Nonfiction Collections vs Online Information

[Sandy Rowland]

I have a space problem in my library. My fiction shelves are full and I have no room to add more shelves. I have weeded and weeded and the remaining titles are getting lots of use. I am wondering about limiting the number of nonficiton books I purchase in order to expand my fiction collection. My other solution is to begin using e-books, but they are expensive and so much online information is free, or in the databases available for our students to use.

Anyone have thoughts on this issue?

[Deborah Dwyer]

I have a similar problem, only my nonfiction is rarely used. I really feel that any topic that is expanding and changing is already outdated by the time a book is put into print. The Britney Spears biography in my library is from before her marriage and well.... um.... all that other stuff that happened to her. But students can use any number of free online sources (and a few my district pays for) and find everything about her up to almost the minute. How many of your space books still list Pluto as a planet? All of mine do. I don't have the budget to weed them or replace them. If I remove all of the books that list Pluto as a planet, nothing would be in that section and where would they find space information?
My solution has been that only nonfiction topics that are really popular, necessary for the curriculum, will definitely be assigned by a teacher or is unique in some way will be purchased. I am also going to be really hard core in my weeding of the nonfiction. If it's not useful, not needed, not used or falling apart, it's gone. The public library has a great selection of nonfiction, and by sending the students there we will be supporting the community!
I also heavily weeded my fiction based on circulation numbers. The students all thought that I had bought new books, because all the old ones weren’t blocking them and getting in the way.

[Sandy Rowland]

Deborah, I agree with all your reasons not to purchase new nonfiction titles, although many of my students, particularly boys, prefer to read nonfiction. So I continue to be very, very selective about what I spend my money on.

What about e-books, have you tried them?

[Tom Nixon]

One thought is to add rolling shelves. I would hate to see you limit your nonfiction purchases due to lack of space and that might be one way to fix the problem. The nice thing about rolling carts is that you can move them around your library for different sorts of events.

[Sandy Rowland]

Yes, I use rolling carts for my fiction books. Their versatility is great. I am in a middle school that was originally an elementary site. The library is just plain too small for our population. I have 16,500 books (22 per student) and like Debra, who commented earlier, I have done major weeding.

I still plan to purchase some nonfiction, of course, but I did get my first order of e-books. I bought 75 titles that mostly support the science and social studies curriculum. I'm very disappointed in the way the Follett software handles the e-books. I cannot tell if a book has been read unless the student downloads it to his/her computer. And only one student at a time can view a book. If someone downloads the title, it ties up the book for 48 hours, even if they "return" it after just 30 minutes. I stopped at the Gale booth at CSLA and am going to try 75 more titles from them. Their books are available to as many as want at the same time.

So, without actual statistics, I cannot say how popular the e-books are. But I do have students looking at them from inside the library and reporting that they found them again from home. I chose short nonfiction at a variety of reading levels for my first order. Some are nonfiction graphic novels about scientific and historic topics. I'm not sure what I will order from Gale yet.

Have you tried e-books yet?

[Tom Nixon]

I haven't tried e-books yet. I am still in the process of teaching students to think about going to the computer to find books. :) This is my first year in the library at this school, so the learning curve is severe.

I do look forward to seeing how your adventure with e-books works out!

[Sandy Rowland]

Thanks, Tom. Welcome to the library world. Were you a classroom teacher prior to becoming a teacher librarian? Is your library very busy? Is your school large or small?

I'll let you know how the b-books go as I add my second order. I also purchased Playaways for the first time this year. They are extremely popular and I am looking for money to buy more. Do you have any?

[Tom Nixon]

I have been a classroom teacher, at various levels, since 1992. The library seems busy, but circulation is not what it could/should be. There are a number of reasons for this including staffing issues over the last several years where we have had 4 LMTs in the last five years and no one for most of last year.

We have about 735 students and are presently a shrinking school. We are located in inner-city Fresno so we have all those challenges as well. We feed in from six different elementary schools and feed out to at least five different high schools.

I also purchased Playaways this year and have been pleased with the results. I have discovered the more I talk them up in classrooms, the more they get checked out. I have about a dozen with a few more on the way.

I am now in the process of really investing in my reference section (with encyclopedias from Marshall Cavendish that include a digital version) and in a new graphic novels section.

Always busy in this job.

[Leah Allison]

I have space issues in my library as well. Our school has only been open for about five years and I still have room on my shelves for growth; however, I am very aware of how quickly that space is disappearing. To make it last, I decided my first year as Library Director to put about 1/4 of my book budget into electronic books. We have several reference sets we purchased that year from Gale and everyone truly likes them. I also purchased e-Audiobooks from NetLibrary, and I have been working to promote those YA / Children's titles to our students and faculty. I also have e-Books from NetLibrary that our upper school students and our faculty like to use-especially the non-fiction. They like the non-fiction because they can dash in, conduct a quick search, and come away with a few pages or chapters (from a "print" source) on their research topic. The only thing you have to remember is to train you constituents that a title found on the catalog might be physically on the library's shelves OR it may be located in cyberspace. It's all a matter of training.