Secretly Shopping for a Good Book

I visited a large library to which I’d never been before with the intention of getting recommendations for a good mystery/thriller.  I didn’t see any signs for readers’ advisory, but this library does have several fiction and nonfiction book lists.  The library building has three floors, so I grabbed a map before I went exploring.  There is a Popular Materials section on the first floor with new materials and Fiction, and Reference is on a different floor.  I figured going to the Popular Materials desk would be my best bet, and I was right.  There were two people at the desk at the time I was there, and they were both friendly and welcoming.  As I approached the desk, one of them, named Beth, smiled and asked how she could help me.  Following is a rough transcript of the beginning of our interaction:

Me: Hi!  I was just wondering if you could recommend a good book.

Beth: Certainly.  What kinds of books are you looking for?

Me: I’m thinking I want to find a good mystery or thriller.

Beth: Can you tell me a book you’ve read recently and liked?

Me: I really liked Gone Girl.  I read Sharp Objects, but I didn’t really like it at all.

Beth: Okay, let me find some read-alikes for Gone Girl.

She then looked on Novelist for read-alikes and showed me a list of titles.  She clicked on a few and read short plot descriptions, and she asked if any sounded interesting.  I said that a few looked promising; then I asked if maybe she could find me a mystery/thriller that was a little slower paced then Gone Girl.  She then explained that thrillers tend to be faster paced and mysteries are slower, so she would look up some popular mystery titles, since the Gone Girl read-alikes were thrillers.  She then looked up Edgar Award nominees for 2015, explaining what the Edgar Awards are, and showed me the webpage.  She wrote down the web address and then grabbed the library’s book list for mysteries for me as well.  She gave me short plot descriptions for a few of the titles that I thought sounded interesting and asked if I needed help finding any of them on the shelves.  (Since I don’t have a library card at this library, I said I’d take the information home to look at the rest of the titles and maybe check one out later.)  She asked if I needed help with anything else, I said I was good, and then we concluded the interaction.

I was sort of pleased, sort of displeased with this experience.  Beth did seem to feel that the transaction was worthwhile because she spent time finding multiple lists of title for me and describing ones she thought I might enjoy, rather than just handing me the library’s mystery book list and leaving it at that.  She seemed genuinely interested in helping me find a good book to read.  The only downside to the interview was that she didn’t mention appeal factors or “follow up by asking if [I was] in the mood for something similar or perhaps something different” (Chelton, 2003).  I prompted the librarian for slower paced books because it seemed that she wasn’t going to ask about my appeal factor preferences, and even after I brought up pacing, she still didn’t ask about any other appeal factor preferences.  There were specific reasons that I liked Gone Girl but hated Sharp Objects, even though they’re by the same author.  I thought the librarian might ask me what those reasons were—that my mentioning that would be an easy segue for her to bring up appeal factors—but it didn’t happen, unfortunately.

Beth did have good customer service skills, knowledge of RA tools, and familiarity with the library’s collection, which helped make the experience positive.  As I said, she gave me multiple lists of titles to pore over, which is great because I like having lots of options.  Honestly, I’ll read pretty much anything in the mystery/thriller genres, so I wasn’t personally very put off by the fact that she gave me a bunch of different recommendations without focusing on appeal factors.  However, I think that this wouldn’t be so helpful for other patrons who are pickier about what they read.  Beth seems to have had at least some RA training, but RA interviews with her patrons would probably be more productive if she asked for appeal preferences.

Reference

Chelton, M. K. (2003, November 1). Readers’ advisory 101. Library Journal. Retrieved from

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2003/11/ljarchives/readers-advisory-101/