When I started my job at Libraries Unlimited two years ago, one of the first projects that I was asked to consider for development was an online product based on the Genreflecting series published by Libraries Unlimited. Genreflecting? I had not yet come across the field of readers' advisory in my coursework as a new LIS student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, let alone in my years of experience in the publishing field. Then I learned the history of the series; about the contributions of Betty Rosenberg and Diana Herald to genre literacy, how Nancy Pearl had applied Saricks and Brown's appeal features to mainstream fiction, and how the series developed along with the burgeoning readers' advisory field under the guidance of LU editor Barbara Ittner. Readers' Advisory? Geez, I didn't know that such great jobs existed! In my cataloging class at UIUC I learned about Sandy Berman's work at Hennepin County Library, and saw how it had influenced the development of NoveList. What would the next generation of readers' advisory tools look like?

At the 2005 ALA midwinter conference in Boston, we ran focus groups and workshops to assess the need for and viability of creating a new readers' advisory product. The participants indicated that they needed a tool that would support their work with patrons, link to the OPAC, allow maximum flexibility in searching, and provide multiple access points to the literature-by reading interests and genre in addition to the traditional author, title, and subject. They also wanted a product that included nonfiction, a rather glaring omission in the products then available.

From the input we were getting, we knew that the technology chosen would have to be extremely flexible, and allow access through multiple portals, and allow us to add new access points in the future. We chose topic maps for the Reader's Advisor Online. There is a lot of jargon that can make topic maps seems complex, but the core concepts are actually quite simple. Topic maps can be described as a back-of-the book index for digital information; they provide a way to collocate information, and explore and navigate the relationships among the topics. Topic maps are an ISO standard and are expressed in XML. The standards focus of topic maps was important to us; we didn't want a black-box type of technology that would tie us to specific software. In fact, topic maps are also an excellent choice because they allow for interoperability through the use of published subject indicators (also called PSI sets). In the future, we intend to make use of PSI sets to "publish" our taxonomy (perhaps more accurately, folksonomy) of genres and subjects, thereby making them widely available to the LIS community and for interoperating with the semantic web.

In mid-May of this year, Libraries Unlimited launched the Reader's Advisor Online, based on the Genreflecting book series and what we believe belongs to that new generation of tools. Building on the tradition and history of LIS, we designed a product that took advantage of new and emerging technologies, going beyond simple database and bibliographic retrieval. Amazon is a widely used resource for bibliographic research, even by librarians (coincidently, it's free); the "you might also like" feature is based on buying habits and viewing patterns. Netflix recommends movies based on similar user data. In contrast, the recommendations in the Reader's Advisor Online are based on the editorial judgment of our Genreflecting authors. We found topic maps to be a perfect match for our editorially derived content, and for leading users to read-alikes.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Genreflecting series, let me explain that it organizes popular fiction and nonfiction by genre, subgenres and appeals. Genres matter; books are published by genre, and genre is the second most popular method (after author name) that readers use to find books (Ross 2006). Our genre categories aren't intended as a lit-crit or scientific type of classification, but are characterized by the appeals and themes that reflect strong areas of popular reading interest, draw readers to the genre/subgenre, and help them find more enjoyable reading within that genre.

In Reader's Advisor Online a single book can appear in multiple genres or subgenres. Why? Because "no two readers read the same book", so while mystery fans might enjoy Stuart Kaminsky's Toby Peters series for their classic hard-boiled qualities, historical fiction fans enjoy the nostalgic atmosphere of Hollywood in the 1940s. Genreblending is an important publishing trend. In fact, we consider genres so vital to readers' advisory work that, with the help of our authors and advisory board, we created a genre hierarchy (we call it the genre "tree") that can be browsed/searched on the Advanced Search page, or used in combination with other search fields. The genre tree also includes "appeal features" for mainstream fiction, which function similarly to subgenres. Don't know much about genres? You'll find definitions for every genre and subgenre, fiction and nonfiction, in Reader's Advisor Online. (The definitions are available from the Advanced Search, Search Results and Work pages.) Access to titles by subject, theme, and reading interest is also available, either separately or in conjunction with genres.

One of the main goals and strengths of Reader's Advisor Online is that it helps readers' advisors more easily find related reading. Read-alikes are listed at the work (book) level. Beyond these title-specific recommendations, the Read-Alike Finder can lead you to further suggestions. This is where the power of the topic maps really shows. The Read-Alike Finder is available on every search results and work page. It shows you the genres, appeals, subjects and awards for the search results (or work) and by selecting or eliminating characteristics, allows you to find related reading without returning to the search page.

What's next? Well, we're eagerly awaiting feedback from the librarians who are trialing the product, but we have lots of plans and ideas for further developing Reader's Advisor Online. Content is being updated as we speak, and we'll continue updating on a monthly basis. Look for reproducible read-alike lists, series sorting capabilities, a new tip sheet and user guide, and, well—you tell us! If you have suggestions for improvement, e-mail us at: webmaster@lu.com.

References
Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. 2006. The Readers' Advisory Interview, in Genreflecting, sixth edition, Libraries Unlimited.

Laura Calderone is Managing Editor, Electronic Products at Libraries Unlimited and a student in the master's program in library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (LEEP option). Past publishing gigs have included stints at Oxford University Press, Kluwer Academic Publishers and McGraw-Hill. Laura is working on an independent study in subject access to fiction with Sandra K. Roe (Illinois State University).