Reading experience librarianship: working with readers in the 21st century

Abstract

PurposeAddressed to the audience of LIS educators at all levels, from full-time and adjunct faculty teaching in LIS programs, to librarians and library consultants delivering professional development training, to practitioners who work with readers in all types of libraries, this article makes a case for replacing the term “readers' advisory” with the term “Reading Experience (RE) librarianship” as a designator of the current professional practice.Design/methodology/approachUsing historical and discursive analysis based on the extensive literature review, this article argues that a number of factors call for the change in terminology: changes in the human factor (i.e., changes in readers and reading behavior; and changes in relationships between readers and librarians) and changes in the library environment (the rise of “experience” in libraries; a greater commitment to outreach and community engagement; and the fact that librarians are already practicing RE librarianship without recognizing it as such). It also examines the role of LIS educators in fostering and supporting RE librarianship.FindingsOn the one hand, the new terminology will be more reflective of the work that reader service librarians currently do, thus doing justice to a wide range of activities and expanded roles of librarians; on the other hand, it will serve as an imperative and a motivator to further transform reader services from in-house interactions with and programs for avid readers into a true community engagement, with much broader goals, scope and reach.Originality/valueThe article stands to coin a new professional term for the transformed library practice, thus recording a radical change in longstanding professional activities and encouraging new community-oriented thinking about the expanded role of librarians in promoting reading in diverse social environments.

Reading practices of Spanish-speaking readers in the United States and Canada

“…giving readers suggestions on what to read for leisure) and transformed the broader practice of reading experience (RE) librarianship, which includes outreach, community engagement, and looking beyond in-house services to readers who already know their way around the library. Oriented toward an increasingly diverse audience of readers, RE librarianship is distinct in “its holistic approach to the reader” and accounts for “for the reader’s complex and compound universe” (Dali et al, 2020: 15); it stresses “cultural competence, diversity, inclusion and equity [as their] main guiding principles” and promotes an active engagement ofinternational readers whose perception of reading materials and motivation for reading are connected to their native language and the reading culture of their homeland, which may be distinct from the North American reading culture that we routinely place in the center of our library reader services. (Dali et al, 2020: 16)…”

“…international readers whose perception of reading materials and motivation for reading are connected to their native language and the reading culture of their homeland, which may be distinct from the North American reading culture that we routinely place in the center of our library reader services. (Dali et al, 2020: 16)…”

Reading time: exploring the temporal experiences of reading

“…3. See Dali et al (2021) for an extensive review of readers' advisory services over time and for their proposal for what they call "reading experience librarianship". See, also Plotting the Reading Experience: Theory, Practice, Politics, edited by Rothbauer et al (2016) for essays exploring the diversity of reading experiences through empirical studies with readers.…”

Tattoos and Information: Mapping the Landscape of Tattoo Research

“…Tattoos as information sources tattoos as a starting point to discuss oral histories in a library outreach program (Pionke & Osborne, 2018) readers' advisory services recommendations based on patrons' tattoos (Dali et al, 2021; Morehart, 2018) tattoos as decolonized forms of literacy and reading (Clariza, 2019; Gilhooly et al, 2019; Irving, 2019) tattoo images as information sources that assist decision‐making (Goulding et al, 2004: Salvador‐Amores, 2011) and presentation of tattoo artists' work (Force, 2020) stigmatization of tattoos and information poverty (Brouwer, 1998; Lingel & Boyd, 2013) …”

“…• tattooed bodies as repositories in the absence of the Western concept of archives (Calano, 2012), representations of indigenous cultural tattoos in contemporary archives (Jelinski, 2017;Wright, 2009) • 'intimate archives' of memorial tattoos amongst genocide survivors (Halilovich, 2016), and tattoos as personal records (Bastian, 2013;Harris, 2003) Tattoos as information sources • tattoos as a starting point to discuss oral histories in a library outreach program (Pionke & Osborne, 2018) • readers' advisory services recommendations based on patrons' tattoos (Dali et al, 2021;Morehart, 2018) • tattoos as decolonized forms of literacy and reading (Clariza, 2019;Gilhooly et. al., 2019;Irving, 2019) • tattoo images as information sources that assist decision-making (Goulding et al, 2004: Salvador-Amores, 2011 and presentation of tattoo artists' work (Force, 2020) • stigmatization of tattoos and information poverty (Brouwer, 1998;Lingel & Boyd, 2013) Tattoo related decision-making process…”