Book Match Celebrates 10th Birthday with personalized pairing of titles and topics

August 15, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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GRAND ARMY PLAZA — The Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating a decade of its Book Match program, which personalizes matching readers and books — free of algorithms. This Saturday, the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza will host a Book Match Live event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A free reading recommendation service, BookMatch is modeled after Your Next Five, the Seattle Public Library’s reading recommendation service. Since launching a decade ago. BPL librarians created more than 11,000 lists containing nearly 70,000 unique titles. Requests run the gamut from books for babies to titles for older adults. One request came from a parent who said, “my five-month-old daughter is beginning to show a lot of interest in board books.” Another said, “I am writing on behalf of my mom who is 101 years old. So large print for sure.” While each request is unique, popular asks include novels set in New York City; memoirs and histories of Brooklyn; thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy audiobooks; and dense intricate novels or nonfiction. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, an award-winning author based in Brooklyn, has been the most recommended title.

Youths have their own BookMatch service going as well. Library interns and teens created their BookMatch service in 2018, providing book recommendations by teens for teens and creating an estimated 2000 lists to date. Teens receive training in readers’ advisory resources and strategies and meet library and publishing professionals.

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