Week 14 Prompt

This is the scenario:  I am part of the collection management committee at my local library or a library I would like to work and I must decide whether or not to separate the GLBTQ 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 at an author who might be different from the reader.

First thing I must consider where am I located.  If I considered being a librarian in San Francisco, I would separate the books because of the large GLBTQ population.  Oakland has separate section for African American books and GLBTQ  books in their collection development policy.  I would like to look at the needs of my local Allen County Public Library.  I do not believe the books should be separated at the main library, but the branches can decide for themselves.

Here are the three reasons for not separating the books.
1.  We must consider books that are under two different genres.  I just read Rainbow Boys and that book is GLBTQ and young adult.  We would not want to separate this book into a GLBTQ section because the young adult person would be comfortable searching i n the young adult section for this book.  The young adult has many interests besides their sexual orientation, so they need this book with the other young adult books.  Their are also books that are both African American and GLBTQ and where do you put those books.

2.  We must also consider the ease of finding the books.  When a person looks for a book and finds fiction and the authors last name, this helps them find the book.  If the patron needs to know if it is the African American section or the GLBTQ section, it makes it awkward an harder for the person to find the book.  We need to please the people that come to the library.  We can explain to the people that want the books separated that this is not a good policy.  The patron and pleasing them is very important in the library.

3.  We must also consider what is best for the library staff.  When a new person starts at the library, they need to get introduced to where the different books are so they can find them easily.  It will be much easier to find the fiction books, it they are just separated by author.  I have been helping out at a library that has the paperback books divided and I think it makes it harder to find the book.  The African American section is called urban and you can usually tell by the title.  Some books are harder to tell what category they belong to.  Let's make it easier on everyone and keep them together.

My belief is the main library shouldn't separate the African American and GLBTQ books, but if there is a special library for these books that is fine.  In Fort Wayne, we have a special library for GLBTQ books that has thousands of books.

Reference:
oaklandlibrary.org/system/files/collectiondevelopment.pdf