[Publib] Re: Fiction collections

[Andy Barnett]

We are moving in the other direction - more genres, more permanent displays.

Westerns are definitely a submerging collection, especially in hardcover. 
Not many being written or read. We still have a one unit collection and one 
paperback rack, but probably have more in large print than anywhere else.

Personally, I find that stacks are the kiss of death. Most books will not 
survive being placed in a general fiction stack collection. Narrow aisles 
(anything less than 54 inches is narrow), crowded shelves, an alphabetical 
by author order that does not place similar books together, too common use 
of the bottom shelf (where books really go to die). It is a design for 
reducing productive browsing and serendipity. An anti-Readers Advisory 
tool, one that we and our patrons have to work hard to overcome.

We have genre collections for mysteries, Science Fiction, Fantasy (yes they 
are pretty easy to tell apart and readers know this), Christian Fiction, 
Graphic Novels and Classics. Except for part of the mystery collection, 
none of these are in stack areas. They are all located so that there is 
ample room to explore the collection, either on a wall or on the end of a 
stack area. We do not use the bottom shelf on any unit.

When books are in our New Book area, we also divide them into eleven 
display collections as follows:



>Display collection      -       After 12-18 months becomes
>New Fiction (five units) -      Adult Fiction
>Suspense-               Adult Fiction
>Thrillers -             Adult Fiction
>Crime   -               Adult Fiction
>Romance-                Adult Fiction
>Historical Fiction-             Adult Fiction
>Rental Books -          Moved to a display collection when there are no 
>longer holds on the title
>New Mysteries (three units)-    Adult Mysteries
>New Christian Fiction - Christian Fiction
>New Science Fiction -   Science Fiction
>New Fantasy-            Fantasy
>New Graphic Novels-     Graphic Novels

More on this at
http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/programs/powershelving.pdf