Pop Culture Love
RSSBy Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 09/01/2007
Don’t go trashin’ pop culture, at least not within earshot of Sophie Brookover (in glasses below). A teen librarian at Camden County (NJ) Library, blogger at “Pop Goes the Library” and coauthor of an upcoming book of the same name, Brookover believes in embracing such mainstream stuff to ramp up public and school library services.
“To regard pop culture as something beneath us is a calamitous mistake,” says Brookover. “Taking the temperature of the interests of our community can make a difference to our patrons, especially if we collect the material that is important and relevant to them.”
Set for publication in summer 2008 by Information Today, the book is a joint effort by Brookover and one of her co-bloggers, Elizabeth Burns (below left).
Lest anyone think that the book duplicates material on the blog, Brookover says no. Instead, she and Burns are going to offer practical tips on how to build pop culture collections, like DVDs of popular shows. Moreover, readers will learn how to push these materials out in new ways to forge deeper connections with their regulars. One idea? Glam it up at a library Oscar evening, complete with red carpet, and encourage patrons to dress up and come watch the show on a big screen.
“Sometimes you need to set aside your own personal tastes,” says Brookover. “You don’t have to love rap to collect it. But if we are, in fact, facing tough times, we need to steep ourselves in pop culture, too, and provide materials our patrons want in addition to what we believe, with our formal education, they can use.”
