From scholarly discourse to the latest issues in readers' advisory services, this guide provides up-to-date information on the many challenges of the practice, as well as on interdisciplinary directions, continuing education, and the gap in graduate professional education for readers' advisory. The book's 16 chapters are organized into three main sections, each of which comes with an introduction. The first part deals with the education of advisors and the foundations for professional practice. The second part features articles on state-of-the-art advisory services in public and school libraries, and the third part focuses on expanded advisory services. Contents include: (1) "Missing the Real Story: Where Library and Information Science Fails the Library Profession" (Wayne A. Wiegand); (2) "Partly Out of Sight: Not Much in Mind: Master's Level Education for Adult Readers' Advisory Services" (Kenneth D. Shearer and Robert Burgin); (3) "'Taught at the University on a Higher Plane than Elsewhere'": The Graduate Education of Readers' Advisors" (Bill Crowley); (4) "Reinventing Readers' Advisory" (Duncan Smith); (5) "What We Know from Readers about the Experience of Reading" (Catherine Sheldrick Ross); (6) "The Reader's Altered State of Consciousness" (Brian Sturm); (7) "Readers' Advisory Service: Explorations of the Transaction" (Anne K. May); (8) "Advisory Services in the School Library Media Center" (Carol A. Doll); (9) "The Best Tools for Advisors and How to Integrate them into Successful Transactions" (Joyce G. Saricks); (10) "'No, Thanks-I'd Rather Do It Myself': Indirect Advisory Services" (Nora M. Armstrong); (11) "The Global Conversation about Books, Readers, and Reading on the Internet" (Roberta S. Johnson); (12) "Readers' Advisory and Nonfiction" (Robert Burgin); (13) "Viewers' Advisory: Handling Audiovisual Advisory Questions" (Randy Pitman); (14) "Leading the Horse to Water: Keeping Young People Reading in the Information Age" (Angelina Benedetti); (15) "The Future of Readers' Advisory in a Multicultural Society" (Alma Dawson and Connie Van Fleet); (16) "Conceptualizing a Center for the Reader" (Glen Holt). A concluding section, "Readers' Advisory Services Today and Tomorrow," is also provided. (Includes an index.) (AEF)