The recent revamp of the library’s OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) has also seen the introduction of Sorcer, a new search tool providing library patrons with more personalized access to the library collection. Sorcer has been developed by Civica, the software provider who supply our library management system, and it greatly enhances the capability of the catalogue, making it more user-friendly and utilising Web 2.0 technology and concepts. Sorcer can be accessed through the library’s catalogue, either at the library or online via our website.
Sorcer has the tag line ‘order out of chaos’, and while we might suggest that our catalogue is far from chaos, SORCER does allow for more comprehensive searching of the catalogue to be carried out with greater ease, and all from a single interface. Anyone can browse and use Sorcer but to get the most out of it you need to log in. If you already have your own online account at the library you have all you need to get going with Sorcer. Otherwise it’s a simple matter of registering a password which we can do at the issue desk.
Sorcer allows for a more personalised catalogue search by taking note of previous borrowing history and making suggestions for further reading based on this. Sorcer will also suggest reading, viewing and listening material based on the usage of other library patrons with similar interests to you. The more you use Sorcer, the more accurate it will become in being able to offer suggestions for books, CDs and DVDs you might enjoy. You can also customize your Sorcer view by going in to the ‘My Account’ section and ticking or un-ticking the different available options.
From your own Sorcer account you can look at information about your borrowing including any loans (or overdues) on your card, current reservations, your alert profiles, any reviews you have added, and your borrowing history. Alert profiles enable Sorcer to present books you may be interested in such as Bestsellers, Recent Biographies, or books that have been reviewed by other library users. At this point you can also check on your personal details and make any necessary updates. Sorcer also allows you to link with online ‘friends’ with whom you can share recommendations for books, DVDs etc.
It is still necessary to use the ‘My Account’ function found on the library catalogue to renew any books on your card or to cancel a reservation. All it takes to activate your own account, either for Sorcer or the existing system is the addition of a password to your library account. This will take staff a matter of minutes to activate and then you’re ready to start utilising this new addition to the library’s catalogue.
All next week (August 29 to September 2) library staff will be making a special effort to let our borrowers know about SORCER and get them signed up to start taking advantage of its many features. We will be offering help and training to borrowers, and we also have a good selection of giveaways for those who are interested in giving it a go. SORCER is an exciting expansion of our service and we hope that many library users will make use of its amazing potential.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Finding Love in the Library
Although it is sometimes looked down upon, romance fiction remains an incredibly popular genre and represents a significant component of the publishing industry. With a Mills & Boon book being sold every three seconds in the UK, and with romance accounting for 37% of the total number of fiction titles sold in the US, romance fiction is certainly something anyone working with books and people needs to take seriously. It is no surprise then that Masterton Library holds a large number of romantically themed books and that these feature highly in our issuing statistics.
The romance novel can generally be defined as one which describes the development of a romantic relationship between two people, ending with a satisfying or at least promising conclusion. One of the earliest romance novels was Samuel Richardson’s Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, first published in 1740. There had of course been romance stories before this including the plays of Shakespeare, though notably Romeo and Juliet (which is often described as a great love story) fails as a romance because of the distinct lack of a happy ending.
In the 19th century Jane Austen expanded the genre with books such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, now regarded as literary classics. In the 1920s Georgette Heyer introduced the world to the Historical Romance, and the genre really took off in the 1930s when British publishing company Mills & Boon made the decision to concentrate on romance fiction. The company now publishes 50 new titles each month from a worldwide author base of 1,500, including several from New Zealand.
Today there is a great deal of variety within the romance genre including: Comtemporary romances (the largest subgenre) which are set in the time they are written; Historical romances which are those set before the Second World War and include the popular Regency romances; and Romantic suspense, in which the protagonists have a mystery to unravel while at the same time a relationship develops between them.
Paranormal romance is when the romance is complicated by otherworldly elements, vampires being a particularly popular theme at the moment; Science Fiction and Fantasy romances are set in other or future worlds, and then there is Time-Travel Romance in which relationships develop while having the added complication of the characters living in different time periods.
Inspirational Romance combines Christian themes with the development of a romantic relationship; Multicultural romances feature protagonists from different ethnic backgrounds; and for those looking for something a bit spicier, Erotic Romance blends romance with erotica (distinct from pornography in that it does still have a story to tell).
Romance writers are some of the most popular authors writing today. Along with the huge stable of authors writing for Mills and Boon, authors such as Diana Gabaldon, Linda Howard, Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, Nora Roberts, La Vyrle Spencer, and Amanada Quick enjoy a huge readership. Despite generally being aimed at woman, there are a significant number of men who enjoy reading romance fiction and also quite a few who have made careers writing it - including some who have written under a female pen name. The authors Monica Barrie, Victoria Gordon, and Gill Sanderson for example, are in fact all men.
Dating back to its first emergence, Romance fiction has suffered a certain amount of criticism, derision and even condemnation. Some of the early criticism can be attributed to blatant sexism and the perception that women had more impressionable minds and may have been unduly influenced by what they were reading. It was therefore felt that women’s reading should be restricted to household manuals and devotional texts.
Simply because it is genre largely written by and for women, romantic fiction is still often regarded as a lesser concern, in much the same way that women’s sport is. Ironically Romance fiction has also been the target of some feminist criticism which suggests that it is oppressive and encourages women to conform to sentimental and traditional roles. Romantic fiction also receives criticism for being formulaic and indeed the majority of Mills and Boon novels even have a prescribed number of pages.
What these criticisms don’t take into account is the ability of the readers (mostly but not exclusively female) to be very much aware that they are reading a certain style of book, and that is precisely what they want. Romance fiction provides an opportunity to read something with a reasonable expectation of a satisfying conclusion, much as most crime readers would expect the denouement of the mystery, and the identification and punishment of the killer. Romance fiction is escapist fiction in just the same way that fantasy, science fiction, even crime are. The criticism also doesn’t always take into account the huge scope the genre now embraces.
Given the popularity of romantic fiction it would be a failure on the library’s part not to make this genre widely available to our borrowers and in fact it represents an incredibly popular part of our collection. We certainly make no judgements about the reading of romantic fiction, in fact we are keen to see even more of it being read and have books to cater to every taste. So if you’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places, try the library.
The romance novel can generally be defined as one which describes the development of a romantic relationship between two people, ending with a satisfying or at least promising conclusion. One of the earliest romance novels was Samuel Richardson’s Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, first published in 1740. There had of course been romance stories before this including the plays of Shakespeare, though notably Romeo and Juliet (which is often described as a great love story) fails as a romance because of the distinct lack of a happy ending.
In the 19th century Jane Austen expanded the genre with books such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, now regarded as literary classics. In the 1920s Georgette Heyer introduced the world to the Historical Romance, and the genre really took off in the 1930s when British publishing company Mills & Boon made the decision to concentrate on romance fiction. The company now publishes 50 new titles each month from a worldwide author base of 1,500, including several from New Zealand.
Today there is a great deal of variety within the romance genre including: Comtemporary romances (the largest subgenre) which are set in the time they are written; Historical romances which are those set before the Second World War and include the popular Regency romances; and Romantic suspense, in which the protagonists have a mystery to unravel while at the same time a relationship develops between them.
Paranormal romance is when the romance is complicated by otherworldly elements, vampires being a particularly popular theme at the moment; Science Fiction and Fantasy romances are set in other or future worlds, and then there is Time-Travel Romance in which relationships develop while having the added complication of the characters living in different time periods.
Inspirational Romance combines Christian themes with the development of a romantic relationship; Multicultural romances feature protagonists from different ethnic backgrounds; and for those looking for something a bit spicier, Erotic Romance blends romance with erotica (distinct from pornography in that it does still have a story to tell).
Romance writers are some of the most popular authors writing today. Along with the huge stable of authors writing for Mills and Boon, authors such as Diana Gabaldon, Linda Howard, Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, Nora Roberts, La Vyrle Spencer, and Amanada Quick enjoy a huge readership. Despite generally being aimed at woman, there are a significant number of men who enjoy reading romance fiction and also quite a few who have made careers writing it - including some who have written under a female pen name. The authors Monica Barrie, Victoria Gordon, and Gill Sanderson for example, are in fact all men.
Dating back to its first emergence, Romance fiction has suffered a certain amount of criticism, derision and even condemnation. Some of the early criticism can be attributed to blatant sexism and the perception that women had more impressionable minds and may have been unduly influenced by what they were reading. It was therefore felt that women’s reading should be restricted to household manuals and devotional texts.
Simply because it is genre largely written by and for women, romantic fiction is still often regarded as a lesser concern, in much the same way that women’s sport is. Ironically Romance fiction has also been the target of some feminist criticism which suggests that it is oppressive and encourages women to conform to sentimental and traditional roles. Romantic fiction also receives criticism for being formulaic and indeed the majority of Mills and Boon novels even have a prescribed number of pages.
What these criticisms don’t take into account is the ability of the readers (mostly but not exclusively female) to be very much aware that they are reading a certain style of book, and that is precisely what they want. Romance fiction provides an opportunity to read something with a reasonable expectation of a satisfying conclusion, much as most crime readers would expect the denouement of the mystery, and the identification and punishment of the killer. Romance fiction is escapist fiction in just the same way that fantasy, science fiction, even crime are. The criticism also doesn’t always take into account the huge scope the genre now embraces.
Given the popularity of romantic fiction it would be a failure on the library’s part not to make this genre widely available to our borrowers and in fact it represents an incredibly popular part of our collection. We certainly make no judgements about the reading of romantic fiction, in fact we are keen to see even more of it being read and have books to cater to every taste. So if you’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places, try the library.
Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library
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