Fiction Arranged by Genre

[Melinda Pennington]

I am considering re-arranging our fiction collection by genre.  I am in a middle school with an overly large fiction collection.  I am not crazy about overusing labels, since our books already have color labels for AR (not used as much anymore).  Any suggestions? Pros and Cons?  Several of my colleagues attended a conference session on the topic and thought it sounded like a good idea.  My previous experience in public libraries has shown me that it can be helpful but it also extremely time consuming.  All responses-pro and con welcome.

[Melinda Pennington]

Thanks, Sarah.  Our kids definitely have preferred genres they like and it would help them find those authors a little easier.  I don't want them to forget about using the OPAC, but I think they use it more for topic searches than genre anyway.

[Kim Anderson]

At the end of last year I was starting to panic as I realized our collection had outgrown its space over the course of the year.  As luck would have it, the library was able to reclaim an adjoining room (we moved the teacher work space into the staff lounge) and create an instructional lab (with SMART Board) and more book space for special collections.   I examined circulation statistics and chose four genres that circulated heavily:  mystery, horror, graphic novels, and sports.  These books were separated out from the traditional collection, given genre stickers, and re-shelved (this time by genre) in the new library space.  The kids love being able to go right to their favorite genre.  I immediately noticed a sharp spike in horror circulation (since they could now easily find all of the vampire books their hears desired).  

 

It wasn't as time consuming as I thought.  I enjoyed going through each title in the collection which helped me to become more familiar with all of our titles and it served as a perfect time to weed.

 

--Kim

[Melinda Pennington]

Thanks, Kim.  The thought about perfect time to weed was also in my mind.  I was thinking the genre idea might jump start some ideas for the teachers as they teach different genres and also uncover some jewels once the kids know what genre they are.

[bj neary]

Melinda, in our HS library we have fiction arranged by genres.  Each book has a label at the bottom of the spine under the call #

and we have sections for

Realistic Fiction,

Graphic Novels

Multicultural Fiction

Historical Fiction

Mysteries

Horror

Fantasy

Science Fiction

and

Reading Olympics

but we still have one section for just Fiction (books that has never received a genre label, including classics and multiple copies).

It is working out and we have done this for the last four years.  When we receive our book order, I sit down and go through each fiction book to determine genre sticker and also for cataloging----sublocation see below...

But we do put the location of the book in the library catalog under sublocation for our aides and clerks so they know where to steer the students.

Any questions, please let me know.