Anatomy of a Pathfinder: Westerns
Whew! Is anyone else super busy these days? (raises both hands). I caught a few moments to spare today and wanted to dive into a topic I’ve been wanting to write about since I started this blog over the summer. Creating a genre pathfinder!
Full disclosure: I have a background in graphic design, so I am partial to any project that requires me to use the design part of my brain. Luckily, libraries always need something communicated visually, whether for programming, social media promotion, or even for sharing information with fellow librarians.
This project falls into the latter camp. Genre pathfinders are a great way to teach library professionals about the basics of any literary genre. Key elements of a genre pathfinder can include:
Definition/description of the genre
Brief historical development
Current major and classical authors
Representative “Top 5” works
Own voices authors
Characterization of genre readers
Appeal factors
Sub-genres
Genre Trends
Major Awards
Keywords, search terms, and subject headings
Programming ideas
Genre-related websites and blogs
“How am I going to find all of that information?” Research!
“How am I going to represent all of that information in a user-friendly way?” Design!
In creating a pathfinder to provide an overview of the Western, I learned a lot about what makes the genre tick, and how to represent that information visually. Click on the image below to thumb through the pathfinder:
The experience of creating this pathfinder was challenging and educational in many ways. I certainly now know more about Westerns than I did before embarking on this project. Best of all - now I have a template for creating a pathfinder for any other genre.
Here are some tips when creating your own pathfinder:
Use only high-resolution (non-blurry, non-pixelated) photos
Stick to one or two fonts at the max!
Choose your colors (background and text) wisely to ensure readability
Make your document friendly for print and online viewing
Spell check, spell check, spell check!
Have fun with it! Keep creating until you and your team are satisfied, then continue to keep it updated with new titles and information.
Library staff can work together as a team to create pathfinders for themselves and their colleagues, to share information that will help make adult library services like reader’s advisory that much easier. Pathfinders can be printed and assembled together, and put in a handy reference desk drawer. They can also be saved as PDFs or made into HTML websites for desktop or mobile access. The possibilities are endless!
If you haven’t done so already, I highly recommend giving the free online graphic design software Canva a try. I have found their templates, graphics, fonts, and editing capabilities to be a user-friendly way to create professional-looking visual communications.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more design features, including designing library flyers and creating graphics for social media.
