Secret Shopper

     

       
                There are times when a person walks into a library and may have trouble deciding what to read next, so they may seek help from another person.  At public libraries, there are staff members who can assist those in finding materials for patrons.  This is particularly seen as doing a Readers’ Advisory interview.  “The readers’ advisory interview is indispensable in the process of matching book to reader because, as we have seen, the term good book is relative” (Ross, Nilsen, and Dewdney, 2002, 166).  Since I do not work at a library, I decided to be a patron looking for a book to read, and I learned what a real readers’ advisory interview is like.
                 Instead of going to my regular library in Brownsburg, I checked out a neighbor library not too far from Brownsburg.  As I walked in, it was a quiet place, and it was recently remodeled.  There were no booklists anywhere, but just the usual selected themed books all over, like clutter-free books, Star Wars, and fitness.  As I was looking in the Fiction section, a librarian asked me if I would like any help, and I answered I was looking for another Romance novel.  She asked me what my favorite authors were and I mentioned Nicholas Sparks and Susan Wiggs, as well as stating I had just finished A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks and how I was hoping to read more of his titles.  She pointed me where all of the Nicholas Sparks books were as well as the Susan Wiggs books.  She mentioned to me she had just read Nicholas Sparks’s Safe Haven and she really enjoyed it and I should give it a try.  She even mentioned how some of his books are on audiobooks if I was interested in listening to them instead of reading them.
                 I thought she did a really good job pointing out where his books were as well as giving other options, like the audiobooks.  I even liked how she gave her own opinion on some of the books because hearing other people’s opinions are just as important. I noticed that she did not mention anything about Susan Wiggs, but that was probably because I was more interested in Nicholas Sparks than Susan Wiggs.  I also noticed how she did not use any resources, but rather what I mentioned, mainly the authors.  I think it was probably because I gave the impression that I was more interested in Nicholas Sparks than any other Romance novels.   Maybe I should have been more specific about what I was looking for and not just focus on one author. 
                While I was doing this, I could not help but think about when I did a reference interview last year and it made me see how similar they are as well as how different they are.  Readers’ advisory is based off of a patron’s likes and dislikes, while a reference interview is more of finding informational needs. “Success in readers’ advisory work depends on learning and systematically using a cluster of skills that can be acquired.  It does not depend on some inborn knack that lucky people are born with but others can never learn” (164).  I am not sure what I expected when I did this, but I got the impression readers’ advisory interviews are more about my interests than simply finding something I might enjoy.  Maybe I am still thinking like a reference interview than a readers’ advisory interview, but at least I am starting to see how these two interviews are so similar and different at the same time.

Reference:
Ross, C. S., Nilsen, K., & Dewdney, P. (2002). The readers’ advisory interview. In Conducting the Reference Interview (pp. 163-175). New York: Neal-Schuman. [Files - Canvas]