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Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Environmental Lit Day: Lists for all Readers via Book Riot and a Rant About How We Fail Readers Everyday

Today Book Riot has a great feature on Environmental Lit with a series of lists for all readers. There are books of poetry, cookbooks, hopeful titles, bleak stories, picture books, literally every type of book dealing with the environment, all in one centralized page to be encountered by potential readers.

However, I am highlighting this list for more than the obvious reason that you can use it for display and list ideas to promote your collections to readers. This grouping of titles and theme day itself is one of the main reasons why I am constantly reminding library workers to look to Book Riot for assistance and ideas.

Unlike us in the library world, Book Riot doesn't silo everything into its specific place based on audience level or format. They don't because they are geared directly to the reader and readers like more than what is in the section they are standing in. Readers, our patrons, could be interested in a wide variety of options and formats, and yet, we don't ever acknowledge that in how we present books to them.

Our patrons might come in looking for books for the entire family. They might enjoy a book of poetry or a film to go with that novel they grabbed, but since that may be on a another floor or it's in a section they have never visited, they will never know. And do we seem to care? Nope because if we did, we'd change.

In very few libraries will you see a themed display that literally showcases the whole library's offerings in a topic-- all formats, age levels, genres, fiction, nonfiction...all in one display. And this is sad. Last time I checked, each staff member works for the Library, not just their department. We need to get over this siloing of our services and collections. [This is something I work into to every single training I give because it is our largest failing-- and we have many failings.]

As a profession are so worried about our classification systems and everything being in its "proper" place that we lose sight of our purpose-- to offer information and items for our readers. I would argue that the actual "proper" place for materials is where patrons will best find them, not where a classification system made in previous centuries says they should be. 

Think about this way, do you blindly do things in other parts of your life in the same way your great, great grandparents did? I am going to guess the answer is no.

Please consider thinking like a reader and less like a library worker for a few moments. Click through to the Book Riot Environmental Lit Day celebration page. Then step back and think about how happy your patrons would be to see something like this in a central location at your library or on the website. A display, whether physical or digital, that takes into account every type of item you have on a topic, and then puts it where they can find everything in one place. 

Obviously these relocations are not forever. The items can move for a few days or weeks and no one will end up in library jail, heck there won't even be any injuries [although you might not know it from the stink some library workers make when I suggest moving items around]; in fact, just the opposite will happen. Patrons will be elated because you are showing them that they come first with your actions.

Many of our library classification systems put out dated rules over reader behavior. And last time I  checked, our PUBLIC libraries are owned by and are for the PUBLIC. They are not there for the library workers. It is not your library. The library worker is not a gatekeeper but rather a facilitator, connecting their community to their collection.

[See also my rant on the stupidity of shelving series in alphabetical order rather than series order. I am going out on a very solid limb here to say that no one has EVER read a series [other than Grafton] in alpha order.]

Today, check out the offerings from Book Riot. Use them to help patrons right now. Build a display, make some lists, sure. But also, take a step back and think about how much better a job they are doing to address the habits, desires, and reality of actual readers with their lists and articles.

Why don't we ever take a topic and put out a sampling of EVERYTHING we have on said topic, from across the entire collection?!?!?

[Side note: one of the best displays I ever saw was at a tiny library in Appalachia where they took the topic "Dogs" and did just that.]

As a profession, we have much to learn from Book Riot. Yes, lots to learn from a for-profit, click driven, book based website. Don't roll your eyes. I know some of you are, but I am right, and you have to stop being so "high and mighty. Put your patrons first for a change!

Those of us who deal with leisure readers of any age need to spend less time thinking like library professionals and more time thinking like the readers are supposed to be serving. 

[End Rant}

See the intro and a link to the full coverage below.

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IT’S ENVIRONMENTAL LIT DAY!

Whether you call it enviro-lit or cli-fi, whether it’s nonfiction or fiction, whether they make weather puns (heh!) or take a more serious tone, there are so many amazing books out there about or featuring the world around us. We humans are just one small piece of a great big world, one that we’re fighting to save, so today we’re celebrating environmental lit across genres.

Find out if ecopoetry is the thing you’re missing in your life; get the best picture books to introduce your little ones to the environment and our impact on it; learn to cook sustainably; get some ecologically inclined manga recommendations. Today’s posts include all these and then some, and we wish you and your TBR joy while you explore! (And don’t forget to hug a tree—or your houseplant—when you’re done.)

Click through for the lists and start promoting these books to every patron.

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