This week’s reference question is one of my own. I use Bloglines to read rss feeds, and a couple weeks ago they changed their interface.
I didn’t like the changes, so I used their Contact Form to express this and ask if there was an option to change it back. This was two weeks ago, and I still haven’t gotten a reply.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps Bloglines used Twitter, and maybe I could ask them that way. I found an @bloglines user, but even though he’s using the Bloglines logo, he indicates it’s not an official Bloglines account.
I asked him my question anyway (noticing he was fielding the exact same question a lot lately), and got a reply in 5 hours. And best of all, his suggestion worked perfectly, and now I’m back to using Bloglines happily, the way that suits me best.
But this experience got me thinking. It’s easy for organizations to let email messages slide, because only that one person knows they sent it in. But Twitter is public, and if someone is questioning or complaining, ignoring it won’t make it go away.
Unofficial or not, @bloglines did exactly what I would have expected an organization to do - respond quickly and helpfully.
This is what librarians do, and it reminded me of Kate’s post about their library suggestion box. I like that she’s publicly displaying suggestions and answers, because in this case, one-to-many communication seems better than one-to-one.
So I thought, why not encourage patrons to use Twitter as a suggestion box? Being public, the library has to address patrons’ concerns, but it also means all patrons can benefit from the answer, rather than just one.
I know a public forum isn’t appropriate for every issue, and anonymity can be necessary, so I think traditional suggestion boxes (whether physical or online form) are still useful. But I bet there are some libraries already doing this very thing. I know I came late to Twitter, but it really is turning out to be a very useful tool after all.
Bookseer is like many “what should I read next” websites, except it is impressively simple. Just type a title and author into their fun interface, and it gives reading suggestions based on Amazon.com and Librarything.com data.
Of course, the suggestions will only be as good as the data. But I like that it’s building on something already available, and automatically updated, rather than relying on manual edits. And it’s simple, free, creative, and doesn’t require an account.
Here are a couple reading suggestions website I came across recently that I liked:
The first is TheBookCalendar.com, which is simply a book-a-day online calendar. It shows the cover, a description (and sometimes author video), includes an Amazon link, and also has email and rss options. via lisnews.org
The second one might not be all that new, but I just learn about it a few weeks ago. ReadingTrails.com and provides a reading suggestions by linking related books into a chain.
Sound odd? I first heard of this form of readers advisory during an RA workshop in the SLIS program at Kent State University. The idea behind it is to identify one theme from the book that the reader likes, then find another book that contains the same theme. Next, pick something from that second book the reader likes and, based on that second criteria, link it to a third book that has that criteria, and on and on and on in a long chain of connected books.
An example: for someone who liked the magical aspect of the Narnia books, you might suggest they read Harry Potter. Then, since the Harry Potter series is based in England, you could link it to Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.
Sort of like a six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but for books. It’s a neat idea, but tough to do mentally - which is why it’s a perfect task for a database. Or, in this case, “an innovative new social network for book lovers.” They say:
Reading Trails is a wonderful way to discover books to read, meet new people, and most importantly, to share your reading experiences with friends by creating trails. In particular, Reading Trails is a great tool for book clubs….
Because a book can appear on more than one trail, trails intersect. The result is a network of trails that can be browsed to find unexpected reading pleasures.
I checked out the site, and it seemed typical of new and innovative ideas - it’s a great idea, and I got some useful information from it, but the site doesn’t always work the way I expect.
It can be used without signing into an account, which is good. And you can search for books or themes, and from there scroll up and down the “reading trail” of that book to find other reading suggestions. Great.
Other good things:
Fairly easy to use, and the trails are visual and useful and pretty cool
Lets people write reviews of the books
Provides links to Amazon to buy the book and WorldCat to find the book at a library
Provides widget code to embed into your website, like this:
A few technical glitches I noticed:
On the search results page, each book had a little checkbox next to it, and I couldn’t figure out what that was for
Each book also had an odd little box under it, which only becomes useful when you are logged in (if it’s not useful, it shouldn’t be shown)
For the searches I ran, the bottom of the screen would say something like “Viewing 1-7 of 7 matches” and yet there would be twelve books displayed. None of the searches I performed displayed a number of books that matched what was listed on the bottom of the page
Some of the trail themes I searched for did not exist (Vietnam, Iraq, poverty, aliens) but most others did
There doesn’t seem to be a way to view details of any book - just see where it falls in various trails
They don’t seem to explain why books are linked in a chain - I’d be curious to see what theme connects them
Most of these cons are probably due to the newness of the website, and will likely be improved as the site grows.
I don’t think I’ll use these much on a personal level (unlike LibraryThing), but I will keep both in mind for readers advisory at the reference desk.
Liz’s comment on the post was a good one, and I thought it warranted a bit of research and a full post devoted to answering it. She said:
There are a few websites which allow you to enter some of your favorite bands and it pops out suggestions of similar bands you might like - wouldn’t it be awesome if they had a site like that for books?…
Here are some resources I found that let you search for a book/author you like, and then link from it to similar books:
reader2.com - search for a book to see recommendations; also shows tags associated with each book
AllReaders.com - search for a title or author, and similar books are listed at the end of each book description; also allows searching by plot, setting, or character
StoryCode.com - lets you search for a title or author and suggests similar stories (based on user data); also has other features
LibraryThing.com - offers book suggestions based on user-entered tags; you can also browse tags for books on a certain subject, or use their unsuggester to find books unlike a particular book
GoodReads.com - seems a lot like LibraryThing, but puts more emphasis on recommendations of people in your friends network rather than cumulative data
NoveList - the old standby, but you probably need to go through your local library for it
Amazon.com - it is Amazon, so it’s primary focus is to sell book, not recommend them, but it does offer suggestions based on what people purchase and search by topic (as it were)
There are lots of other sites devoted to book suggestions. A few others I found that didn’t fit above but that are also useful are:
Listal.com Books - search (hidden in upper right corner) for books and link to others via tags (seems to focus more on social connections)
FictionFinder from OCLC - offers Subject cloud (like tag cloud) to find similar books; also allows searching, and each book has links to see other books with the same subjects, genres, characters or setting
Find a Good Book from Hennepin County Library - search for an author to find recommended reading lists where that author’s books appear (plus links to other listings and resources)
Staff Recommendations from the Skokie Public Library - search for a subject to find books their staff has reviewed and recommends
And here’s a few resources that are list-based - you click the subject you like, and you browse the list of books in that subject:
If You Like… by the Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand - read-a-likes lists by book, author, or subject
Oprah Read-A-Likes by the Wakefield Library - lists Oprah’s Picks books, and books similar to them
What do I read Next? by the Manchester Library - click on the topic or genre to see a list of books
Themed Booklists by Overbooked.com - has a short listing of books and authors with links to similar books, but also has many other resources in their booklists and readers advisory sections
StopYoureKillingMe.com - just mystery books, browse by author or category to find similar books
GenreFluent.com - lists of books by subject or genre (use links on the left)
I’m sure there are tons of others - even my library also has a readers advisory webpage. If I missed one of your favorites, please share it with a comment below.
Readers Advisory has been quite the topic for melately, and the fun continues.
There’s a current thread on ME-LIBS about what libraries do to connect books with readers, and I thought I’d pull together some of the examples provided (please excuse any editorializing on my part - I was trying to just pull out the highlights, so any mistakes below are mine):
We have a “Rockport Readers Recommend” display that is ongoing and we encourage patrons to recommend titles…[and] write a comment in the notebook. We also post this list on our website including patron comments
We also have “BookLovers Cafe”…an informal gathering on Saturdays once a month when patrons can just come in and talk about what they’re reading. [Staff] compiles the list of recommended books and we also provide the list at the book display
[Staff] created a handy series book that is right at the Circ desk. Patrons like this because they don’t have to look it up in the OPAC or somewhere else to find the next title in a series (popular adult fiction)
We have various themed displays that change regularly. Patrons love the different displays
In our monthly newsletter…staff members will contribute “good reads” suggestions. I’ve seen patrons bring in the list of recommended reading and look for the books
We have done “if you like” lists on occasion as bookmarks
Ongoing display of new children’s books and Maine Student Book award books
I use NoveList almost on a daily basis and offer to print article from that for patrons
A series “notebook” which we used to have in hard copy but now have at our website
A set of shelves just for what I call “Foss Favorites” in the school library which kids can browse as they know I’ve read each title and recommend it
A variety of reading lists on our website so that if a student wants another book, for example, with animal main characters, they can browse these and print out the lists that interest them most by clicking on Foss Favorites on that page
We also use Novelist all the time
This fall we plan to start encouraging our students to podcast their own book reviews so that other kids can hear them
Our patrons love eye-catching displays, especially if they are in a bit of a hurry to grab a couple of books for their vacation time (the popularity of a display is easily judged by the amount of time you spend in re-stocking those titles)
Some successful display ideas from our library include:
“Most checked-out book lists” from Library Journal to showcase the popular fiction and non-fiction titles
A display of “what we read last summer” (the NY Times Best-sellers from the summer of 2006)
A “Read, White, and Blue” display of -guess what- books with red, white and blue covers
A “Get a Life” display for biographies
Read-alike display (right now it’s Jodi Picoult)
Other Popular Author display (at the moment, it’s Clive Cussler)
We also have created read-alike bookmarks as well as a list of what our Book Group has been reading/discussing
There are also displays in our Teen Area for new titles and other popular subjects (pirates, for example)
Novelist is a valuable tool along with all those other lists found on public library websites. It is fun to hear what other libraries are doing for Reader’s Advisory and it helps to browse websites and visit bookstores to get ideas
I don’t know why, but it was kind of funny to see that everyone mentioned NoveList (I use it myself, and patrons seem to enjoy NoveList after I demonstrate it). I also liked that these libraries dedicate displays to younger readers; I know that depends on staff and space availability, but it’s a group that shouldn’t be ignored.
In my library, we rely heavily on displays, read-alike bookmarks, informal staff suggestions, and our Readers Corner webpage. We also use NoveList quite a bit, as well as BookLetters. My concern is trying to present all of these suggestion sources in a coherent and useful way.
This week’s reference question is one of my own. I use Bloglines to read rss feeds, and a couple weeks ago they changed their interface.
