Always something new

It's disappointing to see the N.Y. Times referring to "prim librarians" on the front page of their online edition, especially when the article is about street lit, one of the newer forms of publishing now being bought by libraries. These urban stories, many of them set in New York City, tell stories of drug dealing, poverty, and crime and the characters are mostly African Americans. This is not children's literature by any means, but many teenagers are attracted to it despite the disapproval of adults who deplore the rough language and behavior--or perhaps because of adult disapproval. Whether a librarian decides to buy fiction in this genre is a decision for each institution to make, but we owe it to our patrons to know what it is about and to seriously consider whether the books should be included in our collections.