YA the Genre

Posted July 28, 2012 by elizatilton in Uncategorized / 10 Comments

Yesterday, I was in two different libraries–I had my books reserved at the wrong one. One thing I noticed was the YA section wasn’t broken down into categories: SF, Mystery, Horror ect. Some of the books had additional labels above the YA that would say Historical, SF ect but not all. I wondered why that was. I can understand lumping all of YA together but shouldn’t it still be split up?

If I wanted to read a Science Fiction, YA novel, but had no clue about the authors, It would be sooo much easier just to go to the YA-SF section and browse.

And if that’s not an option, at least label all the YA books with their respective categories.

I need a genie bottle.

So ladies and gents, thoughts? Any librarians know why it’s set up like this? Do you think it will ever change?

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10 responses to “YA the Genre

  1. My library does the MG section and the YA section by author, not by genre. I think they consider MG and YA genres, even though they are age levels with genres within them.

  2. I'm not sure about the library district I am in now, but the one I lived in while I was in college would put all the YA books together, but then would also put the category stickers on the spine – so if you wanted a YA fantasy, you would look for the spine with the pink unicorn sticker or if you wanted a mystery, you would look for the blue Sherlock.

    • I wish they would do that everywhere. It seems some are labeled and some aren't,a nd from what I could tell, it's all the odl ones that are labeled.

    • Our library has the same spine stickers, but the books are sorted alpha by author, with the exception of series books, manga and graphic novels. I think as YA keps getting bigger probably more categorization is needed, unless it's more of a shelf space issue.

  3. I honestly like that they are all bunched together. For one, so many YA books could fall into multiple genres so I might not always know which one to look into. Second, I don't like to limit myself to a single genre so having them all mixed makes it easier for me to find something I might not have normally picked.

    On a separate note, our library actually has a teen room (complete with video games) and adults aren't supposed to linger there. I have a hard time following that rule. 🙂

  4. Sarah, you're really patient. But I'm with Eliza – it would be really handy to have them in different categories or at least with little stickers like at Ricki's school.

  5. Funny I never checked.Usually when I want a book, I call the library and ask them to reserve it then I just stop by andpick it up. I'll have to ask my daughters about this.