I work with the NSW readers advisory working group. Readers advisory work is about asking people – what do you feel like reading, what do you like reading – and is undergoing a resurgence in public libraries in Australia. In NSW the State Library of NSW has been rolling out the Libraries Alive Rewarding reading (http://www.librariesalive.com.au/Rewarding_reading.htm) training to public libraries. Readit2011 is a twitter based reading group which anyone can participate in.
It builds on a reading challenge for New South Wales public library staff which ran in 2010 which encouraged library staff to read outside their comfort zone, and to share this information on the Readers advisory wiki http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/ The aim was to help make people more effective in doing their day to day work. This was coordinated by the steering committee for the NSW Readers Advisory Working Group
This year it was decided that public library staff should not have all the fun, and so it was opened up to anyone who wanted to participate, anywhere. There is a tag for the entire year, readit2011 as well as themed tags for each month of reading. Photographs shows public library staff at annual readers advisory seminar held in March.
Themes were worked out at a readers advisory meeting like this one. Ideas had been shared on the Readers Advisory wiki (http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/) prior to this meeting as the whole group can never get together. Photograph shows readers advisory meeting in Nowra, 2011. Overall theme = #Readit2011 January #suagb (Scare up a good book – horror? This tied in with the children’s summer reading theme) February #heartreads (romance) March #specfic (fantasy – this tied in with the readers advisory seminar theme) April #oznzreads (ANZAC and writers from both countries) May #grrlpower (women/mothers) June #goreads (travel) July #whodoneit (crime) August #geekreads (science) September #bookbites (food) October #egoreads (Biography) November #moreads (Men with mustaches) December #summerreads (what to read when it’s hot or hot-reading)
Some themes for this year were picked to tie in with other things happening, like May having Mother’s day, National Science Week is in August and November is Movember
The twitter based reading group is promoted via a blog http://readit2011.wordpress.com/ People are encouraged to tweet, comment on this blog (or write their own blog posts) or post images to Flickr about their themed reading. Many people are participating without using social media as well.
May blog post
Cathy, Jenn, Vassilki, Amy, Helen, Therese and I are doing the coordination. Locations of these librarians include Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga, Bowral and different parts of Sydney. The planning has been done by e-mail, teleconference and google docs as we are usually all in the one place once a year at the annual readers advisory seminar in March.
Libraries are picking up the reading group and promoting it in their own way Readers in the mist, Blue Mountains City Library blog http://readersinthemist.blogspot.com/
Twitter @wingecaribee
@townsvillelib
It is great to see there is a take up outside New South Wales and outside public libraries Read @ UTS http://read.lib.uts.edu.au/
People are encouraged to tweet about their reading each month whenever it is convenient for them
Each month, on the last Tuesday of the month there is a twitter based discussion at 8.00pm. The discussions are lasting for over two hours.
The group is using twapper keeper to explore some of the use of the hashtags each month. This shows the recent #oznzreads http://summarizr.labs.eduserv.org.uk/?hashtag=oznzreads
March specfic discussion showing volume and interactivity http://summarizr.labs.eduserv.org.uk/?hashtag=specfic
Promotion is important and the readit2011 t-shirts are part of a series of t-shirts sold through redbubble They are designed by Cathy Johnston, and are for all New South Wales Reference and Information Services related events.
Redbubble is a print on demand model so you can choose your style, colour and size and it is printed just for you. The Readers Advisory Group is not taking a margin on any of the products, so all the money is going to Redbubble You can buy them from Redbubble at http://www.redbubble.com/people/nswrisg
David Lee King happily wearing one of the #readit2011 t-shirts see http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidking/5589809243/ So where to from here? There are still quite a few months to go in 2011, so there are many tweets, blog posts and images to come for the rest of this year…it is not too late to join in
In 2012 the readers advisory working group, the same ones that are coordinating #readit2011 will be coordinating the twitter based reading group for the National Year of Reading http://www.love2read.org.au/. Watch out for more information soon. A big thank you to all the people who have been involved with organising, promoting and participating in #readit2011