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Finding Good Reads on Goodreads: Readers Take RA into Their Own Hands


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In 2009, Kaite Stover examined the expansion of readercentered social networking sites and what she called “the wild appeal factor” (see “Stalking the Wild Appeal Factor,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 48, no. 3 [Spring 2009]: 243–46). Stover looked at several then-new sites that might be of interest to readers’ advisors, particularly in terms of how readers talk about books and reading in their own words. As Stover pointed out, the conversation about books is taking place on the web in a variety of forms, and as reflective practitioners, we need to be aware of those conversations happening outside the library walls. In this issue’s column, Yesha Naik expands on this discussion by looking at how members of one bibliocentric social networking site, Goodreads.com, talk with each other and the broader reading community about books and reading. Yesha looks at reader discussions of titles in five diverse genres and what we learn from those discussions about reader interests. She then moves from this examination to explore how readers’ advisors might take advantage of this knowledge in their daily practice. Librarianship is Yesha’s third career, but she finds that her previous incarnations as middle school teacher and college admissions counselor have well-prepared her for working as a YA librarian in a bustling neighborhood branch of Brooklyn Public Library. A 2011 graduate of the Queens College GSLIS, her professional fascinations include readers’ advisory, teen and children’s services, diversity in YA literature, and serving immigrant populations in the public library setting.

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