Thing 20

I'm fortunate that, in my library, I still get to witness old-fashioned reading...camped out in comfy chairs, stack of books to their left or right, relaxed reading. It's a wonderful thing to behold, and even better because it's usually a child or teen doing it! I'm all about trying to make libraries cozy and welcoming spaces to be, not just for the technology and virtual services, but also for those old-fashioned comforts like reading.

Again, part of my problem was that this Thing felt like multiple things, and part of it is that I just don't have as much time as I would like to devote to doing all of this as fully as possible. However, that said, I love readers' advisory and think web tools for this are a wonderful thing I use in my day-to-day work all the time! The links I would recommend are:

www.kidsreads.com
www.teenreads.com
http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/series/juv/
http://www.bettendorflibrary.com/bpl-bin/series.pl
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

As bad as it may sound, why not benefit from someone else's hard work and maintenance when it comes to keeping up with series that kids and teens alike (and adults, too!) devour? Because these tools are online and because of their "authors", they are kept very up-to-date, moreso, unfortunately, than a book on series could ever be...especially with series coming out so fast these days! I also like this one for books being made into movies:

http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/movies/

I try to share these websites and helpful technology tools with my fellow Youth Services Librarians and library staff whenever I can because, for me at least, a big part of being a librarian is being in the know or knowledgeable about finding out the answer...especially as it promotes future reading. So, I don't think the book is dead yet, by any means...not with Rowling and Meyer, especially, lighting up children and teens (and even adults!) about reading in a way rarely seen before. :)