Week 13 Notes and Prompt

Hey folks -

We're in the home stretch! I hope that you are progressing well on your projects - I have yet to have anyone ask me for help in finding a librarian to work with, so my guess is if you are doing Lab B you all already know who you are working with. If you are doing Lab A you should be finding your folks to experiment on now to give them time to read some of your picks and respond to how well they like them. Please let me know if you have any questions - I am very flexible, but I do expect a certain level of work from this project and you won't have time to revise it if you turn it in the day it is due. But going by the work you guys have been doing all semester everything will be great.

So this week we are tackling quite a few different types of books - some are genres, some aren't technically but are treated like their own genres. Let's start with street lit, or urban fiction.

Street Lit

Working at the Central branch of IndyPL, the majority of RA questions I received were about street lit. It was a challenge, as I had not read much street lit, but it was also a lot of fun to explore a new genre I was unfamiliar with and discover the subtleties and themes that ran through it. The frames of street lit include overcoming poverty, crime, outrageous acts of violence, the importance of money, life being cheap, women are often sexually abused. Storylines include betrayal and revenge, rags to riches tales, hip hop, overblown crime and violence. There are also street lit books that include a strong connection to Christianity and redemption through religion. A lot of these books are popular with young adults. Part of the reason for this is that black characters do not feature strongly in many YA titles.

Some of the seminal works of street lit include Iceberg Slim's Pimp: The Story of my Life  from 1967, and Donald Goines Whoreson. More modern street lit authors often publish their titles independently - author Vicki Stringer started the publisher Triple Crown for these titles. More modern titles that are highly influential include the work of Sister Souljah and Stringer. Street lit is really taking off in ebook form right now.

People who read street lit are often interested in specific sub-genres. Getting to know these titles and authors will prove to be invaluable in connecting with the patrons. Fans of street lit love talking about their favorite authors and do not expect librarians to have knowledge of the genre. When you show even the smallest bit of knowledge they are surprised and thrilled, and you increase the likelihood of their being library advocates. Even if the books are not to your taste, with the violence and sexual abuse, remember that people often like to read exaggerated tales that match their own lives or fears for their own lives, and that identifying with a similar character and seeing how they deal with difficult situations is an extremely valuable tool and part of the reason why fiction is so important.

Young Adult

Young adult books are kind of on the fence between being a genre and not being a genre. Obviously, they are mainly supposed to be an age group, with different genres interspersed throughout. However, young adult books now tend to share certain characteristics that make them very popular among both teens and adults. These characteristics include a fast pace, likeable and young main characters who are facing issues that do not devalue or minimize the problems that teenagers face.

One of your classmates did a paper on New Adult books - which are beginning to take off. New Adult books are similar to YA - however the people are slightly older and there is generally more sex. They may be going to college for the first time or on a military deployment. Here's some information:

New Adult Alley: This is a popular new adult website that has a lot of titles and reviews.

Meg-a-Rae: This is a video podcast from an IUPUI grad, who has since moved on to another job. She and her co-worker discuss a couple of New Adult titles and the genre.

Graphic Novels

Please do the readings on graphic novels this week! Like Young Adult, graphic novels aren't really a genre, they are a format and they contain different genres. Graphic novels have been steadily increasing in popularity for years. Some of the works that you should know include the Watchmen, Maus, The Death of Superman, and Persepolis. All of these titles have had a great influence on graphic novels, and have helped to propel them from comic book status to award-winning stories in their own right. Many very popular novels or series of novels have been made into graphic novels as well - especially urban fantasy. Also, it's become a theme for some popular science fiction shows that have gone off the air to continue their series as graphic novels - Firefly for instance.

The main difference in doing RA for graphic novels is that you have to take the art style into consideration - many patrons enjoy a particular type of art and just want to read graphic novels that employ that particular style. If you have a difficult time following graphic novels, try reading Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art. He explains some of the semiotics of comic books to help you understand how the artwork influences the story.

Week 13 Prompt 

Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. Obviously, graphic novels are becoming more acceptable, but I still had to fight to get my progressive library in a liberal college town to purchase a book club kit containing graphic novels. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature, graphic novels, and street lit? Or should we? I can't wait to read your thoughts on this. Thanks!