Good morning!

Here at the Lewiston Public Library, we are considering a project to interfile our mystery, science fiction, and western genres into the rest of the fiction collection to create a single fiction section alphabetical by author last name. Our reasoning includes less work for our tech services team by reducing the amount of time spent on a single title (more time for other projects), easier for patrons to browse by their favorite author and keep an entire body of work together, and better set-up for the fiction shelving "real estate".

I am currently gathering feedback from the staff, and soon from the community, but was hoping that other libraries might also be willing to give their advice and/or thoughts on the matter.

What I would like to know:
How is your library's fiction collection set-up?
Have you considered eliminating genre sections to create one large fiction collection at your library? Or, have you done the opposite and gone from one fiction collection to having multiple genres? What was the reasoning behind the change?
What are the pros and cons of doing either of the above options?
Did you solicit any feedback before making the change? If so, how?
Do the patrons in your community ask for a specific genre or do they prefer to browse by author?
Is there an easy way to have an up-to-date genre list, say for mystery or science fiction authors, without giving them a separate section?

Please respond to me directly.

Thanks in advance!
Katherine

Katherine Webber
Lending Services Supervisor
Lewiston Public Library
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207-513-3004 ex 3506