March 31 - May 18, 2014
Weekly Live Chats 3 p.m., Chicago/Central Time on Thursdays (1-2 hours)
Other upcoming sessions: Oct. 13 - Nov. 30, 2014
Course Objectives and Description
Learn how to become more comfortable providing readers' advisory (RA) services. Through practice sessions, learn how to use RA tools, craft annotations, read in genres, articulate appeal, and experiment with methods to offer RA services. Readers' Advisory 101 is tailored for support staff, library technicians, newly hired reference librarians, and those librarians who want to brush up on their skills. The topics covered are introductory in nature. Class segments are geared to cover issues of interest to staff in all types of libraries.
Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library by Joyce Saricks will be the course textbook. This well-regarded textbook is published by the American Library Association and available for sale online.
At the start of the class, students will be asked questions about one genre book from the list below (they are welcome to read more than one). It goes without saying that if you register, proceed to read the book well before the class begins! The four books will be used as examples during the class to illustrate many of the subjects and be used in the book discussion session.
Romance - The Viscount who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
Mystery - Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron
Speculative Fiction - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Action/Thriller/Suspense - Ice Station by Matt Reilly
This course includes practice chat sessions conducted online. The chats will take place at 3 p.m., Chicago/Central Time on Thursdays, and will last 1-2 hours. Those students who miss a chat may comment on the chat transcript. Students will have the best learning experience if they attend all of these chat sessions.
Course Outline
Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: Basic Elements of Appeal
Module 3: Basic RA Tools
Module 4: Annotations
Module 5: The RA Conversation
Module 6: Marketing RA and Book Discussions
Module 7: Conclusion
Registration Fees:
$130 for RUSA members
$175 for ALA members
$210 for non-ALA members
$100 for student members and retired members
http://www.ala.org/rusa/development/readersadvisory101
