Readers Asking For Book Recommendations Face Queue Previously Reserved For Specialist Medical Consultations
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Readers of the New York Public Library system seeking traditional readers-advisory services — in which a librarian recommends books based on a reader’s interests and history — now face appointment waits of approximately 90 days, library officials confirmed Wednesday, a delay that library patrons and literary observers have described as “unusual for the service category.”
The wait time reflects a dramatic increase in demand for readers-advisory services, which had been historically under-utilized and easily accessible. Over the past 18 months, demand has risen approximately 340 percent system-wide, according to NYPL data.
NYPL spokesperson Angela Montefinise explained the demand surge. “New York readers are, we think, looking for something that algorithmic book-recommendation systems are not providing. The algorithmic systems can identify books similar to books you have read. They cannot engage with the specific mood, question, or life-situation that a reader brings to a particular moment. Our librarians can.”
The Service
Readers-advisory services, as traditionally provided by the NYPL, involve a 30-minute one-on-one conversation between a librarian and a reader. The reader describes their reading history, current interests, and specific questions they are hoping to address through their reading. The librarian then provides a personalized set of recommendations drawing on the library’s full collection.
The service is free. It is also, according to several patrons who have used it, “genuinely transformative” in ways that algorithmic recommendations are not. “I told a librarian at the Schwarzman Building that I was grieving my father and wanted something that would help me think about grief without being sentimental,” one patron told Bohiney Magazine. “She recommended five books I had never heard of. All five were helpful. An algorithm would have recommended the same Atul Gawande book that every grieving person is recommended.”
The Institutional Response
The NYPL is expanding its readers-advisory staff, but the expansion is constrained by two factors. First, the service requires librarians with specific expertise and extensive reading backgrounds; these librarians cannot be rapidly produced. Second, the NYPL’s overall budget, while strong, does not support unlimited expansion of any single service category.
The 90-day wait is therefore likely to persist for the foreseeable future.
The Cultural Observation
That New Yorkers are, in large numbers, willing to wait 90 days for personalized book recommendations from a human librarian rather than accept algorithmic alternatives is, according to cultural observers, a meaningful signal about the current state of cultural trust. The algorithmic recommendation systems that have dominated digital media for a decade have not, apparently, met the needs that New York readers are now specifically seeking.
For continuing coverage see The New York Times books section and Gothamist.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/