SCI-FI 101

Don't believe that only computer geeks read science fiction. Despite the stereotype of the average reader as a young male engineer, probably white, sci-fi readers are male and female, straight, gay, trans, young, and old. They span the racial spectrum and have various education and employment backgrounds. A person is a sci-fi reader because he or she reads sci-fi, not because she or he is a computer geek.

Forget the stereotypes. That is the first thing librarians can do while conducting sf readers' advisory. A recent interview-based study investigated how 32 adult readers perceive sci-fi and fantasy and what influences their preference for the genres. The findings can anchor librarians as they provide access to this important genre.

Look carefully at the differences between a reader and a fan, terms that are used almost interchangeably in much of the available work on sf reading. A sci-fi reader is someone who likes to read sci-fi. An sf fan is someone for whom sf is a facet of his/her social life or of his/her identity. Not all readers are fans. Depending on who is speaking, the terms can mean very different things. Generally, fans self-identify, and, as both Joyce Saricks and Patty Campbell have pointed out, they can be very demanding patrons yet have low expectations of libraries. They can also make admirable resources and valuable allies but are unlikely to seek or value your assistance. They are probably not the only sci-fi readers in your library. Don't assume that all sci-fi readers are like these experienced fans.

The good news is that we have a large body of critical work and readers' advisory sources and a well-structured publishing field, all of which use a more or less common vocabulary for discussing sf and sf story types.

The bad news is that not all readers use the same terminology. Not only do they not all use the same terms as the critical and professional material, they don't all use the same terms as one another. Even worse, they use the same words to mean slightly different things. These variances occur in terms as apparently fundamental as science fiction and fantasy, where they describe different perceived relationships between the two genres in the extended family of fiction. Such relationship confusion is not confined to the readers. The conflation of fantasy as inherent in the term science fiction is widespread and even occurs in libraries. The exact relationship of the two genres is debatable, but for many readers they are distinct and different. Science fiction and fantasy are both fantastic, speculative genres, but the speculation in sci-fi is based on science and technology. In most fantasy, the speculation is based on myth, magic, and the supernatural.

It is fundamentally important to determine what the reader means when they say they are looking for "sf"—the common acronym for science fiction and speculative fiction. They may mean to refer to only rocket ships, they may mean worlds with both rockets ships and dragons, they may mean dragons only are okay. But it is necessary to find out what they mean, because it is not helpful to steer them to a world with dragons when they only want one without.

The research suggests readers become adept at reconciling personal terminology systems and the systems used by the individuals and institutions that are their sources. Readers' advisors can help these readers fit our systems to theirs by being consistent and reliable in our terminology—in conversation and in categorizing, promoting, and describing books. If your library shelves all fantasy with sci-fi and places the same little rocket ship on the spine of Lord of the Rings that it does on the spine of Dune, then make that clear. You will do a great service to your readers of sci-fi if you let them know up front that "here be Rocket Ships" also means "here may be Dragons." Your fantasy readers will also benefit. Other options are separate shelving areas or different icons, although the extent of crossover between the genres may create new issues. In any case, be explicit and consistent in implementing and communicating the structure your library uses.

Readers continue to choose sf for two simple reasons: satisfaction and strategy.

Readers will keep seeking and selecting sf because it satisfies their reading goals. According to the study, the three strongest goals, or "purposeful reasons," for reading sci-fi are the exploration of ideas, the affirmation of worldview, and escape. Purposeful reasons rely on the book's content and the reading experience for the appeal of sci-fi. A reader who wants to explore new ideas will not be satisfied by a book focused on adventure, for example. Find out why the reader wants to read sf. This information is a hook on which you can hang your knowledge of genre, author, and story characteristics to help the reader choose a book.

The strategic, or functional, reasons for reading sf have little to do with the book's content or the reading experience. According to the study, four strategic reasons for reading sci-fi are habit, using category as a filter to make the selection task a manageable size, influence of the reader's social network, and domain knowledge. Domain knowledge includes information and techniques used both in reading the genre (such as expected plot devices) and in making selection decisions (such as reliable reviewers). Domain knowledge comes into play in all genres, but in sf, which specializes in difference and takes place in an unreal world, it seems to play a much greater role.

Functional reasons for continuing to read sf offer opportunities for the readers' advisory process, but they may also create roadblocks. For example, the habitual use of a library or patterns of searching in a library allows librarians to create programs and promotions that take advantage of those habits. However, a user who habitually looks only in the area set aside for work categorized as science fiction can miss similar works housed elsewhere in the collection. The readers' advisor can help the reader by sharing information about the greater collection either directly or through such tools as finding aids, reading lists, and displays. Examine the functional reasons your patrons continue to read sci-fi in the context of your library for both opportunities and roadblocks for readers' advisory.

Satisfied readers will keep choosing sf, and a solid strategy may keep a reader turning to the genre even when it is no longer satisfying. The main reason people abandon sf is saturation owing to increased reading experience.

More than any other genre, sci-fi delicately balances between being familiar and being new. Too much "new" is inaccessible. Too much "familiar" fails to provide the desired reading experience. The balancing point is unique for each reader and likely changes over time.

Highly experienced readers may become saturated with sci-fi or a particular sci-fi story type. Once saturated, readers find a story type predictable or no longer experience a sense of "difference." A saturated reader may abandon the story type for a while, or forever. Readers who are switching strategies for book selection within the genre are in a similar position to an emerging reader of sf: they need to learn new strategies for selecting books, to expand their domain knowledge. They may need to rely more on external sources for recommendation, or find new sources. This is a readers' advisory opportunity.

Sometimes an experienced reader will abandon a particular source for sf rather than the genre. When it appears that a source (such as a library) can no longer support readers at their level of experience, they turn elsewhere. Often, abandonment of a source is based on appearance, not on a considered assessment of available options. If experienced sf readers think that your library does not support their reading needs, they will abandon the library. Worse, they may tell other readers that it offers no value.

Readers might outgrow a genre or a library, but sometimes they have merely outgrown a branch and need to know about the books available to them through the system. They may have outgrown the special shelving section in which some sf has been broken out for convenience and need to learn how to plunge into the greater stacks, and through interlibrary loan, to find what else the library might have in their favored genre.

In her book The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (American Library Assn.), Saricks offers a simple guide to help the uninitiated understand and recommend sci-fi. In this thematic breakdown, the genre has two major streams: the philosophical focus, largely concerned with ideas and issues; and the storyteller focus, largely concerned with action and adventure. This duality seems to be key to the genre's basic appeal.

Sci-fi has a great deal of flexibility, allowing readers to indulge in varying reading experiences at different times. A key facet of sf for many of the readers in the study was a characteristic that could be called either scope or possibility. Almost anything is possible in science fiction, and in reading sf over time it is possible to suit changing needs. Science fiction includes a broad range of story types, worldviews, ideologies, degrees of complexity, and degrees of challenge. The material ranges from highly formula serial fiction to rigorous scientific speculation to strongly stylistic border works. Hybrids like sf mysteries allow readers to test other genres while staying in the boundaries of the familiar.

To help a reader select sf, it is important to find out what the particular sf reader is looking for at the time. The reader may have goals that change from time to time, yet will still look for and be satisfied by science fiction.