Collection Reflection

You may have heard of a movie releasing this weekend about a certain Caped Crusader.  After you've seen it (and, if you're like me, seen it AGAIN ), you'll be looking for something to keep the superhero buzz going until the next movie.   Fear not, the library is here to fill the need. "A Movie in Your Mind."  Graphic Audio takes on audiobooks in a whole new way.  They are full cast, complete with sound effects that sound incredibly real.  More than once, I've thought a siren in the audio was about to pull me over.  For an immediate post-DKR Batman fix, try.... Batman: Inferno   Batman: The Stone King Batman: No Man's Land Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 Batman: Dead White If you're ready to upgrade to the full Justice League, we also have Crisis on Infinite Earths , Infinite Crisis Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 , 52  Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 , Trail of Time , Exterminators , and individual stories featuring Green Lan...

At ALA last week, I participated in a panel called "The Great Non-Fiction Readalike: If You Like This, You'll LOVE That," which featured readalike recommendations in different subject areas based on carefully chosen "touchstone" books. What does reader's advisory have to do with collection development? Good collection development requires a librarian to look ahead in the publication schedule and figure out what books patrons will need and want, based on the library's collection policies, patron requests, past demand, and intuition. Reader's advisory uses many of the same skills to match up patrons and books; the two processes are part of the same continuum of collection management and customer service. Ideally, patrons should end up checking out books they want to read and know that they can come back to the library for similar books. What we were trying to address with the panel was a perception among librarians that it is somehow more difficult...