New RA & VA resources for the new year!

Here are a couple of good Reader's & Viewer's online resources that might help you a bit, or at least give you something to look at during those seconds of free time during the work day.

Early Word: earlyword.com
A blog founded by past editor of Library Journal and Publishers Weekly & publisher of Library Journal, School Library journal & Publishers Weekly.

From their About Us page - "This is a Blog and Web site on a mission — to give libraries the earliest information possible on the books their customers will be looking for, so they can stay ahead of demand. By giving readers what they want, when they want it, we believe libraries can increase their circulation and their support."

In addition to the early info, the site is filled with tons of RA resources including links to 67 "Best of 2008" lists and a well indexed list of categories and pages.

Clerk Dogs: clerkdogs.com

A new website that was founded by a past video store owner and the founder of the movie site reel.com. It lets you enter a movie title and gives you a list of recommended titles. The twist is that unlike most websites that are driven by a complicated proprietary search algorithm, clerk dogs' database is compiled using the experience of dozens of former video store clerks who have worked together to build these "if you like..." style lists that will hopefully be more accurate than computer based models.

The site is new and in beta (test) mode, so there will be likely be changes along the way. Right now they say the site works best with crime and suspense movies.
There are other bells & whistles like a "Mash It - movie DNA" gadget that lets you modify a recommendation by adjusting variables like "violence" "action" and/or "pace" to suit your mood.

So if you are looking to help your video patrons find a film (or looking for one yourself), clerk dogs might be a good recommendation!

Happy New Year!

RAVALA IG Meeting Recap & Best of 2008

Thanks to all who attended the RAVALA Interest Group meeting last Thursday and a special thanks to Cheryl & Alice for their interesting talks about non-fiction RA and trends in fiction. We also talked a little about the idea of a "Genre Study" and we'll discuss that more in January. For those who weren't able to make the meeting, we're sorry that we didn't get to see your smiling faces, but we'll hopefully catch you at the next meeting - likely sometime in March.

There won't be a blog posting next week, but will pick things up again for January.

We opened the meeting last week by sharing our "best of 2008" picks in Fiction, Non-fiction, Audio, Music, Movies & DVD's and as we discussed during the meeting we'd like to have the RAVALA members share those picks on the blog.

The rules are simple - We just want to know what you liked best in 2008 in any of the formats listed above. If possible the title should have been released/published in 2008 (noting that some 2007 movies are released on DVD in 2008) - but if you have a favorite you want to add that wasn't from this year we won't mind at all.

So what was your favorite(s) from this year? You can list a bunch or share only one, we don't care. We just want to hear about the best of what you've been reading/viewing/listening to.

Happy Holidays to all - and wishing you lots of great reads, views and listens in the new year!

Peace!

Andrew

Dec 11 meeting info and "Best of 2008"

The quarterly RAVALA meeting takes place Thursday, December 11 from 8-9:30 am in the Support Services downstairs meeting room. Good stuff is planned - we'll be talking about non-fiction, fiction trends, audio books, music, genre studies... whew! I'm tired already!

We want to hear from you as well, so since it is the end of the year, we'd love to hear about your "Best of 2008" - what was the best book, movie, DVD, and/or music that you encountered this year? (Please, don't respond via blog comments, save it for the meeting)

We'll start the meeting by sharing our "Best of" picks and don't worry, you don't have to share a favorite in each category unless you want to! We don't have much time due to our full schedule, so we can't ask for much more than a title, author/artist/actor and a very very very brief review - but it's a great chance for you to (quickly) share those 2008 gems!

Need a reminder on what was released in 2008? Luckily our friends at Wikipedia have compiled a series of lists of books, movies, DVDs & music for the year which you can access via the links below:

2008 Books
2008 Film
2008 DVDs
2008 Music

Susan & I hope to see you at the meeting! Email us if you have any questions!

See you on the 11th! Long live RAVALA!