Readers Advisory Bibliography

Readers' Advisory
Learning Resources

B, G Abdullah, Ismail. 1993. Multicultural issues for readers' advisory services. Collection Building 12(3/4):85-88.
Includes the role of multicultural readers' advisors and the education of them.

A-D Auerbach, Barbara E. 1998. Young adult reader's advisory: recommending the right reads, Chapter 12 in Young Adults and public libraries. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
This chapter "introduces innovative and exciting ways for the young adult librarian to share an enthusiasm and love of books with middle and high school patrons."

E, H Baker, Sharon L. 1986. The display phenomenon: an exploration into factors causing the
increased circulation of displayed books. The Library Quarterly 56 (3):237-257.
This article explores why displays increase use, and what the implications are for
reader guidance.

E, G, H Baker, Sharon L. 1986. Overload, browsers, and selections. Library and Information
Science Research 8 (4): 315-329.
This paper suggests browsers can be easily overloaded by the large number of
possible choices in a library. Librarians can help browsers narrow their selection.
The author advocates strategies that will reach a large number of people such as book
lists and book displays.

E, H Baker, Sharon L. 1988. Will fiction classification schemes increase use? RQ 27(3):366-
376.
"This article attempts to determine if classifying fiction into genre areas can focus use
by browsers who are subject to the effects of information overload."

E, G Baker, Sharon L. 1992. Readers' advisory services: a call for more research. RQ 32 (2):
166-169.
Librarians need to pay more attention to documenting the effectiveness of readers'
advisory techniques and services.

E, F, G Baker, Sharon L. 1993. Laying a firm foundation: administrative support for readers'
advisory services. Collection Building 12 (3/4):13-18.
Training staff for readers' advisory services will provide a strong foundation for the
service.

E, H Baker, Sharon L. 1993. Booklists: what we know, what we need to know. RQ 33 (2):177-
180.
Librarians need to learn to write book list annotations that are both informative and
entertaining to help patrons make better and faster selection choices.

E, H Belcastro, Patricia. 1996. A matchmaking tool for readers. Wilson Library Bulletin 69
(10):34-37.
Describes developing a database of staff-read titles to aid in providing readers
advisory service.

A, B, C, D Bouricius, Ann. 2000. The romance readers' advisory: the librarian's guide to love in
the stacks. Chicago: American Library Association.
Aims to enlighten readers about the romance genre, increase understanding of the
varied romance categories to make recommendations and become a more successful
romance reader/advisor.

B, E Brownson, Ann E. 1993. Readers' advisory services for persons with disabilities.
Collection Building 12 (3/4):67-71.
A description of the types of readers' guidance a library can offer to both its disabled
and non-disabled patrons is presented.

B, D, E, G, H Chelton, Mary K. 1993. Read any good books lately? Helping patrons find what they
want. Library Journal 118 (May 1):33-37.
General overview of readers' advisory service, including the interview, writing
annotations, classification and categorization, book talks, reviews and discussion
programs and displays.

A, B, C, D Chelton, Mary K. 1999. What we know and don't know about reading, readers, and
readers advisory services. Public Libraries 38 (Jan/Feb):42-47.
"Historically, public libraries have had an ambiguous relationship with fiction. As a
result, public librarians have a rather poor understanding of readers and their uses of
and gratifications from reading. They fail to understand the reciprocal nature
between reader and text. Research on both reading and readers is summarized along
with suggestions about the implications of this research for public libraries."

B, D, H Douglass, Susan. 1999. What have you read, and why did you like it? The Unabashed
Librarian, No. 110: 28.
Report of a workshop where participants were challenged by Duncan Smith to change
their awareness of and action when it comes to Readers' Advisory work.

D, G, H Fialkoff, Francine. 1998. New twists on an old service. Library Journal 123 (October
15):58.
Library Journal's editor reports that the journal has begun clustering books together,
to provide more clues for readers' advisory. "All the surveys we've seen, conducted
by librarians as well as non-librarians, indicate that there is virtually no service library
users value more highly than the ability to match a book with a reader or to answer
the question, 'What do I read next.'"

B, D, E, F, G Frieband, Susan Jane. 1993. Developing readers' advisory service for library users whose
primary language is not English. Collection Building 12 (3/4):79-84.
Offers a perspective about some of the issues involved in readers' advisory service
for library users whose primary language is not English.

H Hood, Anna-Kathleen. 1996. Grace under pressure: public relations, readers' advisory
and fiction-friendly collections. Mississippi Libraries 60 (Winter):103-106.
Discusses prejudice against genre fiction and collection development, cataloging,
shelving, display, processing and creative advertising of genre fiction.

A, D, G, H Jones, Leigh-Ann. 1999. Recommended reading: reader guidance in a school library.
School Library Journal 45 (Sept):131.
Some very practical, do-able tips to reading more and learning about your collection.

B, C Lundin, Anne H. 1993. The company we keep: advisory service for youth. Collection
Building 12 (3/4):45-56.
"Readers' advisory services for youth can be best understood in terms of what
happens in the literary experience, what young adult literature is, who young adults
are, and how we as librarians best serve this important constituency."

A-H McCook, Kathleen-de-la-Pena. 1993. Considerations of theoretical basis for readers'
advisory services. Collection Building 12 (3/4):7-12.
Aims to help develop a broader understanding of the role of reading in adult levels
and to begin to provide a summary of these theoretical foundations for those who
practice readers' advisory services.

B McCook, Kathleen-de-la-Pena. 1993. Developing readers' advisory services: concepts
and commitments. Collection Building 12 (3/4):5-117.
This special issue includes articles on theoretical bases for readers' advisory services,
educating advisors, administrative support and services for special groups. Many of
the articles are listed separately in this Resources list.

E, G, H Oder, Norman. 1998. Tacoma PL links catalog to Amazon. Library Journal 123 (April
16):16.
Brief news item of apparently the first library to connect titles with an online
bookstore especially for its readers' services, to tell you what the book is about, what
other people think of it.

C, D Pearl, Nancy. 1994. I'd rather be reading. Alki 10 (December):23-24.
Outlines important keys to providing good reading guidance.

G, H Perrault, Anna H. 1993. The impact of humanities programming on readers' advisory
services. Collection Building 12 (3/4):85-88.
This article reviews the history of humanities public programming, explores the
nature of the readers' discussion groups, and examines the effectiveness and impact
of these programs."

D, H Readers' advisory notes from the PLA Kansas City conference. 1998. The Unabashed
Librarian 106:29.
Quick tips from a Public Library Association conference program.

B, D, G Reynolds, Tom K. 1998. Connecting with the young adult reader: a reader's advisory
strategy. Chapter 11 in Young adults and public libraries Westport,
Connecticut:Greenwood Press.
Claims that readers' advisory service for young adults is alive, if not completely well,
in our public libraries. Addresses reasons young adults ask for reading assistance, as
well as techniques for building your competency for working with YA readers.

D, E, F Rolstad, Gary O. 1993. Collection knowledge skills: training support staff for readers'
advisory. Collection Building 12 (3/4):31-35.
Describes a readers' advisory training workshop for support staff.

D, E, H Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. 1998. Communicating professionally: a how-to-do-it manual
for library applications, 2 nd ed. New York:Neal-Schuman
While the focus of this manual is not readers' advisory, it does have a brief section on
the readers' advisory interview. More importantly, all of the advice in this book can
be applied to readers' advisory work in all its phases. Whether you are focusing on
the readers' advisory transaction, presenting a booktalk to a community group or
writing for the local paper or leading discussion group - the material in this book will
be useful.

B, C, D Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. 1999. Finding without seeking in Exploring the Contexts of
Information Behavior: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Research
in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts. London and Los
Angeles:Taylor Graham:343-355.
This is an important study that talks about the results of Ross's work with Canadian
readers and why reading matters to them.

B, D Roy, Loriene. 1993. Recovering native identity: developing readers' advisory services for
non-reservation Native Americans. Collection Building 12 (3/4):73-77.
Presents guidelines to providing readers' advisory services for Native Americans
along with suggestions for improving service specifically applied to Native American
populations off the reservation areas.

A, D Sampley, Lisa. 1998. How to read a book in five minutes. Missouri Library World 3
(Fall):33-34.
Some tips for learning quickly about fiction and non-fiction titles.

D, G Saricks, Joyce G. 1997. Readers' advisory training - why and how. Booklist 94
(November 15):544-545.
Stresses the necessity of providing readers' advisory service and outlines technique
for training.

A-H Saricks, Joyce G; and Brown, Nancy. 1997. Readers' advisory service in the public
library. 2 nd Edition Chicago:American Library Association.
"The aim is to introduce the user to the materials, skills and philosophy of readers'
advisory service. Addresses all aspects of readers' advisory. Updated from the 1989
edition."

F, G, H Sasges, Judy. 1993. Read my genre: a reader's advisory workshop. Voice of Youth
Advocates 16 (June):79+
How to plan a readers' advisory workshop.

A-H Shearer, Kenneth D., ed. 1996. Guiding the reader to the next book. New York:Neal-
Schuman.
Covers the nature of the readers' advisory transaction as well as the environment of
readers advisory service. Each chapter in this book covers an important area of
readers' advisory service.

D Shearer, Kenneth D. 1998. Readers' advisory services: new attention to a core business of
the public library. North Carolina Libraries 56 (Fall):114-116.
Addresses the importance of reader's advisory services in public libraries and
compares reference and reader's advisory.

B, D Smith, Duncan F. 1996. Librarians' abilities to recognize reading tastes. Chapter 5 in
Guiding the reader to the next book. New York:Neal-Schuman,
"In order to increase our understanding of the readers' advisory transaction, the
author asked two other librarians to join him in analyzing a reader's interests,
suggesting titles that might be of interest to this reader, explaining why these titles
might be of interest, and identifying how they learned about these titles."

A, B Smith, Duncan F. 1998. Valuing fiction. Booklist 94 (Mar 1):1094-1095.
The author's analysis of how readers experience fiction, based on his years of study
and working with fiction readers.

G Towey, Cathleen A. 1997. We need to recommit to readers' advisory services. American
Libraries. 28 (December):31.
Stresses the grassroots interest in re-committing to the importance of readers'
advisory service, especially for the adult.

G, H Zauha, Janelle M. 1993. Recreational reading in academic browsing rooms: resources for
readers' advisory. Collection Building 12 (3/4):57-62.
"There must be some reiteration of the original conception of the browsing room as a
low-cost, high-benefit means of readers' guidance."

Key to Competencies:

A. Background in Fiction and Non-Fiction
B. Understanding People as Readers and Readers as People
C. Appeal of Books
D. The Readers’ Advisory Transaction
E. Managing
F. Teaching
G. Professional Knowledge and Attitudes
H. General

This page was created on December 19, 2002.

B, G	Abdullah, Ismail. 1993. Multicultural issues for readers' advisory services. Collection Building 12(3/4):85-88. Includes the role of multicultural readers' advisors and the education of them.
A-D	Auerbach, Barbara E. 1998. Young adult reader's advisory: recommending the right reads, Chapter 12 in Young Adults and public libraries. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. This chapter "introduces innovative and exciting ways for the young adult librarian to share an enthusiasm and love of books with middle and high school patrons."
E, H	Baker, Sharon L. 1986. The display phenomenon: an exploration into factors causing the increased circulation of displayed books. The Library Quarterly 56 (3):237-257. This article explores why displays increase use, and what the implications are for reader guidance.
E, G, H	Baker, Sharon L. 1986. Overload, browsers, and selections. Library and Information Science Research 8 (4): 315-329. This paper suggests browsers can be easily overloaded by the large number of possible choices in a library. Librarians can help browsers narrow their selection. The author advocates strategies that will reach a large number of people such as book lists and book displays.
E, H	Baker, Sharon L. 1988. Will fiction classification schemes increase use? RQ 27(3):366- 376. "This article attempts to determine if classifying fiction into genre areas can focus use by browsers who are subject to the effects of information overload."
E, G	Baker, Sharon L. 1992. Readers' advisory services: a call for more research. RQ 32 (2): 166-169. Librarians need to pay more attention to documenting the effectiveness of readers' advisory techniques and services.
E, F, G	Baker, Sharon L. 1993. Laying a firm foundation: administrative support for readers' advisory services. Collection Building 12 (3/4):13-18. Training staff for readers' advisory services will provide a strong foundation for the service.
E, H	Baker, Sharon L. 1993. Booklists: what we know, what we need to know. RQ 33 (2):177- 180. Librarians need to learn to write book list annotations that are both informative and entertaining to help patrons make better and faster selection choices.
E, H	Belcastro, Patricia. 1996. A matchmaking tool for readers. Wilson Library Bulletin 69 (10):34-37. Describes developing a database of staff-read titles to aid in providing readers advisory service.
A, B, C, D	Bouricius, Ann. 2000. The romance readers' advisory: the librarian's guide to love in the stacks. Chicago: American Library Association. Aims to enlighten readers about the romance genre, increase understanding of the varied romance categories to make recommendations and become a more successful romance reader/advisor.
B, E	Brownson, Ann E. 1993. Readers' advisory services for persons with disabilities. Collection Building 12 (3/4):67-71. A description of the types of readers' guidance a library can offer to both its disabled and non-disabled patrons is presented.
B, D, E, G, H	Chelton, Mary K. 1993. Read any good books lately? Helping patrons find what they want. Library Journal 118 (May 1):33-37. General overview of readers' advisory service, including the interview, writing annotations, classification and categorization, book talks, reviews and discussion programs and displays.
A, B, C, D	Chelton, Mary K. 1999. What we know and don't know about reading, readers, and readers advisory services. Public Libraries 38 (Jan/Feb):42-47. "Historically, public libraries have had an ambiguous relationship with fiction. As a result, public librarians have a rather poor understanding of readers and their uses of and gratifications from reading. They fail to understand the reciprocal nature between reader and text. Research on both reading and readers is summarized along with suggestions about the implications of this research for public libraries."
B, D, H	Douglass, Susan. 1999. What have you read, and why did you like it? The Unabashed Librarian, No. 110: 28. Report of a workshop where participants were challenged by Duncan Smith to change their awareness of and action when it comes to Readers' Advisory work.
D, G, H	Fialkoff, Francine. 1998. New twists on an old service. Library Journal 123 (October 15):58. Library Journal's editor reports that the journal has begun clustering books together, to provide more clues for readers' advisory. "All the surveys we've seen, conducted by librarians as well as non-librarians, indicate that there is virtually no service library users value more highly than the ability to match a book with a reader or to answer the question, 'What do I read next.'"
B, D, E, F, G	Frieband, Susan Jane. 1993. Developing readers' advisory service for library users whose primary language is not English. Collection Building 12 (3/4):79-84. Offers a perspective about some of the issues involved in readers' advisory service for library users whose primary language is not English.
H	Hood, Anna-Kathleen. 1996. Grace under pressure: public relations, readers' advisory and fiction-friendly collections. Mississippi Libraries 60 (Winter):103-106. Discusses prejudice against genre fiction and collection development, cataloging, shelving, display, processing and creative advertising of genre fiction.
A, D, G, H	Jones, Leigh-Ann. 1999. Recommended reading: reader guidance in a school library. School Library Journal 45 (Sept):131. Some very practical, do-able tips to reading more and learning about your collection.
B, C	Lundin, Anne H. 1993. The company we keep: advisory service for youth. Collection Building 12 (3/4):45-56. "Readers' advisory services for youth can be best understood in terms of what happens in the literary experience, what young adult literature is, who young adults are, and how we as librarians best serve this important constituency."
A-H	McCook, Kathleen-de-la-Pena. 1993. Considerations of theoretical basis for readers' advisory services. Collection Building 12 (3/4):7-12. Aims to help develop a broader understanding of the role of reading in adult levels and to begin to provide a summary of these theoretical foundations for those who practice readers' advisory services.
B	McCook, Kathleen-de-la-Pena. 1993. Developing readers' advisory services: concepts and commitments. Collection Building 12 (3/4):5-117. This special issue includes articles on theoretical bases for readers' advisory services, educating advisors, administrative support and services for special groups. Many of the articles are listed separately in this Resources list.
E, G, H	Oder, Norman. 1998. Tacoma PL links catalog to Amazon. Library Journal 123 (April 16):16. Brief news item of apparently the first library to connect titles with an online bookstore especially for its readers' services, to tell you what the book is about, what other people think of it.
C, D	Pearl, Nancy. 1994. I'd rather be reading. Alki 10 (December):23-24. Outlines important keys to providing good reading guidance.
G, H	Perrault, Anna H. 1993. The impact of humanities programming on readers' advisory services. Collection Building 12 (3/4):85-88. This article reviews the history of humanities public programming, explores the nature of the readers' discussion groups, and examines the effectiveness and impact of these programs."
D, H	Readers' advisory notes from the PLA Kansas City conference. 1998. The Unabashed Librarian 106:29. Quick tips from a Public Library Association conference program.
B, D, G	Reynolds, Tom K. 1998. Connecting with the young adult reader: a reader's advisory strategy. Chapter 11 in Young adults and public libraries Westport, Connecticut:Greenwood Press. Claims that readers' advisory service for young adults is alive, if not completely well, in our public libraries. Addresses reasons young adults ask for reading assistance, as well as techniques for building your competency for working with YA readers.
D, E, F	Rolstad, Gary O. 1993. Collection knowledge skills: training support staff for readers' advisory. Collection Building 12 (3/4):31-35. Describes a readers' advisory training workshop for support staff.
D, E, H	Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. 1998. Communicating professionally: a how-to-do-it manual for library applications, 2 nd ed. New York:Neal-Schuman While the focus of this manual is not readers' advisory, it does have a brief section on the readers' advisory interview. More importantly, all of the advice in this book can be applied to readers' advisory work in all its phases. Whether you are focusing on the readers' advisory transaction, presenting a booktalk to a community group or writing for the local paper or leading discussion group - the material in this book will be useful.
B, C, D	Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. 1999. Finding without seeking in Exploring the Contexts of Information Behavior: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Research in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts. London and Los Angeles:Taylor Graham:343-355. This is an important study that talks about the results of Ross's work with Canadian readers and why reading matters to them.
B, D	Roy, Loriene. 1993. Recovering native identity: developing readers' advisory services for non-reservation Native Americans. Collection Building 12 (3/4):73-77. Presents guidelines to providing readers' advisory services for Native Americans along with suggestions for improving service specifically applied to Native American populations off the reservation areas.
A, D	Sampley, Lisa. 1998. How to read a book in five minutes. Missouri Library World 3 (Fall):33-34. Some tips for learning quickly about fiction and non-fiction titles.
D, G	Saricks, Joyce G. 1997. Readers' advisory training - why and how. Booklist 94 (November 15):544-545. Stresses the necessity of providing readers' advisory service and outlines technique for training.
A-H	Saricks, Joyce G; and Brown, Nancy. 1997. Readers' advisory service in the public library. 2 nd Edition Chicago:American Library Association. "The aim is to introduce the user to the materials, skills and philosophy of readers' advisory service. Addresses all aspects of readers' advisory. Updated from the 1989 edition."
F, G, H	Sasges, Judy. 1993. Read my genre: a reader's advisory workshop. Voice of Youth Advocates 16 (June):79+ How to plan a readers' advisory workshop.
A-H	Shearer, Kenneth D., ed. 1996. Guiding the reader to the next book. New York:Neal- Schuman. Covers the nature of the readers' advisory transaction as well as the environment of readers advisory service. Each chapter in this book covers an important area of readers' advisory service.
D	Shearer, Kenneth D. 1998. Readers' advisory services: new attention to a core business of the public library. North Carolina Libraries 56 (Fall):114-116. Addresses the importance of reader's advisory services in public libraries and compares reference and reader's advisory.
B, D	Smith, Duncan F. 1996. Librarians' abilities to recognize reading tastes. Chapter 5 in Guiding the reader to the next book. New York:Neal-Schuman, "In order to increase our understanding of the readers' advisory transaction, the author asked two other librarians to join him in analyzing a reader's interests, suggesting titles that might be of interest to this reader, explaining why these titles might be of interest, and identifying how they learned about these titles."
A, B	Smith, Duncan F. 1998. Valuing fiction. Booklist 94 (Mar 1):1094-1095. The author's analysis of how readers experience fiction, based on his years of study and working with fiction readers.
G	Towey, Cathleen A. 1997. We need to recommit to readers' advisory services. American Libraries. 28 (December):31. Stresses the grassroots interest in re-committing to the importance of readers' advisory service, especially for the adult.
G, H	Zauha, Janelle M. 1993. Recreational reading in academic browsing rooms: resources for readers' advisory. Collection Building 12 (3/4):57-62. "There must be some reiteration of the original conception of the browsing room as a low-cost, high-benefit means of readers' guidance."