Learning Never Goes Out of Style

In many ways, librarianship is an ideal career choice for the lifelong learner. Any profession which views the whole corpus of human knowledge as part of its charge is bound to attract individuals with curious, creative minds. When we add the desire to not only have this understanding but to make it available to our communities, we have a mission-oriented profession that plays a unique and essential role in contemporary society. 

Where does readers’ advisory fit within this broader mission? While any classification system is of necessity inherently limited and flawed, the Dewey Decimal System places all of fiction in the 800s, broken down further into largely Eurocentric geographical categories. Within this small category are a whole range of experiences and opportunities for learning, exploration, and discovery. Whole worlds, in fact, as every voracious reader knows. People have information needs, and they have STORY needs. Finding reading experiences that surprise and delight, that encourage empathy and understanding, and that help them connect their own inner experiences with larger narratives is a need that librarians have learned how to help their readers navigate. 

A lot has happened in the last two years, as our society has faced a global pandemic, a growing and overdue acknowledgement of social injustices, and increasing uncertainty about what the future may hold. And yet, these challenges have also shown how admirably librarians can adapt and continue to serve their communities in new ways. Adaptability is an admirable quality, but it should also be acknowledged that these circumstances have added significantly to the work that many librarians are required to perform.  

In times of significant change, it can be challenging both to remember the things we already know and to reserve space for intentional learning. But creating that space is important. Learning throughout our lives satisfies our natural urge to explore and grow and improves our quality of life by incorporating the ideas and goals that inspire us. 

Here at NoveList^®, we strive to provide you with tools that help you provide the best readers’ advisory service possible. But sometimes, a tool by itself isn’t as effective as targeted learning. Librarians often take on responsibilities and roles they must learn on the job and lifelong learning can help to fill in those gaps and provide support for the unexpected new responsibilities. Who learned about marketing or working with governing boards when getting their library degree? Anyone? In the past year, we’ve developed Learn with NoveList, a series of courses and training which distill our staff’s shared decades of experience into courses designed to help you be effective and confident champions for libraries, books, and readers.  

We have a variety of readers’ advisory courses from the foundations of readers advisory and genres to a self-paced course designed to help you develop a strategic plan for readers’ advisory at your library. But providing readers’ advisory service is only one part of truly being an advocate for your library and all the services you offer. We also offer courses on marketing foundations, promoting your collection, and a course on effective advocacy to help your library gain stakeholder and community support. Courses are available via in-person or online training, and we also have self-paced, individual courses available. Our instructors have put a lot of love into these learning experiences and are eager to share them with you.