rara-avis@icomm.ca wrote:
> I miswrote there, it should read: ''... why are
those works not
> shelved [library] in their genre ..." My point being
that if
> publishers are determining it for both bookstores
and libraries,
> King for example is in the genre ghetto in a
bookstore and thus
> should be in the same place in the library. Granted,
King's works
> have been going beyond simply being horror novels
and that very
> well may be why some are moving out.
I've sometimes seen King's books in the Fiction section in
bookstores, but in libraries he's almost always put in
Fiction.
He's just one example, though. There are lots of others, like
Butler and Cady, who get put in Fiction almost automatically
in both bookstores and libraries.
> Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying your experience
as being
> true ... just that it doesn't match mine from the
other perspective
> of the bookstore.
Fair enough. Perhaps my experience with libraries is not the
norm, although I've worked as a librarian in the midwest,
northeast, and the south, so I think it's not a geographic
quirk.
> Granted, based on the personalities of some of the
bookstore
> workers I've met, I wouldn't be surprised if they
read the
> publisher's recommendation and then put it where
they thought it
> belonged any way even if that opposed the genre
printed on the
> cover (I've seen that even when it was a non-fiction
work).
I do that myself. Among other reasons, it brings readers into
sections of bookstores and libraries where they might not
otherwise go.
jess
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