I sought readers' advisory help at a small branch of a large county library system. It was a busy day, and there was no one at the desk when I initially approached. There were no signs advertising a readers' advisory service and no printed readers' advisory aids such as author or best-seller read-alikes.
The librarian on duty maintained a welcoming and professional demeanor throughout the interaction. She asked questions and used what I presume to be online readers' advisory tools to give me a suggestion based on my favorite authors. She did not recommend specify titles, nor did she offer more than one suggestion. There was a line forming behind me, and after ascertaining that I knew where I was going, the librarian concluded the exchange. She did not follow up with me.
While I consider this exchange to be successful, it is characteristic of some challenges to good readers' advisory service. The busyness of the public service desk put pressure on the librarian to finish the interview quickly. The librarian made no mention to me of appeal factors such as tone, pacing, or characterization, though if she were using an online tool like NoveList, those factors would be included in an author read-alike search.
Hi Darcy,
ReplyDeleteIt definitely seems as though staffing, or come to think of it, understaffing, was clearly an issue during your RA interview. Do you know if there is usually two librarians staffing the desk or is one librarian the norm? It does strike me as rather challenging for this particular librarian to be fielding so many inquiries, with a gathering line behind you. This of course has the potential of short-changing each patron as well. I do feel that it would have been nice for the librarian to follow-up with you after the busyness of the line had ceased. I ran into a similar instance of no appeals factoring into my interview at all. Interestingly though, the reference desk was quiet when I approached and the librarian chose not to use any RA tools. Despite not being the ideal interview, it would seem we both ended up with a semi-successful experience. Or, at least a good book recommendation. Did you go home with a particular book?
I like that you followed up with how it could have gone better and found factors that contributed to the rushed-ness of the interview. Great summary!
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