Finding Good Reads on Goodreads

Abstract

In 2009, Kaite Stover examined expansion of reader-centered social networking sites and what she called the wild appeal factor (see Stalking Wild Appeal Factor, Reference & User Services Quarterly 48, no. 3 [Spring 2009]: 243-46). Stover looked at several then-new sites that might be of interest to readers' advisors, particularly in terms of how readers talk about books and reading in their own words. As Stover pointed out, conversation about books is taking place on web in a variety of forms, and as reflective practitioners, we need to be aware of those conversations happening outside library walls. In this issue's column, Yesha Naik expands on this discussion by looking at how members of one bibliocentric social networking site, Goodreads.com, talk with each other and broader reading community about books and reading. Yesha looks at reader discussions of titles in five diverse genres and what we learn from those discussions about reader interests. She then moves from this examination to explore how readers' advisors might take advantage of this knowledge in their daily practice. Librarianship is Yesha's third career, but she finds that her previous incarnations as middle school teacher and college admissions counselor have well-prepared her for working as a YA librarian in a bustling neighborhood branch of Brooklyn Public Library. A 2011 graduate of Queens College GSLIS, her professional fascinations include readers' advisory, teen and children's services, diversity in YA literature, and serving immigrant populations in public library setting. She blogs at http://bookishdesi.wordpress.com.--Editor When librarians think about readers' advisory, we usually focus on professional implications of term: what it means to provide RA services to patrons, whether through one-on-one conversations, recommended reading lists, book displays, or even titles featured on our library websites. Thus far in literature on role of librarian as readers' advisor has been highlighted. We have clear cut ideas about how to go about helping patrons find a book, which could include using a database like NoveList, creating a reading map as recommended by Neal Wyatt (see Reading Maps Remake RA, Library Journal 131, no. 18 [2006]: 38), or referring to appeal terms as described by Joyce Saricks (see Readers' Advisory Service in Public Library, 3rd ed. [Chicago: ALA Editions, 2005]). However, avid readers don't think in terms of readers' advisory. They simply are interested in finding good books to read and then perhaps discussing them with others, and librarians may not necessarily be their first go-to source for book recommendations. In pursuing their reading interests, readers are turning to online communities to discuss books and even to give and receive unofficial readers' advisory help. Neal Wyatt was among first RA librarians to recognize power of book-centered social media participation when she stated that it expands RA discussion and connects collection and readers to each other in original, flexible, and idiosyncratic ways. It allows for reader-to-reader conversations sparked by interest, whimsy, and personal knowledge. It makes greater use of librarian expertise as well, offering another way to interact and offer suggestions. This larger and more fluid virtual conversation is in turn amplified by sociability of tools that support it, and result is an ongoing discourse that continually grows and adapts. (1) Wyatt explicitly lays out various practical ways that librarians can use bibliosocial networking sites to facilitate their RA services. It is important to note that at a time when one could bemoan sites such as LibraryThing and Goodreads as taking away role of librarian, Wyatt enthusiastically embraces these sites and encourages other librarians to do so as well. …