From readers’ advisory to literary advocacy – a conceptual exploration

Abstract

This article departs from an observation that current practices of readers advisory (litteraturformidling) in public libraries tend to prioritize readers’ demands, taste, or contextual matters on the expense of literature itself. We ask what it means to put literature first and how research can underpin such practices. In a conceptual and exploratory study departing from Gerard Genette’s work on the paratext we draw inter alia on theory of literature, pragmatic philosophy, and the legislation on public libraries. By way of conceptual inquiries, we analyse what it would mean for the libarian to advocate works, collections, and other cultural artefacts in the library. We have developed an understanding of literary advocacy foregrounding five methodological devices: 1) listening carefully to literature; 2) talking on behalf of literature by articulating the reading experience; 3) addressing the reader as one that wishes to discover and find new ways of seeing; 4) cultivating the art of selection; and 5) attending to the democratic mandate of libraries and taking a position. Professional librarianship in terms of literary advocacy would mean to negotiate democratic values relative to the singularity of the work and relative to all the selections the advocate has to make. Our result then points towards a “tool” for professional research on the literary practices of public libraries too.