University Libraries
Curating Passion
By Christina Beis
“Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe is a must-have for any college student’s bookshelf. Its exploration of identity, friendship and love speaks to the heart of the young adult experience, making it a valuable addition to any collection, especially for its celebration of diversity.”
Since 2023, over 100 students in English lecturer Amy Krug’s writing seminar have curated Roesch Library’s Popular Romance collection. The course theme, “Beyond Bodice Rippers: Popular Romance and Its Function in Communities,” looks at this genre of novels that make up the largest market share of genre fiction with sales of $1.44 billion in 2022.
While students learn how popular romance is situated within the world and different communities, the University of Dayton Libraries partner with Krug to enhance the students’ learning, applying it to real-life applications. Through library instruction, students investigate how libraries decide what materials to purchase and how books are acquired. The students research popular romance titles by reading book reviews to collaboratively build a cohesive collection. They learn how popular romance can represent diverse experiences and cultivate conversation and understanding about nonwhite, noncisgender, disabled and nontraditional body-shaped heroes and heroines.
After instruction and support for selecting titles, the Libraries’ Collections Strategies and Services department places orders for the books, adds them to the library catalog, applies a student-designed bookplate and shelves them in Roesch Library’s leisure reading area on the first floor, ready for borrowing. Student-written descriptions of the books are available for browsing on eCommons, a service of the University Libraries.
A Love-ly Legacy
A University experiential learning grant and the Libraries’ main collection endowment made this collection and experience possible. The hands-on learning is mutually beneficial: Students gain new knowledge; they use that knowledge to help fill a gap in the library’s collection; and the titles become available for borrowing and reading by the University of Dayton community.
Popular in More Than One Way
The Popular Romance Collection by the numbers:
- 105 students
- 113 books
- 246 checkouts since January 2024
Next Level
To take your relationship with the Popular Romance Collection to the next level:
- See the titles on eCommons and read why the students selected them.
- Support this program with a gift to the Roesch Library Collections Endowment.
- Visit the collection in the first-floor lobby of Roesch Library.
— Christina Beis is an associate professor and the director of collections strategies and services. Photography by Surya Deip Reddy Kesaram ’25.
