Finding what you’re looking for: a reader-centred approach to the classification of adult fiction in public libraries
TLDR
The authors argued that the classification of adult fiction according to "genre" in public libraries causes more confusion than clarification and that the use of a genre system also alienates many readers, with good reason, as the nature of the system is ambiguous.Abstract:
This article argues that the classification of adult fiction according to ‘genre’ in public libraries causes more confusion than clarification. Whilst the system purports to model itself on bookstore design the reality is that the actual arrangement is quite different. In the bookstore model, genre is a marketing category and not a literary category as it is currently used in many Western Australian public libraries. The use of a genre system also alienates many readers, with good reason, as the nature of the system is ambiguous. The adoption of a ‘reader-centred’ method for adult fiction classification would mean that the library collection was more accessible because the underlying principles are easier to understand.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Selecting fiction as part of everyday life information seeking
Kamy Ooi,Chern Li Liew +1 more
TL;DR: This study seeks to examine, from the viewpoint of 12 adult fiction readers who are members of book clubs, how they go about selecting fiction books to borrow from the public library, and highlights the purposive and serendipitous dimensions of book selections.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
Readers' search strategies for accessing books in public libraries
Anna Mikkonen,Pertti Vakkari +1 more
TL;DR: The most often used search tactics for accessing books in public libraries were known book or author search together with browsing search, and the use of known item search was associated with high educational level and the amount of non-fiction books read.
Reading infrastructures in the contemporary city : a study of three public libraries in Sydney
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a solution to solve the problem of homonymity in homonym identification, which is called homonymization of homonyms, i.e.
How Adult Fiction Readers Select Fiction Booksin Public Libraries: a Study of Information-Seeking in Context
TL;DR: It was found that while the public library provided a range of readers' advisory tools to assist fiction readers in their book selections, not all the tools were helpful to the study's participants.
References
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Book
Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping
Paco Underhill,Rick Adamson +1 more
TL;DR: Underhill's "Why We Buy" is based on hard data gleaned from thousands of hours of field research in shopping malls, department stores, and supermarkets across America.
Journal Article
A House Divided? Two Views on Genre Separation
Barry Trott,Vicki Novak +1 more
TL;DR: A discussion on the merits of separating out library fiction collections by genre was held on the Fiction_L discussion list (subscribe at www.webrary.org/rs/ FLmenu.html).