Assignment #1: Read articles. Yep; done that. Watch YouTube vids. Yep, done that too.
Assignment #2 I like book trailers. Well, actually, I like the IDEA of book trailers better than many that I have watched, but still, I think that they have a future. I really do.
Just because the current generation isn't responding to them doesn't mean that book trailers can't become more popular. As one of the articles pointed out, talking heads aren't very fascinating. Mary Roach can hold our attention because she is funny; most other writers are way too reticent and awkward to be effective. So the publishers will eventually figure out that they need to create mini movie-like trailers that pique our visual interest in the same way that book jackets have in the past. The trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is an excellent example of a really well done trailer. (I mean, who wouldn't be drawn to a grandfather telling a bedtime story to his grandson about strange people in a far off place and time? Worked for The Princess Bride...)
As the publishing industry changes to keep up with the digital age, I think book trailers could become a marketing product that helps them stay current. I suspect that those who follow their favorite authors on their blogs, Twitter feeds, or publishers' websites also watch lots of random YouTube videos, so that venue is a natural for promoting books to them. Upcoming generations are more comfortable with video imagery, so as long as the book trailers are high quality, they should do fine. As the NYT article mentioned, teens already buy their books based on book trailer come ons. I feel confident they will continue to do so as adults. Consequently, future librarians will probably rely more heavily on book trailers for RA. For now, however, I think we can hark back to the first RA article assigned, and trust that the one to one human relationship is the best way to recommend books to our customers.
WHY CAN'T BCPL RUN BOOK TRAILERS ON THEIR BIG SCREEN TVS???? We could contact publishers and offer to run their current crops for a modest fee....
Assignment #3
Overall, I really, really enjoyed this project. I feel 100% more comfortable and enthusiastic about RA. Yay, you guys rock!
I wish I could say that I now spend an hour every day perusing all of the fabulous resources that you introduced to us, but frankly, summer has swamped the branch and I am mainly thinking on my feet. And the good news is: I'm OK doing that! Because of those sites, I am more currently and widely read, so I have a much larger repertoire of material to offer to people.
I now have a better sense of how to recommend a book. I am more mindful of using the appeal factors when I talk about a title. I am also more comfortable just saying a couple of sentences and then stopping. When I've given a book a powerful pitch, I don't need to oversell it.
For me, the one weak spot in the training was the week we were supposed to find fan sites. Frankly, I think that that was a waste of time. I would have much rather been asked to write more recommendations to colleagues based on their genre interests. That week also featured the Genre Prezi. While the material itself was of very good quality, I thought the Prezi format was a complete fail. Really, sometimes a list is still more than adequate. I love Prezis, and there is a time and a place for them, but when I was scrambling for time to complete assignments with 7 other colleagues vying for a shot at the computers, simple and straightforward would have been more effective.
My biggest suggestion would be to ask staff to write more recs to other staff. Short of working with a customer, I can't think of a better way to strengthen RA skills than by practicing on a captive -- and receptive -- audience.
Thanks for all of your hard work.
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