To Interfile or Not - That is the Question

“Consider yourself part of the collection management committee of your local library, or a library at which you would like to work. You must decide whether or not to separate GBLTQ fiction and African American Fiction from the general collection to its own special place. Some patrons have requested this, yet many staff are uncomfortable with the idea - saying it promotes segregation and disrupts serendipitous discovery of an author who might be different from the reader. Do you separate them? Do you separate one and not the other? Why or why not? You must provide at least 3 reasons for or against your decision.”

It is challenging to think about a library’s collection without discussing the library’s decision to interfile or not. On a regular basis, I get questions at the reference desk about interfiling and whether a patron should look in “regular fiction” or somewhere else to find a book. When I first got this question, I’ll admit that I was stumped. This is my first library job so I guess I hadn’t thought much about whether or not to separate genres. “But…it’s all fiction…” I remember saying to my boss, “so why would we move it even more?” I didn’t realize then, but she was probably rolling her eyes, thinking “Oh, this debate again!”

Now, I can understand why there are two sides to the debate about how to organize fiction collections. On one hand, a single fiction collection with guides for readers (bookmarks, brochures, stickers, etc.) provides users with the opportunity to discover all sorts of genres and authors. On the other hand, specific genres provide users with the opportunity to hone in on the type of fiction they most enjoy reading. There is no right or wrong way, but each library must develop a system that works for them.

Additional sensitivity regarding the organization of a fiction collection comes into play when libraries are faced with the challenge of how to file books that fall under LGBT or African-American fiction genres. While I’m not sure I would classify these as genres, they do have elements that are more or less appealing to certain readers for a variety of reasons.  When considering these books, some libraries choose to incorporate them into the general fiction collection, while some choose to pull them out and make specific sections.

After considering both sides of how to address this, I believe that I am in favor of interfiling the entire collection, including LGBT and African American fiction. For the following reasons, I believe that an inclusive fiction collection is the best approach.

Promotes browsing and discovery

Many library patrons enjoy the causal, informal nature of browsing shelves to find good books to read. While browsing a collection, readers will often stumble upon a book that meets and satisfies their appeal factors, though it may be a totally new author or genre for them. Putting all of the fiction books in one section allows for readers to come across titles they wouldn't other wise read. On the flip side, there is a good chance that, "putting these titles in a genre collection will mean that readers who automatically reject those genres will rarely come across these books" (Trott & Novak, 2008). Libraries should try to design collections in a way that promotes the highest level of potential discovery as possible.

Enforces the idea that this is just another type of fiction

The challenge with genre, or sub-genres, of fiction is that there can be an implied value assessment assigned to them - as if they aren't as "legitimate" or "respected" as others. LGBT and African American fiction can easily fall into this category. As Trott and Novak (2008) note, 

 "The danger that arises in separating out genre fiction in libraries is that this separation can   contribute to the continued notion that there is a hierarchy of writing and that genre fiction belongs lower on the scale than literary fiction. Too often, genre fiction collections that are separated out are not clearly identified as such, and represent the arcana of the library’s holdings, where only the true devotees venture. While these true devotees may be delighted to have a section devoted to them, such breaking down of the collection into specializations makes it less accessible to those readers who 'don’t read horror' or 'never pick up a Western.’”

Interfiling all genres within the fiction collection will promote the idea that there is no value placed on any type of book, and that the library supports Ranganthan’s laws “Every reader his (or her) book; Every book its reader”.  Rather, interfiling will allow readers to become accustomed to LGBT and African American fiction as additional types of fiction they may try and enjoy.

Respect for privacy and anonymity 

Libraries are committed to patron privacy and rights to read, and do everything they can to protect those rights and promote readers’ confidence in the library. When considering this, especially in the case of LGBT books, libraries should consider that patrons may wish to browse through books featuring this subject or characters without violating their rights to privacy, while diminishing any real or perceived judgement from other patrons or readers. Interfiling books together further protects that privacy and will most likely provide a sense of comfort/relief to patrons who are nervous about exploring a new genre.

Is there a solution?

As a compromise to this question, I would suggest using spine stickers to delineate LGBT and African-American authors/books on the shelves, and leave them immersed with the general fiction collection. The Fishers library currently uses stickers to bring reader’s attention to romance, mystery, suspense, westerns, etc. – there would be no difficulty incorporating additional stickers to guide readers in their choices.

There is discussion about what constitutes LGBT fiction (is it based on characters? Storyline?) and sometimes African American fiction. To relieve the library of making decisions about how to assign genres, the library will continue to use guidelines from professional sources and the publisher to determine how to label these books. Patrons always have the right to request that they be re-assigned or removed from a genre with a materials reconsideration request.

In order to guide users in finding authors and books in these two genres, the library will prepare brochures, reading guides, author lists, bookmarks, etc. These are available from the reference desk as well as in a separate display so that readers may self-guide their exploration.

The Fishers library has transitioned in the past from separate genre collections to an interfiled collection based upon community assessment and strategic goals. If this sort of collection is no longer useful to the community, the library will absolutely consider a new organization model which may include creating specific genre collections.

*****

I also found this blog post to be interesting and useful in this discussion. I did not incorporate any of the author’s thoughts into my post, but thought this would be interesting to read!

http://nkjemisin.com/2010/05/dont-put-my-book-in-the-african-american-section/

Reference

Trott, B. & Novak, V. (2008). A House Divided? Two Views on Genre Separation. Retrieved from: http://blog.rusq.org/2008/01/05/a-house-divided-two-views-on-genre-separation/