Librarians of Metafilter: class by genre or no?
October 11, 2023 7:58 AM Subscribe
I volunteer at a small speciality library (LGBT collection) and we are in the process of rethinking our home-grown fiction classification system. Should we continue to separate some fiction by genre?
We've decided to continue to class Young Adult and Drama separately, but where I keep going back and forth is Erotica. We have a fairly substantial collection of material already classed as Erotica, and we're leaning toward classing any new erotica acquisitions as Fiction, but we do get quite a lot of browsers and perhaps keeping Erotica separate makes more sense. I'm concerned that by classing Erotica as Fiction it may get "lost" on the shelves. I have personally seen visitors take out stacks of erotica at a time.
Thoughts, opinions?
We've decided to continue to class Young Adult and Drama separately, but where I keep going back and forth is Erotica. We have a fairly substantial collection of material already classed as Erotica, and we're leaning toward classing any new erotica acquisitions as Fiction, but we do get quite a lot of browsers and perhaps keeping Erotica separate makes more sense. I'm concerned that by classing Erotica as Fiction it may get "lost" on the shelves. I have personally seen visitors take out stacks of erotica at a time.
Thoughts, opinions?
Ex-librarian here - can you give any insight into *why* you're rethinking your current classification scheme? Is it difficult for staff to manage? Are books getting mis-shelved? Are you having trouble making calls about what "counts" in certain genres, or are genres getting split up so much as to be un-useful? Are readers having trouble discovering books? Is it about "destigmatizing" certain genres?
Also are we talking about shelving here or some kind of database tagging? Spine stickers?
I wouldn't class new erotica as Fiction while keeping old erotica as Erotica - that seems like it would be difficult for both staff and users. In general, if the current classification is working for your readers I think that's a strong argument for keeping it. On the other hand if maintaining the different sections is just too much of a pain in the ass, I think it's OK to shelve everything together!
But definitely pick one strategy and stick with it, at least per genre. There are a lot of libraries that shelve e.g. romances separately but don't do the same for mystery and SFF - you can see that as a belittling siloing of books for women but you can also see it as catering to the preferences of people who like to check out 14 books where the titles are all variations on "The Billionaire's Baby Bargain," which is just much less of a thing for other genres.
posted by mskyle at 9:08 AM on October 11, 2023 [4 favorites]
Also are we talking about shelving here or some kind of database tagging? Spine stickers?
I wouldn't class new erotica as Fiction while keeping old erotica as Erotica - that seems like it would be difficult for both staff and users. In general, if the current classification is working for your readers I think that's a strong argument for keeping it. On the other hand if maintaining the different sections is just too much of a pain in the ass, I think it's OK to shelve everything together!
But definitely pick one strategy and stick with it, at least per genre. There are a lot of libraries that shelve e.g. romances separately but don't do the same for mystery and SFF - you can see that as a belittling siloing of books for women but you can also see it as catering to the preferences of people who like to check out 14 books where the titles are all variations on "The Billionaire's Baby Bargain," which is just much less of a thing for other genres.
posted by mskyle at 9:08 AM on October 11, 2023 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: can you give any insight into *why* you're rethinking your current classification scheme? Is it difficult for staff to manage? Are books getting mis-shelved? Are you having trouble making calls about what "counts" in certain genres, or are genres getting split up so much as to be un-useful? Are readers having trouble discovering books? Is it about "destigmatizing" certain genres?
Yes to all of this (except the last two.) As context: the library was entirely volunteer-run until rather recently and volunteers still do the bulk of the work, including cataloging.
All fiction is classed in a home-grown system with categories (based on type of material) and subcategory (based on gender.) We want to move away from using a subcategory entirely and expanding the last position of the call number (last name of author or editor) from 3 characters to 5. (The gender subcategory is a relic of a different way of thinking about users of the library and has not scaled well with a growth in fiction about trans characters, for instance, nor did it ever work well for fiction collections.)
We're talking both about call numbers and shelving locations. Right now, all categories are kept together, so in this instance Erotica is shelved directly preceding Fiction. The ultimate goal is to reclass all fiction but we are not there yet.
posted by rhymedirective at 9:31 AM on October 11, 2023
Yes to all of this (except the last two.) As context: the library was entirely volunteer-run until rather recently and volunteers still do the bulk of the work, including cataloging.
All fiction is classed in a home-grown system with categories (based on type of material) and subcategory (based on gender.) We want to move away from using a subcategory entirely and expanding the last position of the call number (last name of author or editor) from 3 characters to 5. (The gender subcategory is a relic of a different way of thinking about users of the library and has not scaled well with a growth in fiction about trans characters, for instance, nor did it ever work well for fiction collections.)
We're talking both about call numbers and shelving locations. Right now, all categories are kept together, so in this instance Erotica is shelved directly preceding Fiction. The ultimate goal is to reclass all fiction but we are not there yet.
posted by rhymedirective at 9:31 AM on October 11, 2023
This is a deceptively philosophical question and can be polarizing! I personally think keeping all fiction together and using genre stickers is the way to go, for a number of reasons -- first, some people who like certain genres but don't want to be seen browsing said genres can more easily and comfortably find what they need. Second, some novels are genre-bending and if you use stickers, you can, for instance, add both mystery and romance to one book that's a romantic mystery. Third, kind of similar to point two, some authors write across genres so this way all of an author's works stay together. Fourth, easier to catalog and shelve!
Edited to add: this of course does make it harder to pull these out of the catalog unless you can add subject headings or tagging that match your labeling.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:19 AM on October 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
Edited to add: this of course does make it harder to pull these out of the catalog unless you can add subject headings or tagging that match your labeling.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:19 AM on October 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
One way to get some insight, if your readers are willing to lend a hand, would be to do an open card-sort exercise, only with books.
Grab a bunch of books off the shelves -- including ones that you're finding difficult to classify presently -- and ask folks to group them into categories, label the categories, and explain their thinking.
Can't hurt, might help!
posted by humbug at 10:22 AM on October 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
Grab a bunch of books off the shelves -- including ones that you're finding difficult to classify presently -- and ask folks to group them into categories, label the categories, and explain their thinking.
Can't hurt, might help!
posted by humbug at 10:22 AM on October 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
As a librarian, I understand that a simple fiction section is just easier to manage.
As a genre reader, I much prefer stores and libraries that separate genres. Especially in less-popular genres, having to endlessly scan shelves looking for a sticker when it only occurs every 5-6 shelves is annoying.
Maybe you could consider consolidating some of your genres? If you have both mystery and thriller, you could combine them. Same with romance and erotica. Even fantasy and science fiction, which might be very different but do have a significant overlap in readership.
posted by timepiece at 1:19 PM on October 11, 2023 [3 favorites]
As a genre reader, I much prefer stores and libraries that separate genres. Especially in less-popular genres, having to endlessly scan shelves looking for a sticker when it only occurs every 5-6 shelves is annoying.
Maybe you could consider consolidating some of your genres? If you have both mystery and thriller, you could combine them. Same with romance and erotica. Even fantasy and science fiction, which might be very different but do have a significant overlap in readership.
posted by timepiece at 1:19 PM on October 11, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yes, please separate by genre.
My local library dumps everything into a general fiction category, and it drives me nuts. Their solution is to put little stickers on the spines for each genre. That’s nice and all, but you still have to wander through the fiction stacks to find, for instance, sci-fi titles, by looking for the little stickers, which are very easy to miss.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:57 PM on October 11, 2023
My local library dumps everything into a general fiction category, and it drives me nuts. Their solution is to put little stickers on the spines for each genre. That’s nice and all, but you still have to wander through the fiction stacks to find, for instance, sci-fi titles, by looking for the little stickers, which are very easy to miss.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:57 PM on October 11, 2023
I also strongly prefer sorting by genre, and the more sorting the better. Erotica can be a sub genre in the romance section, with its shelf in the same book case, and spine stickers to make it easier to figure out.
I think this is particularly important with Erotica as many people are reading romance just to read Erotica while a second group is looking for romance only without Erotica. I think comparatively few people are willing to read romance without caring if there is Erotica or not.
Similarly I'd make the hard Science Fiction section separate from the magical fantasy novels. Obviously there can be a cross over here, so when in doubt, "It's not really SF (Fantasy)... I think?" it can go in the bigger category. What counts as the subcategory depends on the proportion of books. If you have more Fantasy than Science Fiction, the Science Fiction is the sub-category. If you have more Science Fiction, the Fantasy is the sub-category.
Those spine stickers are critical to make shelving easy and to find lost books. I strongly suggest something quite large and coloured, not cute - Pale blue for Erotica with an E will be visible and easy to find. Pink with an F for Fantasy, and yellow with an M for Mystery will make re-shelving much, much easier than some of the discrete little stickers I have seen. It's so bad I have walked along carrying a marked book with its spine towards me as a visual reference to try to find matching books as my eyes become fatigued after ten shelves...
posted by Jane the Brown at 3:33 PM on October 12, 2023
I think this is particularly important with Erotica as many people are reading romance just to read Erotica while a second group is looking for romance only without Erotica. I think comparatively few people are willing to read romance without caring if there is Erotica or not.
Similarly I'd make the hard Science Fiction section separate from the magical fantasy novels. Obviously there can be a cross over here, so when in doubt, "It's not really SF (Fantasy)... I think?" it can go in the bigger category. What counts as the subcategory depends on the proportion of books. If you have more Fantasy than Science Fiction, the Science Fiction is the sub-category. If you have more Science Fiction, the Fantasy is the sub-category.
Those spine stickers are critical to make shelving easy and to find lost books. I strongly suggest something quite large and coloured, not cute - Pale blue for Erotica with an E will be visible and easy to find. Pink with an F for Fantasy, and yellow with an M for Mystery will make re-shelving much, much easier than some of the discrete little stickers I have seen. It's so bad I have walked along carrying a marked book with its spine towards me as a visual reference to try to find matching books as my eyes become fatigued after ten shelves...
posted by Jane the Brown at 3:33 PM on October 12, 2023
Another data point for you: As a reader, I far prefer libraries and bookshops to shelve fiction by genre, because it's much, much easier for me to find new stock in my genres of choice that way. Three new titles on the SF and Fantasy shelves are easier to spot than three new SF and Fantasy titles in the whole of Fiction. In particular, it's much easier for me to discover new authors on shelves divided by genre.
If you do decide to consolidate, though, definitely please move all of the existing books across rather than just shelving new ones under Fiction. If you abruptly stopped adding new SF and fantasy to the SF and Fantasy shelves, I wouldn't go looking for them in Fiction, I'd assume you had stopped buying them. Eventually I would probably stop hoping for new titles to appear, give up and go elsewhere for my books. And if my genre of choice were Erotica, that would probably go double, because as well as being disappointed that nothing new was being added, I'd be worrying about what had prompted the decision to stop buying it.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:35 AM on October 16, 2023
If you do decide to consolidate, though, definitely please move all of the existing books across rather than just shelving new ones under Fiction. If you abruptly stopped adding new SF and fantasy to the SF and Fantasy shelves, I wouldn't go looking for them in Fiction, I'd assume you had stopped buying them. Eventually I would probably stop hoping for new titles to appear, give up and go elsewhere for my books. And if my genre of choice were Erotica, that would probably go double, because as well as being disappointed that nothing new was being added, I'd be worrying about what had prompted the decision to stop buying it.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:35 AM on October 16, 2023
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If you decide to combine it with other fiction, I'd put the existing collection in there as well and add genre stickers on the spines so that people can browse for it within the fiction section. Not sure if there are genre labels for Erotica available or not, but you can have something custom printed for not too much money.
posted by songs about trains at 9:03 AM on October 11, 2023