The website of the Dutch libraries now provides an online book advice service.
By surfing to the Roman Advies website (oddly enough, in Dutch) Dutch people can type in one or more authors or titles and get advice on ‘what to read’.
The system uses a large book loan history in the background to create the advice. This is very much like how libraries used to work in the past, when your librarian would point you to books based on your choices.
I think this is one of the directions libraries need to go: provide wellknown services on a virtual way.
Readers advisory is great…
but, I can’t imagine keeping large chunks of user data on hand to help with reading choices. US libraries are working hard to get rid of that sort of information to protect their users. Reader’s Advisory is, I think, a dying art, although I do use NoveList fairly often. We just lost our best real-live reader’s advisor a couple months ago. Some patrons get this hang-dog look when they approach the desk now, knowing that none of us has read the latest James Patterson, or has a ready-made list of what to read next in our head.