Week 14 Prompt~ Mugg

Week 14 Prompt

Class Prompt this week: "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."


The fact that we have to double think is a little confusing to me.  I do not come from the librarian mind set still, however, I am still from the reader/user side.

When I walk into a library, I am not thinking about "gee, what genre am I going to read today?"  All I am thinking about is what will give rise to my imagination and entertain my bored mind.  And even that is dependent on my mood.

I like being able to go to a shelf, find a color, title or picture that catches my eye and then read to see if the book itself would entertain my mind as the visuals just did my eye.

I am on the side to have books/items in several different areas; you never know when someone's mood in the history section could be attracted to a novel that is from the urban literature section.  People's brains tend to work in an electrical charge kind of manner.  Sometimes one spark or interest will lead to another interest which would lead to another interest and you will find yourself looking at a book that would never have occurred to you to look at while home searching for something to read.

I think libraries should make each of the genres we looked at this week available in several areas of the library and they are certainly as deserving to be in the "glass cases" as "Catcher in the Rye" or "Harry Potter." I just would add Sex in the City would be urban literature too, yes?

As to the concept of these genres having their own place, they are as deserving an area as classical or historic works.  Libraries should ever strive to stimulate the mind and not just placate the active complainers.

Just a few of the varying opinions I found on inclusion and use of urban literatures.
  

Tony Morrison interview with National Public Radio on genrefying her books.  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15236974

Slideshow -  Urban Fiction/Street Literature Collection Development For School Libraries PRESENTED BY: K.C. BOYD AUSL WENDELL PHILLIPS ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOLK.C. Boyd 4/12/13 (ACADEMY OF URBAN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP SCHOOL)   “The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature” by Dr. Vanessa Irvin Morris The iSchool at Drexel UniversityK.C. Boyd 4/12/13 2
- http://www.slideshare.net/kcboyd1/street-lit-collection-development-2013-18651891
 
James Patterson, Author Heres a simple but powerful truth that many parents and schools dont act on: The more kids read, the better readers they become. The best way to get kids reading more is to give them books that theyll gobble up -- and that will make them ask for another. When kids continuously read, they get better at it. “How to Get Your Kid to Become a Fanatic Reader” by James Patterson http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/opinion/patterson-kids-readingK.C. Boyd 4/12/13 10