Still Thinking This Through
I posted a while back that our nonfiction collection indicates a higher interest in recreational pursuits than educational. Now I'm looking at the adult fiction and wondering all over again. When I was in youth services, there was no doubt about our educational function. Yes, we want kids to read for fun, but doing so helps them become better readers so even Captain Underpants is educational. And we had a lot of focus on quality books through awards, suggested reading lists, our recommendations, and the like. I have to admit that I didn't give adult recreational reading a lot of thought. Now I am, and I'm not seeing a lot of quality literature on our shelves. Just lots of thrillers and romances and escapist stuff. (As a side thought, is getting softcore romance novel porn at your library that much different than looking at Internet porn at your library?)
My basic feeling is that we are a neighborhood library and should be shaped by our community's wants and needs. Archival, university, and research libraries have a different mission that emphasizes the educational to a higher degree, so as long as they exist I think we are free to emphasize the recreational. But it should be a matter of emphasis, with both elements existing to a certain extent and balancing each other out. But it does feel like we've tipped the scales pretty far to the recreational side and are really deemphasizing our educational value. Should we be worried?
posted by Degolar @ 1:54 PM
9 Comments:
Are you saying that maybe, just maybe, we should have more than the newest and most popular books on the shelves? ;)
What you see at work isn't always my personal opinion but the position I'm paid to endorse. I'm still trying to figure out this particular opinion, though.
I think that generally we are fairly balanced in our collection development for the library as a whole. I think that depending upon what branch you’re in and its size, the trend towards the recreational or more popular books looks more dominant. But again the library system, and in particular Central, have a good balance of important literature and recreational literature. Personally, I find academic monographs and graphic novels interesting. I’m uncomfortable in saying certain books are more important than others, at least in the sense of collection development for a public library. I’m more interested in getting patrons to read than what they read. As a caveat to the main discussion here, I agree with your observation about romance books. I’m not for the elimination of romance books. But I do think that they serve the purpose, as a generality, for women, that Internet porn would for men. And isn’t porn really about how you use it. Is this a double standard?
Oh, I know. I just like to give you a hard time. :) We've discussed it, my feelings are known, and we'll go ahead and weed like maniacs regardless.
But can we have a basketball goal and point lines set up for doing it?
I don't think we need to be worried about tipping too much toward entertainment until we get something like, say, a video game collection.
Oh, right, sorry.
Anyway, I also thought about the system as a whole and the larger branch I'm in. The downside is that most people aren't likely to search for "quality literature" in the catalog, especially if they are just browsing for books. What I like about the HS Read collection is that they are paperbacks with updated covers.
Also, you may need to define quality literature. Does something such as "Like Water for Chocolate" count or is it escapist? Throw that into your romance display. Not to mention, define education. You recently said you read fantasy as self-improvement literature but that wouldn't be my choice.
And reading may be reading at any age level. In YS world I have often told a parent that adults don't have to read all educational stuff, so why should kids? They will only become life-long readers if they are allowed some choice in reading material to discover what they like.
Since this is long for a "comment" I'll pass on the other matter.
Academic research into romance novels often cites the high reader satisfaction associated with learning historical details, as in those set in the Regency period, for example. Many writers of "escapist" literature often do a significant amount of primary research and pride themselves on getting period details correct. For more information, I can always lend you my masters' project ;)
Don't let the ripping bodices on the cover mislead you!
I'll piggy back Erin's comment and say that for my purposes, recreational reading pushes my desire for more non-fictionesque reading. Sure, I read science fiction and fantasy as a general rule, but that doesn't mean I don't check out science articles. I might read how a Star Destroyer uses some sort of space anomaly to hide from the rebel forces...then get curious and go look and see what NASA has to say on the anomaly.
In sort, I use recreational reading as a gateway drug for the hardcore facts...facts I'm interested in, but facts nonetheless.
I'll have to echo Erin and Blue's point here. I was half way through my master's degree in military history before I finally became interested in the Civil War (a topic I had studiously avoided before throughout my academic career). I only really got into Civil War history (and with a passion) after reading Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South. For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, it's about right-wing South Africans who somehow get their hands on a time machine and use it to supply the Confederacy with AK-47's... with the predictable result vis-a-vis the outcome of the war.
Ok, I didn't read the post or any of the comments except the last one. Hadrian read Harry Turtledove!? Everything is starting to make sense, in a very carnal fashion.
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