Readers' Advisory Services and the Cognitively Impaired Senior
Effective readers’ advisory services must consider the
unique traits of the serving community in order to excel at providing
exceptional materials to individual patrons, “Librarians across the country
have been examining new ways to connect readers with books and to build a
community of readers in their larger communities” (Hollands 205). As our communities grow and change, readers’
advisory services must evolve. I
inquired at a large metropolitan library and two small community libraries for
appropriate books to read with my mom, suffering from dementia. Although I have been reading with her for
five years in order to reduce anxiety and increase her quality of life, as her
deterioration progresses, I seek new materials to accommodate her specific
needs. Sadly, I have found that
libraries frequently overlook and simply cannot meet the needs of their
cognitively impaired seniors.
Readers’ advisory services are successful when unbiased
library staff assists users with selecting materials for their fiction and
non-fiction leisure reading (Saricks 1).
The traditional model of readers’ advisory does not fully satisfy the
distinct needs of patrons seeking materials as caregivers. Such requests likely require a more lengthy
discussion and search than what the typical, traditional model of readers’
advisory allows. Just as finding books
that kids love, encourages them to become stronger readers, offering books to
enrich the cognitively impaired senior nourishes the senior, enhancing their
quality of life (Nesi ). Reading is
essential and reader advisors connect the eager patron to readily available
resources, “Readers’ advisors and proponents of the service subscribe
wholeheartedly to the philosophy that reading has intrinsic value” (Saricks 1,
4). Connecting all patrons with
appropriate leisure reading material is imperative.
In order to achieve success when assisting a very unique
request, the library should offer a combination of form requests and individual
conversations and always include follow-up contact. The patron should relinquish the idea of
immediate results and allow the staff to engage in research and conversations
with other professionals in order to provide the most beneficial outcome. Although I found the personal conversations
helpful in the above-mentioned reader’s advisory inquiries, I would also
appreciate completing a form to include additional information and an allotment
of time for search and discovery of particularly helpful materials for
cognitively impaired seniors, and follow-up conversations, either digitally or
in-person, to gauge the effectiveness of the inquiry results.
Works Cited
Dinnage, Keith. Personal Interview. 11 January 2018.
Hollands, Neil. “Improving the Model of Interactive Readers’
Advisory Service.” Reference & User Services
Quarterly; vol. 45 no.3,2006, pp. 205-212.
Nesi, Olga. “It’s All About Text Appeal.” School
Library Journal’s BeTween, 1 August 2010.
Saricks, Joyce. “At Leisure:
Rethinking the Readers’-Advisory Interview.” The
Booklist, 1 April 2007, pp. 24.
Saricks, Joyce. “History and Introduction. In Readers’ Advisory
Service in the Public Library.” ALA, 2005, pp.
1-13.
