Book Tasting
By Eda Ozyurt
On Tuesday, the Library held a ‘Book Tasting’ event in the Reading Room. I arrived in the Reading Room at lunchtime, and came to see the room set up like a cafe. Checkerboard cloth was draped over the small tables. There were fairy lights in small jars, the room’s lights were dimmed, and pleasant piano music could be heard. On the tables were stacks of books. As I entered, I was given a small booklet listing the names of the books. Next to each title was room for notes and the letters ‘Y/N’ (Yes, No). It seemed that we were deciding on something. There were people here and there in the room, but it wasn’t extremely crowded.
Before diving into the event, I interviewed Ms Ward, a librarian at our school, to see just what was occurring before my eyes.
ubique: So this is a book tasting event for Book Week? Can you explain what this event is about?
Ms Ward: This is a really exciting opportunity. We reached out to one of our book suppliers called ‘The Little Book Room’. They have loaned to us about 40 newly released books - so these are books that have just been published.
So what we’ve done is that we made them available to students and we’re seeking feedback from students about which of these books they would like for us to buy for the new library.
And so, the book tasting is really an opportunity for students to come in, browse the books, and let us know what they like, give us their tasting notes, and also order anything they’d like to read off the menu, and then we’ll put a reserve on it for them to borrow.
ubique: I see! So you set it (the Reading Room) up like a little cafe or restaurant? It’s a very pleasant atmosphere that was created here, it’s really nice.
Ms Ward: Thank you so much! We try our best. We wanted to have a very relaxed atmosphere, and have something that is quite casual, so students feel comfortable just coming in, and having a browse, and letting us know what they think.
ubique: Okay! Where did this idea originate from?
Ms Ward: It’s something that a few school libraries have done. We actually got the idea for running the book tasting from Princes Hill library. We saw that they had done a book tasting event a couple of years ago. We reached out to the librarians there, and we asked them for advice about running a book tasting at our school library. They were really helpful.
And then also our bookseller ‘The Little Book Room’ gave us advice about which books to include, and how to run the event too.
ubique: Okay. Glad to see these events occur around the school, so when people put in what their favourite books are, you order it in… I think that’s rather nice, having students decide what’s going to come into the school library.
Ms Ward: Yeah, I think it’s a really important thing to do, actually, because really the library aims to have the books that students want to read, and really respond to the needs of our students at Uni High. It’s really important for us to make sure that when we are getting new books, that they’re books that students want to read, and that they come on the recommendations and the advice of students too.
ubique: I see! Because you can’t have all the books at once, I assume, so this is a good method of narrowing it down.
Ms Ward: Yeah, so we’re just getting the books that we know our students would like to read. And we’re prioritising those ones over all the ones that exist.
After that, I went ahead and investigated the books available. I didn’t end up filling out too much of the booklet, but I was intrigued by the ones which I read. The varieties of books available included novels, non-fiction books including biographies, picture books, and graphic novels. The soothing atmosphere allowed me to dip my toes into the books with ease. I read the openings of a few novels and left notes, and if I wished it to be in the library or not. When I was done, I handed my booklet in to the librarians attending the event.
I hope to see some of the novels there on school shelves in the future. There was an intriguing looking one about a girl with the ability to grow plants, though its title escapes me right now. I would recommend that people attend the event if it is held again anytime soon! The relaxed, soothing atmosphere alone would be enough to have me return, let alone the idea I can choose the books I could read in the future from the school library.