Rhea Joyce Rubin

I picked this book up randomly from the library shelf, so I had few preconceptions when I began to read.

It's an interesting---although very academic---read. Rubin outlines difference between formal bibliotherapy as practiced in hospitals, libraries, schools, and other institutional and community settings and the self-help approach that seems to show up most often today. She stresses the importance of discussion to the success of bibliotherapy. Reading without discussion can be more helpful show more in changing attitudes and behaviors than not reading at all, but the biggest changes take place after a group has both read (or had read to them) and discussed the material. This is a similar idea to one I first encountered in Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Educated Mind, in which the first stages of learning involve reading a work independently, but a full understanding comes from discussing the work with others.

I was pleased (and a little surprised) to see that writing therapy is under the umbrella of bibliotherapy, at least according to this work. It seems that writing about a piece of literature can also qualify as "discussion."

Rubin gleans from the research suggestions for how to choose bibliotherapy materials for juveniles and adults in a variety of settings, and includes lists of suggested reading for a variety of situations.

This book left me interested in reading more current literature about bibliotherapy and its application in the 21st century. It also made me interested in checking out MLS programs. I wonder if they still teach about bibliotherapy in library school? show less

Rhea Rubin’s contribution to the “PLA Results” series, designed to provide “pragmatic information” that can be used to improve any sort of program designed and offered by libraries (p. 11), is essential reading for those trying to document and advocate for the importance of library workplace learning and performance programs. She focuses on measuring outcomes—documenting “the quality and effectiveness of a program…to quantify our users’ success stories” (p. 2)—and takes show more a common-sense approach—always asking “so what?” in response to what libraries do. Exercises, tool kits, and work forms which can easily be adapted to the design and implementation of training programs and the measurement of their effectiveness serve as a continual reminder that measurement must be built into offerings from the moment those offerings are designed. “Training,” she notes, “is, by definition, an outcome-based activity since the goal is always impact on the trainees; the purpose is to stimulate or contribute to a change” (p. 29). show less

Invaluable advice. Not your everyday commonsense info... some real incite as to why people get angry (including yourself when working with them) and how to reach a compromise.

Contents very solid and practical. But rather dull.