Week 13th Prompt Response

The historical look into RA through this week's reading was very interesting. In the article "The Borderland Age and Borderline Books: The Early Practice of Reader's Advisory for Youth" the author stated, "the values articulated in these early years of librarian-ship were radically different from the ones most often expressed today."and a little later, "reader's advisory for for adults in this era focused on self-improvement as prescribed by cultural norms, "(Pierce, 2006).

So in one sense, as a culture we have gotten away from trying to keep our young adult books limited to that extent. Yes we yet have people and organizations who try to censor books - but overall society and librarianship reflects the normative culture of 2020. However, when it comes to adults reading YA literature, I am reminded of the recent controversy "literacy shaming" in schools or discouraging students to read certain titles, genres, etc. In a recent blog, it is described in this way;
"recently, I’ve become very aware that many folks–educators, administrators, students, and parents–have a mental image of what it means to be a “reader.” Anything that falls outside that image is labelled as “not real reading.” That “not real reading” label is often applied vociferously. That, my friends, is literacy shaming." (Tetreault, 2019).
 I think anytime we insert our values/beliefs on what our adult readers should be able to enjoy we are wrong. Earlier in librarianship we read that it was the values of the culture of the day, I believe as the author said in the blog sometimes we have a mental image of what it means to be a "reader." I have an adult son who was a reluctant reader. When he discovered graphic novels we were in B&N every time a new one came out in the series he was reading. And he was reading them from cover to cover. He yet enjoys graphic novels. Some well meaning adults at the time told me that was not real reading and I should not encourage that. I have many older adults who enjoy checking out the new YA to see what is coming up. I remember working in a larger branch that had a large graphic novel section and not realizing the distinctive artwork, until a patron enlightened me.
I think as readers' advisors we have to seriously consider the 5 laws of Ranganthan - 1. Books are for use. 2. Every reader his (or) book. 3. Every book its reader. It may not be my favorite genre, but that's okay. I want readers to be able to love what they read and read what they love.








Pierce, J. B. (2006). The borderland age and borderline books: The early practice of reader's advisory for youth. Young Adult Library Services, 5(1), 42-47. Retrieved form Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Tetreault, Steve. (2019). https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/stop-literacy-shaming-engaging-the-so-called-non-readers/
 
5 Laws of Ranganthan      https://www.journals.ala.org/index.php/rusq/article/viewFile/4090/4658