Let's Chat About Readers' Advisory

Or Reader's Advisory. Or Readers Advisory. Or RA. Or whatever you want to call it. The art (and science) of helping people discover things to read, and also discovery of themselves as readers. We don't talk enough about that second part, so let's start there. 

I did a talk recently for a library staff day (not my own!) about RA and it did the usual things, giving an overview of the genres, helping people "discover" that they can suggest titles that have been written by an author that has a different lived experience than the person asking for things. You know, the usual. But before that, I spent a little bit of time explaining readers' advisory. Most of the people in a library environment know what it is. But in both of my sessions, there were people who worked in the library, but not in library operations type jobs (so accounting, or foundation, or something not dealing with what we think of as regular library work) and it helped them understand the terms library staff throw around so casually with little explanation.

We used to categorize things between "active" and "passive" readers' advisory and you know what? There is no such thing as "passive" readers' advisory. We meant it as something like a bookmark or a display where you didn't have a person actively coming to the desk asking for something. But if you've ever put together said bookmark, web based display, or physical display, you know there is nothing passive about it. You're picking the theme. You're trying to find things to match said theme. If you don't find enough things, proceed back to step 1. You're creating the thing (whether that is pulling materials for a physical display, or entering titles into whatever program you're using to create a digital display, or booklist for people to take with them.) None of that is passive. It's work, and should be talked about and respected as such. So now, I've started calling it "group services."  Because it isn't for an individual that asked a specific question, but for enabling groups to discover at their leisure. 

The next thing we talked about was the "readers" part of readers' advisory. The bottom two are things Becky Spratford and I spend a lot of time saying when we talk to people for Anti-Racist Service to Readers and they both have to do with vocational awe. If you haven't come across this phenomenal concept from Fobazi Ettarh, then click the link and go read. We'll wait here...  

Vocational awe resides in thinking you are somehow fixing people when you introduce them to books they "should" read (ie. books by underrepresented authors.) Oh honey. If only the world's problems were so easily solved! I'm sorry that it isn't too, because it would make things so much nicer for all of us. But not only is that not true, the pressure you put on yourself to put that perfect book into someone's hands... that will make them understand that we're all more alike that we are different... and they will ride off into the future with little to no prejudice for anyone...that pressure is enormous. And when it fails, the fall can be equally devastating. Library staff tell us, almost at every session, how making their RA more diverse is so time consuming and just an added thing on top of having to do it at all and...it isn't. But what they're feeling is that pressure to not just make it more inclusive, but to make it the kind of inclusive that will move the needle on all the world's prejudices. Please, library work is difficult enough in this day and age. Don't put that added pressure on yourself! More inclusive readers' advisory is good because it's good. The books exist, they are often not marketed and promoted to the extent of other titles and readers often don't find them without help. Or they see them and don't realize that it matches their overrepresented faves in ways they might find intriguing. That's why you should do it. 

While we're here, let's take a little detour to also say that reading these books won't "save" people.  And if you're telling people that reading underrepresented authors will make them better people...why are you making this a moral chore? You could be telling them to read that book because it's a kickass horror book and you know they've run out of all of their favorite horror authors to read. Books do fix us sometimes. And they do save us sometimes. But that's between you (the reader) and the book. My job is to help you discover all of the things you may not know about so that the magic can happen. 

Let's also talk about hating books. Did you know that it's ok to hate a book? Or a certain type of books? Or a certain writing style? Or any combination of things? It's ok. And it's ok to tell people this. There are many reasons why readers fall off and stop reading, but one of them seems to be the pressure of having to like all the things. Or having to like the "right" things. If you knew how many people have APOLOGIZED to me when asking for Romance....or have apologized to me for being very specific in what they're asking for, or things they'd like to avoid. Listen....it's OK to HATE a thing. If you don't like people randomly breaking out into song, please don't watch musicals! If the idea of aliens makes your eyes roll back in your head and your suspension of disbelief doesn't run to the future, then there are a whole line of science fiction books that probably aren't for you! You might think that nixes ALL SF, though, and readers' advisory is here to show you that isn't true! The point is: NOT liking something is a great way to narrow down the hundreds of thousands of choices when it comes to finding the books you might want to read. Making people think that you can't be a reader unless you have an open mind about all the books is a great way to turn them off entirely. 

Besides, here's a little secret: the more you read, the more you want to read. I'm sure it isn't true for every single person, but it's true for a lot of people. You have an entry point, and then you move beyond it. There are things adjacent to your entry point, broadening the scope. And then you branch out from there....new authors come on the scene....you get exposed to more titles, authors, genres, sub-genres....it just naturally happens. Tastes and preferences may start solid but they often become more nuanced as a reader gets exposed to more things they didn't know existed. I hate romance becomes I like some urban fantasy which becomes I like some paranormal romance which becomes I like some historical paranormal romance which becomes I like some historical romance if certain things are present. But that is a natural evolution which occurs on a reader's timeline, not at the librarian's insistence. 

Okay, that's enough for now. Go forth and help people discover their love of reading as well as all the things.