Prompt Response: Should We Separate?

Modern authors are making their books harder to categorize by including multiple genres in their stories. Some books could be considered strictly mystery, while others could have a combination of two or more genres, like mystery and suspense. Sometimes individual genres are hard to define, such as suspense. What happens when librarians have to address different social groups in these books, as well? Where should these books be placed on the shelves? Should one type of genre take precedence over another? Currently, there is a debate between separating GLBTQ books and African American Literature books and have their own shelves. Some patrons may feel ostracized if they have to go to a completely separate part of the library to check out books they feel are relevant to them or that they want to read. Other patrons may not want to read these books and may be concerned about accidentally picking one up. How should librarians satisfy both types of patrons while still maintaining intellectual freedom? 

These genres of fiction should not be separated. Instead, librarians should purchase genre labels such as a rainbow sticker for GLBTQ and another label for African American literature. That way, the books are clearly labeled for the patrons who want to see them and avoid them, and then the patrons who want to read them can privately get the books without feeling segregated or judged by other patrons. Everything in fiction would be incorporated on the same shelves. Patrons can be educated about the type of books that are available to them, thus maintaining the fact that libraries should be as unbiased as humanly possible. While people may still view genre labels as segregation, at least there would not be a blatant part of the library that they are “forced” to go to in order to get the books they want. Library office supply companies such as Demco often provides these labels available for purchase for public libraries and are relatively inexpensive.

There is a process that librarians need to follow in order to condition their patrons to accept this change. The article Separate or Keep Together by Melanie A. Lyttle and Shawn D. Walsh (2015) encourages librarians to analyze their current collection, reason why or why not their collection should be rearranged, how to prepare librarians to explain to patrons why this change occurred, and how to advertise this change to patrons in a way that would make the change easier to accept.

Part of this change may include having to rearrange the shelves so that patrons can find books in a better way. Another change may be purchasing more books so that different social groups may feel more included in the library. The article Separate or Keep Together by Melanie A. Lyttle and Shawn D. Walsh (2015), further states,

Whatever you decide to do, someone isn’t going to like it. That’s just the way it goes. However, providing clear signage to help people find what they’re looking for will help quite a bit. However, making sure your decision is the right thing for your community is ultimately the most important thing (1).

Librarians need to understand that public libraries need to adapt to new social changes in order for libraries- and their patrons- to thrive.

Works Cited

Demco (2018). Genre Labels. Retrieved from https://www.demco.com./?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9NDehf232gIVjrjACh1DCwmpEAAYASAAEgLA8_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Lyttle, Melanie A. and Walsh, Shawn D. (2015). Separate or Keep Together? Public Libraries Online. Retrieved from http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2015/05/separate-or-keep-together/.