Week 16 Prompt

Week 16 Prompt

Both of our readings this week talk about the culture of reading and the future of the book. So I have two questions for you as readers, pulling on your own experiences and all of the readings we have done over the semester: First, how have reading and books changed since you were a child, for you specifically? Second, talk a little about what you see in the future for reading, books, or publishing - say 20 years from now. Will we read more or less, will our reading become more interactive? What will happen to traditional publishing? This is a very free-form question, feel free to wildly extrapolate or calmly state facts, as suits your mood!

I was a child of the 80’s; born in 1974 so the 80’s were my prime youth reading years!  At the time, I lived in a rural community and our township did not pay taxes into the library system so we were not able to get “free” library cards.  Even as students, we were not able to get cards.  I am not even sure the option was available then to buy one.  I LOVED reading!  I was in the accelerated reading programs all through school so we had an advantage over our peers.  We had extra books to choose from to read!  During the school year, I always had extra books I could take home.  When the book fair rolled around, every day I was there with my money buying as much as I could.

We had a book store I LOVED called the Book Worm.  I was in there weekly (or as often as I could talk my Mom into taking me) to get the latest Francine Pascal, Caroline B. Cooney, and Christopher Pike books… and don’t get me started on the great series we had!  Cheerleaders, Sweet Valley High, Flowers in the Attic, and oh so many!  I didn’t have a way to know what books were coming out so I would just go look during the weekly book trips!  I became friends with the clerk and she started keeping track for me! I remember having bunk beds and I always slept on the bottom… I had several books tucked in the slats above my head so I could read every night at bedtime!  I usually read a few books at a time; bouncing from romance to scary to silly and back again… it was a great time growing up with those books!

So, here it is 2019, and I literally have the whole world in a little bitty thing called a cell phone!  I can look for any book ever published, I can look up what is coming out next, I can have HUNDREDS of books on my phone…I literally have a whole library in my pocket!  The small book sellers are no longer around, I don’t lie in bed and read paperbacks, and I really don’t visit any book store at all.  BUT I can download nearly any book I want to late at night, from home, in the dark… and READ it immediately on my phone!  How amazing is that!

20 years from now, we will be reading more than what we do now.  The technology now is so great about what we have access to, it will only get better.  But I do come from the school that printed books are more important!  The world is a scary place… EMP hits and guess what… no more access to eBooks!  If the apocalypse happens, my first stop is raiding the library!  We won’t have movies or TV… but I will still have printed books!  Printed books have been around since ancient Egyptian times and it will always be around in the future.  My movies and TV will be playing in my head as I read books! (Staying Awake, page 5) Those are just my thoughts!

Week 15 Prompt

Week 14 Prompt

Consider yourself part of the collection management committee of your local library, or a library at which you would like to work. You must decide whether or not to separate GBLTQ fiction and Urban Fiction from the general collection to its own special place. Some patrons have requested this, yet many staff are uncomfortable with the idea - saying it promotes segregation and disrupts serendipitous discovery of an author who might be different from the reader. Do you separate them? Do you separate one and not the other? Why or why not? You must provide at least 3 reasons for or against your decision. Feel free to use outside sources - this is a weighty question that is answered differently in a lot of different libraries. Also, it's been in the news recently. These articles (and the comments) can help you get a feel for the issue:

In our library, we don’t have a lot of space, even with the upcoming expansion.  Up until now, we have had westerns, mystery, and sci-fi set up in their own areas.  Also, Youth Mature as well as Youth Mature graphic novels also have their own space.  What we have noticed, and per our cataloging staff-member, it is sometimes difficult to catalog a series.  Within the series, a book may lean more towards sci-fi, or mystery, and if she goes by what World Cat classifies it as, the series may end up split between different genres.  So, after a lot of discussion at staff meetings, we have decided to blend the entire collection into fiction.  There will be spine labels that identify a book as a specific genre, but this way, all books by the same author will be housed together.  If a patron is interested in a specific author, they will no longer have to hunt and peck through 3 and possibly 4 different sections.  (We are retaining the Youth Mature section since that is the blend of High School and New Adult materials; but all genres are blended together in that section as well.)

So, this brings me to the GBLTQ fiction and Urban Fiction.  I would blend this into the fiction as well, and include spine labels that identify them as such.  On top of that, I would ask the cataloguer to include the proper Library of Congress Subject Headings to help patrons when searching for the materials:  Urban fiction, American and Sexual Minorities.  It would be helpful to identify those categories when doing a catalog search.   

I am using personal experience as my primary source.  I live in a small, rural, conservative town.  No one really cares about a person’s sexuality; we have prominent positions held by people in the LGBTQ community and no one harasses them or otherwise; flower shop owners, tourism bureau director, church deacons, politicians… no one really cares.  Since we are a conservative community, no one really cares but we also do not have community members out “pushing agendas” that are conservative OR liberal in nature either.  We are a tight knit community that genuinely cares about people more than what a person may be labeled.  In a world where we are trying to get rid of labels, we sure do seem to be all about labels. 

My three primary reasons for integrating:

1.      Inclusivity

Even though we are in a small town and no one really cares about what people do, we prefer to have patrons comfortable in the library looking at whatever material they choose.  It might be awkward for a person to shop around in a LGBTQ section when all of our other genres are integrated.  Instead of treating the material as being inclusive in our collection, it would seem that we were singling it out…and it would be up to a person’s personal interest whether the singling out was positive or negative.

2.      Visibility

With it being included in the general collection with the rest of the fiction, we would make sure to include spine labels to help guide the patrons who just browse the shelves.  Right now we have: Christian fiction, Amish, Sci-Fi, Horror, Romance, Mystery, and Westerns spine labels.  It would be very easy to include LGBTQ and Urban Fic on a spine label as well.  If a person is turned on to an author, it is great to have ALL of an author’s works together rather than hunting around the library.  It would help the shelf browser patron easily identify subject matter.

3.      Searchability

Since we are integrating our collection, it would be a great time for our cataloguer to include the subject headings I stated earlier in my prompt post.  On top of that, we could include in our promotional material Subject Headings that patrons may use to search and find separate genres: Sexual Minorities and Urban Fiction, America.  It would be very easy to post those near the OPACs, make bookmarks, newsletters, calendars, posters… a little bit of signage and promotional materials goes a long way with educating patrons.   

Week 13 Prompt

Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we? I can't wait to read your thoughts on this. Thanks!

This prompt brought me back to the first thing on our syllabus:

Ranganthan’s 5 Laws
1. Books are for use.
2. Every reader his [or her] book.
3. Every book its reader.
4. Save the time of the user.
5. The library is a growing organism.

With the growing collection of New Adult material, it really fits into these 5 laws.  As a Reader's Advisory service for patrons, it is our responsibility to provide titles and authors they want to read.  It is about what THEY want to read not about what we *think* they need to read! 

One of the weaknesses at my library was really reinforced by the "RA for YA" article by Booth.   Youth are not always welcomed in the retail environment so as a result, help and attention may not be welcomed by the youth in the library.  At my library, we work so hard to get the young children in the library.  We have lapsit, storytime, summer reading programs.... all targeted at the young with the knowledge that if you get the children then you also get the parents.  But in my library, when we raise up these children into teens, we give off the vibe that they are not really welcome in the library.   Then when they reach high school age, they are no longer interested in coming to the library because they do not feel welcome.  We forget that these teens who become Young Adults will be having families soon and we want them back in the library. 

So, one improvement that my library needs to make is to create an actual space for the teens as well as the young adults.  We do have a Youth Mature book section that is geared towards the New Adult genre.  If the protagonist is in high school, college, young adult not married, or somewhere in between, this is the section that houses those books.  The Young Adult books are downstairs in the Youth Room and are for grade 8 on down.  So, we do have the beginnings of a New Adult section in our Youth Mature section. 

I read the "Betwixt and Between" article by Cataldi and I really took a hard look at the books she listed as being essential to a New Adult collection.  I did a search of our catalog and we have NONE of the authors and NONE of the book titles!  I talked to our lady who places the book orders and asked her about the New Adult genre.  She informed me that our Youth Librarian does the ordering and a large portion of the books she orders for this age group are more about LGBTQ topics; which it is important to have those topics on hand.  But, she seems to forget that there is also a need for books that also address the struggles of the straight young adults transitioning into adulthood.  I sent her the titles of the starred books included in the article as well as the important authors that were included in the narrative of the article.  I hope this helps our Youth Services person develop our collection even further. 

We do have a Youth Mature section for graphic novels as well.  These novels tend to be the type that include boobies and sexual themes.  There is also a collection of graphic novels in the Young Adult section in the Youth Room that are more age and visually appropriate.

To address the issues my library has with not everyone having space of their own, we are actually breaking ground on a 5 million dollar expansion beginning in early May.  The teens will have a room of their own with their age group of books housed there.  The teens currently have to share space with all of the kids from birth to grade 8.  That is why the staff sometimes treats teens as unwanted as their behavior and topics of discussion are not appropriate for preschool age children.  We will also have a lounge set up to appeal to the young adults and we also will have a section of the collection that will be expanded for the New Adult/Youth Mature category.  This collection will reside on the wall that will be between the adult section and the youth section.  It seems like a great place to house the transitional books.

For me, it is imperative to have the New Adult books in a collection.  We have to keep servicing ALL readers no matter the age or materials they want to read.  To keep the library as a growing organism, we have to remember that everything we do is ALL about the patrons and their wants and needs.


Booth, H. (2005). RA for YA: Tailoring the Readers Advisory Interview to the Needs of Young Adult Patrons. Public Libraries, 44(1), 33-36. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Cataldi, Erin. (2015). Betwixt and Between: New Adult Fiction. The Library Journal. Retrieved from https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=betwixt-and-betweennew-adult-fiction-collection-development-september-1-2015.