Monday, June 27, 2016

The cognitive science of fiction an Opinion by Keith Oatley (abstract)

http://wires.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WiresArticle/wisId-WCS1185.html

Fiction might be dismissed as observations that lack reliability and validity, but this would be a misunderstanding. Works of fiction are simulations that run on minds. They were the first kinds of simulation. All art has a metaphorical quality: a painting can be both pigments on canvas and a person. In literary art, this quality extends to readers who can be both themselves and, by empathetic processes within a simulation, also literary characters. On the basis of this hypothesis, it was found that the more fiction people read the better were their skills of empathy and theory‐of‐mind; the inference from several studies is that reading fiction improves social skills. In functional magnetic resonance imaging meta‐analyses, brain areas concerned with understanding narrative stories were found to overlap with those concerned with theory‐of‐mind. In an orthogonal effect, reading artistic literature was found to enable people to change their personality by small increments, not by a writer's persuasion, but in their own way. This effect was due to artistic merit of a text, irrespective of whether it was fiction or non‐fiction. An empirically based conception of literary art might be carefully constructed verbal material that enables self‐directed personal change. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:425–430. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1185 (abstract)

The Reader Online UK (blog)

https://thereaderonline.co.uk/

Jane Davis, founder and director of The Reader Organisation, UK

https://readerjanedavis.wordpress.com/about/

In Australia successful ibliotherapy programs for Dementia

https://fightdementia.org.au/sites/default/files/Susan_McLaine.pdf

Free online streaming public domain audio books from Lit2go

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/
Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

bibliotherapy? yes and no

"Therapy by the book is apparently not going to wait for definitive confirmatory data." Richard J. Riordan, Dept Counseling & Psychological Serv, Georgia State Univ

Review of the Literature (abstract, 1987)

 http://sed.sagepub.com/content/21/2/123.abstract

Bibliotherapy: A Review and Analysis of the Literature

  1. Ronald S. Lenkowsky, EdD
    1. Hunter College

Bibliotherapy, the use of reading to produce affective change and to promote personality growth and development, is examined through a comprehensive analysis of the literature. A conceptual framework with which to review the available data is suggested. This framework looks at bibliotherapy in four ways: as self-actualization therapy, a strategy for attitudinal change, a method for self-concept improvement, and an instructional/didactic tool.

Bibliotherapy Flashcards

https://quizlet.com/41145532/childrens-lit-3-flash-cards/
Fun! Review the background of bibliotherapy on flashcards.

Pardeck's Using Books in Clinical Social Work Practice

https://books.google.com/books?id=Zi8iAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=bibliotherapy+Klingman,++1987&source=bl&ots=d3Ntz9qLX0&sig=0BsmcBi0wz8fBrmDqPGWrzbmFQA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi67dTOrsTNAhVU9GMKHaBaAhkQ6AEIQzAI#v=onepage&q=bibliotherapy%20Klingman%2C%20%201987&f=false

Bibliotherapy Intervention for Students

http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1124&context=etdarchive
 Elaine Harper, 2010

Cohen's Experience of Therapeutic Reading

http://wjn.sagepub.com/content/16/4/426.abstract
This article describes a qualitative study of therapeutic reading intended to provide understanding of bibliotherapy. Using the Colaizzi method, interviews with eight participants were analyzed and the structure of the experience of therapeutic reading identified. The structure of the experience of therapeutic reading was recognition of self evolving into ways of feeling and ways of knowing. A discussion of the implications of results is presented.

Cohen's Research and practice of bibliotherapy (abstract)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0197455694900353/part/first-page-pdf

Hynes and Hynes-Barry differentiated between "interactive" and "reading" bibliotherapy with poetry therapy a specialized form of interactive.
Two main approaches Shrodes (1950) is psychotherapeutic and more recently (Cohen, 1989) cognitive behavioural or self-help.

Cento poetry: recycled art and intertextuality

http://www.kakanien-revisited.at/beitr/graeca_latina/MOkacova1.pdf

Friday, June 24, 2016

poetry repression and depression

"I was also taking psychiatric medication, but in medicine I saw the science of pain, whereas in poetry I saw pain’s art."
 from
Http://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jun/18/poetry-can-heal-it-helped-me-through-depression



Thursday, June 23, 2016

Track your reading for one month

Find your reading style:

genial, mindless, voyeuristic
informational, news, how-to
deep, spiritual (religion, philosophy, poetry)
author focused, nostalgic
self-help, consciousness-raising
wellness, life-sustaining
travel
academic
inspirational (biographical, memoir)

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Creative Arts can be applied to bibliotherapy

http://intuitivecreativity.typepad.com/expressiveartinspirations/100-art-therapy-exercises.html 

Because I believe that bibliotherapy, at its best, requires a process exercise, here are a few art therapy examples that only need a book attached. There are so many ways to approach this creatively. The advantage to not just writing about a book, or even talking about a book, centers around getting out of the left brain and letting the right brain work with the story. 

Spontaneous Collage

  • Self Nurture
    Spontaneous Collage is a form of daily play. Easy. Picking a few images that strike you as fascinating in some way and gluing them in your journal. Spontaneous imagery reveals you like a dream and lets you know what your unconscious mind is thinking and feeling.

Stream of Consciousness Drawings

  • Celebration
    Free form doodling can become an eloquent form of expressive art that just gets more and more refined over time. Doodling allows the subconscious mind to express itself. Much about the inner life can be revealed though doodling.

Intuitive Drawing

  • Letting Go
    Intuitive drawing is an immediate way to tap into the mystery of your life below the everyday happenings. It is helpful to take time to quiet your mind and go into your body before you draw. Allow your pen to move without giving it much thought. Ask questions. Listen for messages. They are always surprising and just below your conscious thought.

Collage Journal

  • Fortress
    Collage journaling is vivid and magical. It never takes long to gather a pile of images and words. Journals are a place to gather insights and inner directions on what to do next. Collage journal pages playfully sneak under your limited and conditioned ways of seeing my life and lead you to a higher vision for yourself.

Self-Discovery Cards

  • Collage for Self-Discovery
    Each Self-Discovery card is an exploration into what you do not clearly see about yourself. Every collage card reveals an aspect of your soul and psyche. By visually seeing the masks that you wear and the patterns of thinking and feeling that help and hinder you, you become able to integrate all the fragmented aspects of yourself so that you can be more effective in life.

Mini Collages

  • Truth
    These are small playful collages. 4"x6". The aim is to experiment and play and to work quickly with color, composition, shape and pattern. These are an exploration of what you might find beautiful, joyful and delightful using paint and collage. A contemplation on beauty to carry through your day.

Art Journals

  • Childhood
    Art journals are a form of devotion. They are experimental and a great place to explore new materials and techniques. An excellent way to record a creative and immediate life.

Spontaneous Painting

  • Tree
    True creativity requires great honesty if it is to be transformative. Paint what you feel, not what you think! The conscious mind has no part in this process. "Still mind. I don't know." is a mantra that you can repeat while painting. Venturing into the unknown parts of yourself, pulls forth all of those feelings that have been locked up and tranquilized. A new freedom floods in. There is energy and passion in the unexpected.

Spontaneous Pastels

  • Joy
    This is a series of mark making with pastel crayons. An innocent, intuitive exploration of color and spontaneity. A playing with crayons, much like a child, these drawings are a visual meditation which can draw you into mystery. Ask your drawings what they have to tell you and they speak back through your intuition...guiding you.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

First Chapters and excerpts on Writers Write

http://www.writerswrite.com/books/excerpts/

Book Spot

http://bookspot.com/

Free resource center organized into "intuitive" categories.

Fantastic Fiction awards list

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/awards/
Some seem to only list through 2014.

Library Thing Suggester

http://www.librarything.com/suggester
You have to put in a title to see the benefits for using it as a read-alike reference.

RA Rethink slideshow

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wvUGsfDWsbpTGaKbVrXXlfwZAQbCkcj4hExYYf5_k2E/edit#slide=id.g143ba327fa_0_25

Good example of "bookmapping" Alice in Wonderland

http://manyhatsofalice.weebly.com/index.html


NoveList RAx: Readers" Advisory Prescriptions

https://www.ebscohost.com/novelist/idea-center/evaluate/evaluate-ra-prescriptions

Are the Book doctors in! In the video in the link above, Duncan Smith (NoveList), Becky Spratford (RA for All), and Rebecca Vnuk (Booklist) talk about common RA issues and side effects, and they prescribe cures for general RA woes.

LISWiki Readers' Advisory

n addition to readers’ advisory blogs, there are many resources available to help the readers’ advisor in their mission of providing just the right book for a patron.
  • http://ww2.kdl.org/libcat/whatsnext.asp --Kent District Library's What's Next Database. Allows you to search by series name, book title or name of the author to discover the book order of a particular series.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Multnomah County Library "My Librarian" Prezi presentation

https://prezi.com/py7wucy1zs47/my-librarian-personalization-and-the-future-of-readers-ser/


Readers' Advisory Online Trendsetter Multnomah County Library

https://journals.ala.org/rusq/article/view/5930/7519


 "One of the biggest trends in RA education has been catalyzed by experimentation with RA online, which has necessitated not only teaching new skills to readers’ advisors, but also often enlisting new staff to be trained in RA to provide the service. Many recent conference presentations—a common form of education for RA practitioners—have focused on moving RA online, especially on social media. Despite focused professional attention, this trend is still in early stages; Burke and Strothmann recently found that although librarians who have experimented with online RA receive positive feedback from patrons and improve the quality of their RA service, “libraries that offer robust online RA services remain a minority,” with only 17.6 percent of public libraries in their study’s sample having a RA page on their website. A prominent recent example is the My Librarian program, launched by the Multnomah County Library after extended research, a successful initiative to bridge the gap between online patrons and readers’ advisors. 

House writes that “My Librarian takes a big step toward humanizing the online library experience.” MCL is a system with a strong commitment to RA education, and has a full roster of internal practitioner-led education that supports the My Librarian program, according to Reader Services Librarian Alison Kastner. 
 
While an in-house RA 101 class is required for all Information Services staff at MCL, they also offer a full “menu” of other RA classes to their staff. As in MCL, initiatives to bring RA online are usually developed by practitioners, and all education for them is created by the library system. In addition, education around RA online cannot just address the practice of RA but also has to address the technological skills needed to move RA online, which often presents an equal barrier."




Friday, June 10, 2016

Center for Fiction in NYC 1st to offer bibliotherapy comparable to School of Life (UK) service in US


http://center-for-fiction.myshopify.com/collections/gifts/products/a-novel-approach-with-books#content

For $375 you can get a 45 minute consultation (readers advisory?) with a list of 12 recommended titles to help with life transitions "delivered to your door (Amazon?)."

Or there's the discounted approach without the books delivered  for $150:

http://center-for-fiction.myshopify.com/collections/gifts/products/a-novel-approach

Or, you can contact your local library and ask for a readers advisory reference librarian.

Competent Counselor Practice for Use of Bibliotherapy pdf

http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1371&context=lib_articles
Dale Pehrsson and Paula McMillen, 2005

Bibliotherapist as Career Option short and sweet

http://www.mylifestylecareer.com/career-reinvention-2/lifestyle-career-options/love-books-2-fun-second-act-biz-ideas/

Though the short article is compelling, the article for training requirements she mentions is from 1962, Library Trends, Margaret Kinney.


Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Pehrsson/McMillen Bibliotherapy Survey (powerpoint)

Pehrsson, D. E., & McMillen, P. (2009). A national survey of Bibliotherapy practice in professional counseling, ACA. Charlotte, NC.

Paula McMillen, Bibliotherapy Education Project, In the beginning... quotes



"When we took our project to the joint OLA/WLA conference in Portland in April 2002, we were somewhat surprised to find that what we had previously considered a good demonstration of interdepartmental collaboration in an academic setting actually drew more interest from the public librarians than academic ones. We were pleased that librarians were interested in our project, especially because libraries serve as such a great source of reading material for teachers, mental health workers and parents who are trying to help children and young adults with issues. Not surprisingly, librarians were the first partners with healthcare professionals in using books therapeutically in the early 1900’s; it’s only in the last few decades that the dominant discussion of bibliotherapy has shifted from the library and medical literature to that of mental health and education."

Draft article for OLA Quarterly, Paula McMillen, PhD, Oregon State University Libraries, June 2006



In 2016 this still continues to be the case, though there is a marked increase in the acceptance of Reader Response Theory in the way that literature is being taught today suggesting that bibliotherapy might become a more popular method in the field of Expressive Arts Therapy.
 

"Although we began with a focus on children’s books, our future plans include greater coverage of resources for young adults, adults and multicultural materials." 

From review of the resource in 2016, the database still seems to be primarily focused on children and young adults with inclusion of multicultural materials. LitMed still seems to be the best go-to resource that I have found to date for adult reading level fiction title recommendations.