Reading a Book Through Its Cover: The Importance of Preserving Visual and Tactile Information in Children’s and Young Adult Literature in the Academic Library

Abstract Children’s and Young Adult books are an anomaly in many academic libraries and their presence is often overlooked or ignored. In particular, the dust jackets and other paratextual elements are often considered to be ephemeral and not worth preserving for the long term. However, a growing body of research based in the work of Gerard Genette’s theories about paratext show that these elements are vitally important in literacy development to the readers of these books. This paper points to the importance of retaining and preserving all parts of the paratext, in particular the dust jackets and book covers, and advocates for changes in many current library policies that would encourage the preservation of paratext in these books.