Book Trailers

[A few weeks ago] on my LinkedIn updates there was a comment in the ALA forum about Cinematic Book Trailers. Having no idea what the commenter was talking about I checked them out and they were awesome! Two of them totally got me interested in looking up the book.

Many of the book "trailers" I've seen are actually book reviews (guilty here) a la Reading Rainbow. (And who didn't love RR's "but you don't have to take my word for it!" section?) But who says we can't push the envelope a little? I like the idea of snagging a reader through a sort of visual book jacket blurb, especially as the summer reading program is starting up. What better way to market a One Book, One City Reads campaign than a highly visual trailer? This one produced by Red14Films totally made me believe that a movie was due out for the book.


Okay, so the envelope is being pushed a lot. This has great production value and after I realized there isn't a movie due out, I said to myself, well, I gotta read the book! Which is the point, right? I was speaking with a co-worker who used to run a GameStop store and he told me he instituted a similar strategy to increase pre-order sales. He loaded the video trailers of the upcoming games on a laptop computer and had it running on loop and bam! Pre-orders rose from nineteen a week to nineteen a day.

Now, I've got all kinds of opposing thoughts as well. As much as I enjoy the production quality of the book trailer example above, I wonder to myself about... Update: 7/17/2014 I must have forgotten my opposing thoughts because I can't remember one. If you have an opposing thought, please list it in the comments section and we can have a conversation. Oh! Wait, maybe one of the opposing thoughts is that the production quality of these book trailers is so high that it feels impossible to "compete" with them if you are a small community group looking to have some video fun with a group of kids making a scene from a book. But, who cares? Kids aren't in it to compete, just to have some fun expressing their favorite parts of a book and for every book with a professional trailer, there's gotta be awesome books without... right. **end stream of consciousness argument**

Other book trailers to get ideas on making one.
http://reederama.blogspot.com/2014/01/award-winning-book-trailers.html
(Check out the Mr. Wuffles trailer)

A very cool reader's map guide to How to Make a Book Trailer
http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Prezi+On+How+To+Make+A+Book+Trailer


Using a mix of live action and pages from the book. This sample brings up questions about fair use of books when making a trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2gN_8P9yts

Graphic Novels and Apps

Totally unrelated to each other, I wanted to note that I am working my way through a reader's advisory book and discovered a mobile app creator for non-fiction interactive books.

GN Scavenger Hunt
The reader's advisory book is Read On-- Graphic Novels: Reading Lists for Every Taste by Abby Alpert. I'm having fun identifying books that we don't have in my current institution's collection (hey, the selector said I could make a list!) and books that I want to read (sometimes these lists correspond, sometimes they don't). The fun thing about this is the process:

1. I read an entry and identify a title that I think should be in the collection like Chuckling Whatsit
2. then I check the catalog to see if we have or ever had it
3. I go to our vendor (bibz) and look to see if they have it, 
• if they do, I add it to the recommend list, 
• if they don't, I look to see if Amazon has it or if it is available as an ebook in Overdrive

It's like a scavenger hunt. Sometimes the graphic novels in the reader's advisory book are out of print, such as True Story, Swear to God by Tom Beland and I have to track down used copies. (For myself, b/c my system doesn't buy from anyone other than our one vendor and before you get all up in arms, many library systems do it that way b/c they just don't have the man power to catalog and sticker everything. It's a trade off. I.L.L. it, if you want it.) This is the fun part of learning a collection and assisting in collection development, well, I guess if you really like the genre you are researching.

Book App
While reading the Dec 16, 2013 edition of Publisher's Weekly I came across the article "Mobifusion: Making Apps Make Money" [article not available online from what I can tell]. The company builds book apps for various publishers, kinda like my favorite app developer for children Loud Crow Interactive, only this one is for adults. I'd love to get more info on what tech they can support. It is just an interactive book, like search, bookmark, highlight, or can it do more, like if they have a cookbook, can I build menus and add up ingredients? I'm excited about this, but I'm wondering also what are the costs and are they on the scale that only established publishers will want to purchase their services?

Recipes I want to remember and titles I'm thinking about reading...

Recipes from Relish by Knisley
Chai Tea:
Ingredients: Vanilla extract or bean, Maple syrup, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, anise stars, cloves, ginger, black tea, Milk, strainer
2-3 cups water in pot on high, add 2 bags tea;
crush 3 cardamom pods, grate 1/2 tsp ginger or more to taste
add to pot 1 anise star, ginger, cardamom pods, 1 cap extract/ 1 vanilla bean, 6-8 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, stir and simmer 5-10 min.
Let cool then strain into glass container add syrup to taste; keeps refrigerated for 1 week.
Prep 1/2 milk 1/2 tea and heat.

Sauteed Mushrooms
Saute pan over HOT! add 1part olive oil to 2 parts butter or all olive oil.
After butter stops foaming and pan is HOT! add cleaned and DRY mushrooms- no water on the mushrooms. make sure plenty of space b/t mushrooms. Shrooms will soak up oil and pan will get dry and squeeak. Turn down heat and let shrooms start to sweat- don't add more oil.  When start to brown, stir and shake. When crispy season w/ salt and pepper and serve.

Titles of books I don't want to forget:

Mystery

• Little Elvises by T. Hallman - main character is a thief who happens to work as a PI for other thieves. No matter what somebody is always upset.

NF

• Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses 646.406 SEW - for gifts for Ellie
• The Art of Freedom: Teaching the Humanities to the Poor 001.3071 SHO - how does teaching the humanities improve the socioeconomic outlook of the poor? How could this translate into programming at the library?
• My Beloved World 92 Sotomayor - She's a successful Puerto Rican and I'd like to learn more about her experience. She writes very clearly and would be interesting to learn about her DA experience and that of being a judge.
• Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing 658.872 RAY - techniques and tools and not so much theory - good for any organization to know how to drive interactions on the FB page. For example, drawing people to your page using contests and polls. Of interest for a series on FB for Businesses at the library.

FS

• Death's Apprentice: A Grimm City Novel by Jeter and Jefferson Jones FS Jeter - The authors take us into the canon of Grimm, but into the underworld as Death's Apprentice leads a revolt against the Devil himself. Interested to see what the authors drawn on from the Grimm canon to tell the story.

F

• the House Girl by Conklin - two narratives - one of a lawyer in the future managing a reparations case in which an artist used her slave's paintings as her own to promote herself and the second - that of the slave girl in the 1800s. How will the two narratives converge and what will the lawyer learn?

Montessori Storytime: Theme Camping

Theme: Camping

Introduce myself – My visuals are a camping scene built out of a construction paper fire, stuffed animals with cotton ball marshmallows

Opening Song as needed: "We are here for storytime" sung to the tune of Mary had a little lamb or London Bridge- either works. *from Simply Super Storytimes (JR 372.4 CAS)- after just one story time session, the kids totally caught onto this song. They like when I turn my voice down absurdly low.

First book: Camping Day by Lakin, Patricia

Second book: Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi - this is an action book. You can get up and move to the words or sit and watch the pictures.

Activity: "Missing Camping Gear" *from A Storytime Year (JR 027.6251 DAI) p 153-158 1. Place pictures on the board while discussing the gear needed when you go camping. 2. Turn the board away and remove a picture while saying: We are going camping, we gathered all our gear. We placed them in a pile, now something is not here.What is missing? 3. Encourage the kids to identify the missing item. Repeat the game, removing more and more pictures to make it more challenging.

Third Book: Down by the Bay by Raffi – Do you want to have another book with a song or do you want to do a sound effects story? When you go camping, you can sing camp songs. Here’s another book with a silly song. I’m sure you’ll figure out the rhymes.

Sound Effects Story: Adam Alan’s Camping Trip. *from A Storytime Year (JR 027.6251 DAI) p160-163 Photocopy

Fourth book: Toasting Marshmallows: camping poems by George, Kristine O'Connell – this book doesn’t have a specific story, but is made up of little poems that describe the experience of camping. Not all poems rhyme like our first book or some of our songs, but if you listen to the words, you can hear they create a rhythm and then make music with their sounds that repeat. If you want to get comfortable and lay down, that’s okay. These poems are for dreaming in your head.

Ending Song as needed: Raffi's The More We Get Together

Learning the RC: More Reader's Advisory Resources

The Reader's Adviser (028 REA 14th ED. v.1-5) covers:

• v1: Best in Reference Works, British Literature & American Literature (different time periods, including up to the mid-20th century genre writers)
• v2: Best in World Literature (General Reference, Hebrew, Yiddish, Middle Eastern, African, Indian Subcontinent, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian (ex. Burma, Lao), Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Netherlandic, Scandinavian, Russian, East European (ex. Czech, Estonian, Polish), Latin American, Canadian, Caribbean, Australian, New Zealand)
• v3: Best in Social Sciences, History and the Arts (Gen Ref, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Education, History: World, Ancient, European, African, Middle Eastern, Asia and Pacific, US, Canadian, Latin American; Music & Dance, Art & Architecture, Mass Media (Journalism, Radio & TV, Film,), Folklore, Humor, Pop Culture, Travel & Exploration.
• v4: Best in Philosophy and Religion (Gen Ref, Philosophy: Greek/Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern Western, 20th Cen, Asian & African, Contemporary Issues; Religion: Ancient, Eastern, Islam, Judaism, Early & Medieval Christian, Late Christianity (1500-present), Bible & Related, Minority Religions, Contemporary Issues in Religious Thought
• v5: Best in Science, Technology and Medicine [STM] (History of STM, Philosophy of STM, Ethics in STM, S&T and Society, Special Issues in S&T and Society, Engineering & Tech (Design, Inventors, Patents, Flight, etc), Ag and Food Tech, Energy (aka Fuels), Communications Tech, Medicine & Health (Aging, Dentistry, Gynecology, Radiology, etc), Illness & Disease, Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry, Mathematics, Statistics & Probability, Info Science & Computer Science, Astronomy & Space Science, Earth Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Ecology & Environmental Science
• v6: the Indexes (author, title, subject)

This looks like the sort of reference work you'd consult for when you are exploring a subject area, or taking a survey class, and you need to draw up a list of "canon" books that you might be expected to read in that class. Or if someone were writing a research paper and needed some titles to get them started, this would be a good book to consult for ideas. Probably, we wouldn't have most of the titles for subjects not on the US or Europe (and maybe not many of them either), but we could find things via ILL or send the person with their list of titles on to a research library like an academic or major city library. The emphasis is on the West, especially Europe and I don't know how specialized it would be (such as wanting books about women in a particular topic, like Vietnam, or women Asian artists of the Chang dynasty (I made that up)). Unfortunately, this text is from the early 1990s, so many of the titles are old. A quick check online and on WorldCat shows there are no new print editions.

---

We have a huge collection of two volume editions of a series titled Magill's Literary Annual (028.1 MAG YEAR V1,2). I eyed it askance, wondering how this 60 book, gold cover thing could be of use and easily referenced. In a nutshell, 200 books of "interest to general readers, that reflect publishing trends, that add to the careers of authors being taught and researched in literature programs and that will stand the test of time." It's like a yearly, if you can only read 200 books, this is the list!

At first I was very excited. (To be honest, I still am.) A selection of the thousands of books being published and reviewed in BookList and Publisher's Weekly and Book Page and a myriad of other weekly and monthly review columns, a selection of the most literary, thought to stand the test of time. Then I was sad, because by necessity, the list is a year old. Then I returned to suspicious. "Wait a minute! Who is Magill, and why does he get to pick?" And it turns out he's an actual dude who founded Salem Press and, yeah, we just have to take his word for it. But I like the idea of having the selection for when someone comes along and asks if we can recommend anything for their book club. Something literary, but that people will actually want to read. I also like that the description of the book is about four pages long, giving the book club representative (or the librarian) enough information to get a feel for the book. At the back of the 2nd volume of each annual is a subject index and a category index, which allows you to browse for genres and subjects, when you are just open to serendipity. Also, the beginning of each volume has a complete annotated list for quickly browsing (alphabetically) the list of titles for the year. My one beef with this selection is that we are not told how the books are selected in the first place. What is the criteria? Are they only adult books? Are they only books published in the United States? Are there any translated works? With that aside, the collection provides a focused way to browse for something interesting, educating and entertaining to read.

---

We randomly have this booklet called Books Change Lives, Quotes to Treasure. I don't like it. There's no index to search for a quote by a particular author, nor is there an index to search for a quote by subject. Sometimes I like serendipity, but it's not even inspired. Bleh. I'm not even going to include the call number.

Two more genre specific advisory guides:

• Strictly Science Fiction: A guide to Reading Interests (028.9 HER). The chapter titles don't tell me much, but the subject index will start you off looking for those titles specifically about dystopian societies. The edition we have is 2002, so of course the Hunger Games, et al aren't in here, but this would be good for back list titles, the oldies, but goodies for when someone has read everything. Lists of types of Awards and books awarded are included in the resources and appendix.
• The Horror Readers' Advisory: The Librarian's Guide to Vampires, Killer Tomatoes, and Haunted Houses (028.9 SPR). It is slim, but very informative on describing the sub-genres to draw out what people are thinking when they say horror. Is horror for the reader vampires? Or is it mad science gone awry? Every good RA book includes the obligatory lists, for which I'm grateful. I only wish there were one for children, too.

Lake Cities Montessori Storytime: the Sea

I'm scheduled to read about 8 times at the school. It just so happens that the summer program is divided into themed days. On the first day that I'll be attending the theme is "The Sea" (cue Disney Mania, Under the Sea, which if I were doing a musical chairs or craft activity, I could play in accompaniment.)

Sea Theme Storytime

Introduce myself – Bring out my visuals (sea shell, camera, sea puppets, boat) and ask if the children can guess what the books I'll be sharing are about. Give my expectations- they listen, but when I ask a question or point to them, it means I'd love to hear their thoughts.

Opening Song as needed: "We are here for storytime." *from Simply Super Storytimes (JR 372.4 CAS)

First book: I'm the biggest thing in the ocean! by Sherry, Kevin – get the sea puppets or make flannel board characters.

Counting rhyme as needed

5 Little Sea Creatures *use flannel board or sea puppets as needed

*from The Big Book of Reading, Rhyming, and Resources by Maddigan and Drennan (JR 027.625 MAD)

Song: The Sharks in the Sea (Tune: The Wheels on the Bus) *from The Big Book of Reading, Rhyming, and Resources by Maddigan and Drennan (JR 027.625 MAD)

Fingerplay as needed: "Open, Shut Them" (I'm ending the above song with a line about the clams in the sea open and shut and this is a good way to transition back to quiet sitting.)

Second book: Flotsam by Wiesner – bring digital camera and film camera to show the difference between the two; bring film in canister and off roll; This is a book that has no words and I’ll need your help in telling the story.

Fingerplay as needed
"Ocean Shell" & "Two Little Fishes"

*from I’m a Little Teapot by Cobb (JR 027.6251 COB)

Final book as needed: The sea house by Zagwyn, Deborah Turney; Show knots in a rope

Craft to hand out: Origami boats and boats for kids to color. 

• Knot tying for the older kids; Need instruction sheets and rope for them to practice.
• Origami boat crafts (http://www.freeprintable.com/view/print-body.html?id=3465 & http://www.origami-instructions.com/easy-origami-boat.html)

Ending Song as needed: Raffi's "The More We Get Together"

As much of the above is in copyrighted texts, I don't have the full program typed up here. I did prepare it for me to have on hand and if I were doing a storytime with parents, I'd hand it out for them so they could sing along.

Volunteering at my son's Montessori School

I'm not a Children's Librarian by training, however, I enjoy reading to my son. I enjoy reading to him using all the voices and inflection I can muster because my dad used to read to me that way when I was a child. (I have loving memories of his re-enactment of the creation story in Geneses, flashing lights and all.) As a reward for getting to school on time, I read to my son in the lobby area on the couches. A 3-5 minute him and me time before starting out day.

I was unaware that the director of the school was listening in. To Captain Underpants and Ook and Gluk: Kung-fu Cavemen from the Future, and any other assortment of books that the school had on display from which my son would select. So imagine my surprise when he asked if I would be willing to talk about being a librarian and read books to the kids and then let slip that he was looking forward to it. What a great compliment! Now what do I do?

The Children's Librarians with whom I work have been very helpful in making suggestions, even encouraging me to take what they have planned for the summer to use. So I'll do a little bit of that, because I am not for re-inventing the wheel. I also found the following resources:

• A Storytime Year: A month-to-month kit for preschool programming by Dailey and illustrated by Wagner.
• Silly Books to Read Aloud by Reid
• The Storytime Sourcebook I & II by Cullum
• The Storyteller's Sourcebook: A Subject, Title and Motif Index to Folklore Collections for Children: 1983-1999 by Read MacDonald and Sturm
• Books Kids Sit Still For (3): A Read Aloud Guide by Freeman (apparently there's a 1 & 2 as well)
• Storytimes for Two Year Olds by Nichols
• A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children's Picture Books

Essentially the structure of a storytime at my institution is :

1. Start with a song (the same one each time) so the kids know it's time to get down to business.
2. Read a book or two along the theme.
3. Have an activity such as a felt board or physical activity that is interactive.
4. Read another book.
5. Have a craft.
6. End with a song (the same one each time).

The school has themes for each of their days. And I plan to use them where appropriate, but I also have many favorite books that I've shared with my son that I think I want to revisit:

• Paper Bag Princess or The Fire Station by Munsch (this man is pure genius and the narrator on TumbleCloud is also genius for getting Munsch's pacing down perfectly).
• Flotsam by Wiesner, David (really any of his "wordless" stories) - great for the Sea theme
• Anansi and the moss-covered rock by Kimmel and illustrated by Stevens (actually I really like this trickster and I may want to do a recurring storytelling of Kimmel's Anansi series)
• The Quiet Place by Stewart, Sarah (themes: culture (shock), language acquisition, private spaces)
• The Rooster Who Went to His Uncle's Wedding by Ada, Alma Flor (I also love her poems, especially the collection Pio Peep! traditional nursery rhymes)
• My Asian favs: The Real Story of Stone Soup by Compestine, Ming Lo Moves the Mountain by Lobel and Three Samurai Cats by (lo and behold) Kimmel
• Someone Bigger by Emmett, Jonathan

I'm all over the place with these. There are so many elements that I want to choose from, from funny stories to strong (female) characters, to exposing kids to different cultures. I guess really this is just an opportunity to share my favorite books with the kids with whom my son attends school.

And of course, no list would be complete without recommendations from Jennifer:

• Author Mo Willems's stuff in general, but specifically the Piggie and Elephant books and Edwina, the dinosaur who didn't know she was extinct
• I want my hat back by Klassen, J.

PLA Virtual Conference

My system has access to the PLA Virtual Spring Symposium Archive and I'm listening to stuff as part of my professional development and personal curiosity. First up is  

Practical Readers’ Advisory for Children and Teens

which I think is aimed at adult/reference librarians who have no clue how to talk to children. Some of the stuff I already know, such as, treat kids like you would adults by engaging in a reference interview. Some I've learned through experience, such as when you ask kids a question they may not answer or may take a while to answer because they have never been given the opportunity by other adults to voice their thoughts. (I once had an adult answer every question I posed to a child. It was QUITE irritating.)

Three resources the presenters recommend for keeping abreast of new stuff coming out are:

• http://nextreads.com/ - this is a service of NoveList. The interface says they are building something new.
• http://www.indiebound.org/indie-bestsellers  - This looks like a web version of BookPage, but not by Book Page.
• http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/alex - this is a list of adult books that have appeal for teens branching out.

For the section on recommending books that are above the reader's level. The response was to recommend high image materials such as:

• national geographic books or the Guinness record books
• magazines
• graphic novels, especially of classic literature 

Other recommendations were to:

• give them the audio version
• check online "gifted" lists such as:
• Hoagiesgifted.org/reading_lists.htm
• http://vcbconsulting.com/gtworld/
• https://depts.washington.edu/cscy/resources/ - check to see if the state of Texas (or wherever you happen to be) has a similar resource of reading lists for gifted and talented
• Introduce classics like Phantom Tollbooth that have rich vocabulary and introduce things like philosophy but are still within the maturity level of the younger reader. 

---

Then I listened and took extensive notes on 

The Closing Keynote Designing a 21st Century Roadmap for the Future of Public Libraries with Garry Golden of Forward Elements, Inc.

Futurists look at drivers of change:

• trends (continuities)
• events (discontinuity)
• choices (discontinuity)

to make suggestions on emerging issues. In terms of skill set for Librarians - a T shaped asset - the person would have a depth of knowledge in a given domain with the ability to apply that knowledge across various domains. (Like taking my digital libraries knowledge and being able to apply it to collection development, visual design online, providing programming, etc)

The trends Garry sees which are changes in behavior over time.:

• Moving from measuring outputs (size of collection, # of checkouts, # of attendees) to measuring outcomes aka lifelong learning
• "retooling" local (collections, focus on supporting local needs such as supporting successful small business creation), 
• designing the library for place based experiences, (maker spaces, allowing people to come together for their own purposes through study rooms, community spaces)

Lifelong Learning
Libraries evolving from being about access to helping communities master skills. The evolution of learning rose from the apprenticeship model to institutional model (a teacher with many students) to learner model where the individual drives their learning goals, modes and outcomes.

Khan academy- pace of learning is the key b/c individuals learn at different rates; "flipped" classroom is where the learners read the lesson at home and then come to school to do the homework together.

Question- how can libraries anticipate flipped classrooms?
Scaled instruction via MOOCs (massive open online classroom) - can we imagine this in libraries and how?

How: the library as place for instruction
The library could support interacting with instructors as they do with authors. How can libraries offer users more celebrity instructors, even local ones? What about youtube instructors? How about supporting community instructors via Skill Share. How can we help to manage experiences people have with these types of instructors? Can we create a collection of these resources? Yes. But think of the logistics of upkeep. What happens when those files disappear?

From 1998 to 2008, people got very comfortable with managing their profiles (social) online. Now the question of whether instruction is in person or is online is no longer sufficient. The question is whether the instruction is "software guided" or not. Software guided is instruction that moves toward adaptive learning platforms. For example the platform recognizes that the learnrt is better at math in the evening and reading comprehension in the morning. It then suggests or guides the learner to the best times and resources to support their current and future skill set.

Device data = behavior data. Will libraries be willing to use device data in the aggregate to learn about their users? For example, can an "I don't understand" button allow libraries to see where the hangups are in their processes?

How can libraries support users who want to share their story of mastery/ personal growth?

• use of badges
• evolution from resume to (online) portfolio to managing presence (various social media)
• Danny Hills Learning Graphs

Retooling Local
How do libraries provide local communities more information about themselves? Besides collection local information and making it available digitally. Garry gives the following as examples of online services that provide local information.

• Citizen science tools- Project Noah, or similar services
• Peer to Peer sharing via Neighbor Goods, RideShare type stuff

Place Based Relationships

• if users are willing to share their location info, can the library send alerts about new services, programs, resources based on what the user has done/ used before. 
• Can there be updates as to study room use? 
• Finally collaborative spaces (maker), creative aging spaces, craft spaces for "emergent" adults?

How can flexible physical spaces be reflected in the online environment?

Learning the RC: Nonfiction Reader's Advisory

I never would have thought that people would need reader's advisory for nonfiction. I mean, the premise goes like this: you need to know something. You go to the section of books that are about that something. You browse the stacks for the book that best meets that information need in that you can choose between a 200 page book or a 500 page book on subject X. You can select the book that has lots of call outs (a la the "for dummies" series) or you can get a visual guide (Master Visually series) or you get the book with lots of dense text (any "bible" of ). But then I think about the time I read The Big Year or To Paint Her Life. Both of these nonfiction works are informational, yet tell a story. In the case of Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, the element of pacing kept me interested to find out just what could happen next. These books have style. So I can learn something and enjoy the process. Who knew learning could be so much better than a text book?

A bunch of librarians who came before me, that's who. This bunch writes about N-F RA at length in the theoretical heavy NONFICTION: Readers' Advisory (025.54 NON). Each chapter addresses a different aspect of nonfiction RA, starting with the "new" creative nonfiction. I like the chapter on the kinds of "crafted truths" which looks at the "genres" of nonfiction such as "rescued histories" or "journeys and places." Other chapters address different audiences such as young readers and multicultural societies. Unfortunately, this book is a dense read, probably meant more for going straight to the chapters of interest rather than reading cover to cover.

The Real Story: a Guide to Nonfiction Reading Interests is more of a bibliography of recommended reads gathered under topics of interest.Topics are "true adventure," "travel," "true crime," "environmental writing," "science and math," "history," "biography," "memoirs and autobiography," "relationships," "investigative writing," and "making sense." Each topic gets a few paragraphs defining the topic (to clear up any confusion of what you're getting yourself into) and describing the appeal of the topic. Then the chapter jumps into annotated lists. I have to say that the writing style is very clear for this guide and I actually snuggled up to read it before going to sleep. (yes, I took the book home after the library closed, but don't tell anyone!)

The Class I Didn't Take in Grad School

Of course I didn't take a reader's advisory class in grad school! I already worked at a public library. I already read lots of books, watched lots of movies, listened to various CDs in the collection. Didn't I already know it all?

Pride cometh before the fall.

In my interview for my current position, I was surprised to be asked what was the last book I read (Atlas Shrugged. Hunger Games.) and what my thoughts were on trends in the reading public (50 Shades of Gray). Perhaps if I had taken a reader's advisory course, or even any course in public librarianship, I'd have been better prepared. I wrote a thank you letter to my interviewer and let him know that I realized I wasn't strong in this area of library service and that I would resolve to improve that skill. (see Monday, June 11, 2012 entry "so I want to be a Readers' Advisory Librarian (wait... I do?)" and Thursday, June 21, 2012's "Juliet, Naked")

I thought that reading Moyer's 2010 Reader's Advisory Handbook would teach me all that I need to know, namely, the chapter on reading a book in 10 minutes, because obviously what I need to do is expand my exposure to a greater quantity of books and just write those amazingly long write-ups, right? (see Wednesday, June 20, 2012's entry: Moyer's Eight Steps to Reader's Advisory.)

If this is getting too deep... click on the image.

Wrong. I'm in book (and movie) overdose and I need a new strategy. I decided to take a stroll through our professional journals collection and came upon Reference and User's Services Quarterly (RUSQ), a RUSA publication and found some excellent articles (with references pointing to more excellent articles down the rabbit hole) listed in the Bibliography below. This post details some of the things I learned (here is your warning to either stop reading, print this out to take home, or lean back with your tablet and get comfortable.):

The one thing that has come to me through these readings is the concept of advising not just on fiction and not just on books. Williamson's Materials Matchmaking advocated librarians become familiar with all the materials in their collection as well as the resources that support them. Which means, if you want to recommend films, get to know the Internet Movie Database and Rotten Tomatoes (already signed into Facebook? RT automatically sets up an account for you and connects you to your FB friends using RT.) I'm not strong in music, so it would behoove me to spend some time on TuneGlue, All Media Guide's All Music section and SongLyrics.com, and as a corollary to sound resources, using the Audie Awards to recommend good productions of audiobooks would be one way to explore the audiobook collection as a production to enjoy and not necessarily as just a different format of an author's work. Williamson ends her article with an example of creating checkouts pairing a book, DVD and music CD around a theme, such as the TV show Lost (with music by Weaver and the book Bad Twin, which may or may not grab Lost fans: (see the Amazon reviews).

What Williamson sees as "cross promotion" of materials based on interests, Wyatt (Reading Maps) sees as an opportunity to explore the "universe" of a library patron's most recently experienced (read, watched, heard) work. Wyatt's proposal certainly is a bit daunting what with mapping out elements of interest in a particular material based on appeal factors (character, story line, setting, and "detail" (think all the stuff you learn when playing a video game and how it develops your learning interests)) and various associations suggested through annotations, discussion questions, reviews and interviews. However, I find it very exciting and much like the goal of creating ontologies or webs of entities of what exists within the world of the work and links out from that world to related possibilities of interest. Wyatt proposes librarians create these maps with the ultimate end goal of maps linking to each other, possibly through catalogs and regular web links. As he states, it would make an excellent project for staff (perhaps across systems?) to share.

So these are ways of looking at and promoting the whole collection at a particular library (though, with ILL and library consortium, is it really so hard to imagine that a collection can be beyond the walls of your branch and system and encompass anything the library is willing to get its hands on for its patrons?), but there's still the issue of what sort of language to use when speaking to patrons about why they liked something. Wyatt's An RA Big Think provides just those sorts of "feeling taxonomy" words with the goal to "make connections among [materials] that [patrons] may not have thought of... to cross genres and to go between fiction and non-fiction [and between books and A/V and more] and to link [creators] in novel and interesting ways."

I am appreciative that Wyatt (Exploring Non-Fiction, An RA Big Think) mentions the traditional entry ways to talking about works with patrons:

• pacing, character, story line (plot), and frame (tone) for fiction, 
• and narrative (does the author create characters, have a story plot, create a setting and employ scene and dialog to build the non-fiction world?), appeal (specifically detail, subject and type), and tone (argumentative, investigative, journalistic, popular or scholarly, etc) for non-fiction

because, as I mentioned before, I didn't take a class on this in school. He is also good with expanding on the "new" entries (refined entry points) for talking with patrons about materials (both fiction and non-fiction):

• assessing the reading experience through an analysis of language, learning/experiencing, and style; 
• thinking further about how content, subject, theme, type (biography, memoir, essay, investigation, explanation), and "sliding" genres (many genres share the elements of adrenaline, intellect, emotion or landscape) affect a work.

As a reader, I already recognize these entries inherently because it is rarely a plot that drives me to experience a fictional work and it is usually a curiosity to learn something that motivates me to pick up an informational work. To get me to pick up an audiobook? I have to be making a long drive or doing a lot of housework with no kids around, but yes, the production quality can make or break the experience. However, I hadn't thought of exploring an audiobook collection based on who narrates the work, even though I enjoy listening to Bill Bryson and David Sedaris narrate their own works and I love Tim Curry reading the Series of Unfortunate Events, and oh, yes, that lady who read all the Jane Austen books on playaway at the Sacramento Public Library, she was great! (As it turns out there were several, but I seem to recall the name Nadia May as being good.) Anyway, this totally illustrates the point that enjoying a work could be based on the director, or the screenwriter or the individual performers and so a patron may want other movies written by the same screenwriter which in some cases is also the director and the performer (hello, Simon Pegg, you are a genius.)

Final take-aways?

• Walk your stacks and find stuff that is in that you liked so that should someone ask for a spur of the moment recommendation, you've got one. 
• Use social networking sites to read how other people write about why they liked a work and use that language to engage with your patrons on their interests and why they like them.
• Don't be afraid of non-fiction or music or the children's collection or...
• Build universes! Make maps!
• Keep reading (viewing, listening, etc): both the books and materials in the collection and books about how to perform RA (webinars, etc)

Bibliography

Materials Matchmaking: Articulating Whole Library Advisory. Williamson. (2011, Spring) RUSQ 50:3 p230.

Booktalking for Adult Audiences. Baker. (2010, Spring) RUSQ 49:3 p234.

Stalking the Wild Appeal Factor: Readers' Advisory and Social Networking Sites. Stover. (2009, Spring) RUSQ 48:3 p243.

An RA Big Think. Wyatt. (2007, July 1) Library Journal (LJ) 132:12 p40.

Exploring Non-Fiction. Wyatt. (2007, February 15) LJ 132:3 p32.

Reading Maps Remake RA. Wyatt. (2006, November 1) LJ 131:18 p38.

Blogs on Books 
RA for All: RA blog by an author on RA Guide to Horror.
Early Word: Info for librarians about publishing brought to me by an editor of Publisher's Weekly and LJ
Stacked Books: blogging about being librarians... and RA stuff too.

Tools:

Reader's Advisory Genre Map

Book Country Genre Map
Sample Reading Map for Jonathan Strange...


Update 2015_01_22: The Neal Wyatt reading map page is no longer active. Instead check out the article by Spratford and Hawn titled Reading Maps Made Easy for more tips and a great Reading Map example for the Hunger Games.

Learning the RC: More Bibliographies by Subject

I was looking through the Reference and User Services Quarterly and found that they do a review of reference books at the back of each issue. Yea! It's nice to see samples of what a book review should look like from a reference librarian's p.o.v. and while I'm not necessarily reviewing each book's worth, I am learning our collection by actively putting my hands of each book as I work my way through it, 3 books at a time. First up is:

Twenty Years of Silents: 1908-1928 compiled by Weaver (016.7914 WEA) Silents? What the heck are "silents"?!? Oh! Silent movies. It includes a list of all the actors and their screen credits (the titles of the movies they were in). It even has the actors vital statistics, so if you wanted to know how tall an actor was and what their eye color was, you are set. There are even birth dates of the actors as well as the dates of their films. The same goes for directors and producers and there is even a little listing of production companies. And while it is a little list, it is impressive (to me, thinking that the film industry was just beginning) nonetheless that there are over 100 companies producing silents in the twenty year era covered.

Yikes! at 2376 pages the Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies (13th edition, 2007) (016.8088 COL 2007) makes a great workout weight, if I could wrap my hands around its spine. I've heard other librarians refer to "Grangers," as in, "check Grangers, it might be in there," when someone comes in asking for a specific poem. That's great, but what if we don't have a copy of that book/anthology that the poem should be in? But at least you can also find out who the author is and whether the poem is a selection from a larger work and there's always ILL if we don't have the book or anything by that author. Easy to use and behold! there's also a subject index for people wanting a poem about Japan.

Note to self-
Business:

• I asked no other thing by Dickinson in American Poetry Nineteenth Century v.2
• Cash or Turtle or Heaven by Gibbons in Vespers, Contemporary Poems of Religion or Spirituality
• Dropping the Euphemism. by Bob Hicok in American Alphabets

Climbing:

• Hymn to Holy Women by Balbulus in the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces 7th ed v. 1
• Surface by Hall, D. Poems for a Small Planet: Contemporary American Nature Poetry 1993
• Bending the Light by Koontz, T. Visiting Frost: Poems Inspired by the life and works of Robert Frost
• Descending thru Dragon Gate by Tu Fu or Du Fu in Crossing the Yellow River: 300 poems from the Chinese

Skateboarding:

• Sidewalk Racer or, on the Skateboard by Morrison, L.in New Treasury of Children's Poetry: Old Favorites and New Discoveries (I think I own this book) 1984 ed.

Ten minutes til we close and I've got one final book: Blood [POW!], Bedlam [BLAM!], Bullets [HOLY BULLETS, BATMAN!] and Badguys [OUCH!]: a Reader's Guide to Adventure/Suspense Fiction by Gannon. I know this book is a reference book, but it might get better use upstairs at the desk that serves the fiction section. 17 Chapters, each on a sub-theme, begin with a brief explanation of that chapter's theme and its appeal factors followed by a list of authors and their titles that fit that theme. At the end is a fabulous appendix listing the film and tv movie versions of any applicable books.

Publisher's weekly 12/3/12 and 11/19/2012

Fiction

• The Suitors by David-Weill (spanish?)
• Shadow on the Crown by Bracewell
• Dancing to the Flute by Amin
• The Inbetween People by McEvoy

Romance

• The One That Got Away by Hunter, K.
• Flora's Wish by Y'Barbo

African American Literature Book Club look for the 15th anniversary commemorative magazine spring 2013

Book Club:

• reissues of Evelyn Waugh's 15 fiction books- paperback versions have bound in reading club guides
  

Technology

• Ad: Freading eBook service (like overdrive?)

Non-fiction

• Religion: Gods at War; Not a Fan. both by Idleman, Kyle (are these for teens?)
• Directors Close Up 2 by Kagan
• Military mental health care by lawhorne-scott and philpott
• African american families today: Myths and realities by hattery and smith

---

From Atlantic Monthly Gladwell, King, Sedaris, and More: Books to Look Forward to in 2013 By Ashley Fetters Dec 27 2012

• The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier release date 1/8
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki release date 3/12
• ? The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer release date 4/9
• Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris release date 4/23
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie release date 5/14
• Simpler: The Future of Government by Cass Sunstein release date 9/9
• Joyland by Stephen King, only in paperback- release date 6/4
• Currently untitled by Malcolm Gladwell (foibles of power/ Occupy movement) unknown release date

November 19, 2012

Fiction

• Long Gone Daddies by Williams (early days rock n roll)
• Siege 13 by Dobozy (short stories "full of Eastern Europeans involved in events unusual to Western readers..."
• Teleportation Accident by Beauman (noir thriller?)
• River Swimmer by Harrison (of Legends of the Fall)
• City of Angels or, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud by Wolf (fictional memoir around the fall of the Berlin Wall that fizzles in the end, but "it's worth it to see Wolf grappling with a past that, far from being dead, is live- like ammunition.")

Mystery/ Thriller

• Midwife's Tale by Thomas (she's a midwife, she's a detective... starred review)
• Aloha, Lady Blue by Memminger "deft storytelling, intrigue galore, island splendor...hilarious side characters and stories"
• Rough Men by Davis
• Study in Revenge by Shields (starred review, sequal to Truth of All Things)

Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror

• American Elsewhere by Bennett 

Comics

• Fear Agent Library, Vol One by Remender, Moore and Opeña

Romance

• Chocolate Kiss by Florand ("battle of pastries is an erotic subtext for their love affair")
• Back to You by Kaye (Bad Boys of Red Hook series / UF?)
• When She Was Wicked by Barton

Non-fiction

• Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America by Chu
• My Beloved World by Sotomayor
• Who Say's It's a Man's World by Bennington
• The Chinese Takeout Cookbook by Kuan

Technology

• Arch-Enemy Entertainment (digital publisher)- look for
• The big bad wolf
• Cloud 9 - detention center revolt (YA)
• Sentences published by DC Vertigo, but by one of the founders of Arch Enemy
• Look at their use of twitter to market and promote in 2009

Publisher's Weekly 11/12/12

These are notes for myself. They are essentially the books I thought looked interesting from a collection development ptv for the Pub Weekly 11/12/12. There are also some things I note that I just want to be aware of, sort of trending topics of interest to me. Will I do this for every Pub Weekly I come across? Possibly.

E-comics:

• iPad- Dim Sum Warriors (Yumcha Studios)
• iPad only: King Fu Guide to Romance
• iPad only: Stir Fried Detective

Does overdrive have comics?- Yes, but they are simple ePub files and not formatted for comics display the way a comics app will format and display. And the one that I tested for download to my mobile reader (Android) does not allow wireless download. I have to first download it to the computer and then transfer it to my device. (LAME!)

Mystery

• Classic in the Clouds by Myers, Amy
• Moon Underfoot
• Russian Donation by Spielberg
• Immortal by Crawford

Literature

• White Dog Fell From the Sky by Morse
• Heft by Moore
• Canada by Ford

Check out the iPad Mini! ... maybe not- screen resolution

Romance

• Red by Kinsey (erotica)
• Please, Sir (Submissive)
• Look for "sweet stories" (no/low sex) by Amazon Montlake Romance, St. MArtin's Press, HarperCollins & Harlequin Heartwarming

Mystery/ Thriller

• The Dinner by Koch
• The Hard Bounce by Robinson- in Spanish?
• The List by Tanabe - in Spanish?
• Adam in Eden by Fuentes - in Spanish?

 Paperback Bestsellers

• My Kind of Christmas by Carr, R.
• Micro by Crichton
• Perks of Being a Wallflower by 
• Practical Paleo by Sanfilippo
• Team of Rivals by Goodwin

Catalog Features - can we recommend other titles from within an item record by Subject (for reference?)
Be sure to look at:

• iBookstore App's Shakespearience by Sourcebooks and DK line
• Also be aware that ePub3 is coming for standard multimedia ebook format.

Sci/Fi, Fantasy and Horror

•  Impulse by Gould (part 3 of the Jump series that we have)

Non-fiction

• Here there, elsewhere : stories from the road by least heat moon
• Stay up la street art by daichendt
• She spiritual but not religious is not enough by daniel

RA log: Discovery of Witches by Harkness *spoilers

Cover: The cover is dark blue with chemistry/alchemy symbols all over it. It does not have the typical fantasy / romance cover art featuring the characters, so the book's cover is more applicable to a wider audience than the women fantasy-romance set- more like general fiction. The title is in larger print and info says this is the author's debut novel.

The jacket blurb gives a bit of a summary, but doesn't hint at what happens other than "equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense." Other authors that recommend this book are Danielle Trussoni (Angelology- secret group dedicated to fighting against the evil efforts of the Nephilim, children of Angels and humans. The fight takes a turn when the main character "finds" a letter full of ancient secrets the Nephilim want.), Ivy Pochoda (Art of Disappearing- about a girl who falls in love with a real magacian only to wonder as she sees his magic grow unstable if her love for him is the result of a spell.) and Jane Borodale  (Book of Fires- prego in 1750s flees small town, joins up with fireworks maker to assist in creation of most spectacular fireworks- possible romance? this book is in turn linked to Geraldine Brooks's Year of Wonders: a Novel of the Plague, who also wrote Caleb Crossing and March and People of the Book (do you remember reading this, Hernandez? It was a struggle)).

Typeface was easy to read, not cramped. No illustrations. Adult readers.

At 592 pages this book had a little heft, but it felt like a solid book and one that you'd feel proud being seen reading. Hardback, easy to open.

The story starts with description. We don't really learn anything more than what the jacket blurb tells us. There's not a lot of action and I'll be honest, I'm board. There just doesn't seem any enthusiasm on the character's part for the history she's researching. I get the feeling its there just to give context on how the book was discovered. I skipped to the middle and read a chapter on blood and vamps researching blood lines and the DNA of humans and "others." The main character still dislikes her witch abilities, but is willing to learn about the skills she has "in her blood" via a blood test. We meet the vampire love interest. I skipped to about 3/4 of the way. Some more vamp family members are introduced and the main character has married the vamp. She's been kidnapped and tortured by her own kind. At the end, the main character and her vamp are getting ready to go into hiding... back in time. Nice set up for book two, which I didn't realize it was going to be a trilogy until I read it on Amazon.com.

Pacing- I found this pacing to be a little long, but probably on target for the appropriate reader who wants to spend time with the character and her developing acceptance of her witch skills and opening up to a vamp love interest, both of which she's fought against having in her life. (The book was compared to Twilight.) There are memories, but I don't think there were any flashbacks. Seemed fairly linear plot.

Story line seems to emphasize people over events/ plot/ action. Stuff happens to be sure, but it takes a little while getting there. The author's intent is to be taken seriously. We are to be caught up in this drama of magical events.

I feel as though I've met these characters in every "discovering my magical abilities," "coming of age," "highlander romance," type book. The character accepts her magic by the end of this book, but the real reason she wasn't really into it in the first place is that her own mother put a block on her to "keep her safe," so I just don't buy that the main character is having any real personal growth. She's simply coming into her inheritance because events conspire to force it onto her.

Most dominant appeal: very special witch does gorgeous vamp... they are the center of the universe.

Plot: Girl denies abilities. Girl finds book. Vamp finds girl. Girl accepts abilities. Genre: witch/vamp romance.

DofW is the first in a triology. I didn't know this and I didn't care when the two main characters "walked off in the sunset" per se. But, I suppose if you really cared about the characters you'd want to know if they were going to be followed, etc.

Romantic dreamers who swoon over vampires and magic would like this book. (Which makes me ask, why did MA like it so much?) I only got interested when the main character was tortured- I was interested to see if the magic would burst out of her, but it didn't and then they were safe. I skipped the chapter where they were supposedly attacked by other witches, but there didn't seem to be an sense of anxiety or dread or we're not safe, even though they were going off to be safe- I mean, they hung out to give Halloween candy out. Seriously?