Amused

[owlectomy]

People are surprised when I know about manga.

People are astonished when I know about urban fiction.

I've been at this for two and a half years. At the first library I worked in, "street fiction" and mellower domestic African-American fiction made up most of our demand for adult fiction; here, it's bestsellers and street lit. Ever since I had such trouble finding Flyy Girl when I didn't know it was spelled Flyy, I've been making an effort to keep up with titles and authors... it's kinda fun to psych people out.

Comments

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Truthfully, if I were in charge of collections at most public libraries I wouldn't get anything on kabuki or Okinawa unless I was lucky enough to find a readable popular book that would appeal to more than two or three people; we just can't afford to collect things that are going to appeal to a niche audience. (Partly, this is because our funding is based on our circulation statistics.) Most public libraries don't even have the space, let alone the money, to house more academic, more specialized collections.

(For the record, I don't have any say in what to buy, so it's a bit of a moot point.)

And that sucks for people trying to do serious research without the benefit of a serious research library -- I know, I've been there -- but ultimately we serve the public better by getting 20 copies of the latest James Patterson, even if it gives me hives as an individual. I feel like, ultimately, it should be up to the serious research libraries to open up their collections more to people not affiliated with the university -- when I was in Raleigh, I could get borrowing privileges at Duke for only $35 a year, but Columbia charges $250 a year, and you can't even get in without paying.