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 African American 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.
No. For one, it doesn't make sense. Not every AAF or GLBTQ is in the same genre. It is ridiculous to put them together when one may be an Urban Fiction and another may be a Fantasy. I saw another student use Jesmin's blog post http://nkjemisin.com/2010/05/dont-put-my-book-in-the-african-american-section/ and I agree. I have read her Inheritance Trilogy and frankly, I didn't think about what color her characters were (or even was aware she was African American, who cares?!), it's not an issue for this genre (fantasy), and shouldn't be stuck next to a contemporary African American coming-of-age story. Having a gay detective protagonist in a mystery title should not be shelved next to a lesbian romance. I don't agree with Zane, who wants to be separated in the AAF section, in that I think that she might find more readers of all colors and genders if she were in general fiction. http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com/blogs/2012/02/where-to-shelve-african-american-authors If she's worried about her readers finding her, well, she's shelved in the Z's.
Secondly, when a patron is at my library perusing the fiction shelves, or non-fiction for that matter, no one hovers over her/him to see what they are looking at. I do not judge them when they bring their materials to the circ desk to check out. I feel like this is truly a personal thing. I may not always like what they are getting from a personal view, but I really don't care as I don't have to waste my time reading it! I don't feel that patrons should have to wave a red flag by going to a section separate from the general fiction. At my branch we don't even separate the romance from general fiction, and when I casually inquired to some romance readers about moving the titles they were more than content that it remains the way it is, even though it was sometimes hard to find. If there is reluctance in moving romance to a new section, I highly doubt any GLBTQ section would get a lot of circulation in my branch if readers like the anonymity of finding their vanilla romances.
Lastly, I would not create a separate place as I just believe it continues to perpetuate the "they", "us", "them", "our", and "other" mentality which certainly does not help anyone and not how I want my world to be. If I end up at a different library where there is a large community of GLBTQ's, or African Americans, so what? I'd be happy to create stickers and create lists of authors and titles, or even a romance or urban lit section, but it still should be shelved by genre.
Thank you! Just because a book falls under a specific type does not mean it isn't appropriately shelved somewhere else. Isn't that the whole point of organizing information and having DDC and LLC? If patrons can't find info, it doesn't help! One reason a librarian would want to shelf them together would be for displays. For example, in February I might have a display featuring AA writers, since it is Black History month.
ReplyDeleteI'm agreeing to about NOT separating AFF and GLBTQ lit from the general fiction. I'll go more into my reasoning in my post later this week but my main one is looking at what defines the genre. We know what horror, romance, YA and other stuff is, but is AAF stories with black characters ( and does have to be ALL black or just one) or black authors ( same with gay lit-gay-centered stories or gay authors). Also, the issue of being more than one genre came to mind ( especially E. Lynn Harris, who was a black/gay author who wrote AAF fiction with gay characters. ) And it actually does like we limiting the audience ( obviously other people who may not be black might be reading AAF or straight people might be reading gay lit. It would be like saying " Oh the ghost books have their own shelf because ONLY GHOSTS read ghost fiction. Not true, otherwise, the books would be sitting on the shelf.) If you really want to highlight books of special races, orientations, etc, it makes more sense to have a display, a bookmark, a website, or a book club.
ReplyDeleteThe blog link you posted was really helpful for explaining exactly why we shouldn't be separating these genres. It doesn't make sense to separate a Science Fiction book from other SF because the author is African American. I don't know what advantage that gives the author, especially when it would just perpetuate the "us" and "them" stereotypes you mentioned.
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