Librarian’s Bookshelf

* Mission: To provide readers with recommendations from the Los Angeles County Public Library for good fiction books.

One of the most common requests made of the library staff is for book recommendations. Faced with virtually endless options for works of fiction, patrons have been turning to professionals, and in response, the library created the Librarian’s Bookshelf online.

Accessible through the home page of the Los Angeles County Library, the bookshelf offers personal suggestions for contemporary fiction from about 60 library staff members. Along with bibliographic information, the recommendations provide brief plot summaries.

The library employees put out the suggestions once a month.

Readers then have an opportunity to take up a recommendation or, if they have already read one of the books, post their own review.

The site, started in September, has consistently offered six to 10 book recommendations a month. The staff members are from any of 84 county libraries that stretch from Santa Clarita to Santa Catalina Island and serve 51 cities.

For those who do not have Internet access, the library catalog database also has recommendations.

The Librarian’s Bookshelf is accessible at: https://www.colapublib.org

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Quote: “We’re always trying to reach people in any way that we can, and this is just another effort to reach out to the community.”

--Mary Anderson, head of adult services for the Los Angeles County Public Library