, and shared their knowledge of reading subjects in an organic way working directly with patrons. Although it has been many years since I worked at CPL, I will always be grateful to the library staff for fueling my interest in RA services.