Reading advisory vs Academic libraries

The academic libraries central mission is to support the academic achievements of their students and the research needs of their faculties. Therefore, reading advisory programs are out of scope in many academic libraries or marginally appear in a few of them. The importance of reading advisory programs has been highlighted by Smith & Young who provided suggestions for implementing reading advisory programs in academic libraries and recommended useful ways to promote libraries’ collections.
Smith & Young based their article on a survey held in 2007 by the National Endowment for the Arts that related academic achievements to the frequency of “reading for pleasure.” They stated that reading advisory programs were very common in academic libraries during the first half of the 20th century. However, with the “commercialization” of universities and the tight budgets of libraries, reading advisory programs were pushed to the margins. The authors gave some suggestions that can help academic libraries to promote readings among students and users. They advised libraries to use their current collections instead of buying new titles and to highlight the genre since classification by genre is easier to understand by users. They also stressed the importance of the jackets of books which they consider attractive. The authors recommended displays and exhibits as a method to acknowledge users of what the library has. The importance of library instruction was introduced in this article as a way to promote reading. The authors suggested showing some books or jackets in classes to motivate students about the pleasure of reading. Finally, connecting with other libraries especially public libraries that have long experience in reading advisory is an option to promote readings among college students.
The authors discussed an important yet not well-know issue which is the adaptation of reading advisory in academic libraries. They demonstrated the usefulness of such programs for both students and libraries. The frequency of reading can help students to ameliorate their writing skills. Also, these programs can help libraries in promoting their collections. The authors provided realistic and cost-effective recommendations which contradict previous studies that related the absence of reading advisory programs in academic libraries to the shortage in budgets.

Smith, R. & Young, N. (2008). "Giving Pleasure Its Due: Collection Promotion and Readers' Advisory in Academic Libraries". The Journal of academic librarianship (0099-1333), 34 (6), p. 520.