Special Topics Paper- Passive Readers' Advisory

Here is a shortened version of my special topic essay on passive readers' advisory!

Readers’ advisory (RA) as a library discipline has been growing in popularity as more and more, libraries are dedicating staff, time, and resources to meeting patrons’ advisory needs. Aside from face-to-face RA interviews, there are many ways readers’ advisory can look, and one of the simplest and most underrated is passive advisory. This is especially important as we recognize the vast number of patrons who no matter how inviting a reference librarian looks, will never actively seek out assistance. We have gotten so used to doing things ourselves and having every answer at the tip of our fingers. This is where passive RA comes in, letting librarians recommend a book for any person without the need for face-to-face interaction. 

There are many ways a librarian can build up passive readers’ advisory, but book displays are likely the most popular, effective, and simple. One very smart way to cycle through book displays is by capitalizing on what is popular and what is currently happening in the community. This can be as simple as making a spooky book display in October, or a politically informative display around election times. One may also design displays around popular movies, shows, singers, and other books. For example, “books to read if you binged Stranger Things…”, “if you just finished the Throne of Glass series, try this”, or “books with Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ vibes.”

Another form of effective displays that Yang and Segraves discuss in depth is book bundles, which they tagline “reader’s advisory in a package” (2010, p. 132). Each bundle has three books that share a common theme like time period, genre, character trait, or plot device (2010, p. 132). This allows patrons to recognize a theme they may be interested in and quickly grab and check out without the hassle of browsing for themselves. Librarians may also strategically choose books, for example, to pair an older book with a newer one and extend collection life (Yang & Segraves, 2010, p.132). One may also pair books of different types to promote more explorative reading like including a graphic novel or nonfiction book. Book bundles designed like this promote adventurous reading and allow patrons to discover something they enjoy but might not have checked out for themselves. 

K. M. Stover discusses many small, fun readers’ advisory practices, especially for smaller institutions that may not have the manpower to have a team dedicated to advisory all the time. The article provides several low-maintenance projects to improve passive RA, one involving very popular books like bestsellers as they are released or books accompanying a blockbuster movie, recent examples involving Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, and Where the Crawdads Sing. Librarians may anticipate that books like these will have long hold times, so ahead of time, they may prepare a list of readalikes patrons may browse through and read as they wait for the waitlisted novel (Stover, 2005, p. 124).

These are just a few considerations for promoting passive readers’ advisory at a public library. Simply, passive RA seeks to fill in the gaps of what a librarian can do to help patrons find the perfect book. With tools and services like these, the thoughtful librarian makes the patron’s experience even more fun and takes some of the questions out of choosing a book from a library’s endless stacks.