Adult Readers Advisory: 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 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 library where I work has our adult fiction interfiled, but we had long discussions about that decision and still have long discussions about genre stickers, so I have definitely thought long and hard about decisions like this - though we have never discussed separating GLBTQ fiction and African American fiction or having special stickers for those books.

In general, I like an interfiled collection with no genre stickers, because I love to browse and discover new books. An interfiled collection forces me to look at all different genres. I think that, as long as there are other tools in place to help people looking for a very particular type of book, an interfiled collection can better promote the collection and help people expand their horizons and reading tastes.

That being said, I definitely understand the appeal of a collection separated by genre. If you are into a certain type of book, it's very convenient to be able to go to one particular section and browse for the things you want. But to do that effectively, I feel like it has to be a "real" genre, and that the books need to either fit solidly into that genre or that the library needs to be able to have more than one copy of the book to put in each section (which is not going to happen in most libraries, especially small ones).

Thinking about all of that, I think that GLBTQ fiction and African American fiction should not be separated within a library collection. However, if genres are separated, Street Lit/Urban Lit is a valid.

Neither GLBTQ fiction nor African American fiction are really "genres," in my opinion. There are a myriad of books that have GLBTQ or African American characters or themes, and they do not all fit into a single genre. The blog of Reference & User Services Quarterly posted a very interesting discussion about "genres," and the concept of interfiling, that underscores this point. They wrote: "Here the idea of genre is useful because it defines a set of precepts that describe a certain style of writing. This knowledge will then allow us as readers’ advisors to connect readers to books that they will enjoy." For example, the appeal of the book I annotated this week, "The Bells of Times Square," was the appeal of a romance - it was a GLBTQ book because the romance was between two men. That's very different from the appeal of, for example, "Art on Fire," the 2014 winner of the Barbara Gittings Literature Award at the Stonewall Book Awards, which is about a young lesbian artist. The only connection is that the characters are not heterosexual. The same thing can be said for African American fiction - "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and "Rappers 'R In Danger" by Relentless Aaron are very different books. One is not necessarily better than the other, and the same person could appreciate both books, but if the point of genres is to group books with a certain style of writing, this fails miserably. However, shelving Relentless Aaron with other Street Lit books makes more sense, should a library want to shelve or sticker books by genre.

However, I'm still generally opposed to separating genres by shelving or stickers because they can put an invisible barrier between a patron and the books they want to read. Since homosexuality, bisexuality, transvestism, etc., is not always accepted by the community at large, and because sexuality is a private issue for people, shelving the GLBTQ books in a different section may deter people from exploring them. People discovering their sexuality may want to read books about a GLBTQ experience as a form of experimentation or self-discovery, but they may not want other patrons to know that they are doing this. Straight people may have interest in the lives of GLBTQ people but may not want people to know about their interest for a variety of reasons. These are all privacy issues that libraries need to consider and be sensitive to. The bylaws of the ALA's GLBT Roundtable state that the GLBTRT aims to "develop, promote and defend unrestricted access of all library users to information by or about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people." Even if access is not specifically restricted, having these books in a separate area may put up an invisible barrier to patrons, GLBTQ or not, who wish to read those books. There could be a similar phenomenon for African American fiction. People who are not African American may feel uncomfortable looking through those books because they are not "for" them. Street Lit as a genre does not have the same kind of concern; however, in general people may have preconceived notions about certain genres, Street Lit included, and be reluctant to explore them.

Finally, on the practical end, it would be incredibly difficult to come up with rules about shelving or stickering GLBTQ fiction and African American fiction, and the rules would likely end up being rather arbitrary. Would the GLBTQ fiction indicator only be for books that have GLBTQ main characters, or would it be appropriate for books with GLBTQ secondary characters? Would the GLBTQ indicator come first over other genre indicators (especially if only one copy of the book could be purchased, and the book could only go in one section)? For example, would "The Telling" by Ursual K. LeGuin be shelved or stickered as science fiction or GLBTQ, since it has a lesbian protagonist? Would "The Bells of Times Square" be romance or GLBTQ? For African American fiction, would those books be all books by African American authors? Do Walter Mosely's mysteries and science fiction books go in those sections, or are they all in the African American fiction section? Are Beverley Jenkins' novels romance or African American fiction? What about books about African Americans that are written by white authors, like "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett? It's an impractical and difficult system.

Don't get me wrong - I think that GLBTQ books and books by African American authors and/or about African Americans are extremely important for all libraries to have, and patrons should be able to find them! Libraries should be making book lists and other passive readers advisory materials to help people find the items they're looking for. Libraries' OPACs should have strong genres and subject headings to help find books with certain subjects. Librarians should be trained to help people find whatever they're looking for without judgment. However, I think that genre separating by shelving or stickers hinders patrons more than it helps them - and, especially in the case of GLBTQ fiction, it may hinder some of the most vulnerable patrons who need to read those books the most.