The Readers' Advisory Guide to Street Literature

Street lit, also known as urban fiction, addresses with unflinching grit the concerns and problems of city living and survival in the United States. As a leisure reading genre, street lit encompasses some of the most in-demand titles in American public libraries’ collections. In this new, thoroughly revised edition of her popular guide, Irvin’s coverage of street lit is fortified by professional narratives from her experiences as a public librarian in Philadelphia, an updated treatment of canonical and contemporary book titles, and scholarly references that reflect her research background in library and information science. Attuned to the needs of novices and devotees alike, Irvin

• sketches out the rich history of the urban fiction, showing why it appeals so strongly to readers and providing a quick way for street lit novices to get up to speed on understanding the genre;
• demonstrates why promoting street lit means promoting literacy;
• explores how authors, readers, and librarians read and respond to the genre and one another;
• covers a variety of subgenres in terms of scope, popularity, style, major authors, and works;
• shares approaches to readers’ advisory (RA) founded on creating trust between the patron and the librarian; and
• offers pointers on collection development and library programming.