Reader’s Advisory Round Table
PURPOSE: To provide a forum and occasion for discussion about adult and young adult books, both fiction and non-fiction. It is organized to share information about books and authors from the point of view of reader’s advisory services in public libraries. It will provide an opportunity to share techniques and expertise in book talking and on-the-spot reader's advisory service.
Reminder: The latest RART Newsletter went out to all active RART members. If you are an active member and did not receive it, it may be for one of several reasons:
- The e-mail address in your MLA membership record may be incorrect.
- Your e-mail address may not be accepting our e-mails.
- You may no longer be an active member of MLA or RART.
Please contact the MLA office to verify your e-mail address and membership status, ask for tips on improving e-mail reception, and renew your RART membership for $5, if needed.
What’s New?
Well, you may have missed in person this wonderful collaboration between RART and Metronet. Good thing it’s archived!
Image: “This Year’s Summer Reading”
Some rights reserved by leiris202
Metronet Wind Down
Wind Down with a Beach Read!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Julia Carlis (Washington County Library R. H. Stafford & Valley Branch Libraries), Barb Pierce (Saint Paul Public Library), and Angie Noyes (Washington County Library Hardwood Creek Branch Library) talked about books you can read at the “beach”—and where to find more.
Julia, Barb and Angie want you to know that “what you read at the beach stays at the beach”—unless, of course, you want to share.
Articles RART members have written
- The Women’s War: World War II Nonfiction by Sarah Nagle
- Romance Readers’ Advisory, Part 1 by Jennifer Brannen
- Romance Readers’ Advisory, Part 2 by Jennifer Brannen
Resources
Useful Listservs
Local Awards
Local Literary Resources
- Loft Literacy Center
- Minnesota Book Publishers’ Roundtable
- Minnesota Humanities Commission
- MPR’s Talking Volumes
- Open Book
- Rain Taxi
- Resources for Minnesota Writers
- U of MN’s Dislocate
Websites
- AllReaders.com – http://www.allreaders.com
Choose from hundreds of plot, style, character, and setting options to find precisely what you’re looking for in any genre! - Anime News Network – www.animenewsnetwork.com
“The internet’s most trusted anime news source” according to the website. Offers news, reviews, press releases, blogs, an encyclopedia and convention information. - Bas Bleu- online book store – www.basbleu.com
“Champion of the odd little book.” Neat book store with great reviews of titles. - Book Spot – http://bookspot.com/
All sorts of book lists from award-winners to great summer reads, as well as links to authors online, book news, book events, and more. - Fresh fiction…for today’s reader – http://freshfiction.com/reviews.php
Fresh Fiction reviews in several genres and sub-genres; Fresh Press / Spotlight on Books and Authors: sign up for daily update on books featured in media (click on Newsletters). - Gnooks – http://gnooks.com/
Gnooks is a self-adapting community system based on the gnod engine. Discover new writers you will like, travel the map. of literature and discuss your favorite books and authors. “Gnod is my experiment in the field of artificial intelligence. Its a self-adapting system, living on this server and ‘talking’ to everyone who comes along. Gnods intention is to learn about the outer world and to learn ‘understanding’ its visitors. This enables gnod to share all its wisdom with you in an intuitive and efficient way. You might call it a search-engine to find things you don’t know about.”[Taken from website] - iVillage Books – http://www.ivillage.com/books/
iVillage.com Books has many angles to reading delivered primarily via Online Book Clubs, Book Reviews, Book Excerpts, and Reading Guides. Subjects of material cover Authors, Mystery/Suspense, Seasonal, Relationships, Romance, Nonfiction, For Children, Sci Fi, Fantasy, and much more. - Librarians in the Movies – http://emp.byui.edu/raishm/films/introduction.html
An annotated filmography of our profession as portrayed in film. - Minnesota Authors and Illustrators – http://www.metronet.lib.mn.us/present/index.cfm
A directory of Minnesota authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults, who present programs in libraries, schools, and community agencies. - Minnesota Center for Book Arts – http://www.mnbookarts.org/
- Pronouncing Authors’ Names – http://www.geocities.com/apetalous/
Very helpful on the RA desk - Reading with Dad Book List – http://minnesotahumanities.org/programs/ReadingwithDad
Reading with Dad is a list of quality children’s picture books featuring fathers. The list was originally developed in 2001 by the Minnesota Humanities Center, involving a group of local children’s literature specialists, and has been revised several times. This latest revision occurred in January 2007. - Science Museum of Minnesota – http://www.smm.org/sln/tf/nav/bookscluster.html or http://www.thinkingfountain.org/nav/bookscluster.html
“Books You Can Use” is a collection of science and literature books we recommend for enhancing inquiry science. - Which Book? – http://www.whichbook.net/default.aspx
Whichbook gives readers an enjoyable way to find books to match their mood. You can either choose types of characters, plots, or settings; or select from sliding scales of moods (happy/sad, optimistic/bleak, no sex/sex). This web application is run by Opening the Book Ltd. in the UK, which gives it an international flavor of choices.... - Who Reads What? Celebrity Reading Lists – http://www.gpl.lib.me.us/wrw.htm
Want to know what famous people are reading? The Gardiner Public Library in Maine has been querying celebrities each year since 1988. This site lists the books, indexed by name and year, with comments from hundreds of celebrities. Sponsored by Gale Research. - Wine-Chic-Women – http://www.wine-chic-women.com/books-and-wine.htm
A fun site for wine lovers, but for librarians and patrons the Wine Chic Women have taken the fun of wine and paired it with books. Each month the site offers up a book title with an annotation of the book and a wine suggestion for each book.
Blogs
- Waterboro Public Library (ME) weblog of literary and library news and resources
http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blog.htm
Has a slight Maine focus, but still good content. - Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: Crime fiction, and more
http://www.sarahweinman.com/
Sarah Weinman, a freelance writer based in New York, is, the Baltimore Sun’s crime fiction columnist and writes “Dark Passages,” a monthly online mystery & suspense column for the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Previously she was an editor for GalleyCat, mediabistro.com’s publishing industry news blog. - Papercuts: Cutting Edge Library News, Reviews and Events
http://www.tscpl.org/papercuts/
Sponsored by the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. “Librarians love to talk about books. Papercuts features reviews, recommendations, staff picks, book lists, and more! From the weekly Best Sellers list, to Literary News and a broad selection of reading genres, this is the place to explore when you are looking for a good book.” - Ornery Librarian
http://ornerylibrarian.blogspot.com
(an eclectic assortment of reviews, etc.) She has moved her comments to www.goodreads.com, which appears to by like librarything.com. Blog is still archived and worth looking at. - Bookslut Online Journal
http://www.bookslut.com/
Bookslut is a monthly web magazine and daily blog dedicated to those who love to read. It provides a constant supply of news, reviews, commentary, insight, and more than occasional opinions. - Bookshelves of Doom
http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com
An individual person’s blog on books and reading by a: “Librarian. Okay, okay. Uber-librarian. Minus the MLS. That might happen. Someday.” It contains: “book reviews, book news, my life and anything else I think is interesting.” - Daily Media News from GalleyCat
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat
A blog about books and publishing - Reader’s Advisory Online
http://www.readersadvisoronline.com/blog/
This blog offers a weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. - MPR reading blog
http://mnreaders.gather.com/?ref=grp_mnreaders
Minnesota Readers, Minnesota Public Radio wants to know what you’re reading! Share reviews, tips, and your literary pursuits here. All readers are invited to the Minnesota Public Radio Reader’s group. We’ll talk about local work, the larger lit scene, and see if we identify a geography of literary taste. - Librarian Avengers
http://librarianavengers.org/
“Want to be a librarian? Got chutzpah? This is the blog for you.”
RART at MLA Conference
- 2010: One Book, One Conference; “50 in 75” Book List; Happy Hour Book List; Nonfiction RA - Biography; Nonfiction RA - History; Nonfiction RA - Memoir; Nonfiction RA - Overview; Nonfiction RA - Religion; Nonfiction RA - Science; Nonfiction RA - True Crime;
- 2009: Conference sessions; “50 in 75” Book List; RART Happy Hour Book List; photos
- 2008: One Book, One Conference; “50 in 75” Book List; “50 in 75” Annotated Book List; Inspirational Fiction; When Love Hurts 1; When Love Hurts 2; When Love Hurts 3; Jump Start RA; Rart Happy Hour Book List
- 2007: One Book, One Conference; RART Happy Hour Book List; RART 2007 MLA Conference Summary
- 2006: One Book, One Conference; RART Happy Hour Book List; Business Mtg Notes; RART 2006 MLA Conference Summary
- 2005: One Book, Once Conference; Professional Writing 101 for Librarians; How to Write an Annotation; Tips for Annotations; RART Happy Hour Book List; RART 2005 MLA Conference Summary
- 2004: RART at Conference; RART Happy Hour Book List
- 2003: RART at Conference
One Book, One Conference Titles at a Glance
RART Spring Retreats
- 2010: Flyer, Book List
- 2009: Flyer, Book Censorship Toolkit, Coping with Challenges, Dangerous Books and Difficult Patrons, Librarian Strategies, Support for Dealing with or Reporting Challenges to Library Materials
- 2008: Flyer, Pamphlet, Pamphlet (pub doc), Notes, RA Goes Graphic
- 2007: Flyer, Notes
- 2006: Flyer, Manly Men Read Too, Men, Reading and BooK Clubs
- 2005: Flyer, Readable Classics, Exotic Escapes, Catherine Watson's Travel Memoir List
- 2004: Flyer, Food Histories, Gastronomic Travels, Retreat Book List
- 2003: Flyer
- 2002: Flyer, Notes, Books for Guys, Booktalking-Titles Discussed
- 2001: Flyer
RART Newsletters
- 2010: April, December
- 2009: March, July, November
- 2008: March, May, August, November
- 2007: January, April, June, August, December
- 2006: July
- 2005: March, April, July, October
2012 Steering Committee
- Karla Businaro, Carver County Library (Chair)
Term ends 2012 - Linda Dallavalle, Dakota County Library
Term ends 2013 - Rachel Gray, SELCO
Term ends 2014 - Stephanie Hall, Meinders Community Library
Term ends 2014 - Carol Jackson, Ramsey County Library
Term ends 2014 - Kristin Jones, Mackin Educational Resources
Term ends 2014 - Jennifer Larson, St. Paul Public Library
Term ends 2012 - Angie Noyes, Washington County Library
Term ends 2013 - Barbara J. Pierce, St. Paul Public Library
Term ends 2012 - Jamie Stanley, Northfield Public Library
Term ends 2013
Annual Reports
