Last week I had my first scholarly journal article published. It is called the Romance Reader and the Public Library and it has been published by The Australian Library Journal Volume 61 No 4 in their Special Issue on Reading.  The abstract is included at the end of my blog. This paper is an amalgam of my Supping with the Devil that is romance fiction talk at the ALIA Biennial Conference and my What the Librarian Did talk at PopCAANZ.

This article is available through public library database subscriptions, university libraries and ALIA membership. It is not free to the web. If you are going through your public library (in Australia) you will need to log on to the “Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre”. Please contact me in the comments if you are having difficulties (or ask your local librarian to show you how to log in). Is there method in my madness? Damn it – yes! I expect you all to have a library card. If you don’t – go out and get one today. This is a blog about romance fiction AND libraries, after all!

Abstract:

Romance fiction, romance authors and readers have been routinely marginalised, in spite of their significant role in contemporary popular culture. Sales figures for the book trade indicate that romance fiction is the most popular of all genres with ebook technologies being led by romance and erotica publishers. Yet, many public libraries have not collected romance fiction or collect only token examples of this genre. Drawing from data in the Australian Romance Readers Association annual survey on reader usage, this paper will discuss how the romance reader accesses their reading choices, impediments to the romance reader accessing reading materials, and the role of the public library and how library practitioners, through Readers’ Advisory practices, can meet the romance reader’s needs.