Week 5 NoveList Plus

October 28, 2012

Is your library able to connect with readers no matter where they are 24/7? Do your patrons want to know what title comes next in their favorite mystery series? Are your patrons looking for something similar to their favorite author until his/her next book is published? Are you trying to increase awareness of the collection you’ve worked hard to build, for both new and older items? NoveList is a wonderful tool to help connect your readers with the books they will love!

NoveList Plus, an upgrade to NoveList, is EBSCO’s classic readers’ advisory database. NoveList Plus describes both fiction and nonfiction titles for all ages, offers expert reading recommendations from professional librarians, and suggests read-alikes for every title, author and series. Also available in Marvel are the following subsets: Novelist K-8, NoveList, NoveList K-8 Plus, and NoveList Plus.

If your library is like most libraries across the country, your readers are visiting you in person as well as virtually. So how do you reach out to them, wherever they are, whatever time of the day it is? That’s where NoveList Plus comes in. The staff at NoveList has created readers’ advisory services and outreach solutions aimed at meeting your readers no matter where they are or what time of the day it is by putting librarian-crafted content and reading recommendations on the website, in their inboxes, and in the catalog.

NoveList Plus includes such features as Grab and Go Book Lists (books on a range of reading levels in a variety of interests), 300 + Recommended Reads, Book Discussion Guides (with questions and answers as well as suggestions for further reading), nearly 2,000 searchable awards lists, featured articles, booktalks, and curricular connection articles on a variety of topics. Put simply you won’t find a more complete, robust readers’ advisory database anywhere. To help you get started, NoveList provides some great tutorials on their website.  There’s also a short tutorial on the Maine State Library website.

Discovery Exercise:
Create a blog posting discussing the following questions and observations you have about NoveList Plus. All resources can be accessed via this alphabetical list.

1. The basic search bar appears on every page in all of the NoveList products. Pick a series that you would like to read. Type that series into the search box, check “series” then select search. Right above your results you will see a bar that includes “sort by” and “view.” Post on your blog how the use of the “view” component could make your job connecting readers with books easier.

2. You have just finished the last David Baldacci book. You really enjoy plot-driven, fast paced suspense stories. How can you find something new to read that is similar to Baldacci’s style? Type into the search box “David Baldacci,” check “author” then select search. David Baldacci will appear on the screen. There will be a brief description of his writing style, information about the appeal factors for his work and a listing of all the books he has written. Look to the right of the page and you will see “Read-alikes from NoveList.” In this case there are 9 authors recommended. The first three are displayed underneath. By hovering over the magnifying glass a box will pop up to tell you why this is a solid read-alike choice. If you click on the author link it will give you the same information for that author. If you hit the “Print All” you will get a page with all 9 authors listed and a brief reason for their placement in this category. In your blog, tell us
how using this tool could make your job easier and promote better customer service in your library.

3. Take some time to explore this robust database. How can using NoveList Plus help you to increase awareness of the collection you have worked so hard to build, for both new and older items? Share what you take away from this exercise on your blog.

4. Take a few minutes to read what your fellow participants have said about the previous question on their blog.