Depends, perhaps only sometimes, whether the small library is
a satellite or primary institution. In my experience, and
that of the Philadelphia Free Library (where the small
satellite libraries might barely have fiction divisions) and
Fairfax County, VA, system (where I used to work in
circulation), the mall storefront libraries usually don't
bother differentiating the fiction very much, but in
Londonderry, NH's Leach Library (where, in 1976-1979, some of
the most irritable and perhaps underpayed librarians in my
experience were employed), not much larger at the time, they
did have a rather inept attempt to segregate fiction by
various categories. The little libraries in the Hawaiian
state system, and the Nashua, NH and Enfield, CT libraries
definitely had sectionalized fiction in their mid-sized
libraries in the 1970s.
Of course, most westerns involving Canada or Alaska have
often been considered "northerns" in the pulps and their
successor media, and may, in Canadian libraries at least, be
considered simply Canadian literature, whether that is likely
to be segregated or not I know not.
If horror circulates like "mainstream" fiction it's likely in
part because the self-conscious horror audience is small,
like that of most of the generic components of "mainstream."
TM
-----Original Message----- From:
jjnevins@ix.netcom.com [mailto:
jjnevins@ix.netcom.com] r
>You've never been in a library that had Science
Fiction, Mystery,
>Western, Horror, and/or Romance sections?
Ever?
>
>Maybe it's just my experience, then.
> I've been in both types. I think it has to do with
the size of the
> library more than rather it's rural or urban (some
big city
> libraries have sub-branches all over). Big ones
divide, small ones
> don't.
Not my experience--but as this thread has shown, my
experience is hardly the norm.
> As for categories, though, I've never been in a
library where there
> were western or horror sections. The western
category is probably
> an American thing
Yeah, you're probably right about that. Even up in Chicago,
though, the libraries I worked in--even the urban ones--had
their own Westerns section.
> in Quebec. Maybe out west more. But horror? Are
there libraries
> that have so many horror books that they actually
have their own
> section? I'm boggled.
Yep. And per book they circulate at least as well as
mainstream fiction, in my experience.
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