Peabody library to offer newsletter program

PEABODY – The Peabody Institute Library started offering a new program this week that is sure to get bookworms excited.Readers can now subscribe to NextReads E-Newsletter Service, which sends monthly or bi-monthly email listings of interesting books to read, new and old, based on their favorite genres.”It’s really simple,” said Kelly Rae Unger, adult services librarian. “All you need is your name and email address. You don’t even need a library card.”To get started, users must first register online at the library’s Web site, www.peabodylibrary.org, and click on the NextReads link. From there, they can select a number of different newsletters they’d like to receive, such as children’s picture books, science fiction or biographies. Once chosen, the service will automatically suggest a list of 10 books that are sure to meet the interest of the subscriber.This is the first time that Peabody has offered the reader’s advisory, but it’s been common practice throughout other North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE) locations.”Ours will be a little more tailored toward what we’d like to have on the Peabody list,” said Unger. “The difference will be the occasional special book list?or the additional newsletters about library programs.”The lists are generated through NOBLE originally, but Unger and other library staff preview them and tweak areas when necessary to assure the most fitting books are suggested to Peabody readers. She also noted that not all books on the list will be available in Peabody, but the majority of them will.”They’ll be available somewhere in the NOBLE system,” she said. “But you can check the availability online in the library catalog.”Unger said the decision to participate in NextReads came as an effort to communicate better with the reading community.”We thought it’d be a good service for people to get some good reading suggestions right from home,” she said.