Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Section 1 Foreword: the author as reader: Editors’ introduction
- Section 2 Reader development: promotions and partnerships: Editors’ introduction
- 2 ‘Time To Read’: the rise and rise of a regional partnership
- 3 Reader development and social inclusion
- 4 Managing fiction: managing readers and writers
- 5 Getting into reading
- Section 3 Works of imagination: Editors’ introduction
- Section 4 Future directions: Editors’ introduction
- Section 5 Afterword: the reader as author: Editors’ introduction
- Index
4 - Managing fiction: managing readers and writers
from Section 2 - Reader development: promotions and partnerships: Editors’ introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Section 1 Foreword: the author as reader: Editors’ introduction
- Section 2 Reader development: promotions and partnerships: Editors’ introduction
- 2 ‘Time To Read’: the rise and rise of a regional partnership
- 3 Reader development and social inclusion
- 4 Managing fiction: managing readers and writers
- 5 Getting into reading
- Section 3 Works of imagination: Editors’ introduction
- Section 4 Future directions: Editors’ introduction
- Section 5 Afterword: the reader as author: Editors’ introduction
- Index
Summary
Editors’ preface
This chapter follows and develops the ideas introduced in earlier chapters by Jane Matthieson and Linda Corrigan. Anne Sherman considers how, over time, reader development has changed from being seen as an optional extra to being a central part of a public library's remit. In an often amusing way, Anne articulates the changing attitudes of staff to reader development activities and describes some of the schemes introduced.
Introduction
This chapter endeavours to show one public library service's changing perspective on reading development – no longer seen as an add-on or optional extra, but as an integral part of service delivery to bring literature to its readers. No criticism of staff or policy is intended, and the views expressed are those of the writer and not intended to be representative of the service as a whole.
Issues with book issues
Every person his or her book
A newspaper review of a newly published book was brought into a library and a request made for the item. The details were duly noted and appropriate forms filled in, the borrower appreciating that the book was not in stock but that his request would be passed on for the stock specialist's attention. The title in question was The Collector's Edition of the Lost Erotic Novels by Anaïs Nin, and the Guardian review that had attracted the reader's attention raised a few weary eyebrows in the staffroom later in the day:
[T]his self-styled Collector's Edition of erotica is indeed designed for those with specialist interests. There will, however, be just as many enthusiasts of the one-handed read as earnest bibliophiles squinting over their order forms. This is fascinatingly filthy stuff … After 600 pages of orifices, whips and feverish flutterings, the sordid depths of the human psyche will never seem quite the same again.
The review was itself slightly feverish in tone, but the overall verdict was that this was a recherché and valid collection of erotica with contributions from masters of the art, and a timely reminder of the tenet ‘Every person his or her book’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Reader Development in PracticeBringing Literature to Readers, pp. 59 - 74Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2008