by Sonja Schulz, librarian at Nacogdoches High School, TxASLTalks Editorial Board
When I moved up from my middle school library to become the high school librarian I knew that one of my first priorities was to genrefy the fiction collection. Having already been through it once at the middle school level, I felt like it would be easier the second time around, and while it took a while to get it all done, I was way more at ease with the process the second time around.
When I moved up from my middle school library to become the high school librarian I knew that one of my first priorities was to genrefy the fiction collection. Having already been through it once at the middle school level, I felt like it would be easier the second time around, and while it took a while to get it all done, I was way more at ease with the process the second time around.
Many libraries now genrefy their Fiction
sections, and it is easy for folks who are information specialists to find a ton
of helping how-to’s out there on the interwebs if you are considering going
through it.
Two of my biggest tips to offer you:
- Like most things in life, there isn’t one right way to
do this. It really is all a matter of preference. So seek input, and
do your research, but ultimately go with whatever works best for your kids
and your space and you’ll be fine.
- My mama always says things are gonna take more time and
money than you expect. This is a universal truth so pace yourself
and remember to breathe through the process.
With our fiction collection now fully genrefied,
I am excited to share the newest shelving shift I’ve been working on to help my
students and teachers be able to more easily find what they need.
Y’all, I am unDewying my Poetry section.
Rather than housing some in 811, some in 821,
and some in decimals points at various spaces in-between, I have pulled ALL our
poetry (other than the novels-in-verse, which live in their specific Fiction
genre section) and have created one all-encompassing Poetry section.
Three sections of shelves have been cleared off,
with intentional space left for display and white space. Spine labels have been
reworked, with each book now being marked as Poetry and then either the first
three letters of either the poet or editor’s last name, along with a
transparent blue label protector over each spine label to easily mark which
books are our poetry books. Next up is creating the new signage---so by the end
of this week, this new poetry section should be fully up and running!
Teens and adults alike have responded favorably
so far. In fact, the comments have been so overwhelmingly positive that I
honestly can’t believe I never thought about doing this before now. The teens
who love poetry are happier, the teens who are sent by a teacher to find a book
of poems are happier, and my student aides who shelve the books are happier.
Since my job as an information specialist is to assist folks in getting
their information needs met, this teacher-librarian is happier, too.
