Week 16 Prompt

Reading has changed a lot for me since I was a kid. As a kid I very much enjoyed going to the library or a bookstore and browsing the shelves. I reveled in picking out a book and feeling it in my hands and the satisfaction of turning the pages as I enjoyed the story. When Ebooks first came out I was averse. I thought it would be a quick fad and they would disappear. I could never see myself using an ereader or a computer to read a book and thought that it would take all of the satisfaction out of reading. 

As I got a little older I realized that Ebooks might be a convenient compromise. At the time I was living in a very small and remote town. To say that the library was lacking would be an understatement and going to a bookstore was not realistic financially or practical in that the closest bookstore was over an hour away. So, I acquired an Ebook and compromised with reading Ebooks over not being able to read at all. I changed my opinion of Ebooks after that, simply out of convenience. My pleasure in reading a physical book hasn’t changed but I rarely have the time to acquire one and store it afterwards, because I know I’ll refuse to give it up. I can tote an entire Ebook collection with me taking up less space than one book, it’s hard to beat when traveling.

I’ve had a similar experience with audiobooks. I had previously thought of audiobooks with distaste, something that I would just never be able to get into. At a young age I tried them and could never sink into the story, always wishing I had a physical book instead. Within the past few years I ran into a new challenge, trying to fit reading for leisure in with working a very demanding job, being in school, and a social life. I found very little time to read, and when I did I was too exhausted to really be able to enjoy it. My eyes would cross trying to read the lines. But, I found my library’s collection of audiobooks and gave it a shot. Now I am able to listen to audiobooks at work and go through multiple books a week. It helps me enjoy my work and satisfy my need for reading at the same time.

In the future, I think that we will continue to read at the same pace and volume, but in continually different ways. Just like I described the rise of Ebooks and the growing popularity of audiobooks, I think that convenient and innovative ways to read will be developed and slowly, readers will adapt.

Week 15 Prompt

I think that there are a lot of possibilities for marketing a library collection and I’ve seen a lot of them used in tandem. I feel like an effective way to market a library’s fiction collection is to use multiple marketing tools to create a cohesive and far-reaching strategy to intrigue patrons.

1. Displays: I think we can all agree that displays are an effective way to bring attention and interest to the books being display can be placed near the fiction collection close to a high traffic area of the library. The display can have information on the fiction genre and can include some suggestions of best sellers or popular and new fiction to grab interest. The display can change as often as staff resources and time will allow. I think this form of a display will draw interest from patrons already using the library facilities.


2. Online outreach: I think it is fair to say that a lot of patrons may not visit the brick and mortar library very often due to inconvenience, conflicting schedules during business hours, or any other number of reasons. This is why I think marketing the library’s fiction collection online is necessary. Depending on the size of the community the library could have links on other town websites. The library website itself could have a fiction collection spotlight, essentially a digital version of the physical display described above. It can have information on the fiction genre, include suggestions, and provide suggestions for fiction books that are electronic formats so that users browsing the library website can still have access to the content.


3. Fiction monthly highlights: In addition to the previous two marketing tools I think that a fiction monthly highlight program would be very beneficial to the regular users. The display, even updated often is really only designed in my description to draw in library users that may not otherwise have looked at the fiction collection. The fiction monthly highlights is designed to continue to draw interest from current readers. The fiction monthly highlights could be a newsletter/email/blog post that users can subscribe to to get a regularly recurring recommendation for lesser known or older fiction books in the library’s collection. Again this could be maintained by the staff and give staff the opportunity to spotlight materials in the collection that are not checked out as much, and aren’t seen on bestseller lists, or considered new.

Week 14 Prompt

This is a decision to make for this week’s prompt, and one that I am not 100% positive of my decision. I think it will be interesting to see other people’s responses and what their reasoning was for their choice. I decided to justify keeping street lit, African American lit, and LGBTQ lit mixed in with the rest of the collection, not on a separate shelf. My reasons are below:

1.  Avoid segregation/ separation that may upset some patrons. I think that by treating every book the same we can avoid alienating patrons for their reading choices. I feel like this can kind of go along the same lines as my prompt points for the young adult books last week. Some people may not feel comfortable venturing to a certain area that is designated for one type of books, like adults not feeling comfortable going into the young adult section to look for books. For those patrons that are requesting the genres be separated we can have resources available for quick searching the genres such as lists of titles in each genre along with spotlights available for quick recommendations.

2. Improve likelihood of exposure from being in the general collection. So, in a similar train of thought, if people aren’t having to venture off to another section of the library to seek out street lit or LGBTQ lit, or otherwise, than those that are browsing through the stacks might be more likely to stumble across one of these books and pick it up. So, by not separating these books out of the collection, we may improve the chances of patrons deciding to read them. By not labeling the books to indicate such a niche genre we take out the factor of patrons dismissing the books as non-relatable or otherwise simply because of the genre. If they are mixed in with the collection they may be perused more, and discovered by patrons.

3.  Avoid controversy with any patrons that may not feel comfortable with separated displays. While I personally think it is important to have street lit, African American lit, and LGBTQ lit, some patrons may not feel the same way. And while I don’t agree, it is not my place to dictate their beliefs, but to make the library as welcoming and comfortable for everybody as possible. So, I think in some instances a separate display may makes some patrons uncomfortable and could cause backlash in a decrease in patrons of backlash from committees or community groups that control funding. While these books have a right to be on the shelves, this is just another scenario that feeds into the decision of keeping these books shelved in the general collection.

Week 13 Prompt

I think that the picture in this week’s prompt is a great example of what we as librarians need to be doing to serve patrons that may want to read YA lit and expose others to it. I agree with the sign, that there can be a certain stigma against reading YA literature or graphic novels as an adult. I for one am just as likely to be reading an adult fiction book as a YA fiction book. I’ve even gone back and reread some of my favorite novels as a youngster and reveled in the elements that made me remember so long afterwards. I think that a few things need to happen to help de-stigmatize and bring awareness for adults to YA literature. The first is to bring the books and displays out of “kid” areas. I know my local library has all young adult books in a designated area with the YA computer and some kid furniture. While this isn’t the worst setup for those in the conventional YA reading range, it can easily prevent others from venturing into the area. Keeping the YA area of the library slightly removed from ALL access to YA books would help adults to feel like they could browse the stacks just as they do for adult fiction.

Another way to do this is through displays and information on YA books. Being open about other adults enjoying YA literature can help patrons to feel more at east browsing YA literature and allow others to start looking at YA books if they hadn’t before. Bringing displays into the adult fiction section like the picture in the prompt show a good example of this. Other ideas for displays could include showing an adult fiction book and shelving it on a display with a YA book with similar theme, plot, character, etc with a brief description. A display could also have authors books displayed that write both adult fiction and YA fiction. These types of displays I feel would target adults who maybe have never considered YA fiction as potential reading material but might be drawn to the display seeing and adult fiction book or author that they have enjoyed in the past.

I think that Graphic Novels may be a littler harder for adults to breach if they never had exposure to them at the conventional age. A display with graphic novels in the adult fiction section with a visual aid of how to read graphic novels along with some popular novels and suggestion could help. There are graphic novels that have been converted to recently popular movies and tv shows, these novels might be a good attention grabber and draw to patrons that are new to them.

Finding Audrey By Sophie Kinsella

Synopsis: Because of some never quite explained past social tragedy, 14 year old Audrey is faced with working through her social anxiety and mental health issues. Audrey narrates her life and documents her family for a therapist-assigned project as she battles with leaving the house and interacting with anyone but her family. Her older brother Frank, and her mother battle over video game addiction while Frank’s friend Linus takes an interest in Audrey. Linus helps Audrey work through her issues and open up to the outside world. The family home gains unity through the unexpected connection of video games.

Genre Characteristics:

Identity

Humor/Clever writing

Rebirth



https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422689464l/23305614.jpg

Appeal:

Mental Health

The topic of mental health is a theme throughout the book, but in a relatively light manner. This may be a trigger for those suffering from severe mental illness, but the book does show improvement in mental illness through the protagonist.


Video Games

Video games and video game addiction is seen throughout the book. Video game addiction popularized through media is discussed in an over-the-top sarcastic manner, and video games are a strong plot-driving device throughout the book for multiple characters.


Romance

The main character discovers a romantic relationship in the story, containing appropriate content for a young adult book.


Brother-Sister Relationship

The main character discusses heavily her relationship with her brother and is seen through the eyes of the main character. This is a relatively central aspect of the book and shows a healthy but realistic relationship between brother and sister.




Read-A-Likes:

Don’t Touch by Rachel M Wilson

Kiss of Broken Glass by Madeleine Kuderick

Trouble Is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly

The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher

The Reader’s Advisory Matrix

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote


1.Where is the book on the narrative continuum

Highly narrative (reads like fiction)



2. What is the subject of the book

The depiction of the murder of a small town family and their killers’ lives



3. What type of book is it?

True Crime

4. Articulate Appeal

What is the pacing of the book? 

The pacing is casual but encapturing for the reader

Describe the characters of the book. 

The characters are very important to the book. There is the family of the farmhouse that is murdered. They are typical small town good natured people, and then there are the murderers. They are flawed but humanized.

How does the story feel? 

The story feels gut-wrenching at times but very interesting all the way through

What is the intent of the author? 

The intent of the author is to describe the murder and motive of the crime, expose the true personality of the offenders and victims and shock the reader with the brutality of the crime.

What is the focus of the story?

 The focus of the story in the lives of the victims and murderers along with the motive.

Does the language matter?

 The language helps to put the reader in the time period that the book is set.


Is the setting important well described?

 The setting is important in that it adds to the shock value of the brutality of the crime and adds to the personality of the victims. The setting is thoroughly described.




Are there details and, if so, of what? There are many details, particularly of the crime scene, the act of murder, and details of the lives of the victims and criminals.




Are there sufficient charts and other graphic materials? Are they useful and clear? No charts or graphs


Does the book stress moments of learning, understanding or experience? 

Understanding of just how unexpected and undeserved the crime was, and what let the offenders to commit it. Experience of the time and how unsettling the crime was at that time and in the town.



5. Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal) ?


Tone


Detail


Setting