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Libraries will release a "Top 10" recommendation list starting this fall

A list titled LibraryReads will be created monthly by libraries all over the country, compiling 10 picks that staff members would choose for the reading public.

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David J. Phillip/AP
Staff member Timothy Ngo shelves books at the Barbara Bush Branch Library.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Everyone else has top 10 rankings – why not libraries?

Starting this fall, libraries across the country will collaborate on a list that will be released every month which picks 10 titles to recommend to the reading public. The list will be known as LibraryReads and will consist of adult titles.

“Every day, thousands of people who work in libraries recommend books in all categories and genres to the communities they serve,” Robin Nesbitt, collection management director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, said in a statement in a press release. “LibraryReads will harness their passion and deep book knowledge, and create a new way to connect readers and authors, using the incredible collective outreach of library systems, big and small, across the country.”

A steering committee composed of library staff members and advocates for libraries, including Nesbitt, is overseeing the launch of the LibraryReads list. The Indie Next list, in which indie booksellers recommend titles each month, was an inspiration for LibraryReads, according to the press release. Organizations such as the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Association, which created the Indie Next List, are working with the committee to make LibraryReads a reality.

Despite the fact that some publishers are working with libraries to create LibraryReads, the LibraryReads website specified that selections for the list would be based on librarians’ opinions only.

Anyone who is a regular employee of a library can nominate a title and whichever 10 books receive the most nods make it on the list.

Creating a list that would recommend new kids’ books or young adult releases is certainly a possibility, Nesbitt told Library Journal.

“If this thing takes off like a house afire, then we start saying, ‘How do we branch out?'” she said.

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