[Michlib-l] Shelving Adult Fiction by genre, or not

[Lisa Craig]

Thanks for all the responses! Compiled results below.

I also spent some time talking to patrons who were browsing in our fiction and genre fiction areas. All the patrons I queried favored keeping our current genre separation (Mystery, Romance, SF/Fantasy).

Organized by genre in some way

  *   Informally observing that our library had a short story section, a science fiction/fantasy section, and a western section that have all been combined in Fiction now. Apparently there is not as big a local following for them as there was at one point. Mysteries are still in their own area, and the others have spine labels for those other types and for inspirational fiction. We do have a separate area for Urban Fiction, and one for romance paperbacks which is organized only generally and not strictly alphabetically.
  *   We have Fiction, Mystery and Scifi. Scifi includes fantasy as well. As far as Genre stickers, we completed a survey of patrons and we sticker Michigan Books, Westerns, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Short stories, and Award Winners. We also stopped stickering some genres that patrons weren't interested in anymore but we did not go back and remove stickers, we just don't sticker those going forward.
We also keep a master list of authors listed in each genre and for the few authors who cross collections they're highlighted and listed in both categories.

  *   We merged fiction and mystery in 2020 (they had the blurriest line anyway), but we still separate out westerns and SF/Fantasy. When we merged them, the mystery titles got a large green mystery sticker on the spine. I don't like using spine labels, because they often cover up important browsing information, like author or part of the title, but the mystery labels are oriented horizontally, so it isn't bad. We also use inspirational stickers for Christian fiction and Christmas stickers for holiday books.

So far no complaints about the mystery/fiction merge and it has made it easier for patrons and staff to locate titles and series. Romance has never been separate, other than paperback romances which are on their own (smaller) shelving units.

  *   Dexter still maintains separate sections for genres.  In general, commercial bookstores still separate fiction by genre.  I have to assume their market research tells them this is the most effective way to attract purchasers to the items which will generate sales.
  *   We have our adult fiction separated into several categories: Romance, Mystery, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy.  Anything that doesn't fit into those categories goes into General Fiction. Our large print collection has General Fiction, Romance, Mystery, and Western.  We do not separate our Juv or YA fiction collections.

Our patrons enjoy the separation as it helps them more quickly find what they are looking for; it also helps with browsing.    But I think each library (and their community) is different.


  *   We have some of our classics shelved on a Teen Classics shelf- quick access for anyone especially if doing a school report.
  *   We're actually currently doing the exact opposite and moving to a genrefied adult fiction section right now! We've found that we've had enough patrons asking where the (insert genre here) books are that we've decided to go ahead with this in an attempt to increase browsability for them. It will mean if a reader is looking for a specific book or specific author, they may have to look in several different places (or use the catalog to find the call number for that item rather than just browsing.) Additionally, when an individual book can be classified under more than one genre, we've decided to choose whichever genre has more of that author's work or by seeing how Fantastic Fiction<http://fantasticfiction.com> classifies it. The genres we're using are Inspirational Fiction, Horror, Historical Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, and Thriller, and we also have a section just labeled as Fiction for literary and general fiction.
  *   We have it divided (by author) into General Fiction, Mystery, Scifi/Fantasy, and Western. I'd like to merge them but it would be a monumental task, especially between the two branches. I'm already integrating Short Stories and Paperbacks because it's simply too many locations for people to search. I don't think many patrons just browse a genre section here so, breaking them up is not doing anyone any favors. And we just spent a few months cleaning up discrepancies between genres, like orphans in fiction when the rest are in Mystery.
  *   We went from one large fiction collection to genre collections ... mystery, sci fi/fantasy, Western, Black Romance, and general African-American. Other genres are in general fiction and stickered. Our patrons are used to it and seem to like it and we've had no complaints.
  *   The Portage District Library has separated our fiction into General Fiction (historical, psychological thrillers, spy novels, and literary novels), Mystery (police procedurals, mystery, and police thrillers), Romance, and Speculative Fiction (Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction). We did this to help our patrons find their favorite books quickly, but it also helps me, as the collection manager separate our budget to make sure I am not overspending in mysteries and ignoring the literary fiction.

Shelved together

  *   Ours is all together, but we have genre stickers for mystery, romance, sci-fi & western. We try & choose what genre it fits in best, but some definitely cross genres. With the stickers, our patrons can still browse easily enough since the stickers separate them.
  *   But a few years ago - we merged everything together by author.  I did a poll to see what libraries did - and it was basically 50/50.  It didn't matter what size the library was or where they were located - it was basically preference of the library.  And yes - we have had a handful of patrons upset that they can no longer browse the sections - but the stickers really help - so they can still find big groups of Mystery or Fantasy or whatever they are looking for (except Romance - we don't have a sticker for that)...

Combining them saves room I am told...  But you are always going to have patrons (or employees in my case - it was ME!) resistant to change...  But at the end of the day - it was fine...
  *   Ditto: All fiction (Juvenile, Youth and Adult) is alphabetical by author, with the appropriate genre stickers on the spine. Our catalog will search by genre, so that helps. We do keep adding more Genre Stickers too
  *   We just have one big fiction section.  However, in my previous library we had many genre sections and I was continually told by an angry patron, "I can't believe you don't have Louis L'Amour" and I would have to explain that his books are in our Western section.  I also had sci-fi lovers who were miffed that their books were mixed in with fantasy.  When checking for a book that is supposed to be on the shelf, but isn't, there are seemingly thousands of places it could be - any of the multitude of fiction genres, any of the multitude of large print fiction genres, or in the JFIC section.  To me, the more genre separations you have, the more confusing your collection is.  Maybe mysteries, but beyond that, you're just confusing people.
 Especially if you're a big library and the geographical separation is significant.  Stick with stickers.  Just my two cents. ;)
  *   Years ago we had separated Westerns & Sci Fi/Fantasy. Now all fiction is together. The only thing we separate out is our Large Print. I don't recall that we had any outcry from the patrons. It sure makes shelving much easier when everything is alphabetical. I also think that maybe it helps patrons step out of their usual and try something new since it's right in front of them.
  *   We used to have it separated out by genre and it was so much more work - for patrons and for us. For example Patterson writes across genres, so sometimes they'd have to check three places before we found the title they were looking for.  Another example, we had a religious section but that meant anyone who didn't consider themselves religious wasn't reading those books - even if they're good authors with great stories.  Combining them all into fiction has made a difference in circulation on some of the "less popular" genres. We do use spine indicators - yellow label covers for mysteries, a red dot for traditional westerns (not western-style romances), crosses for Christian authors, and blue label covers for any other fiction.  For us, it has proven more successful to have all of an author's books together in one place. Oh and as for patron response, it was fine. Most of them preferred it. A few of our "clean reads" folks were a little anxious at first but once we explained that it was getting more people to read the authors they love, they warmed up quickly.
  *   We used to have fiction, mystery, romance, and science fiction.  We merged our mystery and romance first and I wish we had done it differently. I wish we had done it the way we did our later science fiction.  We relabeled the mystery and romance, but when we inter-grated our science fiction we left the spine label to say science fiction but it is shelved in the normal fiction section by author.  That way, patrons did not miss out on other books the author has written but they can still search and find items in the genre if they want.
Our patrons took the romance merge the hardest but have adjusted and we found that circulation was not affected.

  *   26 years ago the adult fiction collection was genred out on two floors, mystery, westerns, and sci fi on the main floor, the rest of fiction on the second floor.

25 years ago we moved into a new library and scrapped the separate genre sections for one everything on one floor. We did however, maintain the genre stickers for M, W, and SF.

Mystery readers were the most upset but we kept explaining that many authors wrote in different genres and this way all of their work was in one place.

We still sticker them and have added romance, horror, historical fiction, fantasy and urban fiction. We also have local author and short story stickers.
When in doubt, we use the first subject heading given in the CIP as our guide.
Patrons appreciate the stickers.

Some of both in multi-branch system

  *   We let our branches decide, based on room available and other factors. For example, at some of our smaller branches they are all combined together, while at larger branches like EAS we have them separated. We have a Mystery, Scifi/Fantasy, and Western section. We have not separated out romance. We have a general fiction area which holds everything that is interfiled. The stickers help immensley. It really depends, I think, on your space and layout needs more than anything. If I could change anything, it would be to add more genre/content stickers, such as romance, or in translation. Even if they are interfiled, the stickers are so very helpful to browsing patrons who are looking for something specific.


  *   We use genres and some branches interfile some of the genres to help reduce chances for browsing patrons to miss something. We have Adventure & Suspense, Mystery, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Romance, Historical, and Fiction. At our city of Lansing locations, we interfile Mystery and Adventure & Suspense, as well as SFF and Horror to help people find what they are looking for without considering finer distinctions in genre.


From: Pam Ballett <Pam.Ballett at schoolcraftlibrary.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2024 10:43 AM
To: michlib-l at mcls.org; Lisa Craig <craigl at cantonpl.org>
Subject: Re: Shelving Adult Fiction by genre, or not

I would appreciate information on this too.  We don't group by genres now but are considering it!




Pam Ballett

Director

Schoolcraft Community Library

330 N Centre

Schoolcraft MI 49087

269 679-5959

[https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4zo6Pdd7idswbRjh2zFjbRLbu3GITjwqIwMQGpfu9bpcEXuuYsKkAYGddMZzuEwe8rzJLND1os]

"Books are a uniquely portable magic."
― Stephen King

 www.schoolcraftlibrary.org<http://www.schoolcraftlibrary.org/>



________________________________
From: Michlib-l <michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org<mailto:michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org>> on behalf of Lisa Craig via Michlib-l <michlib-l at mcls.org<mailto:michlib-l at mcls.org>>
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2024 10:36 AM
To: michlib-l at mcls.org<mailto:michlib-l at mcls.org> <michlib-l at mcls.org<mailto:michlib-l at mcls.org>>
Subject: [Michlib-l] Shelving Adult Fiction by genre, or not


Good Morning,

For a long time we have grouped our Adult Fiction books into several major genre areas: General Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction and Westerns. As genres become blurrier and authors move between genres more freely, we are considering combining these genre areas into one large Fiction Area. However, we also believe that many patrons appreciate being able to browse their preferred genre, so enjoy the area as it is configured now.



If you have either consolidated fiction or separated it into genres, how did it go for you? In particular, how did your patrons respond?



Lisa Craig

Collection Development Specialist

Canton Public Library, Canton MI

734.397.0999 x1253

craigl at cantonpl.org<mailto:craigl at cantonpl.org>


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