Secret Shopper Experience
For my secret shopper assignment, I was helped by a female librarian (I would guess in her early 40's) at a public library branch different from the one I currently work. The total amount of time the entire readers' advisory took was about 25 minutes; longer than I anticipated it would be. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate the whole experience as a 6.
My read-alike suggestion for this readers' advisory was The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (a historical YA fantasy). I haven't come across too many YA historical fantasy books so I was interested to see what books the librarian/staff would end up suggesting. But since the librarian admitted to me that YA fantasy wasn't an area of expertise for her, I wasn't surprised that she first suggested what I consider "stereotypical" YA fantasy series that aren't exactly historical: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (which I've read), Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (read that too), and The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (haven't read, so she ordered this one for me even though it is a contemporary fantasy). I wondered why the librarian didn't use the library's free NoveList Plus tool if she was struggling to find read-alikes.
After racking her memory for personal books she read that were historical, she ended up searching "historical fantasy" on Goodreads to locate historical fantasy books; she found The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston, a historical fantasy fiction. I appreciated she asked if I was okay with reading a book about witches before ordering it for me. She didn't further narrow the Goodreads results, but she did show me her searching process so I could do it myself at home.
Eventually, the librarian remembered 2 historical books she read: a bookclub book, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (YA historical fiction) and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (historical fiction). I was more on board with the Revolution recommendation. I ended up enjoying the experience of readers' advisory; 3 of the 4 books she ordered were titles I wouldn't have found or ordered on my own.
Resources she used: Her own reading experiences, bookclub reads, Google, and Goodreads
Positives:
- Tried her hardest to have me go home with a book in-hand
- Valued giving a personal recommendation she could vouch for
- Was able to “sell” the book The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue better to me because she had read it, loved it, and was very familiar with the premise.
- Showed me her process of searching on Goodreads so that I could look for more books on my own
- Never assumed I would be okay with all types of content
- Disposition didn’t seem annoyed or aggravated with taking an extended amount of time to find books for me
Negatives:
- Lack of using other tools. A quick search on NoveList of recommendations of The Gilded Wolves gave more similar titles of teen, historical, and fantasy. None of the NoveList results were books she ordered for me
- It took a little longer than needed (in my opinion)
- 1 of the 4 books she ordered wasn't historical
- 1 of the 4 books wasn't labeled fantasy
- She didn’t fully describe all her book recommendations
- Didn’t ask me as many questions as she could have (like how many books I wanted, or any further ways to narrow down Goodreads results of “historical fantasy,” newer or older releases, etc.)
Brittany,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a very thorough Readers' Advisory experience to me, even if it left something to desire. I would have asked if you would like to branch out before recommending things outside the realm of your request, so that seems a bit off, as well as her seeming to take such a long time to accomplish searches. Do you think she was trying to just remember/know things rather than look them up? I wonder because it's such a fine line to be overly reliant on computers vs utilizing them to assist patrons quicker.
I am actually super interested in The Silver Witch book, and cannot wait to look it up. A number of these do sound like good titles in any case, so not a total loss.
I was also surprised at her lack of further "negotiating the question," but I didn't want to be rude or pushy so I just went along with wherever the librarian took the advisory experience. And now that you mention it, I guess at first she seemed a bit flustered with finding a read-alike. Maybe it has been awhile since she's done such an interview, or perhaps at that branch they hardly get patrons who ask for reading suggestions. But I knew her from my librarian system, and knew she has a MLS degree and all, which I suppose is why I was a little put-off that she didn't conduct this as easily as I anticipated. Oh well, like Erin pointed out, it could also have been the librarian was having an off day, as we all do!
DeleteI'm also interested in reading The Silver Witch! Actually, all 4 books she suggested and ordered for me happen to be pretty well reviewed on Goodreads.
I too have never read the Silver Witch and am intrigued :) Great summary, I love that you included the book covers!
ReplyDelete