Laura Kirkham Reader's Advisory Class

               I would not choose to separate GBLTQ fiction from the general collection to its own special place. The article “ Iowa library to separate books after complaints about LGBTQ” discusses a petition that asked for a particular public library “ to label and separate materials involving LGBTQ issues” (Associated Press, 2018) . That is not something I would do, because I think separating out certain materials that are considered by some to be “inappropriate” or “controversial” creates the perception that those materials are separate from the rest of the collection and not an integrated part of the overall collection, and I don’t think that is a perception that public libraries should help create.                Writing on the blog for The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, Jessica Garner explains th...

I agree that we as librarians should work to ensure that we are serving adults who enjoy YA books and/or graphic novels. The book club I attended a few weeks back for this class was actually an adult book club that exclusively read YA books, which I thought was a fantastic idea for serving this demographic. Even if a book club isn’t reading YA books exclusively, one way to promote YA books to adults would be to add YA books into the rotation of existing library book clubs. By doing so, the staff member leading the book club would be demonstrating that they view YA books as a legitimate reading choice for adults, which could in turn make participants feel more comfortable asking for those books in the future. Additionally, I think it is important for librarians who provide readers’ advisory services in the adult department to maintain some familiarity with YA books, authors, and trends so that if adult patrons ask about YA books the adult services librarian is able to provide at lea...