Building on a Firm Foundation: Readers’ Advisory over the Next Twenty-Five Years

Barry Trott, Editor

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For the past quarter century, we have seen a revitalization of readers’ advisory (RA) services in the public libraries in the United States. The 1980s saw three major events that re-established the value of working with readers: the publication of the first edition of Genreflecting under the editorship of Betty Rosenberg (1982); the establishment of the Chicago-area Adult Reading Roundtable (ARRT) (1984); and the publication of the first edition of Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library by Joyce Saricks and Nancy Brown (1989). Although not the only markers for the RA renaissance, each of these three events defined a crucial segment of RA practice. Rosenberg’s book was the first RA tool that examined the intricacies of genre fiction. Many more books would follow this pattern. The establishment of ARRT brought like-minded readers’ advisors together to talk about their work, both the theory and, particularly, the practice of connecting readers to books. The success of ARRT has generated a multitude of other reading-centered groups across the country, fostering a spirit of professional inquiry that has enabled readers’ services to grow in scope and magnitude. Saricks and Brown developed and promulgated the concept of using appeal to make connections between authors and titles. The idea of appeal has been at the center of RA practice ever since and continues to be applied and shaped in new ways.

After twenty-five years it is, perhaps, a time to look at what the challenges might be for readers’ advisors in the next quarter century. In his book The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, Donald Schon notes that a reflective practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation. …When someone reflects-in-action, he becomes a researcher in the practice context.¹

As we look toward the future of readers’ advisory with the goal of becoming reflective practitioners, there are numerous areas that offer us both challenges and opportunities to expand our practice into new areas and to do so in a thoughtful way, responding to new opportunities by considering past practice and applying the lessons learned there to our future practice. Doing so will certainly assure us of the continued success of readers’ advisory services.

The following pages describe some of the potential challenges and opportunities that exist for readers’ advisors in all types of libraries. Some of the items discussed are already being addressed by librarians and libraries in various ways, others less so. In all cases the intent here is to offer these items as a stimulus to further conversation and debate among readers’ advisors. For it is in this sort of professional discourse that new paths can be forged that will keep RA work vital. It is hoped that future entries in this column can examine some of these topics more deeply and make recommendations on directions for the profession. Readers who might be interested in taking on the challenge of writing about any of these topics are encouraged to contact the column editor.

Format-based Readers’ Advisory

The initial focus in the late-twentieth century readers’ advisory renaissance was on fiction reading, and in particular on genre fiction. Next, readers’ advisors began to look at ways to apply the concepts of appeal and the practices developed for working with fiction readers to working with readers of narrative nonfiction. In the past couple of years, RA practitioners have started to consider how to apply these same skills to working with audiobook listeners. In addition to the concerns of story, setting, mood, language, and character, audiobook advisory requires a knowledge and sensitivity to things such as the narrative voice, reading style, where the auditor plans to listen to the recording, and what sort of media format the auditor needs and desires. These new ways of thinking about audiobooks also can apply to working with users interested in help finding music and films. Advisory for films and music will require advisors to take their current knowledge and apply it in new ways, but will also require a reshaping of practice as well. Some questions that could be considered in film and music advisory: How well do the concepts of appeal apply in an aural (but not narrative) or visual world? Does the shorter time investment in a film or music CD mean that the patron has less interest in getting assistance in locating similar works? What sort of tools would be useful for working with viewers and listeners, and do they already exist?

Where is Genre Going?

One of the most challenging aspects of readers’ advisory service is maintaining and building knowledge of genres. Readers’ advisors have long used genre as a means of sorting out and defining a set of precepts that describe a certain style of writing. Knowledge of the appeals of these precepts both within and across genres allows advisors to make better suggestions when working with readers. While the fundamental genres—crime, romance, historical, western, fantasy, and science fiction—all are still important to both readers and to readers’ advisors, the concept of genre is becoming increasingly complex. Writers such as Cormac McCarthy, Mary Doria Russell, Michael Chabon, Audrey Niffenegger, and many others have, as Chabon says, built their “literary house[s] on the borderlands.”² These writers all use elements usually associated with genre fiction in what otherwise would be considered “literary fiction.” The success of titles such Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife (which uses a very literary style to explore the consequences of time travel on a relationship) or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (with its postapocalyptic setting) have exposed many readers to elements of genres they would not necessarily have tried otherwise. As genre definitions become increasingly blurry, readers’ advisors may be less able to rely on genre as a defining tool in the practice. At the same time, new genres or reading interests are continually developing. Think about the explosion of the “chick-lit” novels in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, or the huge reader interest in what is variously defined as “street-lit” or “urban fiction.” Keeping up with the interests of the reading community has never been more complex or more challenging, and it is likely to continue to be so. The need for good reviews of these materials and of other writing that explores Chabon’s “borderlands” is essential to the ability of the advisor to develop an understanding of these areas and to make useful suggestions to readers. The readers’ advisor of the future must have a willingness to venture into these less-known areas of the reading world and to come back not only alive but also with an appreciation for what readers in these areas enjoy.

RA for Non-English Speakers

As many libraries across the country are finding, the demand for reading, listening, and viewing materials in languages other than English is growing rapidly. Sometimes this interest may reflect the needs of a single group in the community, but, especially in larger urban areas, there may be a variety of non-English speaking communities looking for materials in their libraries. The Queens Public Library in Flushing, New York, collects materials in over forty languages.³ At the Arlington (Va.) Public Library outside of Washington D.C., the adult collection includes materials in ten languages, including Vietnamese, supish, and Chinese.⁴ Increasing demand for foreign language materials places demands on library budgets and selectors, but the challenges raised here are equally important to readers’ advisors. Here we have a segment of the community who are often avid library users, but in many cases we are not able to provide these readers with the same level of service that we can provide our other readers. An obvious challenge faced by advisors here is the ability to discuss the reader’s interests in their own language. Tied to this is the difficulty of locating reviews and synopses of foreign language titles in order to be able to make recommendations. Pat Alter, adult collection development librarian at Arlington Public Library, notes that foreign language periodicals can be a good way to provide non-English readers with materials that meet their reading interests.⁵ Providing reading lists and other readers’ advisory materials in languages other than English may be a way to serve this segment of the reading community. Libraries who are looking at offering readers’ advisory services to non-English speaking readers must also consider whether these readers are more interested in original materials in their language of choice or in translations of materials originally in English into another language. Again, Alter notes that at Arlington Public Library most readers of non-English language materials are looking for original materials, not translations.

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