Promoting reading 1
Chapter 5. Readers’ Advisory and book presentatio
ns Readers’ Advisory The specific form of service that entails providing suggestions for reading (particularly in the USA) is termed Readers’ Advisory. Readers’ Advisory is a form of literature mediation, and in the same way that we can differentiate between direct and indirect literature mediation, a distinction can be drawn between direct and indirect Readers’ Advisory. For instance, a direct Readers’ Advisory service might be in the form of a conversation, during which a series of questions are put to a user for the purpose of making a non-judgemental inventory of the person’s interests and providing him or her with reading tips and advice on the basis of these. In Sweden, the interaction/communication between the librarian and the user includes the equivalent of a readers’ advisory service. This interaction has the aim of meet his/her needs for information, but may also more specifically be about providing advice and tips in the user’s choice of reading. The Swedish Children’s book catalogue can be mentioned in this context as an example of an indirect Readers’ Advisory service. The Children’s book catalogue is published each year by the Children’s library in conjunction with the Swedish Arts Council, and features a selection of current books for children and young people with the purpose of providing guidance and inspiration for reading. A current example of a digital reader’s advisory service is the book browser developed for the Kista City Library, which provides tips on books and information about availability on large touchscreens that are easy to navigate. In a comparison between the past and the present, Readers’ Advisory services have meant that the relationship between the reader and the librarian has become less and less didactic in nature. If in the past librarians generally felt that they knew what was good for the reader and guided the reader in certain specific directions, they have now become more of a link between the book and the reader. A Readers’ Advisory service is one of the most fundamental functions of a public library, but is also used in the bookshop context in both its direct and indirect forms. For example, online bookshop giant Amazon has a well-developed system for guiding the reader based on given preferences – a form of Readers’ Advisory service, albeit with a commercial purpose. A recommended book on Readers’ Advisory is Saricks (2005). Booktalk Book presentations in the form of what is termed booktalk is one of the most common reading promotion methods used in the public library, and indeed has been described as the dominant method in literature mediation activities in children’s libraries (Törnfeldt 1994). Booktalk is a much more common activity in the reading promotion activities of public libraries among children and young people than book circles, for example. How the method is used at Swedish libraries for children and young people is the subject of a number of papers and thesis projects. Booktalk can have several different target 62