HIT: Who has R.L. Stine?

[Shannon Acedo <acedos@THALIA.MARLBOROUGH.LA.CA.US>]

I'm astonished by the speed and volume of responses to my
question--although I shouldn't be.  I wanted to post a hit of
responses to date to show how the mail ran.

Out of 63 responses (in 2 days!), 55 responded that they carry R.L.
Stine books, either Goosebumps or Fear Street, and 8 replied that
they did not.

Out of those respondents who included their school range, 13 were
elementary, 10 were middle school, 6 were 7-12, 10 were high school, 1
was 4-5, and 1 was 3-6.  There seemed no pattern to those who did not
carry Stine--they were scattered across the board.

Those who did not carry Stine cited the following reasons:
--budgetary restrictions (frequently cited)
--other thrillers are better quality (next most frequent)
One said she didn't have him "in the collection" but had a paperback
exchange basket that had him--donations, not purchases.
One said they had no paperbacks at all.
One agreed that better thrillers exist, and our job is to"present
quality literature".
One said the public library is close and accessible, so she feels
comfortable referring students there--she acknowledged the difficulty
of distance in some larger cities or rural areas.

Here are some comments from those who do carry Stine:
"If students read Stine or no one, I'll give them Stine."
"better to read anything than to read nothing"
Generally, the common theme was Stine is good bait to get them
reading and in the library, and the librarian can then guide students
to better authors once they're in.  One librarian noted that even
though Stine is available in bookstores, many students can't afford
to buy even paperbacks.  Many schools have him as donations or as
premiums from bookfairs.  One said the content wasn't as gory as many
think, that the covers are the worst part.  Another few said they
were actually not bad--no "bad language", drug use or sex.

Overall, my response was 63-8 in support of having Stine in library
collections.  The general view is:  this is the way to get reluctant
readers to read, and once they're reading then they can be encouraged
to branch out and up.  While working on compiling the responses, I am
left with the question:  if budgetary considerations are keeping
Stine out of your library, why not go the donation route, or
paperback exchange?  Just wondering.

Thank you all for responding.  There is a lot of care and concern out
there for the quality and purpose of a library's collection.


Shannon Acedo, Librarian (acedos@marlborough.la.ca.us)
Marlborough School
Los Angeles CA