Week 13 Prompt

Ways of Highlighting and Supporting LGBTQ Fiction and Urban Fiction Titles

My library work experience includes positions in a small liberal arts university library, and working at a large public library system. The larger public library has ways of highlighting both LGBTQ Fiction and Urban Fiction materials. For this response I am challenging myself to think in terms of a smaller library system while pulling examples from what I have seen at work. After reading the news stories provided in the prompt about separating LGBTQ books from the main collection, I definitely had to take a moment to pause, think, and reflect. 

Given my experience in a large public library system, and before I read the entire story in both articles, I initially thought this would be a very positive move. My thoughts were something along the lines of... "Yay! Let's definitely highlight this collection and give it the room it needs!!". I thought placing the items in a location that would be highlighted would show support for the material. Otherwise, it is possible that these items are overlooked or hidden within larger collections. Placing labels on the books are a perfect indicator that helps readers easily identify works they are seeking... right?

HOWEVER... Separating a collection has the potential for serious harm when the collection can then hidden and place out of reach for those who are seeking the material. Placing labels on books can be difficult as well because what one person might think is worthy of a label might not be the same as another person. There might also be an argument that labeling these materials can potentially make youth and other readers less likely to want to read the book in fear of being targeted. 

In terms of Urban Fiction novels, this can be difficult to address as well. I work in a branch that is a predominately black community and next to DVDs, their highest circulating collection in 2019 was... Urban Fiction! Based on community needs and patterns of circulation, it seems very obvious to want to place these items in their own collection to 1) make it easier for the patrons to access and 2) to make it easier to identify these items from other works. Each item has a spine label that says "URBAN FIC". Seems like a win, win situation right? Well, we still have some issues with identifying which items belong to this collection. For instance, do Urban Christian books or romance novels fit within Urban Fiction? I have heard arguments that all of the black authors should be in one location as well, however, I would argue that we cannot place these other authors in urban fiction simply because they are black authors. Urban fiction is its own unique genre (or subgenera). 

So let's make some decisions. I am probably very biased given my experiences both in work and outside of work, so I hope anyone reading this knows I am still learning about both LGBTQ and Urban Fiction titles, and do not have experience working within collection management. It is very possible that I look back at my response 3, 6, 12 months from with hopefully more knowledge to make a more informed decision. 

For LGBTQ titles, I believe these works should remain within the main collection. I suppose I am thinking specifically about children's titles when I think about this... but I think these items should be offered to the public like other collections are. We can certainly highlight new authors, new releases, and celebrate this community, but in my mind the best way to acknowledge this community is to accept members and stories in ways that we already accept heteronormative lifestyles, authors, and stories. I don't want to "other" the collection, but embrace books like Julian at the Wedding just like we would Eloise at the Wedding. I don't believe it is pushing an agenda, but providing other materials from which to choose. At the end of the day it is always up to the reader and/or parent who is checking out the items to choose what they check out. 

    1) These titles that are written by authors of the LGBTQ community or about the LGBTQ community have works that can be categorized as fiction, non-fiction, picture books for juveniles/children, teen fiction, science fiction, graphic novels, etc. 

    2) If labels are provided to highlight material, perhaps a spine label might be helpful to easily identify these works.

    3) Displays of these works can happen at any time of the year! Celebrating Mother's Day or Father's Day is a fantastic opportunity to highlight a diverse collection of items that celebrate blended families, adoptions, and you guessed it, LGBTQ families!

For Urban Fiction titles, I believe these works should be separated from the main collection given a high desire/need of the community and high circulation numbers. 

    1) This is a specific subgenera of fiction that should have a space to gather like material. Just like Westerns, Romance, and Science Fiction, I believe it should have a similar approach in creating space for the collection just like the other subgenera I mentioned. 

    2) If there is a high desire for this material, or a large collection of the material, it provides an easier means of identification for those seeking these works. Spine labels can work as well. 

    3) This is also a collection that is FINALLY getting the recognition it deserves from larger publishing companies. These books were popular from many smaller and even independent publishing companies, and I think this is important to highlight and support.