Library’s Matchmakers offer new online service

Adult Services Librarian Andrea Lynn helps customers find great books.

The Heights Libraries Matchmakers, a group of librarians who specialize in helping customers find materials, will mark its 10th anniversary in 2022, and is celebrating by launching Match Me Up, a new service for customers.

Match Me Up is an online form that elicits pertinent information from customers that can help staff find materials to their liking, and put them on the holds shelf at the library branch of the customer’s choosing.

Previously, customers could e-mail or talk to the Matchmakers, but the new form streamlines and simplifies the process.

“The CLEVNET system makes millions of items available to library card holders,” said Andrea Lynn, adult services librarian and a member of the Matchmakers. “That’s wonderful, but it can also be a little overwhelming. Where do you start? It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. We wanted to make it as easy as possible to help folks find something they’ll enjoy, and the form just makes it easier.”

It also gives the Matchmakers time to fully research the request, and get input from other staff who might specialize in particular genres or areas of interest.

“A written request allows us the time to reach out to other staff who really know a subject area to get the best recommendation we can,” said Lynn. “I know a lot about Jane Austen, for instance, but someone in the Youth Services Department would know more than I do about graphic novels for young adults.”

The Matchmakers formed in 2012 to focus more formally on helping customers find books, movies and music that they would probably love but just couldn't always locate on their own.

They also provide recommendations though their blogs, which can be found at http://heightslibrary.org/recommend. The blogs are searchable by reader age, genre and topic, with categories that include beginning readers, historical fiction, sci-fi, and mysteries, just to name a few.

The new Match Me Up form can be found at http://heightslibrary.org/recommend/match-me-up, or through a link on the library's home page, http://heightslibrary.org.