To Cat Tour or Not to Cat Tour
Jun. 24th, 2026 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse Tonight is the Wedge Live Cat Tour. https://wedgelive.com/cat-tour/ I have never been to this before and I "bought" (they're free) tickets. However, they've been getting a lot of press lately and I'm a little worried that it's going to be so crowded that my main experience as a 5'2" person is going to be seeing a lot of the backs of other people's heads. I have until this evening to decide, I suppose. If any of my local friends have been, advice please?
As is customary on Tuesdays, I worked at the library last night. I had what I can only imagine is a very typical conversation with a new-to-Northtown-Library patron. This very obviously "my people" nerdy guy came over to me and asked what should be a very simple question: "Excuse me," he said. "Can you point me to your fantasy section?" Alas, I had to start by giving this guy my most sympathetic look. Then, I had to say, "I'm afraid there isn't one. The adult fiction is organized alphabetical by author only." Of course he gave me a dumbfounded and horrified look. So, I added, "Believe me, I understand. It means it's impossible to browse. Are you familiar with our catalogue? I'm happy to show you how to search by keyword." He just mutely shook his head and finally sputtered out, "That's stupid! I'm a library science student. I can tell you this is madness. Whose idea was this?" I shrugged, "I am not at liberty to say," I said, "in part because I don't know. I just started working here. All I can say is that I sympathize. We do have a kiosk devoted to new books in science fiction and fantasy, perhaps you could start there?"
He left, as one might expect, Deeply Disappointed.
And, yes, this is true. The gods of Anoka County Library System, in all of their infinite wisdom, seem to have decided that the best way to organize all of their adult (and YA and Junior) fiction is by author last name ONLY. You can find little stickers on the spines that say helpful things like MYSTERY or FANTASY or SCIFI or ROMANCE, but literally if you want to discover something new you kind of have to start at the As and work your way, very carefully, all the way to the Zs.
I'm not going to lie. That guy is 100% correct. This is beyond stupid into pure madness. One of the things I learned when I went to the in-service day was that a LOT of staff--from librarians to circ staff--absolutely despise this. This is does not encourage readers, full stop. Meanwhile, they put in this huge amount of effort in their "marketing design" by which I mean that they have a TON of faced out books to "encourage people to pick up books." I keep thinking that you would not have to go to so much effort to draw people into the library, if, you know, you had a clearly marked mystery section, etc.
Even Barnes & Noble knows better and has clearly deliniated genre sections.
The thing I found most disheartening is watching this same issue play out with someone in the middle grade section. This kid just wanted to find a fantasy book and I had to walk him over to a librarian so she could teach him how to use the catalogue, which, as we all know, is actually crap for browsing. I just watched this whole interaction and thought "Whelp, there's another reader lost."
I mean, the collection at this library is small, so maybe the supposed thinking here is that it's better to look like you have one large collection rather than several small ones? I really don't know. All I know is that nothing seems to be organized for the patron. I mean, I guess it's easier for shelvers since we only have one section for every type of book, but shelvers are not who the library should be serving!
Anyway, that was work. I mean, I had some fun sending my family what I called a story in pictures of the books I almost checked out, which included this gem:
Image: A children's picture book with the title "Negative Cat" showing a very relatable cat, its back to us, staring (one must presume) grumpily at the wall.
My computer is giving me some grief so I will end it there.
As is customary on Tuesdays, I worked at the library last night. I had what I can only imagine is a very typical conversation with a new-to-Northtown-Library patron. This very obviously "my people" nerdy guy came over to me and asked what should be a very simple question: "Excuse me," he said. "Can you point me to your fantasy section?" Alas, I had to start by giving this guy my most sympathetic look. Then, I had to say, "I'm afraid there isn't one. The adult fiction is organized alphabetical by author only." Of course he gave me a dumbfounded and horrified look. So, I added, "Believe me, I understand. It means it's impossible to browse. Are you familiar with our catalogue? I'm happy to show you how to search by keyword." He just mutely shook his head and finally sputtered out, "That's stupid! I'm a library science student. I can tell you this is madness. Whose idea was this?" I shrugged, "I am not at liberty to say," I said, "in part because I don't know. I just started working here. All I can say is that I sympathize. We do have a kiosk devoted to new books in science fiction and fantasy, perhaps you could start there?"
He left, as one might expect, Deeply Disappointed.
And, yes, this is true. The gods of Anoka County Library System, in all of their infinite wisdom, seem to have decided that the best way to organize all of their adult (and YA and Junior) fiction is by author last name ONLY. You can find little stickers on the spines that say helpful things like MYSTERY or FANTASY or SCIFI or ROMANCE, but literally if you want to discover something new you kind of have to start at the As and work your way, very carefully, all the way to the Zs.
I'm not going to lie. That guy is 100% correct. This is beyond stupid into pure madness. One of the things I learned when I went to the in-service day was that a LOT of staff--from librarians to circ staff--absolutely despise this. This is does not encourage readers, full stop. Meanwhile, they put in this huge amount of effort in their "marketing design" by which I mean that they have a TON of faced out books to "encourage people to pick up books." I keep thinking that you would not have to go to so much effort to draw people into the library, if, you know, you had a clearly marked mystery section, etc.
Even Barnes & Noble knows better and has clearly deliniated genre sections.
The thing I found most disheartening is watching this same issue play out with someone in the middle grade section. This kid just wanted to find a fantasy book and I had to walk him over to a librarian so she could teach him how to use the catalogue, which, as we all know, is actually crap for browsing. I just watched this whole interaction and thought "Whelp, there's another reader lost."
I mean, the collection at this library is small, so maybe the supposed thinking here is that it's better to look like you have one large collection rather than several small ones? I really don't know. All I know is that nothing seems to be organized for the patron. I mean, I guess it's easier for shelvers since we only have one section for every type of book, but shelvers are not who the library should be serving!
Anyway, that was work. I mean, I had some fun sending my family what I called a story in pictures of the books I almost checked out, which included this gem:
Image: A children's picture book with the title "Negative Cat" showing a very relatable cat, its back to us, staring (one must presume) grumpily at the wall.
My computer is giving me some grief so I will end it there.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-24 03:02 pm (UTC)This really sounds like something that came from the Advisory Board, where none of them are readers.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-24 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-24 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-25 03:47 pm (UTC)If I was telling my customer's something like that, and someone came back to me, I would ask, "What should I tell a customer when they ask me about this?"
no subject
Date: 2026-06-25 06:38 am (UTC)