January 26, 2024: Reader Advisory

Supervisor:  Renee Kirchner

Friday:  9am-2pm

I spent time with Carole Chandler, a Youth librarian, going over book ordering and websites useful for Youth Reader’s Advisory.  Lewisville Public Library (LPL) does not practice centralized collection which allows the Youth Collection to stay more in tune with the needs of the patrons.  The Youth Department has 5 librarians that order for the Youth Collection.  The librarians rotate sections which keeps each section from being too skewed to personal preferences.  This also allows each librarian to be very familiar with specific titles in the collection.  For questions regarding reading levels, read-a-likes, and author-a-likes, websites such as Abdo, Scholastic Book WIzard, Holiday House, Accelerated Readers, and Novelist are great resources.  However, book leveling is a rough system because there are no industry standards.  Level 1 I Can Read may not correlate to Level ! Ready To Read and Accelerated Reader level 4.4 means 4th grade and 4th month.  Publishers set their own leveling systems.  Within LPL the Tech Services Department orders leveled readers due to the high level of detail and research required when comparing levels across publishers. 

The afternoon was spent with Renee Kirchner going into greeted detail with the Reference Interview for Reader’s Advisory.  We role played asking some open ended questions and how to draw information from shy children or children and parents who disagree on what the child wants.  The staff at LPL does not censor content or genre for children nor do they use a rating system for books.  They consider that decision the  job of parents and work hard to offer children the books they want to read.  They will also, if appropriate, educate parents in an effort to support the child’s reading choices.  For example, many parents still regard Graphic Novels as lower quality reading.  In those instances, librarians will explain the way that Graphic Novels do, in fact, strongly support reading and comprehension.  The LPL offers Reader’s Advisory services online and Renee gave me 3 actual reference questions to work through and offer suggestions for.  One request was for a 13 year old looking for read-a-likes.  Next, a parent wanted suggestions for a 4th grade child with specific interests.  Finally, an adult wanted suggestions for genres and author-a-likes.  I found this to be a bit of a difficult task as I was not familiar with many of the titles patrons wanted read-a-likes for.  Also, I had a hard time deciding when I had answered the reference question enough- offered enough suggestions.       

Renee offered a few suggestions for me as a librarian.  First, make a Goodreads account as they are valuable resources for Reader Advisory.  Next, read the books in the award categories (Newberry, Caldecot, etc.).  Finally, read broadly.  It is good to have a lot of personal recommendations.  Reader Advisory supports the library’s goal to create a balanced, inclusive, representative collection for patrons.  The library as a whole, hasn’t seen an increase in book challenges but does have well documented policies regarding collection development and the book challenge process.