Reader's Advisory Resources

July 24, 2009 11:06 AM

[LibraryFilter] What are your best resources for (fiction) reader's advisory (children, YA, adult)??

Right now I need the most help for the YA (teens and preteens) reader's advisory. My scope of knowledge doesn't seem to extend far enough, and (who knew) teens are a little shy. I'm new on the (public library) ref desk, and in general feel I need better tools for getting beyond Twilight ('cause surprise-surprise, all the copies are out).

My library has NoveList. If I can get an author, I sometimes use Fantastic Fiction's links. There is Amazon, but c'mon...it's pretty lame.

posted by tamarack to Work & Money (7 answers total)

I like doing a web search for the phrase "If you liked", followed by the name of a particular book, to get the lists of recommendations that are published by many different libraries. I've found a lot of good authors for my kids or myself this way.
posted by Ery at 12:20 PM on July 24, 2009

Along the same lines as Ery's suggestion, if you google "[popular book] readalikes" you'll get a ton of lists generated by other librarians. I fall back on this more than I'd like to admit (since we don't have NoveList at our library...).
posted by Knicke at 12:34 PM on July 24, 2009

Not a librarian (yet) but I’m in library school and just finished a reader’s advisory class. These are not exhaustive, of course, but they're a good jumping-off point.

Basic reader’s advisory:
Reader's Advisor Online Blog
Fiction-L

Young adult specific:
Young Adult Library Services Association
Young Adult Librarians Homepage
Teen Angst
Genrefluent
Reading Rants
Teenreads

Oh, and this or this should help for the Twilight fiends.
posted by anderjen at 12:56 PM on July 24, 2009

I'm not sure how helpful this will be in the long term, but for this year there's this: Recommended Reading List for Summer 2009.
posted by shesbookish at 8:44 PM on July 24, 2009

Thanks for the suggestions everyone (and for the list of links @anderjen).

I think I might also give a try to taking an actual book! with me to work -- something like Nancy Pearl's Book Crush. Sometimes NoveList is great, but sometimes it is lacking in the if-you-like-this-author type links, and sometimes the subject links just don't cut it. I do really like NoveList, I'm just saying it's not exhaustive.
posted by tamarack at 12:35 PM on July 25, 2009

I'm also going to stay on the lookout for more podcasts like this one from the BBC. I have more time to listen to people talk about books than I have time to read about books. ...I think it's a healthy kind of cheating ;)
If anyone glances back here and can recommend other book-related podcasts, please post 'em!
posted by tamarack at 8:17 AM on July 27, 2009

Oh, for books, I highly recommend The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction by Joyce Saricks. It's been newly updated for 2009 and I've found it to be a great "crash course" in genres where you have absolutely no familiarity.
posted by anderjen at 9:46 PM on July 28, 2009