Saturday, July 24, 2010

How to Help Users Find a Good Book

How do you help users find a good book? To be honest, I hadn't really given this alot of thought before. I suppose that I assumed that books were recommended the same way I recommend books, meaning, that someone had read them before recommending them. It seems like a pretty obvious concept- read a book, love it, recommend it. I was amazed by all the different ways that librarians go about getting information about books and what went into the process. For me I think I would have trouble recommending a book I haven't read, but in the same vein, if a source I respected and trusted recommended the book, I think I'd be okay with passing the recommendation along.

I also liked thinking about how the set up of displays plays into it. I'm one of those patrons that can browse forever, be carrying stacks of books to the counter, and still pick up one more book if it's waiting for me on a display.

Once again- I've leaned how much I don't know about this field I've decided to go into!

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Haycock, K. & Sheldon, B. E. (Eds.). (2008). The Portable MLIS: Insights from the Experts. (locations 2476- 2608 ). Westport, CT. Libraries Unlimited

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