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?
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.
that's how mine are too
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.
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. 🙂
my old library had that. I remember walking in and seeing kids playing the sims on pc. Very cool that some libraries have that!
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.
That does sound confusing!
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.