That time a librarian told me to stop doing book displays by genre

She said my mystery section was "confusing" because I lumped true crime in with cozy mysteries, so now I separate them by tone and mood instead. Has anyone else gotten pushback on how they organize something they thought was obvious?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.stella28d ago

Play devil's advocate here but I think your librarian had a point. Genre sorting is already a mess because people disagree on where books belong - like how some folks classify Stephen King as horror while others call it thriller. What happens when a customer wants a "light read" and grabs a true crime book thinking it's a cozy mystery? They'd be disappointed and maybe blame the library for bad organization. Mood and tone sorting might work for bookstores with staff who know their stock but in a public library with different patrons it just creates more confusion than it solves.

torres.sage28d ago

Guess my mood is just "mildly confused" 24/7! 😂

the_cole21d ago

Ngl, "mildly confused" is basically my permanent state after any trip to IKEA, so at least you're consistent. 😂 Maybe we need Dewey Decimal for moods now, like a 101.3 for "existential dread meets light comedy.