Apr-May: Readers' Advisory 101 (RUSA)

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

Feb: Readers' Advisory: How Do You Measure Up? (Library Journal)

February 4, 2014, 2pm ET

The results are in! Be among the first to hear what we learned about readers’ advisory service in public libraries during a recent survey. Is RA here to stay, or is its value declining? Does every library in the country (other than yours) have a fully staffed readers’ advisory department? What digital strategies are libraries using to suggest books to readers? What book-oriented programs do libraries offer?

Join us for an engaging discussion where we’ll discuss the answers to these questions. Panel members will share their reactions to the survey results and provide insights about what it all means for the readers in your community. Whether you believe that bringing books and readers together is at the heart of what libraries do, or whether you wonder just how important this work really is -- you will not want to miss this program.

https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=734930&sessionid=1&key=C02CA6543CC0BA91AC31BFCE24C7351A&partnerref=ljemailEBSCO20140204&sourcepage=register

Oct: Serving Readers: Beyond the Basics (WebJunction)

October 8 (11am-12pm PST)

As libraries evolve and adapt to changing circumstances, it is crucial to our continued community relevance that we retain and serve our core constituency of readers. Reader's advisory specialists from The Seattle Public Library will expand on the basic premises and practices of reader’s advisory, sharing how to apply these practices across new platforms and technologies, enlist social media and catalogs to serve readers, and use form-based and virtual reader's advisory. Learn expert techniques for using the latest generation of advisory resources and other ways to better serve readers in libraries large and small.

For more information and to register for this program, visit: http://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction.html 

June: Readers’ Advisory for Children, Tweens, and Teens

An Infopeople online course, June 4 to July 1, 2013

How confident do you feel about your ability to recommend books to the children, tweens, and teens who use your library? If you want to be able to help parents and teachers find read-alouds, guide beginning readers to books they will enjoy, and provide tweens and teens with reading suggestions, this is the course for you. You'll learn about:

• Effective readers' advisory interview questions
• Trends in books for young people
• Popular nonfiction that fits the new Common Core Curriculum standards
• Free online tools to keep track of books you have read
• Reading apps, e-books for youth, and other online reading
• Booktalking and other techniques that "sell" books to young readers

Instructor: Penny Peck

Fee: $75 for those in the California library community and Infopeople Partners, $150 for all others.

For a complete course description and to register, go to http://www.infopeople.org/training/readers-advisory-children-tweens-and-teens.