Readers' advisory is a well-developed practice in the United States, but today it is no longer limited to US libraries. Reader-centred work, started in the UK by the company Opening the Book, and now practised by the majority of UK library services, goes beyond guiding the individual patron to their next book. It seeks to open up a whole range of reads that patrons might never know about — the unusual, the forgotten, the less well-known, the previously rejected. It encourages readers to take a risk with a book, secure in the knowledge that there is no pressure to finish if it doesn't work out. Rather than recommending books, reader-centred work sets out to enable people to discover something new for themselves.
Opening up choice can work well if libraries set out to tempt and surprise the reader. We all tend to like what we know and find it hard to choose beyond our comfort zone. Some library users, for example, say they would never read a fantasy novel because they have a fixed idea of what kind of reading experience such a book offers and they are not keen on quests or mythic epics. Any fantasy section in a library will contain titles that don't involve dragons in any way, even on the cover, but as the "fantasy hater" never browses this section, they will never discover the diversity within the genre. We need to find a different way to reach the reader who walks right past the fantasy display. Presenting fantasy books that escape their genre, mixed in a display of fiction and narrative non-fiction that offers a mystery (for instance), might tempt that patron and open up a whole new area of reading enjoyment.
Some readers, if asked, will name a long list of favourite authors or genres, while others go blank and cannot summon the name of a single writer. In truth, what all readers want is a particular reading experience — that elusive good read we all desire but cannot define. Readers want to know what the book will do for them, what they might get out of it, what it feels like to read. Reading is an emotional experience that involves more than genre, plot, or story. Reading experience also depends on mood. Today you might want a comfort read, tomorrow a challenge. As everyone knows, it is quite possible to have a bad reading experience with great literature and a good experience with books others think are trash. If library promotions concentrate on the experience, they can leave the reader to judge the quality for themselves. It is not our job to dictate or judge what others should read; it is our job to present reading attractively so patrons explore the full range of options for themselves.
The unique wealth of a library lies in its range. Reader-centred display in libraries adapts retail techniques to promote back stock and help patrons discover unexpectedly good reads. Using the right books, the right location and the right message can reach many more readers than individual recommendations by staff. To be effective, library displays need to understand how people choose books and how to make the act of selection easy. The retail anthropologist, Paco Underhill, claims that 50% of customers in shops go on to buy the first thing they touch (www.envirosell.com). Do the books in your library displays tempt readers to touch them?
Libraries can use retail knowledge to help readers explore and choose, but they need to adapt techniques for the library environment. Display furniture, for instance, must accommodate many single titles face-out, rather than multiples. Bookshops stack paperback multiples on flat tables and they look great; the same technique with library copies looks like a yard sale. Reader-centred library design takes account of how readers choose and changes the organisation of the space and the collections to make it a lot easier. For example, many UK libraries now have a quick choice area near the entrance for customers without much time. Books here are randomly organised and change frequently. Patrons who know exactly what they want can walk straight past this section, but issue figures from quick choice areas confirm that browsing customers significantly outnumber focused ones. This is confirmed by asking patrons directly how they choose what to read. Library staff taking Opening the Book's online course in reader-centred work have created a database of more than 30,000 interviews on this topic.
In our society, reading is usually a solitary activity; and its pleasures and benefits are often invisible. Whilst the skill is applauded, the keen reader is sometimes not pictured positively. In the UK, one classic attitude is that it is better to do something than read about it. Those with their heads buried in a book are presented as retreating from reality instead of engaging with a mind-bending, soul-expanding experience. Some common images are unexamined. When the media, or library staff, talk about readers as 'bookworms' — is this really meant positively? In what way is a gross, usually bespectacled, green grub that destroys paper an aspirational image for young readers? Yet you often see bookworms used in library publicity.
Reader-centred work in libraries sets out to counter negative stereotypes with positive images of readers. One simple way to use direct quotes collected from readers about the place that reading has in their lives, sometimes partnered with images of real readers on library posters. When asked, readers say some very powerful and surprising things about the central place that reading has in their lives. Using what people say makes readers visible to each other.
In working with libraries across Europe on collections policy, library strategy, marketing, staff training, reading groups, outreach projects, observational research and promotions, we have found that taking a reader-centred approach can have a fundamental influence on a whole range of library practice.
RACHEL VAN RIEL is Director of Opening the Book, a company based in the UK. She and her colleagues, Olive Fowler and Anne Downes, have been developing new approaches to reader-centred work, mostly with public libraries in the UK and Europe, for 20 years. In partnership with UK libraries, they created an online tool (www.whichbook.net) to offer ways for readers to make their choice based on the kind of read they want. They also design and manufacture display furniture, reading games, national promotions and new library spaces. A book about their work with UK libraries, The Reader-friendly Library Service, is available for purchase at their website, where you can also find out what Opening the Book are currently doing (www.openingthebook.com)