Student Annotations: Special Reading Interests

You read what I had to say about special reading interest areas, now it's time to hear from the GSLIS 763 students.

Click on over to the class blog to see what they had to say about their reading for this week.

Special Reading Interests Discussion

Tonight in GSLIS 763 we are tackling the last grouping of books.  It is hard to believe that there are only 2 weeks left in the Spring 2011 semester.

At the end we focus on what we have reluctantly agreed to call "Special Reading Interests."  Exactly which books fit this designation will vary depending on where you live.  Here in the Chicago area the most popular of these are Inspirational, African American, Latino/s, and GLBTQ.  Specifically at the BPL these are highly popular areas of reading interest for our patrons.

After talking in general about how to work with patrons who are seeking books by genre and special reading interest, we focus on these 4 areas, their resources, the most popular authors, and the genre trends.

Working with any special reading interest collection is always tricky.  If you pull these books out, you risk being accused of ghettoizing them; deeming them as not worthy enough to be the the general fiction.  However, when you do not pull out these books, readers complain that you aren't paying attention to their reading needs.  In other words, you cannot win.

How do you tackle this double-edged sword?  I have found success by making sure your staff is educated about reading options for your largest special reading interest groups.  Also, listen to your patrons.  What do they want?  How are they accessing the books?  We use this 2 pronged attack as we help readers at the BPL.   Let me give you concrete examples:

For Inspirational that is religious we use a sticker; however, for more general inspirational that is not religious (like Mitch Album) we do not.  Our readers who use the stickers to find reading suggestions are looking for Christian fiction.  However, we are aware of books which have an inspirational message and pull them out for displays and annotated lists throughout the year.

For African American, we do not use stickers; however, we do have a high urban fiction readership. To help both our readers and the staff, our fearless leader, Kathy, works to keep an urban fiction list both in print and on the Browsers Corner blog.  We also frequently pull out urban fiction for small mini-displays. 

For GLBTQ, we are blessed to have an active GLBTQ group in Berwyn, BUNGALO, who are also huge library supporters.  They have their monthly meetings at the library, give us a monetary donation every year, and are active volunteers in the Friends of the Library.  As a result, we have a great GLBTQ collection, but we do not pull it out.  In fact, I highly argue against anyone pulling out their GLBTQ books.  Why?  Some GLBTQ readers could be struggling with their feelings about their sexuality and would not want to have to go to a designated area where they would stand out.  Rather, I argue for actively stickering your GLBTQ titles so that readers who are still uncomfortable asking for help can find the books on their own.  This needs to be done with your fiction and nonfiction titles, by the way.

For Latino/a, we do nothing.  I am not sure why.  I think because there is confusion as to whether or not South American authors should be grouped here too.  We do have a large popular fiction collection in Spanish and have a high bilingual patron base.  But like African American, the Latino/a authors are mixed in throughout our collection and at least once a year we highlight the titles with a large display and an updated annotated list of titles of interest.  Interestingly, some of the younger Latino/a writers are moving more toward Urban Lit too.

So where should you go for resources to help your patrons with these special reading interests.  I will give you one web based suggestion for each to get you started.

Inspirational:  I like Best Inspiration because it encompasses the full range of what people find inspirational.  They have also captured the biggest trend in the area--bucket lists.

African-American: For the mainstream, I like The African American Literature Book Club.  For your Urban Lit readers try Street Fiction, a site run by a librarian to promote and educate about the genre.  He has reviews, lists, and interviews.

GLBTQ:  The gold-standard resource for GLBTQ reading interests is The LAMBDA Literary Foundation.  No more commentary needed.  This site is full of information that represents the full breadth of the reading interest and has information for authors and readers.

Latino/a:  I like Latino Stories, a resource created by a teacher, Jose B. Gonzales.  He has links to other websites, resources, awards, and best lists.

Now, I want to know what other special reading interests are popular at your library.  How do you help these readers?

Student Annotations: Last of the Semester

Tonight's class is entitled, "Special Reading Interests." In this class we talk about areas of fiction where your community might have an interest. Since we have only 3 hours and we are training the librarians of Northern IL, we focus on the following four categories: Inspirational, African American (including Urban Lit), Latino/a, and GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning).

For these interest areas, we discuss fiction and nonfiction.  We also require the students to each try a book in one of these areas during the course of the semester.

I realize this is only a small sampling of the special reading interests out there, but for a vast majority of the librarians we are training, these will be the most common. The idea is for them to read a book and think about its appeal for more than just what genre it is. Many times, just being a book by a, for example, African American author, is an appeal factor in and of itself. This class and the required reading forces the students to think about this. So, even if you want to argue about the areas we have chosen, the exercise is useful as training for dealing with any patron's special reading interest.


Click on over to the Class Blog to see what they read this week.

Also to see what has been read in these areas in the past click on the interest area to see all posts: Inspirational, African American, Latino/a, and GLBTQ. These links are helpful if you have a patron (or yourself) who wants to read one of these books.

That's it for annotations this semester. Joyce will teach the class this summer, so I will post their work.  The students still have finals, so, at the least, I will have a few more reading maps to add to the class archive in a few weeks.

Student Annotations: Special Reading Interests

Tonight we talked about the fact that in every community there are special interests you need to be aware of. The four most popular special reading interests in the Chicagoland area are Inspirational Literature (both religious and non-religious), African American Literature, Latino/a Literature, and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Literature.

These are not genres, but rather specific interest areas which include books in all genres. It is also important to note that you do not have to "be" in one of these groups to read books in these special reading interest areas.

My students read some books in these 4 categories and posted about them on the Word Press blog.

Since people are less familiar with these areas I thoughts I'd also share just one web resource from each area.

Inspirational: Beliefnet
African American: African American Literature Book Club
Latino/a: The Boston Public Library's Latino Life Bookmarks
GLBTQ: I'm Here, I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?

Use the resources or the student blog to find something new to read.

Student Annotations: Special Reading Interests

Today's class is a catch all that we call Special Reading Interests. These are books that fall into any genre but fit the following reading interests: African-American, Latino/a, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, or Inspirational.

These are the four most common special interest in the area around Dominican University, as a result, these are the ones we focus on. If you were near a reservation, I could see why you might focus on Native American Literature, or if you were in CA, you might need to add Asian-American Literature to the list.

The key to this day is to show the students that you sometimes need to think about issues beyond just genre when giving reading suggestions. And, a great way to do this is by picking the most popular reading interests in your area.

Also, we use this class to stress how important it is to not think of, for example, "African-American" books as a genre. This is a big mistake. Within each of these special reading interests, there is a book in every genre, with appeal factors specific to that genre. For example, just because a reader likes "gay authors" does not mean they will like the literary fiction of David Leavitt the same as the mysteries of Mark Zubro. You need to further understand within the confines of "gay authors" what type of book that reader wants.

Enough explaining, here is the link to Joyce's students' annotations for today.

Student Annotations: Special Reading Interests

Last night our class discussed the most popular special reading interests in the Chicagoland area. So head over to our class Word Press blog for annotations on Inspirational, African American, Latino/a and GLBTQ.