NoveList Plus

The more I explore NoveList, the more I realize there is to find there.  I must admit that it took me a long time to start using it.  And I still don't think to use it as much as I should.  Because the lesson is on NoveList this week, I did remember to use it when a patron was looking for another author similar to one she liked.  We found several and she picked a few to try.  I have used it a lot for series information so that I can tell patrons which book comes next or use it to fill in gaps in my collection.

I like that the "view" component has several choices.  If you're a really visual person, the grid view is nice because it shows the covers.  Title and Brief view are very similar and are great for when you just want to see the titles in order and maybe print them out without having to waste a lot of paper.  Finally, the detailed view gives a brief description of each title so would be helpful for someone trying to remember if they read the book or decide if it looks appealing.

Doing the searches based on David Baldacci  brought out just how much is available through NoveList.  The magnifying glass is great because it saves you having to click to a new page to see the info about a possible read alike author.  The Print All list would be great to pass to a patron for them to use in exploring new authors and it would be easy to highlight which authors the library has and let them know that if other authors interest them, that we can use Interlibrary Loan to get books.

Sticking with Baldacci, I tried picking different items on the right handside to see  how the recommendations would change.  Different choices in Storyline, Tone, and Subject would bring different author recommendations.  Each title also shows underneath it Title Read Alikes, Author Read Alikes and Series Read Alikes.

You could explore forever in the Recommended Reads List section on the left side of the home page.  I checked out Mysteries for fun and discovered 22 sub categories several of which I'd like to explore further.

Back on the right side of the home page I checked out the Featured Articles section briefly, found a copy of an article on Canadian Mystery Writers and saved it to a folder and then emailed it to myself - very quick and easy to do.  Signed up for the RA Newsletters and checked out the rest of the great features in the Readers Advisory Toolbox.   The Award Winners section is a quick place to check out a lot of different awards and see what they are based on and get a list of award winners by year.

Could go on and on - there is so much to explore here - doing this lesson has helped me to feel a little more comfortable with using NoveList with my patrons and for help with collection development.  I just wish there were more hours in the day!!!