“Ask me what I read”: readers' advisory and immigrant adaptation

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of readers' advisory (RA) in libraries to help immigrants with psychological and socio-cultural adaptation in a new country. Design/methodology/approach – The data were empirically collected from a sample of Russian-speaking immigrant readers residing in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, by means of background surveys and in-depth interviews. Findings – The RA interaction is not merely a conversation about leisure books; it is a powerful intercultural encounter that has the potential to raise the levels of intimacy and attraction between host and immigrant populations, break negative stereotypes, help to build shared networks and create favorable contacts, change intergroup attitudes, and improve readers' mastery of the second language and knowledge of a new country. Originality/value – This article makes a contribution to three areas related to RA. It provides insight into the views and perceptions of RA by a selected group of readers; it gives voice to immigrant readers whose experiences with RA are particularly under-represented in the Library and Information Science literature; and it conceptualizes the RA interaction as an intercultural encounter, using the uncertainty reduction based theory of intercultural adaptation to frame the discussion.

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