Week 16 Prompt

Both of our readings this week talk about the culture of reading and the future of the book. So I have two questions for you as readers, pulling on your own experiences and all of the readings we have done over the semester: First, how have reading and books changed since you were a child, for you specifically? Second, talk a little about what you see in the future for reading, books, or publishing - say 20 years from now. Will we read more or less, will our reading become more interactive? What will happen to traditional publishing? This is  a very free-form question, feel free to wildly extrapolate or calmly state facts, as suits your mood!

Back in my day we had to walk twenty miles uphill both ways.  This isn’t really true, but I feel really old when I think about all the advances in technology over the years.  As a child, I didn’t grow up with e-readers and smartphones with reading apps.  If I wanted a new book my mom would drive me to the library or we would buy one at the grocery store.  I remember getting books each month from mail order book clubs.  The books were always in a series, so my mom would subscribe until I received each volume.

When the first generation of Nook and Kindle were released while I was an undergrad, I was very stubborn and I refused to give in to holding a tablet instead of feeling the physical weight of a book.  As technology advancers, I expect these devices to make reading more interactive.  In the future, I think we will continue to see brick and mortar books stores fail because eBooks will continue to grow.  As this happens, publishing companies will be forced to change how they market and they will utilize online strategies.   I think self-published books will continue to rise and flood the market since companies like Amazon make it easy for people to sell their work.  Publishers may be forced to drop the prices of books to compete with cheap self-published books.   As a result, readers will have to be more selective of their reading material since self-published books often contain many mistakes. 

Week 15 Prompt

There are many ways to market a library’s fiction collection.  Here are three ways to market a library’s fiction books:

1.       Create a reading challenge – Promote a genre through a reading challenge program and then reward those who met the challenge.  Reading challenges are fun and it’s a way to introduce people to new books they may not have read otherwise.  The reading challenge is also a way to have all different ages and ability levels participate in the same challenge. 

2.      Social media/web page – Update social media pages often with information with whatever is being promoted to entice users.

3.      A read-a-like display – I found this idea on Pinterest and I love this idea!  Using popular, well known books, the library can display lesser known read-a-likes to get users to try something new.  Each shelf could focus on a different popular book with lesser known titles.

Week 14 Prompt

Consider yourself part of the collection management committee of your local library, or a library at which you would like to work. You must decide whether or not to separate GBLTQ fiction and African American Fiction from the general collection to its own special place. Some patrons have requested this, yet many staff are uncomfortable with the idea - saying it promotes segregation and disrupts serendipitous discovery of an author who might be different from the reader. Do you separate them? Do you separate one and not the other? Why or why not? You must provide at least 3 reasons for or against your decision. Feel free to use outside sources - this is a weighty question that is answered differently in a lot of different libraries.

I would not create a separate section in a library collection to devote to LGBTQ or African American literature.  I do think librarians should catalog items that are LGBTQ or African American Fiction with keywords so borrows can identify them easily.  My reasons for not wanting to separate African American Literature and LGBTQ literature are the following:

1.      The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) upholds the principles of intellectual freedom and uninhibited access to information, asserting that libraries should “acquire, preserve and make available the widest variety of materials, reflecting the plurality and diversity of society” and should not discriminate on the grounds of age or for any other reason (IFLA, 1999).

2.      Some people are very private and I would not want to take the chance of exposing their private lives.  If I kept this section separate people wanting literature from this area may not feel comfortable being caught in that section. 

3.      Keeping these items from general circulation creates a stigma. 

While trying to decide how to respond to this question, I did find an interesting news report about an Oklahoma library that was criticized for how they handled a situation.  It can be found at this link: http://newsok.com/article/5522007 . 

 

Week 13 Prompt: Young Adult

                Maybe I’m a weirdo, but I love young adult literature!  It’s so fun!  I like being caught up in the teenage angst.  I think it’s fun to feel young again and being reminded of those times I struggled with difficult situations and getting to re-experience milestones through a character’s perspective.  I think libraries should be spending money on young adult novels and promoting them to both teens and adults.  Like the romance genre, young adult has a bad rap.  I realize young adult is kind of a new genre and it hasn’t been around as long many of the others, but that doesn’t make those works lesser.  Young adult novels like The Book Thief, Go Ask Alice, and Thirteen Reasons Why should never be referred to as a lesser work because of their genre.  They are not simplified kid versions of adult books. 

Young adult novels appeal to young people because the themes and issues that arise in the story are what they are experiencing, so it’s relatable.  Being a teenager is hard!  Providing books about these issues are helpful and even more importantly it gets teens interested in reading.  I’m not going to stop reading young adult novels.  Instead, I will continue to suggest them.  I think as librarians we should promote young adult literature to young and old alike.  We can promote this genre during reference interviews and creating attractive displays that appear inviting to adults.  

Young Adult

 

 

The Wrath & the Dawn

By Renee Ahdieh

 

Synopsis

            Based on One Thousand and One Nights and The Arabian Nights, this tale is an exciting story of love, conflict, murder, and mystery.  The Caliph of Khorasan has been cursed for his sins.  “One hundred lives for the one hundred lives for the one you took.  “One life to one dawn.  Should you fail but a single morn, I shall take from you your dreams.  I shall take from you your city.  And I shall take from you these lives, a thousand fold” (Ahdieh, 2015, p.80).  Each night Caliph Khalid takes a new virgin bride and each time the girl does not live past the next morning.  Shahrzad is a rebellious, headstrong, young woman who watched her best friend marry the murderous caliph.  She plots revenge for her best friend.  As part of her plan,  Shahrzad marries Caliph Khalid.  To everyone’s amazement, she survives the first night.  The longer she stays in the palace the more she realizes there is more going on than just a murderous prince.  Her clever plan is to stay alive and get revenge, but her plans change as she realizes she is falling in love with the boy prince who killed her best friend. 

 

Elements of Young Adult

Tone/Mood

        The story is a mystery with a bit of romance and magical elements.  Readers will easily fall in love with Shahrzad and become understanding of Khalid as the plot unfolds.  

 

Characterization

        The characters seem real, are well developed, and likeable.  The characters often speak in English with bits of Arabic mixed into their conversations. 

 

Pacing

The story moves at a quick pace with romance and magical elements.  It has many cliff hangers and ends abruptly.  You’ll want to read the sequel to see how the story ends.

 

Read-A-Likes

·         The Rose & the Dagger (The Wrath & the Dawn book 2), Renee Ahdieh

·         A Court of Thorns & Roses, Sarah J. Maas

·         The Star-Touched Queen, Roshani Chokshi

·         An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir

·         Three Dark Crowns, Kendare Blake

·         Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard

·         The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles book 1), Mary E. Pearson