Genre-fying our Library

Last summer I took the plunge I had been contemplating for years and I genre-fied the fiction section of our library.

I weighed the pros and cons:

Pros

• Easier browsing
• More student-centered
• More student independence
• "New" books of interest are developed

Cons

• Why ditch Dewey?  This has worked for many years.  Why reinvent the wheel?
• The system is well-established.  Shouldn't I be helping my students use a system that they will find in other libraries?

What ultimately pushed me to do this was the impact that I envisioned this would have on students. Students would be able to browse independently and discover more books in the genres they were interested in.  No longer would they need to wait for me to travel with them through the fiction shelves and pull handfuls of books off the shelf that were "funny" or "scary."  Our collection would be browse-able and student-friendly. 

The inspiration

I had done some relocating and re-categorizing projects that were hugely successful and they served as an inspiration to moving this project forward:

Fairy tales

Students were confused about the location of fairy tales.  Why were they in non-fiction when they were a "story"?  Circulation stats confirmed that no one was reading these.  It was time for a change.

"But these stories don't go here, Mrs. Garland!"

First I weeded approximately half of the unread collection and made it a much more manage-able (and current) collection.  I ran reports of books that had not been circulated in 10 years and had volunteers pull these off the shelves.  I examined these and made the ultimate decision whether or not to keep or pass on these.

Next I labeled these books, but didn't have a budget to do so.  I created labels and printed them on FREE colored printer paper.  Voila.  Labels.  I left the Dewey number there just in case I had a change of heart...

Finally I moved them in with the picture books and early readers who I anticipated were their audience and watched them (finally) circulate.  Success!

Early Readers

I followed suit with my early readers which sat on shelves and didn't circulate.  Many were paperbacks and very skinny.  Students couldn't see what we had so I categorized them (VERY difficult) and put them in colorful bins.  This flipped them around and made them very browse-able.  Circulation took off!

The Fiction Section

Last June as I collected books from students I decided to make my big move.  I had books, volunteers, and time ahead of me.  It was time to dive in.

First I categorized the books.  I identified subjects that my students ask for:

• Adventure
• Animals
• Fantasy
• Historical fiction
• Humor
• Mystery
• Poetry
• Realistic Fiction
• Scary/Unexplained
• Science Fiction
• Sports

Once we could see just how many of each category we had, we moved the genres around so that they would fit.  Next it was time to label.

Now it was time to change the catalog.  I wanted to be able to find books in their proper genre but I also wanted to be able to run reports on various sub groups so I added the genre after the "F" for fiction:

This was happening during the summer when I opened the library for summer checkout, but I knew I would run out of time, so I had my helpers (my children) scan the barcodes into a document that I could take home and change from home.

Challenges

The most difficult part of this project was deciding where a book goes.  Books can fit in multiple genres so I made my best guess and put it there.  When students ask me why certain books are where they are, I ask them if they feel it would fit better elsewhere and I make the change.  I figure this is a dynamic collection - if it fits better somewhere else, we move it.  

I didn't know what to do with books in similar formats like Guys Read and Brian Selznick's novels.  Do they belong together?  They are "series-like."  If a reader likes one, they may like another.  (They ultimately all landed in "Adventure.")  However, in the case of Guys Read, they all fit in different genres and I separated them by genre.  Was this the right decision?  Who knows, but I am certainly willing to move them again when the time is right.

Another challenge I had was "helpful" volunteers that offered to come in when I was not there to handle the data entry.  I ended up with multiple genres that were labeled incorrectly.  I am still undoing this but in the grand scheme of things, it was a small price to pay for the help I received.

The Response

Pictures tell the story best:

The "Humor" section on the first day of school 

What was left of the "Humor" section days later

Success!

The Stats

• 25.44% increase in circulation
• 44 hours total
• 2 volunteers (+ me)
• 2 children (my own children helped)

Reflection

I would do this again in a heartbeat, but getting it done during June as books were coming back and over the summer was vital.   It would have been significantly harder for me to do this during the year.  The payoff was SO worth it.  Students are finding books to read.  This has also helped me to see which genres are circulating and which ones aren't.  I plan on playing with location next and incorporating a row of series books into the mix.