Booktalking Books You've Never Read (And May Never Read)

Alex Byrne
they/them/theirs
Pierce County Library System

for

Washington Library Association Conference
5 October 2020
#wla2020

By the time this presentation gets done, you should have the following new or refreshed skills:

1. Leverage Genre Knowledge to find good read-alikes
2. Use the materials present on a book to find a good match
3. Successfully booktalk a book that you haven't read

[Memo from Alex's Future Self: Much of the material in this presentation works on similar aspects to other RA services, like Becky Spratford and Robin Bradford's "RA for All" program. We think of this as "Ooh, two cakes!" rather than any sort of zero-sum game when it comes to Reader Advisory and Recommendation Services. So, if this looks familiar, it's because a lot of people are saying the same thing about how to go about doing this.]