Week 14 Prompt

The library I work at use to have these section separated until we moved some sections around and we integrated them into the fictions section. I talked with my building manager and asked why we had them separated and why we put them back together. She said we had separated them at one point when the collection was smaller to show people that we had the section. The African American section we had longer than the LGBT section which was started about 2 years ago and then put in with fiction last May. We recently did a survey and she said we had some patrons that asked us to put the African American section back. At my library we have different genre separated out like mysteries, romance, inspirational, and western as well as having a general fiction collection so it didn’t seem a far stretch to have an African American or an LGBT section but when looking for other sources for this discussion it changed my mind. I wouldn’t separate these section because it constricted, it makes it harder for people to just stumble across these titles, and separating them by sub-genres doesn’t make sense.

First I found a blog from N.K. Jemisin author of “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms called “Don’t Put My Book in the African American Section.” In this blog, she talks about how she hates the African American section and wished it didn’t exist. She is a black author but feels that her book doesn’t belong in that section as she says her book doesn’t have any black character and relates more to the science fiction section then the African American section. Jemisin goes on to talk about how when these books are separated out it hurt there exposer and constricts the amount the item is looked at. She talks about how most of these books are put in the back of the store with a label saying African American Interest “which might as well have read, ‘Everybody But Black People, Nothin’ to See Here. Move Along’” (Jemisin). We think when making these new section that the people who read these section want this but they don’t really, they want to be included with all the rest of the titles and not segregated just because the book is written by a black author.

Jemisin talks about how the reader who sent her the letter asking about being put in the African American section said that she was able to check out another section in the library because it was separated but had it not been for her looking for this specific book she wouldn’t have looked in that section. Wendy from the blog called “The Misadventures of Super Librarian” talked about how she hates genre sticker because it allows a patron to get stuck in a rut and only read the genre that they always read. If all the section on together you have a better chance as a patron to stumble upon something you may not have read because it is a different genre then you like to read (Wendy). I know I can sometimes fall into this habit of only reading books in a specific genre but I know when I read YA books I tend to venture out more into another style of book that I wouldn’t have chosen if they had specific genre stickers on them.

Wendy also talks about how separating into sub-genres doesn’t make sense because if the book is a historical romance it doesn’t matter if it has a white heroine or one of color it is still a historical fiction book. When you separate out the LGBT and the African American books you are taking them away from other books written in that same style just because they may have some scene in them that are gay or lesbian or that the book is written by an African American. Urban Lit is not the same as Jemisin science fiction book so why would you put them together. Wendy talks about how these sections have made some librarian lazy because they can just point to where the section is and not help them find the item or something else the patron might like in another section.

We should make sure that patrons find what they are looking for but not segregating book because we feel it will make it easier. Just because the book is written by a black author doesn’t mean that it is just like all the rest of the books by black authors and should be put with that one. We need to be more mindful of how we are separating different styles of books to make sure that if we do separate them that we are doing it in a meaningful way.

Bradford, Robin. “The Black Shelves are Over There….” Collection Reflection, 28 July 2011, https://cdstacked.blogspot.com/2011/07/black-shelves-are-over-there.html. Accessed 10 April 2018.

Jemisin, N.K. “Don’t Put My Book in the African American Section.” N.K. Jemisin, 26 May 2010, http://nkjemisin.com/2010/05/dont-put-my-book-in-the-african-american-section/. Accessed 10 April 2018.

Wendy @ TGTBTU. “The One Where Wendy Talks About Diversity.” The Misadventures of …. Super Librarian, 28 Jan. 2016, http://wendythesuperlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-one-where-wendy-talks-about.html. Accessed 10 April 2018.