Shelf or book talking assistance needed
Dates: 4/17/02,1:17 PM through 4/18/02,11:00 AM (3 postings)
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Fiction_L Archives
Shelf or book talking assistance needed
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FROM: "Franz, Patty" <pfranz@pamunkeylibrary.org>
REC'D: 4/17/02, 1:17 PM
We do not have formal readers' advisory services at our library.
However, we are always looking for ways to encourage our staff to help our
patrons find something good to read. This year at our full staff meeting,
two of us are going to do a presentation that we are calling "Shelf
talking". We are not calling this book talking because we are looking at
improving those short one-on-one conversations that take place when a patron
asks "Could you help me find a good book?"
Our presentation time is about one hour and we want to get some of
the staff to try telling each other about a favorite book. Our public
service staff are almost all paraprofessionals. Most of them read and at
this point we are trying to help them talk about books they have read
themselves. If you were making this kind of presentation, what would you
include?
You can respond to me off the list since I am not sure how much
general interest this will generate. Any and all suggestions are very
welcome. Thanks, Patty
Patty Franz
Supervising Librarian
Pamunkey Regional Library
P. O. Box 119
Hanover, VA 23069
pfranz@pamunkeylibrary.org
www.pamunkeylibrary.org
FROM: "Maureen OConnor" <moconnor@bramlib.on.ca>
REC'D: 4/17/02, 2:32 PM
Also, you might want to encourage your staff to get the patron talking--you want to start a conversation with the patron in which the patron talks about books he/she has read and enjoyed. Listen to the language and vocabulary the patron uses to determine what kind of books are favored--does the patron focus on the story line? the setting? the way it was written? the people? Then comes the harder part: matching what you hear with what you know. That's when all the RA tools come in handy, to help with that part of it. So, you may want to talk in your presentation about how to find the books that meet the criteria the patron has given the staff.
It's good if staff know how to talk about the books they've enjoyed, but since their reading tastes may differ entirely from those of the patron, what they like may become completely irrelevant!
This is one of my favorite topics, so I'd better step down from my soapbox now! And I do think that everyone on this list would be interested in the responses--it's very relevant to what we do!
Maureen
"Never apologize for your reading tastes." Rosenberg
____________________________________________
Maureen O'Connor
Brampton Public Library
moconnor@bramlib.on.ca
All opinions expressed above are mine alone.
FROM: "SHARRON SMITH" <SSMITH@kpl.org>
REC'D: 4/18/02, 11:00 AM
I have done this type of session with our staff, and as in your case,
most of those who participated are paraprofessionals.
I would echo the suggestion made by Maureen to refer to Joyce Saricks
book concentrating on the appeal factors. I made this the focus of the
first part of the workshop I did, discussing each of these factors.
I had asked each of the participants bring along two books they had read
and enjoyed and with a partner they both book talked their choice to
each other focusing on the appropriate appeal factors we had just
discussed. I think I gave this exercise about 20 mins.
I made a form for the listener to fill in as they talked and make notes
on what they felt were the appeal factors. They discussed with the
reader if they had got it right, and then we discussed the whole
experience. Everyone enjoyed this experience and discovered new
authors/titles they wanted to read!
Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer.
Sharron
Sharron Smith, Readers' Advisory Librarian
Kitchener Public Library
85 Queen St. N
Kitchener, ON N2H 2H1
(519) 743-0271 x259
ssmith@kpl.org <mailto:ssmith@kpl.org>
www.kpl.org <http://www.kpl.org>
-----Original Message-----
From: Franz, Patty [mailto:pfranz@pamunkeylibrary.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 2:05 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Shelf or book talking assistance needed
Folks -
We do not have formal readers' advisory services at our library.
However, we are always looking for ways to encourage our staff to help
our
patrons find something good to read. This year at our full staff
meeting,
two of us are going to do a presentation that we are calling "Shelf
talking". We are not calling this book talking because we are looking
at
improving those short one-on-one conversations that take place when a
patron
asks "Could you help me find a good book?"
Our presentation time is about one hour and we want to get some
of
the staff to try telling each other about a favorite book. Our public
service staff are almost all paraprofessionals. Most of them read and
at
this point we are trying to help them talk about books they have read
themselves. If you were making this kind of presentation, what would
you
include?
You can respond to me off the list since I am not sure how much
general interest this will generate. Any and all suggestions are very
welcome. Thanks, Patty
Patty Franz
Supervising Librarian
Pamunkey Regional Library
P. O. Box 119
Hanover, VA 23069
pfranz@pamunkeylibrary.org
www.pamunkeylibrary.org
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