Amy’s Comments (group member since Dec 17, 2012)

Amy’s comments from the Douglas County Libraries RA Group group.

My next book lover's night is a book club edition -- I'm still experimenting. Throw me your reads or (better yet) throw me some blurbs.

Also, The TC used to publish and annual list of best book club books. It was an awesome bit of work and was somewhat sought after in its day. Would we want to publish a DCL version?

The list would include fiction and some non-fiction and had some major awesome blurbing. I will see if I can get my hands on an old one for reference sake.

Let me know what you think.

Hello all.

It looks like this is a go at DCL if we can organize things on the Reader's Advisory side. It all happened super fast, and it looks like things may continue at breakneck speed. Monique thinks IT can have their part done next month (yes, October 2013).

I am organizing a meeting on the subject in the next two weeks. If you don't get an email from me asking about the meeting in the next 24 hours and you want to be involved let me know.

Anyone excited?

Natalie and I attended a recent CAL sponsored RA Workshop where one of the topics was form-based reader's advisory (those interactive online forms for patrons to fill out). The next day Joelle Hein and I attended an ALA Webinar about Form based RA. . . . So this is a subject that seems to be everywhere, and some of us are thinking it might be time to give it a try here at DCL.

We are wondering, of course, how many of you would be interested in helping. Would you be interested in helping make reading lists for patrons? Which genres do you read? Which age groups? Do you know of anyone not involved with this group who you think would be interested in this sort of thing?

Lastly, do you have any ideas of which libraries are doing a particularly good job at this, any models you don't like?

Let us know!

Oh. And it costs $30

Hello.

I just received a notice about this workshop and thought I would pass the information along in case any one else can go. You need to be a member of CAL to sign up.

It is coming up . . . August 6th at Anything Wright Farms.

http://www.cal-webs.org/events/event_...

@Laurie. . .

I get what you are saying about book clubs. We have on in Parker that has over 30 members! They are running into a problem where they pick books that we have lots of in the fall, but by the time they read it we have weeded the title down. They are vexed because, while members are on hold for the book, others claim to be buying discarded library copies in our book sale room. I feel like I am missing a part of the story.

I am hoping to talk to the leader of this book club (first question: how the HECK do you manage a book club with 30 members???) to see if we can work with them in any way while not keeping deadwood on our shelves. We won't talk until September, which is when they will know their books for 2014. I will keep you posted.

On the other hand! I am in a book club that used to be peopled by poor book sellers. One of the requirements we had for our book club was that the book be readily available at area libraries. I guess this is to say that, if free books are a priority, they can manage it if they want to.

Thanks, Sherri.

I think my Fall book lovers will be geared towards book clubs. Should we start building a list for us to use as we develop talks to book clubs?

Any forthcoming books I should know about?

Thank you for all the great suggestions. I think the night went well, though we had only 2 adults in the audience. People took tons of books though. Yay that!

I told someone (a co-worker) that I was going to talk up "Life After Life" even though I hadn't read it, and they gave me a look that can only be described as quelling. So I didn't mention it. I will have to A.) Read this book and B.) not mention to coworkers when I haven't read something I am recommending. Yay ignorance!

I have been toying with Bookish for the last month or so, and am wondering if any of you have an account there.

My main concern is their review process, which is moderated. I first posted a review for NOS4A2, which I LOVED. So, glowing review. Bookish posted it, even though it had a silly typo. I then posted a review for a book called City of Dark Magic, which I thought was flawed. This review, which would have been the book's only review, was not glowing and still hasn't been posted. Is it because I said negative things? I tried not to be overly negative in an effort (hard for me) to be diplomatic. I don't know, but am concerned, especially as Bookish is backed by publishers. I fear that they want only to push content and have been hoping that they would be open to more honest dialog about their books.

Have you posted both positive and negative reviews to Bookish? Were they posted? How many other reviews did the book have when you posted yours?

Also. I tried to see what Bookish would recommend if I liked Benediction. They don't have anything for me, the book didn't even appear as a result. They tried to recommend something for people who like Celtic Benedictions. I don't know . . . maybe the Celts have loads in common with Kent Haruf.

Have you tried their recommendations? How did they work?

Best use of my Goodreads account in the last few months. Discovering that Dana had read "Code Name Verity." She was kind enough to provide a desperate patron the "cliffs notes" version of the plot, so that the patron could go to her book club fully armed with important plot points.

Awesome!

Thanks Dana!

I want to do this more and want to hear about what has worked for you . . . go!

I was on Jeffco's site recently, which has been revamped. Their books,movies, etc. page now features buttons at the bottom of the page for "a list for you", which sends you to their recommendation form; "if you liked, you might try", which leads you to novelist (which doesn't seem particularly helpful for the many patrons who haven't used novelist before); and "We recommend" which provides monthly newsletter-like lists on a variety of genres. The last seems the best idea, thought it lacks visual punch. Also, at the top of the recommendations page is a link to "suggest a title". This would be so cool! except that it sends you to their materials request form rather than allow you to post a comment to recommend other books.

However, the buttons idea is cool. Can we get it so that people can text or twitter us a book they liked and we respond with a book? Someone Must be doing that already. Any ideas?

I will check out Columbus library (mentioned during the Are books your brand webinar) as well as Seattle as soon as I can.

Lanie,

1. I think the BCE idea is neat.

2. Andrea Ortiz of Parker also saw this presentation and was quite taken by it. She made a map of "The Selection," and is open to making more. I think she is thinking in your vein . . . that this would be bonus/ancillary features for fans of books. She thinks that starting with BIG books is how she wants to approach it.

I told her about your interest. You two should talk!

I would say that A. We only allow people access to books that we own and Goodreads has access to most of the stuff published through its partnerships with Amazon and (I think) Baker and Taylor. Do we want to do that?

Mostly, though, I think this is a question of format, isn't it? Goodreads looks like a social networking site where the focus of socializing is the books, and our website is a library website that allows for people to review, etc. but the socializing isn't a focus at all.

Hello!

I am planning a "I'm doing summer reading, now what?!?" event at Parker in June. Are there any books on the horizon (or recently out) that you are especially excited about?

Nos4a2 and Ghost man are already on my list (my thanks to Dedra and Laurie!)

So . . . I'm mad at Goodreads because of the Amazon thing.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, I used to recommend books to friends using Goodreads, and because I'm mad at them I have been using our email this page feature instead. I don't love it, but it makes me think about ways we can "goodreads" Vufind. What would this look like? Is it feasible for us to try to jump into this game? Goodreads gets a great pulse on what people are reading and how . . .

Jill, Dedra, Allison

I will contact you this week to set up a meeting. There has got to be a way!

I'm really excited by this, by the bye!

I haven't seen one lately either. I remember Jeffco having a page but it was somewhat blah, visually speaking. I will look too. I bet Seattle's is cool and wonder what hennepin would have out there.

The "Are Books your Brand" Webinar had two librarians on it. I will look through my notes to see who they are and see if their library pages are cool.

I must say that I imagine less text than image, space to talk back. Could you have a page with tabs? Bookclubs, award winners, Buzz, genres, etc?

Blogrolls?

I have been thinking about a guy I knew who tried to start a backlist book of the day project. I like the idea but he felt compelled to tie the books to events, so there were a lot of music biographies (he likes music), but I really like the idea of highlighting favorite titles that are over a year old and may not be getting as much attention from other sources.

Still thinking . . .
A

Laurie --

I am doing a book talk in June at Parker -- Sort of a "I'm doing summer reading, now what?" and want to include this. I haven't read it yet, though. Could you give me a cheater blurb so I can talk it up???

PS -- I totally plan to read this, promise.

a

I just created a bookshelf for our first quarterly booktalk. If you go to the bottom of the page you should see a link to more books. Click on that and you will see the bookshelves on the right hand side. Booktalk_March_2013 is the bookshelf I created. Sorry I am so late posting this list.

This makes for a good opportunity to see how people feel about the shelves in Goodreads. I'm not thrilled. I feel as though it is harder to see the actual shelves than I would like and still more difficult to see any of our commentary for the group. What do you think? Am I doing it wrong? Would this be better done using a different tool?

If you weren't at the meeting and would like to add your books to the shelf (or the the commentary here) feel free. I would love to know what is making the rounds at the various libraries.