Brooklyn PL Reclassifies Frey as Fiction

-- Library Journal, 2/1/2006

It's been a big topic for librarians on blogs and electronic mailing lists: should James Frey's dubious "memoir" A Million Little Pieces remain classified as nonfiction? Not to the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), which has reclassified the book as fiction. According to Dionne Mack-Harvin, BPL's Chief of Staff, "It is important that BPL classifies books in its collection in a way that reflects the community's expectations. When BPL learned of public and publishing industry concerns of the discrepancies in James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, we felt it necessary to react in a way that would assure Brooklyn's library users that the information they want and need is easily available and accessible within a clear and truthful classification system." Not that the book has actually been placed on the fiction shelves yet; all the copies are either out, in transit, or on the hold shelf.