To think the library shouldn't stick rainbow stickers on any book by a GLBT author

[GothAnneGeddes]

I know it is probably well intentioned, but it just seems a really clunky way of doing it.

Do we need a rainbow sticker on Stephen Fry's autobiography? And if you didn't know an author was gay, would it matter if you found out they were?

Slightlyreluctant - I am sure you are right, that is the intention. But can't librarians see how many people will read this as a 'warning sticker' or a 'this book is for gay people' sticker (in the same way that a rainbow flag on a pub or club tells you who the club is (mainly) aimed at. Plus the teenagers who would fear taking home a book with a rainbow sticker for the stick they would get for reading a 'poof's book' etc...

Books featuring gay characters are not a genre. I can see see that a library could have a special display showcasing books on LGBT themes one month and books set in China the next ( or whatever) . But permanently sticking them seems spectacularly misguided.

stephenkg.blogspot.com/2009/07/importance-of-library-materials-for.html
"Simply adding LGBTQ materials to the collection is often not enough. Since this population is often hesitant to ask for assistance, it is important that these materials are easy to locate. Having a sticker or stamp on the book that says, ?gay? or marked with a rainbow sticker can make the materials easier to find in the collection. Unfortunately, these markings may be a deterrent for a youth to look at or check out materials. A good compromise is to have multiple copies of a book with some specifically labeled and others not (Linville, 2004). Leviathan (2004) suggests not putting magnetic strips in LGBT books so they can be taken without checking them out. He also advocates prominently displaying these books in the library. Even if youth do not have the courage to look at them and check them out, at least they know the materials exist and are seen as worthy of display. Downey (2005) recommends bookmarks or handouts highlighting the gay and lesbian collection as examples of proactive approaches librarians can take to make the collection more accessible. ?In a spirit of partnership and proactive thinking, librarians can help ensure that the ?invisible minority? receives the attention and information it deserves? (p. 94)."

How stupid! Does it matter!

I really don't see the need for stickers. Surely, the fact that someone is in the library must mean that they can read. Why can't they just read the cover?

Good links scream. It is not just about increasing book issues, though that is part of the motivation. It is also about ensuring that all parts of the community are catered for, particularly the "invisible minority" as in the quote above.

I have to point out however that that article is mainly referring to America where homophobia & LGBT are a whole different kettle of fish.

I just don't get it either OP but I suppose in their clumsy way the library are trying to raise awareness of "gay books" then it might help someone along the way.

Well-meaning but wrong. If I was worried about revealing my sexuality but wanted to read literature with an LGBT theme, the last think I'd do is take a book home with a rainbow sticker on. Also, I'm gobsmacked that people think it's a good idea, so readers can be warned off borrowing LGBT themed books..

Bakelite

Indeed, imagine how many people might miss out on Sarah Waters for example or Stephen Fry, just because the sticker might make them think they can't/shouldn't read them?

Interesting link Iscream. bossybritches - I am not sure the issues of homophobia and coming out are so different in the Uk than in the US. If you live outside of the big metropolitan centres, or are part of a conservative religious minority the problem of homophobia is much the same. At my kids school the gay teachers are not out with the kids and parents - it is hardly an atmosphere of openness about sexuality.

Yes the idea of having two copies makes sense. Still I think it is better to have a shelf of books on LGBT themes (or what the blogger is talking about which is more a shelf of books on teen sexuality, in which there are no books portraying homosexuality as a perversion) than to have stickered books. I'm sure a shelf of books in the teen section on sexual themes would be highly popular!

YANBU. Why should this particular fact about an author lead to a sticker? Why not a sticker for authors who are tall, have brown eyes, or who enjoy coffee?

I was surprised to read that everyone has such a negative view about this, although I totally agree that LGBT authors shouldn't be marginalized and that authors like Sarah Waters shouldn't only be read by gay people. However, when I was growing up as a lesbian teenager I absolutely loved the LGBT section of the library. In an ideal world, the sexuality of characters in fiction shouldn't matter at all, but in the real world, especially when you're young, you really want to read books that tally with your own experience. And it's pretty hard to find a nice selection of LGBT themed books without handy sections in libraries, and useful lists online. Even now, as a woman in her mid-twenties, I still go and look at the LGBT section! And I'm sure I'm not the only teenager schemes like this have benefited. That said, I wouldn't want straight readers to be put off, as there are some amazing books by LGBT authors. If I was a public librarian, I would probably try and have multiple copies of books that would be of interest to the general reader (gay themed literary fiction rather than gay erotica, for instance) and keep one on the LGBT shelf and one unstickered and filed under fiction.

Oh God I should go to bed ... My first thought on seeing the title of this thread was ... LGBT, isn't that a sandwich?

I work in a library, it's common to have themed displays. Stickers help you easily identify stock when it's returned. As MsB has pointed out, most people find it helpful.

My library doesn't have LGBT stickers but I don't think it is unreasonable to have them. They are merely to help people identify a book which they might overwise have missed which may appeal to them.

Here's a quote from the wiki page of Armistead Maupin, which is very interesting:

"It's possible to write a novel now which has gay themes, which has any truth you want to speak, that can be sold to a mainstream publisher and sold in a mainstream bookstore, so the notion of people who've narrowed their focus to only write books for a gay audience for gay people about gay people is stifling to me; in some ways, it's another form of the closet, as far as I'm concerned. I think Jerry Falwell must be very happy with those little cubby-holes at the back of book stores that say 'gay and lesbian' - it's a warning sign, they can keep their kids away from that section. I'd like people to stumble on my works in the literature section of Barnes and Noble and have their lives changed because of it.

It's complicated. I don't want to feel any less queer, but I think for us to march along in a dutiful little herd called 'gay and lesbian literature' and have little seminars that we hold together is pointless at this point, it makes no sense to me at all. [...] I cringe when I get 'gay writer' each time. Why the modifier? I'm a writer. It's like calling Amy Tan a Chinese-American writer every time you mention her name, or Alice Walker a black writer. We're all discussing the human condition. Some of us have revolutionised writing by bringing in subject-matter that nobody's heard about before. But we don't want that to narrow the definition of who we are as an artist. [...] I don't mind being cross-shelved. I'm very proud of being in the gay and lesbian section, but I don't want to be told that I can't sit up in the front of the book store with the straight, white writers."

One of the best ways to end homophobia, IMVHO, is for people to have the realisation that gay people are normal everyday people and encountering gay characters in the media is one of the best ways of doing this. I think putting the stickers on the book might put off the casual reader and as mentioned earlier, sadly get some raised eyebrows and that's a real shame.

Also, there's then the possible interpretation that LBGT literature isn't for straight people, it's aimed at LGBT people so straight people shouldn't read it.

Gag, I understand your argument. But ultimately, it is useful for me if the library put stickers on books because I particularly want to read books that reflect on gay experience.

And saying that the stickers shouldn't be on there because it might put off homophobic people. Well, is that not just the book reading version of saying that gay people shouldn't come across as too gay, have gay culture etc because they are obliged to win people over by appearing to be exactly the same as everyone else?

This kind of fits into your argument that the best way to end homophobia is for people to have the realisation that gay people are normal, everyday people. I think that the onus is on homophobic people to change their understanding of what constitutes normal and everyday. The onus is not on gay people as a group to be less obviously gay in order to fit in with the straight cultural ideal of what normal and everyday is.

I'm not sure that the treatment of gay themed books by libraries should be based in what is in the best interests of homophobic people, whether posters think it is in the best interests of such people to avoid the book or to read the book by accident is rather secondary.

It would seem to me that the more important message to give to all homophobic people is that the library is going to provide this service for people who think that reading about gay experience is important, and that if you don't find that experience to be an important part of books, you simply have to accept that the library provides services for people other than you (not that I'm suggesting that everyone who has no particular interest in gay experience in fiction is homophobic).

As for Maupin, he says he is proud to be in the lesbian and gay section but also considers himself a mainstream writer. Who could argue with that?

What about other particular experiences people may have though? Should there be stickers for those too?

"But ultimately, it is useful for me if the library put stickers on books because I particularly want to read books that reflect on gay experience."

I can't help wondering how many people on here actually use libraries! My local library service does loads of 'theme' months/weeks, they display books related to the theme somewhere prominent, they sticker books, they hand out supplementary materials. I would guess that lots of other library services do it too.

I assume the idea is to raise library users' awareness of a wide range of different reading materials; to help people discover something new that they might enjoy, or from which they might learn something. If you're pressed for time and don't want to read every blurb on every book, these kinds of flags are handy. It doesn't mean that every copy of the book is stickered, or that the books forever and always belong only to the 'Read Regional' or 'Deadlier than the Male' category. Is this a bad thing?

Yes, our books have stickers on for all sorts of reasons - short reads, local writer, historical, homelessness, mental health, adventure and all sorts of things. Books can have multiple stickers because the library constantly changes its themed displays.

Theoretically, it?s an appealing idea that no one would see the difference between gay themed books and straight themed books, and that gay characters would just pop up in mainstream fiction without anyone bothering about their sexuality at all. However, it?s always going to be the case that there are many, many more books that don?t have gay themes than ones that do ? that?s just the nature of things, because there are so many more straight people in the world. And for someone who wants to read LGBT interest books, especially the more vulnerable young people who don?t have the money to buy new books, and have real problems ordering from Amazon (I just wouldn?t do it when I was younger ? a package turning up on the kitchen table is not great when you?re not out to your parents), it?s essential that you have a way of identifying the selection that is available to you. In response to the question of whether everyone else?s interests should also be represented by a sticker, I would say that I?m all for themed displays, and have picked up lots of books I wouldn?t have read before from them. However, I would fight to keep a permanent LGBT display because one of the problems that LGBT people often experience is the lack of a supportive community. Having worked with LGBT youth, I hear a lot that fictional LGBT characters, both in books and in the media, can almost act as a substitute family or community group for a gay or lesbian teen, until the time they can find a real life one. And as Milly says, even when you do grow up a bit, you still want to locate gay themed books in a world that is still overwhelmingly heterosexual in terms of the literature and media that surrounds us on a day to day basis.

MillyR - I don't think those stickers just put off the decidedly homophobic though, I could well imagine that they also put off anyone who is a little bit conservative, as well as teenagers or others who might be concerned about what someone would think of them taking out a book labelled as being 'from the gay section'. Particularly as there doesn't seem to be any clear explanation of what the category means.

I suppose if the author/publisher wants their book to so easily put into a single box they could put the rainbow logo on themselves (in the same way that chick-lit, teen-vampire-love, detective thrillers etc...all look much the same).

I've nothing against theme month displays at the library - but it would be quite a different thing, for example to have a display highlighting books on the Jewish experience one month, to putting a yellow star on all the books by Jewish authors.

"And saying that the stickers shouldn't be on there because it might put off homophobic people. Well, is that not just the book reading version of saying that gay people shouldn't come across as too gay, have gay culture etc because they are obliged to win people over by appearing to be exactly the same as everyone else?"

I am not at all sure where I've said gay people shouldn't come across as too gay or that they are obliged to be exactly like straight people. Please engage with what I have actually written.

I can see the great value of LGBT literature being easily accessible in libraries and displays are an especially good idea. But putting a rainbow sticker on "Room" just because Emma Donoghue is gay sits very uncomfortably with me.