Week 4 - Secret Shopper Summary

 

Overall, I would say my secret shopper experience was fine. I went in asking for a good book that would keep me engaged and the librarian stuck with the general questions: “What genres do you like?” and “What are your favorite books/authors?”. While this is a great place to start I was hoping for more in depth questioning that I didn’t end up getting. I also mentioned that I’ve been reading the same few genres lately and wanted to try something different, but she didn’t end up recommending anything beyond authors of the two genres I originally mentioned. 

I picked up two books by authors she pointed out, but I didn’t end up adding either to my TBR. I was already familiar with the authors she suggested, and I haven’t read them before because they don’t really interest me. The short amount of time she spent with me and the author recs she gave were a little lackluster, but based on the fact that she was going off the top of her head, she did okay. It seemed like she wasn’t really prepared for a readers’ advisory question and didn’t have much training in how to approach it. She didn’t mention using any resources like NoveList or Goodreads, but I also couldn’t see her computer. Honestly, how she approached the interaction reminded me a bit of myself when I first started working in a library. It can be nerve wracking to have someone come up when you’re not prepared or when they want a book in a genre you aren’t familiar with, so I don’t hold the outcome of the interaction against her.