Best Friends Forever!

I was working the desk when a lady asked for help with checking a few items out -- the self-check machine was rejecting a few items. I checked her out and we chatted about the Dr. Seuss craft table in the Children's department. She'd brought her kids specifically to the Central Library so they could become "Thing One" and "Thing Two" (such a great idea -- our Children's department manager is a genius). She happened to look at my name badge and said, "Wait. You're Laura? You made my reading guide!" She was referring to Your Next Great Read, a Readers' Advisory service I helped launch a few years ago. Readers fill out an online form about the books they like, and librarians (including me) create "personalized reading guides" with 3 to 5 authors and around 10 titles we think they'll like, with reasons explaining why. It's a deeply satisfying service to be a part of, and we'd received plenty of wonderful e-mail thanks before, but this was the first time I'd encountered a real live reader of mine. I (just as shy and nervous as a 7th grade boy at a school dance) asked, "So... did you like my suggestions?"  She said, "Are you kidding? I loved most of them so far! You're my new best friend! Now whenever I'm looking for something to read, I just go back to your list and I know I'm going to find something good." Needless to say, I was buzzing and beaming and generally a pain to talk to because I couldn't stop marveling at it. My new best friend, indeed!
Laura, associate librarian

So this is my story, and you would think I wouldn't have much else to say than what I already said.

Oh, you don't know me very well yet, do you?

This particular interaction made my day, week, month, and year. Truth be told, it might have even made my career -- my entire professional view of myself.

My job title might be Generalist Library Associate (I think "Associate Librarian" better reflects what I do and am, so I'm taking some liberties by switching those words around), but I am, at heart, a Readers' Advisory librarian. If you don't know what Readers' Advisory is, you're not alone. It's a rather new field of study in the library world, though not at all new in practice. Basically, it's connecting readers to books that will enrich their lives. (There's that connecting thing again.)

By "books" I don't only mean the square things with pages in them. It encompasses all of the new technology: electronic books, audiobooks, play-aways. And it doesn't just mean fiction, either, though that is the bulk of what we deal in and suggest. It's stories and it's recreation and it's education; it's what happens when you find a book that speaks to you in some way, that opens your eyes to the world and your self and others.

Nancy Pearl, she of librarian action figure and Book Lust awesomeness, is our fair leader. She, along with a few other crusading librarians like Joyce Saricks, made thinking about why people read different books -- and figuring out how to determine which books would appeal to which readers -- a professional librarian activity. There are classic Readers' Advisory books like Now Read This..., and Genreflecting (and, of course, Book Lust), and terrific services like the NoveList database, all designed to help librarians help readers.

But that basic interaction -- librarian to reader -- is still essential.

You cannot convince me that an algorithm on Amazon will be able to make a truly personalized reading guide like we are able to. And they certainly won't be able to write reasons why you might enjoy The Night Circus or give Edward Abbey a try.

(Those were two completely different readers, by the way. The first likes historical novels and fantasy stories, and The Night Circus is an excellent combination of the two. The second is a fan of John Irving's winding plots, off-center characters, and realism, and Abbey sees Irving all of those plus adds a dark humor I thought the reader might like.)

I am sympathetic to the arguments that public libraries need to introduce new technologies to people, to be on the forefront of the ebook revolution, to find ways to connect with people (and again with the connect and the people).

I just hope that it won't be on the backs of what most people go to libraries for: books and reading.

BOOKS AND READING. That's our brand. That's what matters to most of our people. If you look at library statistics going way back yonder, what checks out the most? Fiction. Even in today's world of DVDs (also stories, by the way) and music CDs, books with characters and plots and stories are what people come to the library for. It often happens that they'll be surprised and delighted at what else they'll find at the library (research articles for school papers, Dr. Seuss crafts for children!, the CD from the latest "American Idol" winner), but it doesn't change the fact that their primary goal is to find books (or ebooks, or etc.) that will speak to them, stories that will bring pleasure and life and thought and joy... that will, in other words, enrich their lives.

And I get to be a part of that! Through "Your Next Great Read," I get to talk directly to readers, and then search for the writers that I think they should get to know.

Essentially, I get to make new best friends. And that is a privilege I am greatly honored to have.