Week 16 Prompt

As a child, some of my favorites were books by Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume, the Little House on the Prairie Series and Nancy Drew.  I went straight from reading children’s books to adult books.  I guess there must have been some YA literature at the time but not much.  In middle school, I read a bunch of historical fiction I found in my mom’s room when I was in middle school including Sophie’s Choice, all of Stephen King that had been published (mid-80’s) and read some really terrible V.C. Andrews, Sidney Sheldon, Mary Higgins Clark, Danielle Steele, etc.  (recommendations of my 8^th grade English teacher!!!).  I am not insulting these books, they are good escapist reading, but not what I would expect an English teacher to suggest to a middle school student.  When I got to high school, I started going to the bookstore all the time and spending all my money there—I actually worked there for a while after college.  My reading became more broad primarily because I started reading award-winning books that were displayed and became friends with others who knew more about books than I did.  Sadly, I rarely used the library at this point in my life.  It wasn’t until later in life that I developed a love for libraries.  I went to the library when I was little but as I got older, I only went when I had an assignment I had to research.  The librarians were really mean and would always give us dirty looks.  They were really intimidating!  So, I just stopped going there.  Later, I went to a fairly literary college and majored in English and Philosophy so this also greatly improved my reading exposure and experiences. 

As a reader, one of the main differences between my childhood and now is the accessibility of books and ways to keep up to date with what is being published.  People today take for granted the daily recommendations they get based on their Amazon purchases and book lists you can pull up in seconds.  Not to mention, the software available through the library.  It is a lot easier than relying on a personal recommendation from someone who doesn’t care about your tastes.  With Amazon prime, I can get a physical book delivered in 2 days or less (although I rarely do).  The rise of Amazon, made a huge difference in the way I bought books and how often I bought them.  With my kindle came the immediate accessibility of e-books.  If I need a book, I can find one in seconds.  I no longer need to keep a hoard of books at home in case I finish my last one and find myself without a book—I still do this anyway!!  I also listen to audiobooks frequently now that I can easily download to my phone.  It was always a hassle to deal with tapes and cd’s which were sometimes damaged and I would only listen when I was going on car trips.  Another big difference is the decline of the bookstore. 

It’s hard to imagine what changes will happen in reading, books and publishing in twenty years.  Di Leo finds the printed book anachronistic.  He states that “academe must transform itself from a fundamentally print culture to one that is fundamentally digital” (Germano,W., Di Leo, J., & Wachtell, D., 2010).  Personally, I like reading digital books for pleasure; however, I find it much easier to read school materials in printed form.  I do read the articles digitally but I prefer print so I can take notes in the book and highlight.  I have always “defaced” my textbooks and find it much easier to learn when I can write in the margins.  Interestingly, I don’t think this is only because I am older.  I have read studies that college students prefer print as well.  When I take notes and highlight in books, I can flip through the entire book and easily see the item I am looking for.  Further, when discussing or analyzing a book, it is easy to flip through a book and see in context the exact passage I am looking for.  I know there are tools to do these things with digital books, but I just don’t like it.  In the future, I imagine digital academic books having places where you can use a stylus pen to scribble things in the margins as you page through, these notes will then be compiled in a list and be searchable.  I would find this very helpful!

I think people will continue to read for pleasure in the future, although I do think the explosion of tv shows and the binge-watching obsession eats into people’s reading time (and video games).  I hope that this is only a current trend and that it will wane.   The many popular titles in the YA area are building future adult readers who will pass their love of reading onto the next generation—I hope! I do imagine reading being interactive—I think some really neat things could be done with graphic novels or a novel like The House of Leaves.    Le Guin states:  “In its silence, a book is a challenge…It won’t move your mind unless you give it your mind, or your heart unless you put your heart in it” (Le Guin 2008 ).  I hope in the future, we continue to give our minds and our hearts to reading because it is a pathway to understanding, empathy and knowledge. 

Resources

Germano, W., DiLeo, J. & Wachtell, D. (2010, October 1).  Fate of the Book.  The Chronicle Review.

Le Guin, U.K. (2008, February).  Staying Awake: notes on the alleged decline of reading.  Harper’s Magazine, 316 (1893).

Week 15 Prompt

There are so many ways to market books at a library.  The library where I work has several librarians who are extremely talented in this area and I am learning a lot from them.  We have a large number of displays, readers’ advisory brochures, author and other programs, and are starting a new online readers’ advisory personal service.  I feel like this range of services provides a good marketing strategy to promote reading and books.

I think displays are a great way to reach out to patrons who may not know what they want to read next.  We have a variety of displays which range from current topics, literature, and historical fiction and events.  I was surprised to hear that a patron told one of our librarians that she never goes to the stacks but also just picks a book from one of our displays!  I have two favorite displays that I have created.  One was Travel through Space and Time where I selected fiction from historical to futuristic that took place all over the world.  In each book on the display, l put a slip of paper in the novel that said travel to and then the time period and the place.  My other favorite was The Real History behind Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander Series.  I found all kinds of historical fiction from 18^th century witch trials, The Loch Ness Monster, Revolutionary History, French History and Scottish and English History.  As anyone familiar with the novels can attest, there is no shortage of topics.  I also included her novels and read-alikes.  The series is extremely popular at our library and a lot of people stopped to look at the display, but not that many things were actually checked out.  Some of the displays that I have done that are most successful are actually just simple displays.  For example, I made a sign that said Get Lost in a Mystery and just put out mysteries and couldn’t stock it fast enough.  I think it is important to have interesting displays that maybe people consider and find interesting combined with more popular displays that will reach more people. 

We try to have author visits and skype events.  We have gotten some big names for the Skype (Diana Gabaldon was one!) but these are not as well attended as I would expect.  One of our best attended events was when Phillip Gulley came to the library.  We also had an event last October called Booktoberfest where we combined a local author fair with 3 keynote speakers.  We had Dan Wakefield, Susan Crandall, and Mike Mullin speak.  We only had 25-30 people per keynote which was much less than we predicted.  Despite this, patrons tell us that this is what they would like to have more author events at the library and we feel it is important as well.  Unfortunately, we don’t have the budget to get expensive speakers so we are somewhat limited in the authors we can showcase.  In August, I am planning a literary trivia night.  I’m not sure who this will turn out, but I have high hopes.  If we market it in our book clubs and other places, I hope patrons will be interested and attend.

One of our librarians who is particularly skilled at readers’ advisory is starting up a program, modeled after Cuyahoga County’s program and others, to provide ra assistance through an online form.  Patrons will fill out a form online with requests and we will provide selections for them.  The details of this are still being worked out but I think it will be a great service for our patrons.

As librarians, we are in the business of marketing books and providing information.  It is my favorite part of the job.  One of the easiest ways to market books is just to talk to patrons.  On quite a few occasions I will be working in the stacks and ask a patron if they need assistance, and they just want to talk about books.  They want to know what I have read and are searching for something new to read and this turns into a readers’ advisory interview of sorts.  It is important that we engage patrons and market books in any way we can.  

Week 14 Prompt

Whether to pull out genres from the collection or file fiction exclusively by author is a difficult question in and of itself; however, pulling out genres such as GLBTQ and African American fiction when not generally filing by genre, raises even more questions and issues.  I understand the appeal for readers of browsing books by genre; however, many books will be difficult to locate as they could be classified in multiple genres.  In addition, I believe that pulling out genres that represent minority viewpoints and shelving them in a specific area does seem a bit like segregation of ideas.  This would make the genres easier to find for those that are looking for them, but readers who may be interested in the books may not specifically look at those genres.  In my opinion, all fiction should be shelved by author with reader’s advisory aids such as brochures, lists and displays used to help identify books in a particular interest.  In the library where I work, many fiction titles also have genre stickers on the spine which readers can use to identify specific subjects.  This could be used to identify African American and GLBTQ literature; however, I am even hesitant to suggest this with minority viewpoints as I feel like this might marginalize the author and the literature.

  For example, I consider Walter Mosley, first and foremost, a mystery writer.  His Easy Rawlins novels are well known and beloved by mystery fans.  However, he is an African American writer and his novels primarily consist of African American characters.  So, if we pull him out of the regular fiction shelves and file him in a specific location designated for African American literature, many readers trying to locate his novels may not be able to locate them immediately.  In addition, the whole concept of having an African American literature section seems to give the impression that African American literature is somehow different from regular literature and will only be of interest to a specific audience.  If the library is set up by genre in general, this further complicates the issue.  Does he belong with mystery or African American literature?  This questions is indicative of why I feel like shelving by minority viewpoint such as African American literature or GLBTQ is marginalizing.  As a reader, I would like my genre sections to include multiple world views available in that genre, neither including and excluding viewpoints.

Jeffrey Eugenides novel, Middlesex, is another example.  This Pulitzer Prize winning novel might be considered a GLBTQ novel as one of the main themes is gender identity.  However, the author is not a GLBTQ author generally and pulling this novel out of the main collection and filing it under GLBTQ marginalizes the novel and only speaks to one aspect of the book.  On the other side of the issue is the concept that novels that are primarily GLBTQ novels, when filed separately, will only be found by those purposely seeking them out as GLBTQ.  As all lovers of literature know, reading allows us to explore another worldview and shelving books from minority viewpoints separately, reduces the likelihood of this happening.

For a number of reasons, I believe patrons are best served when fiction is shelved by author and reader’s advisory resources are used to identify books with specific themes and categories for reader interest.  This allows for readers to browse the shelves and find interesting items by happenstance but also allows readers and librarians to find what they are looking for.  From a practical standpoint, it also reduces the stress on catalogers, pages and librarians in cataloging, shelving and locating items.  While this may seem like a secondary issue, if they are not able to correctly complete these tasks this can provide a negative patron experience.    

The Coldest Winter Ever

Author:  Sister Souljah

Title:  The Coldest Winter Ever

Genre:  Urban Fiction

Publication Date:  1999

346 Pages

Setting:  New York City

Synopsis:

Winter Santiaga is the daughter of one of a successful, very rich drug lord in Brooklyn.  She spends her childhood in Brooklyn in the projects.  Her father lavishes expensive jewelry and clothes on Winter and her mother and her mother teaches Winter how to be a “bad bitch” whose full time job is being beautiful and controls men with her looks.  Winter’s mother had her when she was 14 and treats Winter more like a friend than a mother, unlike Winter’s 3 much younger sisters.  On Winter’s 16^th birthday, Winter’s father Santiaga gives Winter a diamond tennis bracelet and announces he has bought them a mansion on Long Island.  The family moves out to Long Island where Winter and her mother are very isolated and they are going stir crazy. 

Not long after moving to Long Island, things fall apart.  First, Winter’s mother is shot in the face.  Then, their home is raided and Santiaga is arrested.  All of their property is seized and Winter’s three sisters are taken by the state.  Winter’s mother is arrested and released and develops a crack habit.  Winter is homeless but spends the little money she has on expensive clothes and even hires a limo to take her to a concert.  Things continue on a downward spiral, Winter moves in with her aunt and then is picked up as a ward of the state herself.  She winds up staying with Sister Souljah (yes, the author has made herself a character in the novel) and then leaves her to follow after a rapper.  Throughout the novel, Winter uses her relationships with men for gain, as she has been taught to do by her mother.   Winter winds up in jail and the novel ends on a sad note.  The novel is full of violence, drugs and explicit sex.  However, the characters are well developed and it is an interesting if depressing portrayal of this life.

Characteristics of Genre:

Importance of Money:  Money and material objects are emphasized throughout the novel.  Even when she is homeless, Winter spends lavishly and is trying to get into the drug trade to further her expensive lifestyle.

Women Sexually Abused:  Winter is sexually active at a very young age and as a teenager has relationships with grown men in exchange for favors and gifts. 

Overcoming poverty, Crime and Outrageous Acts of Violence:  Santiaga’s status as a wealthy drug lord involves all these themes.

Read-alikes:

Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree

Any Way the Wind Blows by E. Lynn Harris

God Don’t Like Ugly by Mary Monroe

  

Week 13 Prompt

As librarians, it is not our job to judge what people should or should not be reading or what is appropriate.   If there is demand for young adult, new adult, or graphic literature for adults, then we need to meet that need in our library.  As a 43-year old woman, I enjoy reading young adult novels, and have read the occasional graphic novel.  I enjoy the novels, but would read them anyway because I want to know what young people are reading and don’t want to become disconnected from the trends and ideas of people younger than I am.  Further, I don’t really enjoy graphic novels but will read the occasional one for the same reason.  I want to understand why people like them and what the genre is about.  It is fun to discuss books with my 14-year old nephew and exchange reading experiences and book suggestions!

At the library where I work, we have new adult books, young adult books and graphic fiction.  The new adult books are filed alongside adult fiction and are not identified by genre.  Young adult books are primarily filed in the teen zone, although extremely popular ones have a copy in adult (this is very rare).  There is a section of graphic novels in the teen zone and another in adult.  I think some adults are embarrassed about enjoying these genres and hesitate to ask for assistance, especially in regard to young adult novels. 

Readers’ advisory brochures for each of these categories would be helpful in providing assistance to patrons who are reluctant to ask for assistance.  In addition, upon finding brochures on these topics, they will be more inclined to ask for assistance. Further, many libraries have book clubs for adults who enjoy reading young adult novels.  This is a great way for adults to share their love of YA novels and discuss with other adults.   

Another issue with the young adult novels is that they are filed in the teenzone and I think many adults are hesitant to browse the shelves in that area which is designated for teens.  I don’t know how this can be reconciled because it is not a popular enough medium to shelve titles in both adult and teen (with some exceptions).  However, I believe that the readers’ advisory brochures will make adults more comfortable with this. 

I think it is the job of librarians to provide materials and programs that meet the needs and interests of their patrons.  Personally, I feel that there is great value in adults of all ages reading children’s, teen and new adult books.  It encourages an understanding of those that are different from oneself in much the same way reading a book from someone of a different nationality or culture does.    

Wondrous Strange (Young Adult)

Author:  Lesley Livingston

Title:  Wondrous Strange

Genre:  Young Adult

Setting:  Modern Day New York City

Publication Date:  2009

Publisher:  Harperteen:  An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

# of Pages:  327

Synopsis:

Kelly Winslow has just had her big break.  The 17-year old actress was the understudy for the role of Titania, the fairy queen, in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream when the actress playing Titania injured her ankle.  However, after meeting Sonny Flannery while practicing her part in Central Park, things take a turn for the weird.  Sonny is a Janus guard who protects the Gates of Samhain, which connect the fairy world to the human world and are located in Central Park.  It is his job to ensure that no one crosses over between worlds.  He is a human child who was raised by the King Auberon, the king of the Fairies.  After seeking out Kelly at her theater, he recognizes that she is not altogether human but is one of the fairies.   However, Kelly believes he is stalking her and warns him away.

In the meantime, Kelly has almost drowned in Central Park trying to save a horse from drowning.  Incredibly, the horse has followed her home and now resides in her bathtub.  This is not a normal horse but a waterhorse who has crossed the Samhain gate.  Kelly finds herself in danger again in Central Park and is once more rescued by Sonny.  The novel opens on October 31^st and the Samhain gates are open for a period of time surrounding Halloween and the Janus guards must fight off creatures trying to break through the opening during this time.  The spell which has closed the gate lifts during this period.

Kelly and Sonny are both share a similar history and they slowly find out the relationship to each other and the Fairy royalty.  Sonny is a human who was raised by King Auberon.  He was stolen from his mother and raised in Fairy and finally made a member of the Janus guard.  Kelly is the daughter of King Auberon who was stolen from the Fairy King and raised by Sonny’s mother, who she believed was her aunt.  The novel reaches a climax when the Wild Hunt, an event in the past when fairies began to hunt humans for sport, begins to take place in New York City after the Samhain Gate has been flung open.  Can Sonny and Kelly save the City and themselves?

Young Adult Elements:

Fast Pace:  This novel has a fast moving plot and suspenseful details.

Likeable Young Characters:  Both Kelly and Sonny are charming and their shared bond is interesting.

Issues:  Although a paranormal novel, the issues the characters face are ones that all teenagers face:  finding one’s place in the world in both an occupation and around the people that surround one.

Read Alikes:

Clare, Cassandra.  City of Bones.

Angelini, Josephine.  Starcrossed.

Johnson, Christine.  Claire de Lune.

Week 12 Prompt

The Readers’ Advisory Matrix for The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

11.     Where is the book on the narrative continuum?

__  Highly Narrative (Reads like fiction).

X_  A mix (Combines highly narrative moments with periods of fact-based prose).

__  Highly fact based (has few or no narrative moments).

22.    What is the subject of the book? The book tells the story of the Wright Brothers and their invention    of the first working airplane.

33.      What type of book is it?  Biography

44.      Articulate appeal:

·         What is the pacing of the book?  Leisurely although filled with interesting and fascinating details.

·         Describe the characters of the book.  Wilbur and Orville Wright are the main characters.  The book also includes many other characters involved in their lives. 

·         What is the focus of the story?  A detailed account of the trials that Orville and Wilbur faced before and after they successfully flew their plane.

·         Does the language matter?  Yes, it is very well written and has a comforting tone that makes you want to curl up and read.

·         Is the setting important and well described?  The setting changes and is important to the story in the same way all the details of a historical novel are important.

·         Are there details, and if so, of what?  Yes, very detailed account of people, what they did and said and the events that surrounded their lives.

·         Are there sufficient charts and other graphic materials?  They are sections of photos that are interesting and add to the reader’s understanding.  Are they useful and clear?

·         Does the book stress moments of learning, understanding, or experience?  Yes, the book details the process that the brothers went through when creating a working plane.

55.   Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal)?

1.    Historical significance.

2.  Tone.

3.  Detail.