Reader, What Do You Want?

Of course I got freebies from the recently concluded Filipino ReaderCon. Books, bookmarks, stickers, book plates, recommendations and tons of ideas that I can use in the library to promote books and celebrate reading. One of these ideas is the post-it board that organizers of the ReaderCon set up in the hall.

I think it trumps down the very formal, very boring readers survey libraries conduct every year. There's nothing wrong with those surveys. It's not just hip enough. If you work in a high school library, you need to reinvent the wheel and WOW the teens a lot. So, last week, being a Friday, I set up our own post-it board in the library.

By mid-day, the upper part of the post-it board is starting to fill out. I am excited to collect and collate data taken from this survey. It will help me: a) determine the reading interest of our high school readers; b) review acquisition goals for the next academic year; c) design a more formative reading guidance attuned to their needs; d) propose a collection development budget that uses readers' feedback as context and basis for the proposal; e) plan activities that will further promote books and reading in the community.

It's not a fool proof survey but for the high school students to write answers to the questions makes their thinking visible. It is one of the many ways librarians can get to know readers better.