echodrift

Library learning

Since I’ve started making frequent trips to the library I’ve learned something. Actually, I noticed this the very first day I went. Normally, I would expect to find non-fiction ordered according to the Dewey Decimal System and for non-fiction books to be listed by author. Paperbacks might be off in their own section but they would still be sorted by author. I haven’t checked the non-fiction section yet for myself but I suppose that’s how they are indeed ordered by the Dewey Decimal System. The fiction section is another matter.

During my first trip to the library I walked into the first floor and found myself in the children’s section. Since I was looking for The Hero of Ages a librarian directed me upstairs. She looked the book up for me and told me that it would be in the science fiction section upstairs. I was a little confused but continued upstairs. Once there I saw that all of the fiction books were not sorted by author, but rather into categories such as Large Print, Romance, Mystery, Western, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. I started my search in the Science Fiction section but couldn’t find the book. Since I think that the book is more fantasy than sci-fi I moved to the Fantasy section and noticed that there was a lot of similarity between the two. On later visits I think I’ve even found a copy of the same book in each section. Either way, I wasn’t able to find the book; it was actually located on the New Books shelf.

Before my last trip to the library I looked up a few books in their online catalog. I was intrigued when I saw that one of the books was listed in the “Oprah” section. I thought to myself surely that’s not right. Do they really have an Oprah section? The answer: yes, they do.

That’s not the whole section, of course, but it isn’t a large section. I’m supposing books that were chosen as part of Oprah’s Book Club are placed here. To me it doesn’t make any sense, mostly because it’s not always easy to define what category a book should be in. The confusion between sci-fi and fantasy should be enough reason to not sort books in this manner. I would think that being able to go straight to an author’s name would be a much faster way of finding a book rather than trying to figure out if the library decided if it was fantasy or sci-fi. To make matters worse, they have a section of books that is simply labeled Fiction.

This whole mess won’t stop me from visiting the library. I mean, who can argue about getting to read books for free? However, I’m sure I’ll have plenty more experiences of trying to deduce where they might have put a book when I only know the author’s name, like when I tried to find The Other Boleyn Girl. It’s in the general Fiction section.