With all the technology available to us now, there are so many ways to approach RA in the public library. While librarians are using these tools in effective ways, we can always stand to improve. So I went online to look for advice about how to use technology to conduct superior RA service.
Booklists are a popular RA tool, and most libraries have begun making their lists available online. One suggestion for enhancing this service is to create booklists specifically for your community of readers. Many of the lists you see online are generic, like "Mystery Authors A-Z" or "Fiction for Women by Women". While these lists have their purpose, creating a boolist for your patrons can be even more successful. You can personalize your suggestions even further by including a brief synopsis of each title and maybe even a few short lines of a book review.
Some libraries, like Hennepin County PL (http://www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace/), are offering online book discussion groups. The library can choose a book and formulate questions that patrons then respond to in an online format.
Another popular venture is allowing patrons to review and tag books. The Danbury Library (CT) (http://cat.danburylibrary.org/) has added LibraryThing content to its online catalog, allowing patrons to tag items with indexing terms that make sense to them.
Blogs and wikis also provide libraries with ways to reach out to readers online. These formats are useful particularly with teens.
Libraries are always coming up with new and innovative ways to use technology, which is great for our profession because change is inevitable.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment