Readers’ Advisory: Readers’ Advisory and the Pandemic: Lessons, Connections, and Vital Services

Authors

  • Lucy M. Lockley
  • Gregg Winsor
  • Kaite Mediatore Stover
  • David Wright
  • Barry Trott
  • Stephanie Anderson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.59.3/4.7719

Abstract

The pandemic and resulting quarantine changed how libraries operate, including the provision of readers’ advisory (RA) service. Access to print titles initially came to a halt, rendering many users’ holds lists irrelevant, while queues for some e-books grew longer and longer. Readers lost the ability to browse and discover the physical collection, and many took up, for the first time, an e-reader to access books while libraries were closed.

Advisors found ways to aid readers in these difficult circumstances. On Zoom, Twitter, and Facebook, through their websites and newsletters, over the phone and via email, advisors continued connecting readers to books. Their work has created a new resurgence of RA, at the very moment readers had time to re-center on their reading lives. What we have discovered through this hard work and focus should not be lost. There are lessons here to hold onto and learn from.

Author Biography

Lucy M. Lockley

Lucy M. Lockley, Lead Collection Development Librarian for St. Charles City–County Library (MO), is the 2020 recipient of RUSA’s Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award. She writes reviews for Booklist and co-teaches an introduction to readers’ advisory class for library staff. Find her on Twitter @colldev00. Gregg Winsor is a Reference Librarian with a Readers’ Advisory speciality at the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, Kansas. He’s presented at several local and national conferences, including WorldCon, BookExpo, and both Kansas and Missouri Library Association conferences. He’s currently serving as chair of LibraryReads.org. His TBR pile looms over him, endlessly. Kaite Mediatore Stover, Director of Readers’ Services, Kansas City Public Library is a multiple-award winning librarian and founding member of LibraryReads. She is the co-editor of The Readers’ Advisory Handbook. Follow her on Twitter @MarianLiberryan. David Wright is a Reader Services Librarian at Seattle Public Library, where he presents—and now podcasts—the library’s popular Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups. Barry Trott, Adult Services Consultant at the Library of Virginia, previously served as Special Projects and Technical Services Director at the Williamsburg (VA) Regional Library where he helped introduce online form-based RA to the library world. He is the author of Read On Crime Fiction and writes on occasion for NoveList. Stephanie Anderson is Assistant Director, Selection, for BookOps, the shared technical services collaboration of the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library.

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Published

2021-12-20

Issue

Vol. 59 No. 3/4 (2021): Spring/Summer

Section

Columns

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