Week 13 Prompt Response

I've heard this argument time and time again from patrons and peers alike. However, young adult and new adult genres have just as much legitimacy as any other genre on the shelves. There is a clear need and desire for these genres. I myself am a huge fan of young adult and graphic novels. I've not delved into the new adult genre (that I know of) yet, but I'm not opposed. Some of my favorite books fall into the young adult or graphic novel category. I believe that if someone wants to read it - it's a legitimate literary choice. 

As librarians, we should always strive to encourage people to read, not matter the subject matter. This is where we have to keep our personal feelings out of the situation in order to help our patrons find reading materials that spark their interest. There is a fine line between give our recommendations and giving our opinion. I think it's important for librarians to keep that in mind, because the last thing that we want to do it discourage anyone from reading a book they're excited about. Some people like the simplicity of young adult. Whereas the new adult genre allows twenty-somethings to read a book that still feels like young adult, but with a more relatable main character. 

Currently, the library in which I work has a very small young adult sections, which makes me really sad. I was hired in a little over five years ago and I have been steadily ordering various titles and series to better round out the scant collection we had. It was looking very nice and the youth department even had the opportunity to expand that section. Unfortunately, the people in charge of collection maintenance see no value in the young adult section, and about 60-70% of the titles were purged in the course of one week. 

I can't say enough how much I enjoy things like young adult fiction. In fact, I check this site on a regular basis for new YA books to read. I have discovered so many interesting and unique reads because of this site. And I appreciate that they do not limit to just certain niches of young adult lit. 

In order to help people feel more secure in their reading choices, there are a number of things that we can do. First, I would make sure to keep my personal feelings separate from the task at hand. Just because I don't like an author or book doesn't mean someone else might, and we're here to encourage reading. In addition to that, I would make some dynamic displays to highlight these genres. In order to do that, I would either ask for recommendations from fellow staff members, or I would look at the circulation stats for books within these genres and create a display featuring titles people might not think of. One additional thing that I would do is to create a reader's advisory poster to show patrons what young adult, new adult, or graphic novels they might like based off of their most recent reads in other genres. 

These posters are a lot of work, but I really enjoy doing them, because it's kind of fun to see what titles relate to each other. I've found some books that I've added to my TBR list this way.