When You Need a Good Suggestion

It's not rocket science, how we library staff help you find a good read (or listen). Most of us are readers, so we can easily pull some of our favorite titles from our memories. We even post some to our other blog: staff picks. Other times, we're not sure of your likes, so we ask some key questions about what you've liked in the past, what kind of story you prefer. We can then draw upon the reading preferences of our co-workers, since we really do talk books to each other. Or we have tools like Novelist. You can easily access Novelist through our webpage. Novelist is most useful for listing all the works by a particular author, with brief summaries. With some time you can delve deeper into the depths of Novelist and find read-alike lists for authors you have read everything by, or for titles you just loved. Sometimes, you need to provide more information, since often it's not the locale or the plot that you loved, but rather the characters who were developed so finely that they became your friends and you regretted the ending of the story. There are several very good websites where even more suggestions are provided. Even Amazon lists other books customers selected when you look up a particular title. But we're here, and we just love talking with you about books. All you have to do is ask!

The People We Meet

There's something so very valuable about providing library service in a community with one half of the population older adults living in planned retirement communities. Early on in my tenure, I was given an extremely useful piece of advice:for many people here you may be the first person they've talked to today. This was brought home again to me as I read The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. In the book we meet Leo Gursky, a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping Nazi SS officers in Poland, only to spend his twilight years terrified that no one will notice when he dies. He makes a point of being seen when he's out, like buying a juice even if he's not thirsty, or when he buys something and feels the clerk hasn't noticed him, he'll drop his change and make a small commotion so he'll be remembered. So, too, with our library users. They just need some words in return that say you've noticed them. I need to remember that. I entered this profession because I recognized a field where I could have a positive impact on the lives of the individuals with whom I come in contact. Each day I'm given the opportunity to acknowledge someone, with a simple smile, a book recommendation, a few minutes to listen to a personal story before they go home, perhaps to an empty house. And it's not only the older folks. With so many people working at keyboards remotely, face to face conversation may be a rare commodity in their days as well. We all need a portion of that human contact. When you call our library your call is not answered by an automated system but by a library staff member. We acknowledge the profound importance of personal contact, be it in person or over the phone. We make it personal to say we value you.