Reader's Advisory: Who Wants What?

Visitors to the library may arrive knowing, more or less, what they want to read but not exactly where to find it. For example: a curious individual may be interested in discovering how and why murders happen. This may seem like a straight-forward question for the 'Psychiatry' shelves except that he or she is headed for 'Fiction' instead. A few simple questions may lead to sending them to 'Psychological Profiles' and similar studies or over to Agatha Christie.

What do you ask? If you have already established the requirement of murder, how and why, then you still need to know where to find literature that satisfies.

Well, try: 'What kind of book do you want?'

This might be answered with 'Don't know', a reply that requires more digging.

A better question might be: 'What do you want from the book?'

Options such as 'Entertainment' leads to fiction while 'Education' leads to non-fiction.

Once you have established where in the library to look, you still have to narrow the field.

Open-ended questions such as 'Do you have a preferred time (year/date/era) in mind?' or 'What kind of murders are you interested in?' tell you if it's 'Victorian Jack-the-Ripper analyzed' or 'Ghost Detective series' that fill the need.

Closed questions such as 'Is this what you needed?' will tell you if you are headed in the right direction.

Be polite and keep trying until you succeed. A happy visitor is one that will come back again and again.

Why good readers advisory matters is a lovely site that explains in detail what kind of questions are effective, helpful, legal and kind. The writer speaks from personal experience with humor and compassion. There are links to other advisory lists as well.

Readers advisor online is another helpful site that, while not so focused on the questions to ask side of things, does cover the theory behind areas to ask about in depth. Put out by Libraries Unlimited, this site is a good one for reference and training.