22 Sources to make your life as a YA librarian a whole lot easier
by Abby Bird
Reference: Thomas Crane Public Library
Annotated Bibliography
December 8, 2008
Readers’ Advisory (RA) is a difficult, fun, and gratifying part of a librarian’s job. Navigating someone to a book they will love is not easy, and it’s especially not easy when that person is a young adult. Some teens love to read, but articulating what they liked about the last book they read is difficult. Others have been turned off by reading and find it hard to get into a story. Luckily, leaders in the field of RA and teen services have done a great service to all librarians working with young people by tirelessly studying and executing teen RA and have shared their knowledge with the rest of us. My bibliography aspires to be the gathering of these peoples’ efforts.
My goal was to compile a list of resources that would help me if I were given the responsibility to run readers’ advisory for young adults. My other goal was to not miss any major literature on the topic. In terms of the sources, there seems to be much more written about teen RA in books than in scholarly journals. It may be that the people in the field of young adult librarianship have gotten what information they need to run a successful program from these books, then focus on going to the internet for the very latest resources on young adult books of interest. Within the sources themselves, I found I was getting three types of RA material: One type were the books about how to do teen RA, others a mix of “how-to’s” and recommended titles, and some that were purely recommended titles. I found each type of material useful and truly interesting, and have included these into my list. Teens will be our library’s adult patrons in the not-so-distant future, and providing them with great books and guidance toward these books is a truly worthwhile effort.
References
Beaman, A. (2006). YA lit 2.0: How technology is enhancing the pleasure reading experience for teens. Knowledge Quest, 35(1), 30-33.
This article takes a look at the way teenagers are using the internet to connect to their favorite books and authors. Many authors quoted in the article noted how popular their website or the book’s website became with fans of the book, and how these young adults would add them as myspace “friends” and pour over the author’s blog. As a result many authors’ websites have come to include playlists their characters might listen to and other interactive media to make the reader’s experience with the book and its characters more robust. This was a tangential article but I thought that it was something that librarians should be aware of and try to consider when developing their RA plan.
Booth, H. (2006). Reader’s advisory by proxy: Connecting teens and books through positive interactions with parents and caregivers. Young Adult Library Services, 5(1), 14-15.
The author that brought us the book Serving Teens Through Readers Advisory wrote a similarly helpful article in 2006 about parents’ involvement in the selection of books. Parents can often be difficult to deal with, but Booth reminds us that the parents who come in to get books for their teens are not necessarily trying to control what their child reads; rather, he or she likely has an over-stretched schedule and don’t have time to come in, or the parent may be trying to connect with their teenager through a shared reading experience. She also shares tips on conducting a successful RA interview for a teen who is not there to provide verbal feedback.
Booth, H. (2007). Serving teens through readers’ advisory. Chicago: American Library Association.
This book is an essential resource for any public library’s staff to have. Booth covers all the basics of teen reader’s advisory in one skinny book, from the history of teen RA and how it differs from RA services for adults to tips for librarians new to working with teens. The author reviews the RA interview as well as “detecting interest” and “articulating appeal”, providing a lot of good follow-up question examples and discussing challenges that may arise. Booth also explores tactics for dealing with parents and helping with teens’ homework assignments. There is a brief authors list as well as a “sure bets” (commonly liked books) appendix to turn to if you’re stumped and in need of a recommendation.
Dickey, J., & Jones, P. (1994). Finding a good book: Skills and tools for helping students. Book Report, 13(1), 15.
Dickey and Jones emphasize that the key to talking to young adults about books is figuring out what they like, what they liked about it, and just as importantly, what they did NOT like about a book. They suggest writing down books you’ve recommended to students by creating a card file with the “clue” or main aspect that gave you the idea to make that suggestion. This will help with the individual teen as well as others who come to you with similar interests. Making an “all-purpose” list of fail-safe, guaranteed-to-love books in fiction and non-fiction is also recommended, as is maintaining yearly lists and bibliographies. These and other tips and advice discussed in this article would provide invaluable “insider” information to librarians starting RA for young adults.
Flowers, S. (2008). Guidelines for library services to teens. Young Adult Library Services, 6(3), 4-7.
I wanted to include this article because it covers a new set of guidelines for teen service created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). There are six major points to the guide: the need of moral and financial commitment to teen services, providing equitable and excellent customer service, using today’s technology to connect with teens, providing appropriate resources for curriculum and leisure, providing programs appropriate for teens, and cultivating partnerships with community agencies serving teens. There are more specific examples of each of these goals, and I think it would behoove anyone looking into executing or researching teen readers’ advisory to be aware of these new guidelines.
Gillespie, J. T., & Barr, C. (2004). Best books for high school readers :Grades 9-12. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.
The contents of this book (and its counterpart, Best Books for Middle School and Junior High Readers, which I did not list separately) are broken down into large topics: Literary forms, biographies, arts and entertainment, science, and sports, and within these are nicely parsed-out subtopics. Due to the relatively complex nature of the book’s organization and the use of numbered entries, the book is more suitable for a librarian to use rather than a student. I wanted to include it because of its depth of a wide range of indexed books.
Herald, D. T. (2003). Teen genreflecting: A guide to reading interests (2nd ed.). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.
This book wins my award for “the one I would hand a young teenager” if they were looking for a book. It is an easy to use volume that is not too big and has to-the-point synopses of the books, along with an integration of related or similar movie titles within the different genres. There is also a section (more for the librarian) on suggestions for reluctant readers. My favorite aspect of this book is its large and specific subject index.
Honnold, R. (2006). The teen reader’s advisor. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
This is a well-rounded teen readers’ advisory book in that it covers a lot of the “what it takes to do this” information along with a very deep list of fiction and non-fiction books. First is the necessary information you need to know on attitudes, practices, and exploration of the literature. The list (1900 books) is organized inside 18 broad genres that then get subdivided into more specific genres. One of these broad topics that I found in this book that I did not see in the others is called “Format as Content” which includes under it, among other things, Diaries, Graphic Novels, and Short Stories. I thought it was a good indication that the interests of the young adults were being seriously and realistically acknowledged.
Immell, M., Laconte, R. T., Barber, B. S., & Klitsner, H. (1992). The young adult reader’s adviser. New Providence, N.J.: Bowker.
This book is large in scope and has some nice details not found in other volumes like it. Part I deals with literature and language arts, and Part 2 consists of math, computer science and history. First, I think the math an computer science sections are really nice for students who are more fond of those topics than they are of fiction. The contents pages are also really helpful and specific; for example in the science section is a sub-section of physics, with a section within physics about electricity and magnetism. I also really like the way the literature entries are set up; under a book by Jack Kerouac, there is a short biography on him, a selection of his books, and a selection of books about him. I think of all the RA resources, this is the one that is simultaneously the most equally beneficial for librarians, teachers and students.
Jones, P., Gorman, M., & Suellentrop, T. (2004). Connecting young adults and libraries: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians (3rd ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
Patrick Jones is a big name in books on young adults in the library, and I can see why after looking through this book. This truly is a manual in the sense that it gives realistic and specific ways to form a successful young adult universe at your library. There is a helpful glossary of terms, great for all those library acronyms. Jones talks about the philosophy behind the services, knowing your audience and customer service. There is then a big section on the collection. It is set up in a question-answer format, which I found really helpful. He talks about what kids want and provides justification for buying some of those popular items. Further chapters focus on marketing and technology. One thing I thought was great was the “core documents” appendix containing samples of various forms to help you organize your data. One example is a nice user survey for teens so they can talk about their experience with the collection. Overall I think this book is another must-have in any library serving the young adult population.
Jones, P., Hartman, M. L., & Taylor, P. (2006). Connecting with reluctant teen readers: Tips, titles, and tools. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
Though my focus is not specifically reluctant teen readers, I thought it was really important to include this important book in my review. The question of, “who AREN’T we reaching” is answered in these pages. It is great if a dozen kids show up for a book discussion group, but who is not showing up and why? The book gives great insight into who these reluctant readers are, why they are reluctant to read, and what can be done for them. Like other books by Jones, a lot of the text is presented in question/answer format that is really appealing, especially given that if a librarian is reading this at work, there will be constant interruptions, so the brief paragraphs are really helpful. This book also explores a large variety of different types of books that may appeal to these reluctant young adult readers, with sections such as “books that read like magazines” and “best 100 books for boys of all ages”, with indicators for age/grade. I think this book is the most appealing, and in a way touching, that I have explored.
Mackey, M. (2003). Risk, safety, and control in young people’s reading experiences. School Libraries Worldwide, 9(1), 50-63.
This article’s focus is on the psychological aspects of reading. In respect to what young people want to read, Mackey asks for “respect by adults for the young readers who happen to be in their charge”. She writes about how much kids can learn from reading what some people think are morally questionable materials, and how kids really respond to some of these complex stories because it helps them develop their own moral limits. She cites several interesting studies and concludes with a push for librarians and teachers to say “tell me” (about what you liked and didn’t like in this book) and not “why did you like…”, the “why” question being a “conversation killer.” This article was really refreshing and should not be overlooked by teen RA facilitators.
Morton grove public library’s webrary. (2008). Retrieved December 1, 2008, 2008, from http://www.webrary.org/teen/teenmenu.html
The Teen Zone on Morton Grove Public Library’s Webrary is fantastic. There are big sections dedicated to entertainment links, College/Career info, homework help, and “Find A Book”, which has links to the catalog, a book list you can browse, list of new books, and a link to join an online book club. A lot of the book lists (including a nice one for GLBT teens) will list a book that will link directly to the library’s OPAC. The book lists are up-to-date, the site itself is really clean and aesthetically pleasing– I can see myself heading to this site often for ideas.
No flying, no tights. Retrieved December 5, 2008, from http://www.noflyingnotights.com/
The further I traveled into the readers’ advisory world for teens, the more I realized how important it is to librarians these days that sources discuss and collections include graphic novels. This website is really the best for this genre. New reviews, news and gossip, and a list of titles by genre are included, as well as a short but sweet FAQ section about what a graphic novel is and how it differs from other forms like cartoons or manga, for those of us who are unfamiliar at best with the genre. Links are included on the homepage to Sidekicks and the Lair (sister sites for kids and older teens/adults respectively).
NoveList. Retrieved December 5, 2008, from http://web.ebscohost.com/novp/search?vid=1&hid=17&sid=cea2a75a-3cec-4ba7-b8f2-036e1e5d5ed2%40sessionmgr8
Though it is more a database than a website, I could not leave out NoveList. NoveList is an amazing resource for librarians who do RA, and for patrons to use on their own. Access to the NoveList database requires a subscription through your library and I would say it would be a worthwhile one to have. Right on the home page is an option to limit your search to Teen. Upon typing in a popular young adult author’s name, a list of her books comes up in addition to subject terms in the left-hand column. You can then find books or authors like the one you’ve chosen, and add and subtract aspects or themes of the book to search with or avoid. There are many other additional resources within NoveList that are really useful and user-friendly.
Pierce, J. B. (2006). The borderland age and borderline books: The early practice of reader’s advisory for youth. Young Adult Library Services, 5(1), 42-47.
This article’s focus is on the history and background of reading advisory to individuals who are of, as one writer called them, “borderland age”. Protecting youth from what they considered to be “harmful” material (in a psychological, even physical, way!) was a significant priority in the early stages of youth RA. Though the author does comment that “librarians still wanted their young patrons to enjoy reading and to take pleasure in literature”, the article really highlights the significant strides librarians have made in terms of protecting intellectual freedom and promoting a love of reading of all subjects, not just the safe ones. This article is great to read and provides a nice perspective on the topic.
Reading rants! Retrieved December 5, 2008, from http://www.readingrants.org/
This is an edgy, teen-friendly, I hate to say cool-but-is-actually-cool- site. The audience or user is definitely the young person and less so the librarian or teacher. Book lists have names like “nail biters!” and “stoned”. The author, Jennifer Hubert, makes it clear that it is not for adults, it is for teens. She adds however that she’s happy some adults like it, and if you are a teen, don’t ask her for a book report. This is not a typical or clean-cut RA tool, but it’s really well done and if you’re an open-minded librarian, which I hope a young adult librarian is, it’s definitely one to bookmark.
Spencer, P. (1994). What do young adults read next? :A reader’s guide to fiction for young adults. Detroit: Gale.
It may be that at this point I automatically love anything published in print by Gale, but I truly think this book is a really great resource. “What Do I Read Next” is a popular readers’ advisory tool for adults, and this volume focused on young adults delivers in an equally appealing way. The indexes are what make this so user-friendly: series, award, time period, geographic, subject, character name, character description, age, author, title– these answer all the potential questions you may get from a teen, and provide a teenager with a large breadth of options while browsing in a certain area. The “other books you might like” addendum at the end of each entry is an excellent feature to an already nicely organized book.
Teen reads. Retrieved December 5, 2008, from http://www.teenreads.com/
Teen Reads is another site with a lot of great tools for teen readers. It has a large amount of book reviews, and the reviewers are comprised of adults and teens. They have a nice “new books” section, new books that have turned into movies, podcasts, and interviews with authors. This is one site that, judging from the literature, librarians rely on and trust.
Tuccillo, D. P. (1992). Leading them to books–for life. Publishing Research Quarterly, 8(1), 14.
This article, written by a young adult librarian, gives anecdotal insight into young adult readers’ advisory, and gives an overview of what is needed to make young adult RA successful. Budget support and collaboration with local schools are vital to a teen RA’s success, as well as building a collection that speaks to teen’s interests. The focus is on nurturing the relationship between young adults and books so that the love of reading stays with them through adulthood.
Vaillancourt, R. J., Public Library Association, & Young Adult Library Services Association. (2000). Bare bones young adult services :Tips for public library generalists. Chicago: American Library Association.
The book’s audience is the “library generalist”- a library employee carrying out young adult readers’ advisory and other programs who is not specifically a young adult librarian. Given that nearly a quarter of a public library’s patrons are young adults, and “only 11% of all public libraries have young adult specialists on staff”, a book on young adult services for use by a typical librarian is a useful source. While “Bare Bones…” is not entirely focused on readers’ advisory for young adults, the section that does focus on readers’ advisory is concise, informative, realistic, and to-the-point. Other aspects of the book such as teen behavior and how to interact with teens are also valuable, since knowledge of these things should come first before doing readers’ advisory.
Young adult library services association (YALSA). (2008). Retrieved December 5, 2008, from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/yalsa.cfm
Although I really like (almost prefer) some of the other internet sources mentioned, the Young Adult Library Services (YALSA- a division of ALA) website is really the one every librarian doing teen RA needs to read. Some of the other sites I reviewed are especially reliable for the newest titles, reviews, and audience-focused information, but this site will give the librarian most of the tools they will need to build their collection and execute young adult RA, in addition to lists, news, etc. They have nice sections on electronic resources and publications, but most impressive is the Professional Development Center designed to help librarians with their work with young adults. Upon a quick search for readers’ advisory within the site, sample readers’ advisory programs, strategies, and lots of book suggestion ideas and lists came up, and it felt as if I’d reached the holy grail. While some of the books (Heather Booth’s in particular) are really the sources with everything in them, this site, because its continually updated, has forms, links, and the newest book titles, makes it the perfect companion to the literature.
