{"id":4617,"date":"2017-09-07T11:50:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T18:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bclaconnectrev.wpengine.com\/perspectives\/?p=4617"},"modified":"2025-01-22T11:26:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T19:26:22","slug":"raa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-httpsbclaconnectca-staging.kinsta.cloud\/perspectives\/2017\/09\/07\/raa\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen, be curious, and be patient: Advice for Readers\u2019 Advisory"},"content":{"rendered":"

How often do you see friends’ \u202fplaintive calls for book recommendations on \u202fFacebook? The responses are usually numerous but completely scattershot, unfocused on the particular reader and what they are wanting at the moment. Do people know that they can come to libraries to better answer these questions?<\/p>\n

Many of us know the term reade<\/i>rs<\/i>‘<\/i> advisory<\/i> \u2013 we may even comfortably refer to it as RA. But how much are we being formally educated about it? These days, it seems, the answer is, \u201cNot much.\u201d However, there\u2019s lots to know, and, luckily, many ways to learn. Because, we need to make sure our RA work actually does<\/i>\u202f\u00a0<\/i>provide \u202fbetter value than a \u202fFacebook post with 25 crowdsourced \u202fresponses.<\/p>\n

RA in the classroom<\/b><\/p>\n

In my recent MLIS experience, \u202fformal RA education was scanty. There were no courses available that dealt with RA for adults, at least not in my department; there had once been a course, but it hadn’t been offered in several years. When we briefly studied the reference interview in a class on information behaviour, I think the implication was \u202fthat this kind of process could be roughly\u202fapplied to RA.<\/p>\n

It came up in some youth-oriented courses, although even there I found it wasn\u2019t explored in much depth. We learned how to do things that would help introduce readers to new books, but not much on the process of finding what books might be right for what readers, or why \u202fthis matters as a service. \u202fWe didn’t seem to talk much about what reading is (particularly amongst adults, for pleasure), what affects \u202fit \u202for \u202fwhy it matters.<\/p>\n

Of course, <\/i>I can only speak from my <\/i>experience<\/i>s and the<\/i> courses <\/i>I took<\/i>. And this is not meant <\/i>to disparage the <\/i>program<\/i> or faculty<\/i> at UBC<\/i>, either. <\/i>They were very open to \u202fmy questions \u202fabout RA and permitted me to do an independent study on the topic, which was highly rewarding. As I learned through that independent study, RA has gone through a series of ups and downs throughout the history of the library profession. I definitely sense that RA is underemphasized right now, particularly after the \u202fiSchool movement and the shift towards “information” as the focus of\u202fthe LIS degree; reading, particularly pleasure reading, doesn’t fit that paradigm and therefore sits uneasily in MLIS curricula.<\/p>\n

RA outside the classroom\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

As a library practitioner, both before and after my degree, I have seen \u202fmost RA education \u202fhappening through informal means: library workers \u202ftalk \u202fto each other, take \u202fwebinars and self-guided courses, join \u202fprofessional interest groups, follow \u202fsocial media accounts and read professional literature. It all takes time, \u202fdedication, \u202fand often your own money \u202fto keep learning. Here some ways continuing RA education is happening now.<\/p>\n