Week 13 Prompt-Separate or Integrate

 I found myself torn on this subject. On the one hand, I completely understand the need to create separate sections. It’s the same reason Westerns are in a specific place, or romance, or horror. If you are specifically looking for urban/street lit or LGBTQ+ books, it would be extremely helpful, for navigation purposes, for a separate section to exist. However, I am going to go with not separate.

An article from the School Library Journal discusses a survey about this exact topic, with public and school librarians across the country participating. An overwhelming majority, 92%, do no have separate sections. While this survey is aimed more at the young adult and children’s areas, the arguments made are valid and my main reason for keeping the books together is the idea of the “otherness” that can be instilled in someone who visits the separate section. “Concerns about students not wanting to be seen going to the special section, being judged, or revealing something about themselves they aren’t ready to, can keep a librarian from separating books with certain characters and themes” (SLJ). Some people might have zero issue standing in the LGBTQ+ section, casually browsing the available titles. But some people may feel anxious or judged or be afraid to even pull a title from the shelve, lest they incur sideways glances from nearby patrons. I’d like to think that wouldn’t be the case, but I am not naïve enough to believe it wouldn’t happen.

Another reason I’m against separate sections is nearly the opposite of my first; I do not want patrons to miss out on a book that may love, simply because it never would have occurred to them to visit one of these other sections. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is a fantastic book about a teenage boy grappling with his sexuality and his first love, but it is also about so much more than that and I would hate for someone to miss out on the story because they weren’t specifically looking for an LGBTQ+ book.

One idea suggested by a survey respondent was to use colored stickers to mark books that may contain these different themes. That way they are still shelved with their like titles, but it becomes easier to navigate and to recognize titles with particular subjects. Again, this was an idea for young adult and juvenile titles, but I think something similar could work with adult material.

I think it falls to us as librarians to be able to perform a reader’s advisory and find the right book for someone. It is our job to either know or use the resources at our disposal to find books that fit what each patrons is looking for and as long as we are doing that, creating additional subcategories should not be necessary.

School Library Journal. Shelving Debate: To Separate or Integrate? https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=shelving-debate-separate-or-integrate