Reader Centred Classification of Adult Fiction in Public Libraries
2008; Volume: 21; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1839-2466
Autores Tópico(s)Short Stories in Global Literature
ResumoThe classification of adult fiction by genre in public libraries produces more confusion than clarification. Whilst the system purports to model itself on bookstores the actual arrangement is quite different. In the bookstore model, genre is a marketing category and not a literary category as it is currently used in many Western Australian public libraries. The use of a genre system also alienates many readers as the nature of the system is ambiguous. The adoption of a reader centred method for adult fiction classification would mean that the library collection was more accessible because the underlying principles are easier to understand. Edited version of a paper first published in the 'Australian library journal' May 2008 pp 169-177. ********** Despite new trends, the core business of public libraries is books. That is why most users come to the library and, furthermore, most come to the library to borrow fiction. Fiction generates 'higher circulation and returns and a better turnover rate of 5.6 compared to 3.0 for nonfiction'. (1) One change that has been introduced in some public libraries is the arrangement of the adult fiction collection by category or genre. In Western Australia this is relatively new but in the eastern states of Australia and in the UK in particular it has been in place since the late 1980s. Books are arranged by genre--westerns, romance, crime, science fiction, war etc--and then alphabetically by author. This derives from a bookstore model because it is thought people prefer to browse and choose books by genre rather than by alphabetical author. The positive and negative elements associated with this are discussed by Trott and Novak in 'A house divided: two views on genre separation', (2) but the following are some of the more common problems * the difficulty in deciding what goes where. Some books fall naturally into a genre. Indeed, they are produced with that reading market in mind. Thus Barbara Cartland falls within the category of romance, Zane Grey in westerns. But what about the books of Cormac McCarthy or Larry McMurtry'? All the pretty horses and Lonesome dove sound like westerns. They have a western setting and cowboy heroes, so presumably this is where they would be classified. But how would a reader who normally dislikes this category ever find these books? And where does Annie Proulx's Brokeback mountain stand? A romance? A western? (lad lit perhaps?) Trott calls this 'the genre stigma' There are many readers who use genre classification not so much as a tool for selection of titles but rather as a means of rejecting titles they do not wish to read. These are the readers that all readers advisers have encountered, who say things like 'I never read science fiction' or 'Fantasy stories are for teenagers'. In the case of such books as The sparrow or The time traveller's wife, putting these titles in a genre collection will mean that readers who automatically reject those genres will rarely come across these books. (3) * the work of some authors falls into more than one genre: 'Increasing numbers of authors are crossing genres from book to book and publishing titles that encompass multiple genres in a single work'. (4) * the classification is inconsistent. One librarian may deem a novel to belong in action and adventure; another may put it in historical. Sons and lovers by D H Lawrence is a case in point. One librarian may place it in romance, another in classics and yet another in relationships. * the statistical evidence to support this arrangement is dubious. Baker has stated that 'several studies show that more than half of those readers seeking fiction are looking for works of a particular genre'. This may be true but it begs the question of what the other percentage of readers are looking for and, more importantly, how do they find it. …
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