Often if a patron is especially interested in a genre I don’t read (westerns, for example), it can be hard to keep abreast of the most recent titles to suggest to them, as well as find some classics that they may have missed.
I use NoveList for a number of questions, including series order and read-alikes, but have recently started using the Keeping Up feature as well, available from NoveList’s homepage. NoveList has created Keeping Up pages for most of the most popular genres, including Dystopian Fiction and Mystery. These pages include a selection of the most recent titles in that genre, as well as curated booklists and genre essentials.
Keeping Up aggregates best-of and award lists and can point you to key titles and authors in the genres that may not end up on your own reading lists. To this end, there is also an array of readers’ advisory tools and advice from other librarians that will help to acclimate you to these conversations.
Many of the Keeping Up pages are also geared to both an adult and YA audience (there is even a YA Lit Keeping Up all on its own). Need high fantasy suggestions for a teenage boy? Keeping Up has you covered!
Another great feature of Keeping Up is the printable marketing materials included. Read-alike bookmarks and more are perfect for supplementing book displays and make on-the-fly booktalks easier and more effective.
While NoveList isn’t one of our digital resources that is constantly updating and evolving, it has much to offer both patrons and librarians. Sharon had a great earlier Virtual Lexicon post on the Book Discussion Guides available through NoveList, which is another great resource that should be highlighted again.
Nobody can keep up with all the titles and genres that patrons are interested in and NoveList can help immensely in those difficult “Well what do I read next?” questions we all face.
Jeff (South Park)