“Pure Delight and Professional Development”: The Reading Practices and Library Use of an Active Poetry Community / « Pures délices » et développement professionnel : Les pratiques de lecture d’une communauté active de poésie et la fréquentation de la bibliothèque

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of an online survey designed to explore the reading practices, library habits, and book acquisition of adult members of an active poetry community (n = 32) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Findings show the close relationship between poetry reading and poetry writing and the tight interweaving of poetry throughout the working and personal lives of respondents. Reading and finding out about poetry are also highly social in nature with a clear reliance on the poetry community rather than the public library. Our findings have implications for the roles of reading institutions such as bookstores, libraries, and publishers, as well as for collection development and readers' advisory services to specialized reading communities.

Case For Chapbooks

“…Chapbooks, often lacking a titled spine, can be lost in the stacks visually, and they need to be catalogued with subject details to utilize the unique appeal of each volume beyond just "poetry." Toane and Rothbauer's (2014) study identified a need for "greater visibility and promotion of poetry collections" (p. 117), and chapbooks are especially vulnerable to this problem. Principles from zine-collecting literature can be useful for addressing this challenge.…”

“…Libraries are "untapped as resources for promoting participation with poetry" (Schwartz et al, 2006, p. 82). A study by Toane and Rothbauer (2014) on the perspectives of a dedicated poetry community on public libraries found community members were supportive of the library and saw the potential for library patrons to become new poetry readers, but they had mixed feelings about the quality of poetry collections in libraries. Events, increased visibility, and expanded collections (p. 118)-including increased collection of contemporary work, local titles, and titles by new authors (p. 116)-were the most cited suggestions for improvement.…”

Information in the personal collections of writers and artists: Practices, challenges and preservation

“…The personal collections of writers in particular have been identified as important to both the writers and to society because they provide information useful during the creation of the work and about the finished products, respectively [39][40][41]. The personal records writers keep provide details about their lives and the personal experiences that form the background to their works and can evoke the character of a writer and their surroundings [42].They are often used, for example, in writers' autobiographies, where recollection of times and places is achieved through objects in personal collections [8].…”