Joe Szalankiewicz
SLIS 524
Topics Paper
Readers
advisory to non-fiction
When I was 15 years old, I started
reading American Civil War books intensely.
I loved reading them because of the personal appeal to the materials
that I was reading. I loved reading the
real stories about Civil War soldiers and the battles they had participated in
during that terrible period of American History. It captivated my interest and I made me
interested in reading again. I slowly
became interested in reading other nonfiction subjects and slowly became immersed
in anything nonfiction related.
Nonfiction had restored my interest in reading and a good nonfiction
readers’ advisory could restore other young teen reading interests as
well. Using good reference tools and
booklists are good starts to establish nonfiction readers’ advisory as a viable
resource like readers’ advisory has done for fictional genres.
Another
reason I started reading nonfiction was a personal feeling I had when I read
it. I had just started researching my family history and I discovered that my
ancestors had fought in the American Revolution and the Civil War and it made me
want to read more about events that my ancestors had possibly participated in. I wanted to read something that really
happened. Sarah Statz Cords states,
“Fans of historical writing are often driven to books by their need to know
about history, or by their curiosity regarding real and defining historical
events” (Cord, 150). My example for reading nonfiction subjects is
a great reason for others to follow suit.
My
personal experiences with history and nonfiction subjects are one of the many
reasons why readers read nonfiction.
When I started reading nonfiction there was no readers’ advisory tool
for me to use to find further books on the subject of my choosing. Lately
nonfiction readers’ advisory has come to the forefront and it makes it easier
to find more books about the subject matter in which a person wishes to pursue
reading. These tools are also helping to create more readers of nonfiction
subjects because of the ability to relate nonfiction subjects with fiction
genres that readers have read in the past.
Nonfiction
readers’ advisory is an area that is not widely utilized by reference
librarians as opposed to its counterpart reader’s advisory for genre fiction.
But nonfiction readers’ advisory is slowly becoming relevant and a useful tool
in the library community. Nonfiction
readers’ advisory is a new practice that librarians are initiating so it will
take a while for the practice to be used as readily as the readers’ advisory
for fiction. Nonfiction is just as
popular as fiction and should have the same tools to access such as the fiction
readers’ advisory. Nonfiction stories are real and connect the reader to real
life events and could hold possible solutions to real life problems. Fiction
and nonfiction have their similarities and differences.
Nonfiction
and fiction have a great similarity in their writing style. Both categories have great stories, but the
difference between the two is that nonfiction readers’ advisory stories are
real life. These real stories are the
main reasons why people like to read nonfiction titles. Nonfiction educates
their readers about a particular subject and generally has been thoroughly
researched by their authors.
As a librarian, there are many types of nonfiction
subjects that are suitable for readers of fiction. Taking the Guess Work Out of
Nonfiction Readers' Advisory: What's It All About Seabiscuit? by Heather
Lawson discusses the subject
nonfiction readers’ advisory. She discusses the way librarians can suggest
nonfiction titles based on what type of fiction titles they read. She states, “Match the reader's fiction
interests with nonfiction genres. If a customer loves mysteries, they might
like true crime. Horror readers may like books written on forensics, plagues or
the occult. Character-centered fiction readers might like award-winning
biographies or memoirs. Look at award lists such as the nonfiction National
Book Award for suggestions.”(Lawson, 117).
It is important start readers with subjects that they were familiar with
so they would begin with something that they had a great interest in.
Abby
Alpert’s article Incorporating Nonfiction
into Readers Advisory Services talks about the growing trend of nonfiction
titles into readers’ advisory. She
states, “Librarians are realizing that they can increase their readers’
advisory services and expand their community of readers by applying the same
techniques that they have used to find new titles and authors for fiction
readers to working with readers of nonfiction” (Alpert, 25). Alpert is
demonstrating that nonfiction and fiction should be treated the same when it
comes to readers’ advisory.
Finding
resources for librarians to use to help recommend nonfiction titles for
users. Alpert gives examples of
resources that librarians use. It is very important to provide reading lists
and other resources for readers so they know what kind of nonfiction titles are
similar to many fictional titles. She
states, “Some of the common resources that readers’ advisors have been using
include bestseller lists and reviews of new and forthcoming nonfiction titles
in basic collection-development review sources such as Booklist, Library
Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Newspaper review sections, particularly the New
York Times Book Review, devote an increasing amount of space to nonfiction
titles” (Alpert, 30). Also, exploring
the New York Times Bestseller lists is a great way of determining what types of
nonfiction titles are popular with the public.
These resources help librarians judge what is popular in the nonfiction
field and gives them a clue on what to recommend to readers who wish to try to
read nonfiction titles.
Like
Fiction Readers’ Advisory, librarians are encouraged to create resource tools to
aid their readers to in detailing the different types of nonfiction titles. Booklists can be about cookbooks, Civil War
history, sewing, graphic novels, music, etc.
Alpert states, “Booklists and bookmarks are effective ways to increase
circulation of titles. Displays are also popular and the opportunities for
nonfiction displays are many; seasonal themes, local exhibit and event tie-ins,
and staff recommendations tend to be popular”(Alpert, 31). Booklists are one of the best ways to increase
circulation in nonfiction and making users aware of the different types of
nonfiction that is available in the library system.
Furthermore,
an electronic version for readers to utilize is a way for interested readers to
look at these titles up at home or could be looked up by mobile means such as a
smart phone. Back in 2007, EBSCO Publishing and NoveList created a new version
of NoveList. They named it NoveList
Plus. NoveList Plus would include both nonfiction and fiction. Vicki Nesting,
editor of Public Libraries talks about the pending release of NoveList Plus and
states, “NoveList Plus is intended to meet the need for expanded bibliographic
data on nonfiction titles along with browsing lists, lists of award winners,
author read-alikes, reviews, and book discussion guides for popular titles”
(Nesting, 69). NoveList Plus is a great electronic resource tool to show the
different types of the nonfiction titles and books that are related in subject
manner to the ones that they are previously read or ones that they would like
to read.
Nonfiction
Readers’ Advisory is an important resource tool in getting readers to expand
their reading habits and choices to nonfiction. Creating booklists and book
reviews are great steps in getting readers to try the nonfiction genre of
reading. NoveList Plus is a great
expansion of NoveList and makes people aware of nonfiction titles they might
not have been aware of before. NoveList
Plus is a great tool to show nonfiction titles to readers and possibly a read
that is similar to the titles they were searching for.
Nonfiction contains real stories and is more
personal to the reader than fiction and fosters readers to learn about subjects
that they are more personally connected to rather than the fictional genres
that they may normally read. I
understand readers indulge in fiction to escape from reality but nonfiction
subjects help educate readers about subjects that are important to real world
people and situations.
Works Cited
Cords, Sarah Statz. The Real Story: A Guide to Nonfiction
Reading Interests. Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.
Nonfiction Readers'
Advisory Service Coming Soon from NoveList. (2007). Public Libraries, 46(6),
68-69.
Taking the Guess Work
Out of Nonfiction Readers' Advisory: What's It All About Seabiscuit?.
(2006). Tennessee Libraries,56(2), 115-128.
Trott, B., &
Alpert, A. (2006). Incorporating Nonfiction into Readers' Advisory
Services. Reference & User Services Quarterly,46(1),
25-32.
