Week 14 Prompt

I think that the problem is whether or not to separate the collection by genres in general. Only separating GLBTQ and African American Fiction would be segregating part of the collection. On one hand, this separation would make it easier for people looking for these genres to find them, on the other hand, it would ensure that people not interested in these genres specifically would never stumble upon them, as they would be unlikely to enter this part of the collection. However, if every genre was separated, and the collection was organized as such, than it would not be segregation, but simply the way that the collection was divided. This method of organization makes sense, and is likely familiar to the patrons, as book stores separate their collections by genre. It would certainly simplify browsing if you know exactly what genre you are interested in already. However, just as it would if GLBTQ and African American genres are sorted separately, it would discourage people from browsing the entire collection in search of titles, cover and authors that interest them, as is sometimes referred to as genre stigma (http://blog.rusq.org/2008/01/05/a-house-divided-two-views-on-genre-separation/). Additionally, the library does not have the space to provide for each genre to be separated, although this could be considered during our next update. Furthermore, it would prove to be very difficult to define every genre, as many books cross between many genres, and reducing them to one woud not do our patrons justice when they are searching for something that they like. Therefore, at this point, given that the library is not ready to abandon Dewey Decimal and change over to genre specific classification, and because separating these two specific genres will discourage browsing, I do not believe that we should separate either or both of these genres. However, I do think that it is important that we emphasize that we have them available and make our patrons aware of them through displays and signs posted throughout the collection.

Trott, Barry, and Vicki Novak. "A House Divided? Two Views on Genre Separation." RUSQ. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.