Lesson #3 : Discovery Exercizes & Personal Thoughts

Lesson #3 : NoveList, aka the Librarian’s Best Friend

NoveList has quickly become my go-to site when I receive questions about books. It has actually become so useful that I can hardly imagine life without it! Although there are plenty of other sites that offer similar services and lists, it is useful to have all that information in one spot, easily accessible (I have a link on my desktop that goes directly to it). My other favorites are GoodReads and Shelfari, although I don't use those much at work because NoveList has almost everything I need for the projects and common questions I get. GoodReads is something I would recommend to patrons who are interested in browsing titles, and Shelfari is something I might use myself for inspiration (I love book collections, especially obscure ones!) However, these don't fit in as well in our small public library system if people are looking for something to read right now.

1. Here at the Wasilla Library we’re coming up with titles for our adult reading programs, with books based in the future being one of the themes. As such, I’ve had science fiction on the brain recently, so I looked up one of my favorite futurist authors, Cory Doctorow. First author read-alikes pulled up were Connie Willis, Suzanne Collins, and Margaret Peterson Haddix. This makes sense, as Cory Doctorow has written a mix of adult and young adult novels, but it would have been nice to see a few more adult fiction writers listed, especially since Haddix has written a lot of grade-school level fiction as well. Still, fairly accurate to the author (plus, I’m extra picky about what I read, which doesn’t help).
Looking at series reccomendations, I used the Hunger Games Trilogy, since Doctorow doesn't have any series written, and its one of our most popular titles at the moment. This list will be extremely useful after the movie comes out and people are interested in reading more things like it!

2. I like the idea of setting up different sub-folders within your account for different projects. Its something I'll have to work on when I get the time!

3. I pulled up a series search for The Warriors by Erin Hunter basically because it is the bane of my existence, and seeks to confuse me at every turn. Nothing in the way they are catagorized or labled makes sense to me, and it doesn't help that there are 3 seperate series of books that fall under the same series name. If someone says they want book 3 of the Warriors, are they talking about Warriors - New Prophecy : Book 3 Dawn? Or are they referring to Warriors - The Original Series : Book 3 Forest of Secrets? Or maybe they were talking about the Warriors manga series, which is another different set of books. In this case NoveList is more than useful, it is a lifesaver for sorting out a long and confusing book series.

4. I just want to say how nice the Reader's Advisory Toolbox is for a librarian, especially the training and articles. This really is a resource that seems like it was built with us in mind, although I think a resourceful patron/book enthusiast would get a lot of mileage out of it as well. I think the most brilliant parts of this tool is that it allows the librarian to really zone in on the common questions a patron might have about what they want to read; genre, series, and theme made into catagories that are understandable yet varied. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this resource to patrons, but I feel its more useful as a tool that librarians and patrons can use together.