Secret Shopper

I had a positive experience at a small city-branch library. The librarian was engaging and helpful and I felt that my question was important and my time valuable. Not everything was perfect. I felt that the initial questions for the RA from the librarian were superficial and not directed at finding what I was interested in reading. Nonetheless, I would recommend the library, and librarian, to someone looking for something new to read.

Week Three Prompt

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

I would recommend the next two books in the Anita Blake series, The Lunatic Cafe and Bloody Bones.

These choices seem straightforward for the request, following the book reading order. I also think it would be worthwhile to confirm that the first two books in the series, Guilty Pleasures and The Laughing Corpse, had been read.

I would also recommend the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of graphic novels that share the same titles as the books.

In suggesting the graphic novels I thought the patron may enjoy seeing the stories told through a visual medium. It is also an opportunity to broaden the patron's experience with an alternate form of reading, different than the traditional book.

For me it was quicker to find the Anita Blake series book order from Wikipedia than it was from Novelist. Entering the keywords "Anita Blake series" into Novelist did not return a results list for the novels under the "Series " tab. Altering the search to just "Anita Blake" returned a link to the book series in numerical order. 







2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

I would recommend The Gentlemen Poet by Kathryn Johnson. 


I based this recommendation on the Novelist keywords from Prodigal Summer, "lush" and "lyrical." I also added the keyword, "fast-paced" and chose Johnson's book based on the "Romantic" tone listed in Novelists' Book Appeal Terms for Prodigal Summer, in connection with the short description of the book. 

I would also recommend The Enchantress of Florence by Salmon Rushdie. 

For this recommendation I again used "fast-paced" and "lyrical" as keywords in Novelist, but replaced "lush" with "complex." This gave a different result list and I chose the Rushdie novel because he is a popular author and one I am familiar with. 

I focused my searches on Novelist's "Writing Style" book appeal terms (those associated with Kingsolver's book), since the original question was concerned with the writer's style. Determining other keywords to use was trickier, not knowing what other factors may appeal to the patron.


3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern - historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!


My first recommendation, for fiction, is The Dragon Scroll by I. J. Parker

I made this choice based on the keywords, "Japan" and "historical" and "descriptive." This novel is the first in a long series and by suggesting it I thought that the patron would then have a clear continuation of books to read, assuming the initial recommendation was enjoyable. 


My second recommendation, this time for non-fiction, is Kendo: Culture of the Sword by Alexander Bennett

I used similar search keywords for this recommendation, "Japan" and "historical." The keywords "richly detailed"  offered more results than "descriptive."  I also searched for just nonfiction titles. I 
chose this particular title because it offers a historical account of Japanese culture, something I think would assist the patron feel like he "was there!" It is also not entirely clear the patron is seeking solely fiction, so a nonfiction title is an appropriate choice, I think. 






4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?


My initial recommendations are A Great Deliverance and Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George

Through Novelist I was able to determine that Well-Schooled in Murder is the third of a series. For this reason I suggested the first two novels in the Thomas Lynley series. This seems like an obvious first choice to me, given the available information.

I would also recommend Cover Her Face by P.D. James

For this suggestion I used the Read-alike option in Novelist. The keywords match nicely. I was also conscious of avoiding keywords associated with John Sandford that I thought could be construed as "creepy." These were "flawed," "violent," and "gritty." This is also the first book in a longer series, which may appeal to the patron, based on the fact that Well-Schooled in Murder is also part of a larger series. 





5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

I would suggest The Rage, Volume 1: Zombie Generation

I found this title as a Read-alike to The Walking Dead, Vol. 1. I chose it because it was a graphic novel that featured zombies. It is collected in a series of volumes, much like The Walking Dead series. It appears to share similar similar themes of violence and action. The only matching keyword in Novelist with The Walking Dead series was "compelling." 




I would also recommend The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman

This title was a Novelist Read-alike suggestion for World War Z. I chose it because the synopsis/book description makes it seem similar to the same type of fiction as World War Z. A fictional story pretending to be nonfiction. I also made this suggestion because it is a novel, not a comic book, in order to balance the first recommendation, and to match the medium to the patron's initial comparisons. 

Reader Profile

I love to read. My favorite genre is science fiction, followed closely by fantasy. These two genres are often intermingled, which makes the line between them unclear and their respective definitions difficult to distinguish. I like to read a variety of different genres, but as I've gotten older my reading time has unfortunately shrunk.

I also enjoy reading mysteries and detective fiction and find myself drawn to series characters like Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee and Lawrence Sander's Archie McNally. I don't read much horror fiction, but Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, as well Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Leigh Brackett and Jack Vance.

I did not reach my reading goal last year, alas, but these were my favorite reads from 2015:

The Prefect - Alastair Reynolds This book takes place in the same science fiction setting of British author Reynolds' Revelation Space series. Reynolds fiction is often categorized as the "New Weird SF," or just the "New Weird." This book is a murder mystery blending detective fiction with SF.

Hiero's Journey - Stanley E. Lanier This story takes place thousands of years in the future after a post-apocalyptic destruction of modern society. Lanier's protagonist Hiero undergoes a mythical quest across a wild and overgrown landscape of ruined cities and degenerate cultures encountering giant animals, psychic bears, evil sorcerers, friendship and love.

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. le Guin Le Guin became known for writing science fiction with a more anthropological and sociological viewpoint than her peers and predecessors. This novel details the adventures of an off-world anthropologist on a planet where humanity has evolved into hermaphrodites. Winner of the 1970 Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street Review

Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street by Warren Ellis collects the first three issues of the DC Vertigo title.
Transmetropolitan is the story of journalist Spider Jerusalem in the near-future of "The City," a pseudo NYC/London/other large cities. As a journalist Spider is called back into the city to complete previously promised work. He comes down out of the mountain and causes large amounts of violence and takes a lot of drugs and becomes the voice of the marginalized and downtrodden. He also gets beat up a lot. And takes a lot of drugs.
Spider Jerusalem is Warren Ellis' sci-fi version of Hunter S. Thompson, and the later volumes and issues even follow a presidential campaign, similar to Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Transmetropolitan is my favorite comic series. All issues are collected in graphic novel form. If you like science fiction, journalism, Hunter S. Thompson, drugs, violence, drugs and two-headed cats, then this comic is for you.

Facebook and Google+

The two social networks that I use the most are Facebook and Google+. I think that they both offer a similar way to post information, although I think that Facebook is the easier application to use. Google+ has some interesting differences in that you can create and join circles. This makes for smaller and smaller social networks inside the larger framework. I find myself using Facebook as a resource to keep up to date with family and friends, as well as getting a feel for how people respond to popular media. I use Google+ more to follow favorite artists, bloggers, writers and creatives. I also like the way that Groups works, it is easy to follow specific ideas and/or groups than Facebook. Library and information professionals can use both social networks in the way that I have. Facebook would allow for more outreach and connection with the community. With Google+ a library could connect with others in their region as a "circle" or create groups, similarly to Facebook. One post from the IUPUI (SOIC) FB page highlighting veteran service speaks to the concerns of the greater community and allows the school to sympathize, support and encourage these ideals:

Thank you to the men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country.

Posted by IU School of Informatics & Computing at IUPUI on Wednesday, November 11, 2015

MUVE and me

Most of my experience using MUVEs are gaming based. I have played a number of MMORPGs (WoW, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: TOR) and enjoy the level of detail and immense size of the games. However, multiplayer gaming with strangers has never held much interest for me. I do enjoy playing MMOs with people I know, but then scheduling has to be perfect, which is difficult. I think that MUVEs will be used extensively in the future in a variety of fields. For libraries, I see the physical space of a library being effectively modeled in virtual space. I think with adaptive technologies and advancements in VR that the virtual space will become more and more real and accessible for people. As the library is a community hub of information resources in the real-world, it will continue to be so in the digital world.

My social media history

My first introduction to social media was through various website forums. I thought message boards were a neat idea and I still engage with them today. The first time I remember hearing about the terms "social networking" on the internet was MySpace. I never created a page, but I was happy to find some from old friends. Although Facebook became far easier to use and more popular. I also love to use YouTube, Redditt and browse other peoples images at Flickr. The least experience I have is with social bookmarking sites. Although, I think that using Pinterest is in my near future.