[Publib] PLA Revising Role Statements

[Mary K Chelton]

OK, you guys, PLA is asking for input on the revision of their role  
statements for public libraries which have not been revised since  
1998, so if you care about a formal role for readers advisory  
services, now is the time to get your proverbial selves in gear and  
send something to the PLA blog (http://plablog.org/plaserviceresponses).

The two below are already posted to the blog and reposted here for  
inspiration. (I had to include Carolyn's since I referred to it, but  
presume she will not yell at me.)

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be  
interested.

Mary K.
Mary K Chelton, Ph. D.
Professor, GSLIS
Queens College, CUNY
254 Rosenthal Library
65-30 Kissena Blvd.
Flushing, NY 11367
(718) 997-3667 direct and
voicemail, 3790 general office
mchelton at optonline.net






"Reading for the joy of it
The great majority of our regular library users come to us because  
they derive pleasure from reading. While some focus on “Current  
Topics and Titles,” more of them also read retrospectively throughout  
one or more genres. They actively seek reader advisory service from  
library workers. They are largely responsible for many of our numeric  
measures. They are the reason we keep fiction titles available longer  
than book stores do. “Popular Materials” is also too narrow to cover  
these committed library supporters, as what they value about  
libraries is their breadth of collection that can serve individual as  
well as mass tastes. If you have read The Long Tail, you can see that  
libraries were serving these niche readers long before they had  
access to Amazon and Alibris. I found the first Results to be lacking  
in awareness of this core service that has been part of community  
libraries since long before Dewey. The Bennett sisters’ trips to  
their subscription library in Pride and Prejudice is precisely this  
kind of library use and the continuing readership for Pride and  
Prejudice, even when it is not an assignment or a movie illustrates  
the same phenomenon. I hope that this time around PLA’s Results will  
address what may well be the single largest usage of the typical  
branch public library." Posted by Carolyn Caywood, Virginia Beach PL,  
10/11/06


"I would like to reiterate what Carolyn Caywood has said about the  
need to include as a "service" whether a "response" or not, the  
provision of materials for readers for voluntary reading for  
pleasure. It's the main reason I use my own local public library, and  
having participated in and out of PLA in the renaissance of readers  
advisory services (equally awkward as "service response"), I think it  
is stupid to leave it out. I agree with Bill Crowley in his book,  
Spanning the Theory-Practice Divide (Scarecrow, 2004) that public  
libraries are selling themselves into oblivion by adopting the  
"information" umbrella so beloved by LIS academics (not me) and  
university presidents. Information and communication technologies  
can  bring readers together with stories about the human condition as  
easily as they can be used to retrieve facts.

Being a good reader goes way beyond "basic literacy," and I hope PLA  
would recognize that fact in these revisions. The division certainly  
does not mind making money off vendors and librarians interested in  
the promotion of reading at conferences. It would be nice to see  
reading and readers valued in policies and PL role pronouncements,  
too." Posted by Mary K. Chelton 10/12/06