This vital book reaffirms librarians'enthusiasm for books and readers in the midst of the evolution of libraries-from reading centers to information centers where librarians are now Web masters, information scientists, and media experts. Readers, Reading, and Librarians explores the future of the book as a medium. With nearly two hundred open-ended interviews with readers who read for pleasure, this book looks at how and why they choose or reject certain books.Readers, Reading, and Librarians examines:

• reasons for the current decline in pleasure reading
• the need for librarians to sponsor book groups
• the current focus on "electronic wonders"
• balancing the missions of acting as an advisory service for readers and maintaining your library's technological services
• and much more!

Bill Katz

• Introduction: Remembrance of Things Past--and Future
• Reading, Books, and Librarians
• Making Choices: What Readers Say About Choosing Books to Read for Pleasure
• The Book's Remarkable Longevity in the Face of New Communications Technologies--Past, Present, and Future
• Some Speculation on the Future of the Book
• The Meaning of Reading: Fiction and Public Libraries
• Books Are for Use? Keeping the Faith in Reading
• A Librarian's Thoughts on Reading
• Readers' Advisory
• From Reading Words to Reading the World: Readers' Advisory for Adult Literacy Students
• Reading the Future of the Public Library
• Reaching Library Patrons with Special Services and Materials
• Flow: The Benefits of Pleasure Reading and Tapping Readers' Interests
• Children and Reading
• Clues from Conversations: An Overview of Research in Children's Response to Literature
• "The Heart's Field”: Landscapes of Children's Literature
• Librarians in Fiction
• From Cosmo and Alec to the Tallest Man in the World: Some Fictional Librarians and Their Patrons
• Best Books and the Canon
• Best Books and Readers
• A Prevalence of Lists
• Index
• Reference Notes Included