Went to my local library (just moved here) and there were a couple of fiction books in the nonfiction section. They weren't misplaced, either (the numbering was correct).
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It’s mainly because most libraries want to shelve books by, say, Edgar Allen Poe near books analyzing his literary themes and techniques. So both usually get shelved together in the (in Dewey Decimal) 800s or the (Library of Congress) PR or PS section, rather than split up in Fiction and Non-Fiction
As a kid I thought fiction = made-up and non-fiction = reality, but that’s way too simplistic a frame considering poetry, opinion, religious texts, musical scores, joke books, etc are all subsets of non-fiction that few readers would want mixed in with novels.
I suppose I was thinking in more of a bookstore mindset; in a macro frame I see how a lot those you mentioned could rightfully fall into a broader nonfiction category, I just found it odd that, for instance, Poe—clearly fiction—was there, not as a critical analysis of Poe but his actual literature.
Some people don’t follow instructions and put books back on the shelf themselves. Might not be the librarians doing. I suggest pulling those books off the shelf and see where they’re returned.
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