Our library has axed the YA section!

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

They've put the YA books in amongst the adult fiction with orange stickers on the spine.
Is it just me who thinks this is a terrible idea? Is there an evidence base to show that teenage books get borrowed more this way? (Or, conversely, that it makes teenagers read more books of whatever age classification?)
It's going to put off my 10yo who is just starting to read YA but is this considered good practice in libraries these days?

[cdtaylornats]

I certainly hope so YA is just a marketing ploy. The vast majority of people grew up with the choice of childrens or adult books - YA - just added a pointless classification decided by publishers.

[hugoagogo]

They are separate in our library, but ime they are requested on line or borrowed by parents for their dc. So no real point to them being in a different place.

Saying that, the choice of adult books is vast and many of them unappealing to 10-14 year olds, seeing as the government is trying to make librarians and experienced library assistants a thing of the past, maybe the YA class can be useful.

[Quogwinkle]

YA section in our library is separate, next to the children's section. There wasn't one when I was a teenager - we just moved on to the Adult Section where you could find all sorts of interesting stuff. I loved James Herriott and books like that then :)

[NotCitrus]

Given how many YA novels are of certain types (horror novels minus sex, how a teenager coped with Issues), mixing them in with the adult novels sounds a good idea especially if they are stickered to show they are particularly suited to teenagers. In my library growing up, the YA shelves were in the children's room and this meant teenagers didn't want to be in there, so they rejigged it to put the romances beloved of elderly ladies in with the children's.

[Unacceptable]

I like that move very much.
I think it will have the converse effect you suggested and, in my head at least, it makes perfect sense that way.
I can see why some people think YA is a crappy publishing company invented marketing thing but I don't agree unlike bloody ChickLit bullshit which makes my teeth itch

[SofiaAmes]

Isn't it mostly tweens who read YA books, not teens. I would have thought having them in a separate section would make them more approachable. Certainly worked better for my dc's having it that way. We used to go to 2 libraries every Sunday. One was a main library with a large YA section and the other was a smaller branch library with a very small YA section. Dc's would always spend lots of time in the YA section at the larger library and bring home far more books from there. These days, we pretty much check everything out online for our kindles.