That’s Entertainment!

College Library’s Open Book Collection serves the recreational reading needs of UW-Madison students and is intended to be browsed like a bookstore — with categories ranging from graphic novels, to fiction, hobbies, and non-fiction titles. Along with magazines and games (both board and video), it’s almost a small public library collection within an academic setting. With the help of iSchool practicum student Sara Gliniecki, College Library recently updated the entertainment section in Open Book. As part of her 120-hour practicum, Sara was able to obtain hands-on library experience in reference, instruction, and collection development. Knowing that entertainment is a rapidly-evolving category (which hadn’t been updated in several years), Sara undertook an extensive weeding project that de-accessioned nearly 100 titles that hadn’t been checked out since 2015.

In addition to removing books from this section, Sara had the opportunity to purchase new titles which better reflect current trends and interests. She was pleased to add books that emphasized diversity, social justice, as well as YouTube celebrity. When asked about her experience, Sara remarked, “This project helped me realize that I would love to pursue a career as a Collections Librarian. Building a representative collection gave me a sense of joy and purpose throughout my last semester of graduate school.”

Titles in the entertainment category cover a range topics from music, television, film, the internet, and humor, including books that are in and of themselves, entertaining. In an effort to consolidate similar works, celebrity memoirs were also relocated from non-fiction and integrated into this category. We hope this will increase the ease of discovery of works by Bryan Cranston, Tiffany Haddish, Mindy Kaling, and several others.

Sara notes, “If you like drag queens, Tik Tok, and/or cats, check out the new additions to the Entertainment Collection!” As titles arrive they will be shelved near the window in Open Book, Room 1250.