Image credit: Victor GAD
Marija Dalbello
Reading Interests of
Adults
Reading in
Institutional Contexts
Publishers and the
Literary Marketplace
Rutgers
School of Communication and Information
dalbello@rutgers.edu
Overview
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Introduction - “suppliers” of reading in focus
The Public Library Movement and attitudes about reading
Reader Advisory
Principles
Tools
Interview
Genre constructions in publishing and the literary marketplace
Conclusion
The public library movement
_______________________________________
The other side of the reading revolution - managing the
reading tastes of the public
Role of libraries in upholding cultural authority
Attitudes to fiction reading and collection development
Paternalism - library as an educational institution
Mass support at the center of debates
The role of librarians as reformers
The objectives of the public library
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Reformative
Educational
Recreational
Democratic
The objectives shape attitudes of the library community
over time, and dominate in some periods more than others
Overlap during the Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (1890-1920)
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Pivotal years
Pre-1890 PATERNALISM
Apostles of Culture
pastoral tendencies
conventional
conservative
librarian as arbiter of taste and cultural authority
Post-1890 LIBERALISM
peaks in 1895-1896 tied to activities of maverick
librarians John Cotton Dana, Melvil Dewey - to uphold
democratic principle in librarianship
recognition of recreational reading
emphasis on management and “library science” rather
than social control (access)
Practices for regulating reading
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Paternalist - Liberal tensions and associated practices
Paternalist
lists and bibliographical aids for recommended reading
two-book system of lending
testing periods for fiction
Progressive
open shelves common in most public libraries in 1900
Reformers’ voices upholding the
“democratic principle”
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“Is a free public library justified in supplying to its readers
books which are neither for instruction nor for the cultivation
of taste; which are not … good literature; which are books for
entertainment only – such, for example, as the ruck of
common novels?” (J.C. Dana?)
“the librarian should not carry his head so high in the clouds
as to forget that the vast majority of people are bowed down
by their cares and burdens, and care more for mental
relaxation than instruction” (G. Cole)
“Look at your position as a high-grade business one, look
after the working details, have things go smoothly, know the
whereabouts and classification of books, and let people get
their own meat or poison.” (M. Dewey)
The Progressive Era (1890-1920)
_______________________________________
Democratization
The “fiction problem” fizzles out in years prior to WWI
Widespread acceptance of mass reading
But, the fiction debate persists and continues
Objectionable fiction
PAUSE HERE
Find examples that still point to the unresolved tension about the
role of libraries and reading materials
The therapeutic ethos (1920-1930)
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Surge in reader advisory services and increase in the number
of professionals
Reading at the center of life-enhancing activities counter the
disillusionment of the Great Depression era
The democratization of reading and accessible classics
J. Haldemann’s Little Blue Books
The Book of the Month Club
public evening schools
correspondence courses
The scientific librarianship (post-WW2)
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Focus on information and documentation
Emphasis on technical aspects of librarianship
Idea of guidance into certain forms of literature discredited
Affirmation of free access but not directed educational service
Agnostic librarianship - facilitating rather than evaluative
Reading constructed within the context of information behavior
Reader advisory not relevant in that context of practice reading constructed within utilitarian framework
Readers’ advisory today
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The renaissance of reader advisory in the 1980s
And still growing and developing as noted by the development
of reader advisory tools and increased knowledge about the
readers’ advisory interview
publication of genre guides
development of online resources
library school offering of adult reading advisory courses
RA under-resourced, awareness of skills needed to advise low
Librarians not properly trained
Need to increase training opportunities for reader advisors
(especially for work with adult readers) in library schools
Readers’ advisory history in brief
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Historically, scorn for pleasure reading and even today not
advertised
From didactic activity aimed at moral transformation, to fiction
guidance with no attempt to improve reader’s reading tastes
Periodization of readers’ advisory services
Public Library Movement and associated programs
Pre-WW2: adult education program
Post-WW2 disappeared
Recent years: renaissance
Readers’ advisory programming methods
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Passive
Eliciting reader tastes (circulation, surveys)
Book recommendations
Consultation with colleagues
New fiction racks, book displays
Book reviews, patron popularity
Posting best sellers lists
Genre shelving
Book displays
Bookmarks
Booklists
Annotated bibliographies
Newsletters
Sponsored book clubs
Active
Readers’ advisory interview (in-depth process, follow-up,
use of tools)
Readers’ advisory
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Tools
Collection development and current awareness, history
Library Journal, Publishers’ Weekly
Genre guides
follow list from syllabus page
Databases (by subscription)
Reader’s Advisor Online, NoveList
Library portals and enthusiast sites
Reader’s Robot
And beyond
social networking, bookmarking sites
Interview
Neutral questioning technique and reader advisory probing
Closing the interview with invitation for feedback, longitudinal
(reader histories), librarian’s knowledge of fiction genres and
titles essential
Reading in applied contexts implications
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Role of libraries in promoting reading
improve reader advisory services
Programming for readers
Understanding readers and their uses and gratifications from reading
Role of LIS programs in teaching about reading
Information allows to avoic complexities involving matters of race,
class, sexual orientation, age and gender distinctions
Content of information vs. access to information (library as reading
institution)
Role of research in understanding the process of reading
a form of behavior operating as a complex intervention in the ongoing
social life of actual social subjects
Library Journal
PAUSE HERE
Familiarize yourself with the latest issue of the Library Journal
online; access Wikipedia article.
Publishers’ Weekly
PAUSE HERE
Familiarize yourself with the latest issue of the Publishers’ Weekly
online; access Wikipedia article.
Genre Guides
PAUSE HERE
Access guide list from course syllabus page …
Genre Guides
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PAUSE HERE
and, familiarize yourself with organization of Genreflecting.
NoveList
PAUSE HERE
Familiarize yourself with NoveList online
The Reader’s Advisor
Online
PAUSE HERE
Explore The Reader’s Advisor Online
Neutral Questioning
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Sense-Making (B. Dervin)
SITUATIONS - GAPS - USES
users resolve uncertainty
information-seeking situation
methods of questioning
neutral questioning technique
Closed questions
Is this for a project?
Do you want American or Canadian author?
Open questions
Tell me more about X.
Neutral questions
subset of open questions that guide conversation along dimensions
relevant for information seeking situations - uncover expected and
unexpected uses
Neutral Questioning
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Examples of neutral questions
Use neutral questioning early in the interview
TO ASSESS SITUATIONS
Tell me more how this problem arose?
What are you trying to do in this situation?
What happened that got you stopped?
TO ASSESS GAPS
What would you like to know about X?
What seems to be missing in your understanding of X?
What are you trying to understand?
TO ASSES USES
How are you planning to use this information?
If you could have exactly the help you wanted, what would it be?
How will this help you? What will it help you do?
Questions related to reading
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Examples of neutral questions regarding FRAME (with the
following elements: setting, atmosphere, background, tone, special
interests)
TO ASSES tone
Tell me about the mood of the book you would like to read.
(to elicit suspenseful, light, romantic, humorous, upbeat, dark bleak tone)
TO ASSESS setting
Do you like novels in specific time or place?
TO ASSESS atmosphere
Tell me more about a memorable character or setting you have enjoyed in a previous
book.
TO ASSES special interests
Do you like books with incidental information?
(to elicit whether they are interested in medieval life, gardening, cooking, …)
Other techniques in readers’ advisory
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Librarians may ask questions related to genre dimensions (guided,
not closed)
Consult Genreflecting (Ch. 3 - Catherine Sheldrick Ross) for further
guidance on specific questions:
To dentify previous reading patterns
To determine current
To probe using standard reference techniques in a reference
interview
Map your knowledge structure and tools to what you learn from
readers to search in reader advisory tools
Genre in the Marketplace
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How genre is negotiated in the making of literature
Materiality of the book
Branding
Imprints
Bookstores
Literary Prizes
Conclusion
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Debates about fiction reflect institutional history (of the
American public library)
Evolution of reader advisory from moral guide, to reader
guide, to provision of reader access to books they wish to read
(from paternalism to democratic approach to literacy)
Reader advisory work (tools, guides, interviewing techniques)
The taxonomies of genre shaped and articulated through
negotiation of meaning between the providers of reading
(libraries, publishing industry), readers, and authors