It’s the stuff around the stuff that’s important! Contextual readers’ advisory, intelligent bundling and the ‘remix’ reader

A presentation by Paul Brown at ALIA Information Online 2013

“We’ll come to understand that no work, no idea, stands alone, but that all good, true and beautiful things are networks, ecosystems or intertwingled parts…”

“Coherence! Understanding! Happy Users!”

“The contextual relevance of data and its expression through visualization are

intrinsic components of human communication .”

“Information obeys no border. Once deep inside any single thing you begin to find

connections to everything.”

“We must open our eyes and see that modern civilization has become so complex and the lives of civilized men so interwoven with the lives of other men in other countries as to make it impossible to be in this world and out of it.”

“Contextualisation represents an early 21st Century Everest for readers’ advisors to climb.”

“To make discovery work, we have to rely on offering books that speak to a range of tastes, which is best elucidated by a group of individuals who make judgments”.

“Assembles content from multiple sources to create new works…Reading enough to find common strands among multiple works...”

“The Reading Path is a way for the readers' advisor to make more creative connections between the reader and books of interest to that reader.”

“Readers go to a book because of its subject, but they stay for everything else.”

Our understanding of the complexity of way-finding ecosystems… “changes everything, actually.”

“The net is an unending NOW of moments and distractions and wonderments and puzzlements…”

“It’s not the book you start with, it’s the book that book leads you to.”

“History of Science Fiction”

by Ward Shelley (2011)

“…old wine in new bottles.”

“All the people, places and things from the world outside the story. And here’s where they all come together. It all begins with a book.”

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Children’s pick-a-pathAn ‘ABC’ or ‘Adventure, Boys & Contraptions’

Crikey! Extraordinary games that actually come to life – Mum I want, I want, I want!

Seeking adventures in fantastic places? You’ve come to the right place young explorer.

Step right up.

Magic, games & mechanical wonderments abound here

Ready to take on more gangs of bullies? (They don’t stand a chance, huh?)

How about more pirates (above) & some school baddies? (right)

Build things yourself (right) or compete against thousands (below)

Managing grown-ups: the Good (left) the Bad (right) and the Ugly (er, right again)

Mechanisation, both fact (left) and fiction (below). All really whizz bang stuff young dude.

Fancy a few contests involving all sorts of contraptions?

“They offer patrons the best of the library in terms of resources, expertise and imagination.”

“They help the RA librarian contextualise the collection and practise skills on a deeper level.”

“Aggregators of the future will create value by understanding the individual preferences of customers and creating personalized slices of entertainment for them.”

“…to truly create and contribute… we have to be able to connect countless dots.”

“Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."

“Please remember: things are not what they seem.”

Who we must not become: “bibliographic hospice workers concerned only with making the terminally ill library as comfortable as possible before it expires.”

Who we must become: “’Curiosity Sherpa's who lead us to things we didn’t know we were interested in until we, well, until we are.”