Secret Shopper

The library that I went to serves a single town. It has one branch and only had one desk. All queries are answered at this one desk. While there was no signage promoting reader's advisory, the librarian was very friendly and willing to help.

I asked specifically for a literary fiction recommendation. (That is the only genre annotation for which  don't have a book picked out.) She gave me a puzzled look at consulted her computer. I told her that it was for an assignment. She seemed to consult Google and then switch to Goodreads. Google gave her fairy tales and fables. Through Goodreads she was able to find some actual titles that would fall under that category. She did consult a decent tool in searching Goodreads, but did not have ask the necessary questions in order to narrow down the choices for me. She gave me a list of titles. After it seemed that was all she was going to do, I told her thank you and that I would review the titles and come back. During the reader's advisory interview, she did ask me what I liked to read. There was no follow up, however, and she did not learn much about my reading tastes.

While I wouldn't exactly call this experience unsuccessful, it was not what it should have been. I walked away with a list of titles to look into, but I still don't have a book lined up for that category. Knowing the community that this library serves and its size, I believe that this transaction was not very successful due to lack of experience. I doubt that they get many reader's advisory questions in general, and probably even fewer asking for literary fiction. Lack of knowledge and training is most likely what made this transaction less successful than it could have been.