At the Water's Edge By Sara Gruen

Synopsis: Maddie and her husband Ellis are well adjusted to high society in Northeast America with a backdrop of World War II. But, their unsavory behavior in the presence of influential class members create a rift between Ellis and his family. With discord in the family, Maddie and Ellis must deal with the embarrassment of being cast off from the family, and the family fortune. Ellis devises a scheme for redemption by doing what his father failed to do, find the Lochness monster. During their stay in Scotland Maddie finds herself alone with nothing but her thoughts. As she finds herself exposed to the working class of the inn she begins to reassess her values, herself, and her love for Ellis.

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Genre Characteristics: Historical Fiction

• Historical settings
• Suspenseful 
• Believable plot
• Casual unfolding of storyline

Appeal:

• Lochness Monster
• High Class Society
• Scotland
• Romance

Read-A-Likes:

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Synopsis: Yelena is found in the dungeons awaiting to be hanged for murder. Then assassin and right hand man to the commander of Ixia, Valek, offers Yelena a second chance. Valek offers Yelena the chance to avoid execution and become the commander’s food taster. Yelena has to reconcile with her past crimes while juggling the ever impending threat of finding poison in the commander’s food. As Yelena learns her role she develops a passionate relationship with Valek and finds trustworthy friends among the commander’s ranks. Her past and present collide as the father of the person Yelena murdered becomes a threat and Yelena discovers she may be more than just an orphan food taster.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/3462638-poison-study

Genre Characteristics: Fantasy

• Fantasy World
• Magic
• Suspense
• Character Driven
• Good vs. Evil
• Part of a series

Appeal:

• High Fantasy
• Female protagonist
• Poison
• Mind control
• Magic
• Romance
• Fighting/Action

Read-A-Likes:

Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Graceling by Kristin Cashore



Storm Glass by Maria V Snyder

Ebooks & Audio Books

The change in medium to audio books and Ebooks create some very unique changes in what will appeal to patrons. Browsing the stacks can give a sense of comfort and familiarity to patrons, I know it does for me. And so getting an electronic device to appeal to these patrons may be difficult without the ability for them to glance from cover to cover and physically pick up a book. I personally find it harder to search for a Ebook or have an Ebook grab my interest just because it can be less satisfying to search a database, especially if there isn’t cover art. Patrons may feel the same way. There may also be smaller factors that patrons may attribute to an Ebook or audio book being less appealing, such as having less of a sense of the length of a book in an electronic format or less of a connection to the story due to the platform.

With audio books and Ebooks other aspects of the format will become a factor not seen or realized with physical books. The different settings available for changing font and compatibility for different Ereaders are going to change appeal. For audio books, something that I can personally attest to, is that a story could be phenomenal or something that would normally appeal to me, but if the narrator doesn’t suit me, or if there are different audio enhancements such as music, or reading more like a play than a book it can be very hard for me to enjoy the audio book.

On the other hand, and again from personal experience I think that electronic formats can appeal to users that otherwise might not be reading. I am an avid reader, but with work hours, school, and social obligations I rarely have time to sit down and read a book, and when I do, I don’t have the energy for it. But, with audio books I have the opportunity to experience the stories while doing other things. Mostly, I listen to audio books at work (I’ve gone through about 15 so far this year), or while cleaning or cooking. Ebooks also come in handy because of the convenience. If I do get the compulsion to physically read something I can pull out my Nook, download a book and be reading within a few minutes (assuming that it’s charged).

Ebooks and audiobooks create a lot of different factors that may turn off some patrons, but I think they offer a unique and important opportunity for readers in situations that would make them appealing. It’s just a matter of finding those patrons and fitting the right formats and files to the reader.

Book Club Experience

I chose an online book club for this assignment, as my work schedule did not line up with any book club meetings locally. I feel like there probably would have been much more actual discussion regarding specific books if I were able to attend a live discussion, but an online book club is very intriguing. This book club is hosted by a local library and states that it is an online book club via a Facebook Group for patrons to discuss books, just as if they were to have meetings. While I would have liked to attend a live book club discussion if my schedule would have allowed, I feel the online environment could allow for interesting discussion and I was glad to have the opportunity to “observe” one for this assignment.

The Group is viewable to the public and a little over 140 members. There was a library staff member that was there to moderate with the position of ‘admin’ and would post questions regarding the book or genre the group was reading at the time. The leader did not participate in answering questions, but they would occasionally comment on another member’s response to give feedback or spur conversation. Looking back at discussion history I can see that there has been multiple library staff under the ‘admin’ position. I’m not sure if this just has just transferred to different staff member’s responsibility or if being the administrator of the online book club is a rotating responsibility.

The questions brought up in the group discussion seem to vary. Sometimes it appeared to be just whether or not everyone is enjoying the book, sometimes it is an open-ended question regarding the book or a genre. Every month there appears to be polls and group member can vote on what book they would like to read next. There were other posts that I noticed fairly frequently by the admin linking to articles, pinterest posts, etc that were not necessarily directly relevant to the book they were reading or the book club, but seemed like they might be interesting to general “book lovers”. I feel like these kinds of posts could go two ways. 

Unfortunately, I think some members might see it as a nuisance or ‘spam’ getting in the way of their other social media, but some might like it. For members that do enjoy these types of posts I think it is an added bonus and good use of the online platform for the book club. For posts like that to go over well I think the admin would need to get an idea of how active the members of the club want to be, and how much they would or would not appreciate the posts.
Unfortunately, it appears that most members do not actively participate. Scrolling pretty far into past postings I saw maybe 20 different members posting and discussing topics. I did notice that there were maybe four members that would reply first and often on pretty much every post. Since there was not a whole lot of activity otherwise I wouldn’t necessarily say that these members where stealing the spotlight.

Even though in the information about the book club on the library’s website and in the ‘About’ section of the group page it said it was an online only book club, I noticed a post about once a month reminding people of an in-person book club meeting for the group. This was slightly disappointing because I really thought the idea of an active online-only book club was kind of awesome. The online element allows for asynchronous communication, which allows for people to participate who live on all types of schedules. Also, I thought people may be more likely to participate due to the convenience. The library is already utilizing the popular social media website Facebook, and no one has to go out to be able to be a part of the group. So, while it appears that this online book club isn’t exclusively online only, I feel that the lack of activity from so many members may be due to the fact that they do have in person book discussions.

Something that I found interesting was how they chose the books for their discussions. As mentioned above, they often used a built in polling system through their Facebook group, picking between 4 or 5 options. The books appeared to be familiar, mostly bestseller fiction books. The interesting part though, was that on some months I noticed that they all didn’t read the same book. Some months they were to read any book from a particular genre, or pick books that all had a similar theme. For examples, one of the themes was books related to fairy tales. I had never heard of this before. I thought the whole point of a book club was for everyone to read the same book together. But, the more that I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. The occasional discussion where people read different books with similar themes has the opportunity to create some awesome comparisons and debate surrounding the different books. This would also get around the possible problem of the library not having enough copies of a book for each member to be able to gain access to the book for that month.

A Summary of Reader’s Advisory Resources: Embracing Social Media

The utilization of social media websites would allow library staff to have immediate contact with patrons and patrons to have a convenient and trustworthy connection to the library for reader advisory purposes. A survey reported that enthusiastic and positive responses have been elicited from patrons when presented with online reader advisory services and that online reader advisory services allows for a higher quality and more deliberate interaction presented from library staff (Burke 4). Despite the evidence of better service few libraries offer online readers advisory services ( Burke 4). Capturing the power of online social media can allow a higher quality of reader advisory services to patrons while allowing for an easy and direct connection to patrons for library staff.

Within the realm of social media websites, there are specific “reader-centered social media” like Goodreads, Shelfari, and LibraryThing. Reader-centered social media website mix the benefits and community of social media often with reader advisory services, but also tools from which “readers” and library patrons would benefit. These websites are where users can turn to discuss books, look for reviews, and catalog their reading lists (Trott, Naik 320). Goodreads has over 40 million users (Goodreads). With that large of a user base, and ever growing, it is important for reader advisor’s not only to be aware of the existence of these website but also know what they offer and how they can incorporate them into the library’s own reader advisory services. Goodreads offers the ability for users to create their own book lists and share with the community, it also offers access to over 47 million book reviews, and the ability to add books to their own personal catalog. Many websites offer similar services, such as LibraryThing. In addition to reviews LibraryThing also allows users to submit and view community submitted meta tags for each book (Librarything). On Shelfari you can follow different community members to track authors, friends, and familiar book reviewers (Shelfari). Librarians can help users and assist in teaching them how to utilize these websites (Trott, Naik 322). Another way that librarians can utilize websites like Goodreads is to create an account for the library, participate in community discussions, create book lists, and more, then invite library patrons to follow the account on Goodreads (Trott, Naik 322). This can create a connection between the library and patrons while both take advantage of the reader’s advisory resources on the websites. The Salt Lake City public library is an example of a library already implementing this concept (Trott, Naik 322).

Beyond reader-centered social media websites there are the all too familiar traditional social media websites. Traditional social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs do not have a reader-centered or any reader’s advisory elements built in, but they can still be beneficial to reader’s advisory services (Anwyll, Chawner 19). These websites allow for informal and constant access to patrons opening an outlet for discussion and exposure to the library’s reader’s advisory services through a different medium. By creating library accounts on these social media websites reader’s advisors have the opportunity to extend reader’s advisory services to their patrons over the web. Facebook can present a platform for library sponsored book clubs and book discussion. Twitter, a form of microblogging, can be an outlet for librarians to broadcast short blurbs on books, announcements of reader’s advisory events, and link to relevant blog posts (Anwyll, Chawner 19). Blogs can be used to post book reviews and other detailed information surrounding reader’s advisory. The Seattle Public Library is an example of this type of blog. They use the social media outlet to bring attention to particular books and publicize library events (Anwyll, Chawner 19). A blog can be utilized in many innovative ways, with library staff alternating scheduled posting times to post reviews or begin any number of discussion regarding certain genres, books, or available reader’s advisory services (Anwyll, Chawner 19).

It is important that we extend reader’s advisory services to utilize the internet to reach patrons as well. Not only can we utilize reader-centered social media and traditional social media, but library staff can scour these websites to learn about patron interests and allow a further glimpse of reading trends, negative appeal, and reviews to provide to readers. Reader-centered social media websites also offer tools that can be added to the reader’s advisory arsenal of resources. Trott and Naik advised, “If librarians can gain the trust of their patrons by interacting with them in the online book browsing environment, then they can begin to give RA suggestions to patrons at the point of need, at the time and place that a patron expresses the desire to know about more books of a certain type” (322).

Sources

Anwyll, R., & Chawner, B. (2013). Social media and readers' advisory: A win-win combination? Reference & User Services Quarterly, 53(1), 18-22. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1462526736?accountid=7398


Burke, S. K., & Strothmann, M. (2015). Adult readers' advisory services through public library websites. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 55(2), 132-143. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1753222369?accountid=7398


"Goodreads." Goodreads. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.<http://www.goodreads.com/>.


"A Home for Your Books." LibraryThing. Web. 01 Mar. 2016. <https://www.librarything.com/>.



"Shelfari." Web. 01 Mar. 2016. <http://www.shelfari.com/>.
Trott, Barry, btrott@wrl.org, and Yesha Naik. "Finding Good Reads On Goodreads." Reference & User Services Quarterly 51.4 (2012): 319-323. Library & Information Science Source. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.