In July, I visited a library in a large town--not a city, but a fairly big college town--and was dismayed with the selection of pagan books. When using the computer database to search for keywords, very few things came up when I searched "Wicca" or "Paganism," and none of the titles that came up were available at that library. They also weren't things I had heard of, except for one, which I did end up reading later because my friend happened to have a copy, but that's another book review entirely. Anyway, that library did turn out to have a couple really good pagan books once I looked in person, including Triumph of the Moon and Drawing Down the Moon. They also had some interesting books I hadn't heard of yet. I was confused as to why I couldn't find those titles with the searches I had conducted on the computer; If they didn't come up under "pagan," "paganism," "witchcraft," and so on, then how could people expect to find them?
I think I've stumbled upon an answer to that question in the days since that library visit. For one, I looked at some of the books in the Paganism section at my half price bookstore, and then earlier this week I visited another library to check out what kinds of books they had on pagan paths. Basically, what I discovered is that there are quite a few books that pagans would find interesting at libraries, but unlike at the bookstore where they're on the "New Age" or "Paganism" shelves, books that libraries choose may have sneaky classifications.
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As Above, So Below: Paths to Spiritual Renewal in Daily Life |
Before I get to the books, let's take a moment to remind ourselves of what we have to work with. This is what the "Religion" section in a library consists of. The 200s are Religion, in general. The 210s cover philosophy and theory thereof, and the 290s are "Other Religions." The 220s through 280s are all various topics about the Bible and Christianity. So right away, we're all in the severe minority for resources. The 290s are for ALL other religions, and there are a lot of them.
First I checked out the 200s, general religion section. There I found a couple "history of religions" things and looked for sections on paganism. In the one book I thought looked the most helpful, there was no section called "paganism." There were, however, very small entries mixed among other things that referred to "new age" spirituality and witchcraft. But then I started seeing the diamonds in the rough--the books that didn't say pagan, but definitely were, or could be if you chose to apply them to a pagan path. Things like this:
Voices of the Earth: The Path of Green Spirituality by Clea Danaan. At this point I had forgotten to check the classifications on the back, but it didn't say it was a "Paganism" book. I think it probably said "Earth-based Religions/Spirituality." This one looks like a great read, and when I finish the book I'm currently reading, this and a few of the other books I'll show you are definitely on my list to borrow from the library now that I know they're here!
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Next, I moved to the 290s, Other Religions. I glanced through the first shelves of the section--Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, more Islam, more Judaism, Hinduism--and this was the first book I saw with the word "Goddess" on it. It's called The Goddess Path: Myths, Invocations, and Rituals and was written by Patricia Monaghan. I just took a picture of the back of the book this time, so you can actually see what I've been referring to when I mention the topic classifications on the back of some books. This one simply reads "Spirituality / Personal Transformation / Women's Studies."
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To the right of that book, in the same picture, we have MindLight by Silver Ravenwolf, a book of hers I had never heard of. I didn't take it out and leaf through it yet, since I'm more interested in the other books first, but even to know that this library does have one of her books says a bit for its attempt at a selection. Regardless of anyone's opinion of her work, she is a well-known witch, so to have one of her books does point out where this collection is, in a sense. They have "Pagan-Lite" books, as well as out and proud "Pagan Books." Also, note that these books are directly next to books on Scientology. Oh, the 290s.
So what the heck are the keywords we should use, if things like Drawing Down the Moon don't even come up under "paganism" or "witchcraft"?! Well, it looks like it could be a whole range of things. I know that as a beginner, I never would have thought to search for books with subjects like "Personal Development" when I wanted to learn about my new path, so perhaps these search systems are making people think there are fewer resources than there are. If you can look up a specific title or author, you'll always be more successful, and otherwise, there's always the option of taking a spare fifteen minutes in your day to browse the shelves!
Blessings~
-C-
Gotta love that staunch Christian, John Dewey! I find it amusing that in Library of Congress classification systems (instead of the call number being 900.2 it would be BS 500.L .517 2010, etc.) religion and philosophy are all in the B's. The section of the B's designated to Christianity: BS. Oh, and politics is JK. :)
ReplyDeleteAs a Pagan working in a public library, I've had these thoughts myself and your final advice about looking up specific authors or titles is pretty much how I help patrons find what they're looking for, which leads to some interesting and lengthy reader's advisory sessions. :)
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