I’m trying to determine how to best classify books so that patrons can easily browse and search (and find!) the best book for themselves. To do this, I’m looking at the trend of bookstores and libraries migrating toward one another.
Fialkoff, Francine. "The borders concept: bookstores modeled on the library minus the public service ethos.(Borders Inc.)(Editorial)." Library Journal 133.5 (March 15, 2008): 8(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. Auraria Library. 25 July 2009
This article actually represents a bit of a twist on the topic I’m looking into and I’m pleased to have discovered it. The sense of the article is that bookstores are taking a page from libraries and working to turn themselves into a more service oriented venue. This means that they provide access to technology and media that patrons might want to have access to, and are providing the staff to try and educate those masses. It’s a bit of a switch around from what I was thinking about in terms of libraries, but I’m excited to know that libraries are not the only ones striving to change and improve.
Maker, R. (2008, December). READER CENTRED CLASSIFICATION OF ADULT FICTION IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES. APLIS, 21(4), 168-171. Retrieved July 25, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.
This article certainly gives some food for thought. It hits on the topic I exactly would like to cover in my paper, namely the idea of libraries displaying themselves as bookstores and the challenges that are involved. Maker gives some compelling arguments for both sides of the concept, citing circulation numbers among fiction works and reasons behind marketing books by genre along with concern for alienating novels from patrons simply by the classification. His research and information center around the UK and Australia, but the topic is just as relevant to us in the US. The idea presented in this article are worthy of examining and give some viable solutions to increase circulation while still adhering to the needs of a traditional library patron.
No comments:
Post a Comment