Yesterday I gave a talk for the Monmouth Librarians Association called “Readers’s Advisory Without Tears” and I promised the attendees that I’d post some useful sites for readers’ advisory work. Here they are, in no special order and just five of them, so you don’t feel overwhelmed:
Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade a free Monday to Friday newsletter about books, authors, bookstores, publishing, and media matters. Sign up for the professional edition. There’s also a readers’ edition which comes out twice a week and would be great to suggest to your patrons who want to keep up with the book world.
Omnivoracious is Amazon’s book blog, so it’s a good source for what’s selling, trending, or otherwise of intense interest to those power readers who must have the latest and best. At the moment there are several posts about “best” books in various categories: crafts, cooking, art/photography, bio and memoir, so it’s a good source for checking your own catalog and finding topics and titles for displays.
Early Word: The Publisher/Librarian Connection is a great blog/website and new book resource. It’s lively, timely and aims to give libraries the earliest information possible on new and forthcoming books.
Blogging for a Good Book is subtitled “A Suggestion a Day from the Williamsburg Regional Library” and that’s just what it is–a review every day of a new or recent book. The titles are diverse as you’d expect since individual staffers are writing about what they’re reading and enjoying. In the last few days they’ve reviewed mystery, romance, teen fiction, literary fiction and science fiction. Something for everyone. I immediately put a reserve on Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Here’s a case where you can let the folks at Williamsburg do some work for you. Read their reviews and pass them on to your readers.
Goodreads is a great social networking site for readers to exchange thoughts about the books they read and that makes it a good resource for librarians. I started using it just to record the books I read but there’s now so much more going on. As John pointed out yesterday, the Listopia feature would be very helpful for displays. Goodreads lets me know when there are new books coming out by the authors I’ve already read, allows members to set up discussion groups, publishes author interviews, and generally tries to make connections among readers. It’s worth spending some time getting to know the site.
A Reader's Place 
Thank you Roz for doing the program yesterday. I know that I learned so much and am confident many others did too! I am beginning to utilize your techniques in providing our “Power Patrons” with great recommendations.