Basically, we are a profession of people who like to read, helping others to read!
And of course, that is more complex that it might sound. Because while we like books, professionally, and we hopefully(!) are in touch with the books in our collection – more exciting new books come out every day.
How do you know what to recommend? If someone comes to you for a book suggestion in an area you know nothing about, what do you say? Reader’s Advisory (RA) is your professional strategy.
Fortunately, we have a variety of tools to help you give great answers! Have you used other resources? Tell us in the comments, so we all get better at RA work! Continue reading Reader’s Advisory Tools→
We are continuing to provide ideas, materials, and suggestions for you in our Monthly Topics! These were all taken from our annual Needs Assessment of our members – ideas identified as areas they need more information in for their work.
This is a fun topic, because we all like to talk about books (regardless of format!), and to share our love of reading! And of course it’s tough to do sometimes, because none of us can know everything about all the books.
This month we will share some suggestions on making your RA skills sharper and broader. You should also feel free to write in and give some of your best suggestions!
Social media has moved way past something only tech early adopters, or “the kids today,” are using. These tools are quick and easy ways everyone can find out what is going on in your communities (the profession, your organization, your school, your town, the library community you serve, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans…we’re not judging).
But you want to be sure you are not wasting your time on it. Social media does not generally have associated financial costs, but for most library people time is your most valuable resource. And, you want to be sure you are not violating any rules of your parent organization (town, university, school, corporation, etc.). Continue reading Getting Started with Social Media!→
This month we have talked about a few different strategies for grant writing, and shared some ideas on places to go for grants. All of this will be collected on our website, under Monthly Topics. We will also have material available in our Grants and Fundraising section.
Money is fun to have, it gives you materials you need to distribute, and brings programs to your library. Money lets you do all the things that you want to do for your community.
So don’t be shy about asking for more money!! It’s a great tool you can use to turn into better materials and better service! Don’t your patrons deserve great stuff? Of course they do! So you need to grab some grant money and provide it!
This month we will be looking at Grant Writing and all kinds of resources you might use to find, write, and administer grants.
I’ll tell you the main secret right now: It’s not hard.
