About two weeks ago I posted about my Reader Advisory class gone wrong. I mentioned that several of my students thought that the Romance genre was a waste of time, but it wasn't until I had a discussion with a friend of mine who happens to be taking the class that I remembered the most disturbing thing that was said in that class. One of my students brought up her distaste for the borrowing habits of Romance readers at her library. It seems that at her library some Romance readers checkout six or seven books at a time, then they come back to the library a few days later and check out another six or seven romance books.

The audacity of some patrons.

My mind brushed over that comment in class because I was still horrified from the ugliness that erupted a few minutes before, but the more I think about the comment the more confused I become. Why would a librarian, regardless of what genres they liked or disliked, view a patron checking out a substantial amount of books who then returns to check out even more books as a bad thing?

As a public librarian, one of the things I focus on day in and day out is getting my collection moving off the shelves. While I think it is important to help patrons learn to use the library, the computers, the databases, etc., I am first and foremost a book pimp. The displays I put up, the thematic booklists I create, heck even the summer/winter reading programs the library sponsors are all elaborate schemes to get readers to check out books. That's not to say that I don't hope my patrons enjoy the books they check out, because I do. But that is not the ultimate goal, just an added benefit.

I think I will have a discussion with my kids about this tomorrow night. I've talked to them about identifying genres and understanding the appeal factors, but clearly I haven't focused enough on the business side of book pimping. It's time for me to rectify that.

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