Big Changes for our GES Learning Commons
Our library is undergoing some SIGNIFICANT changes! As I work on moving books around, I'm reminded how the "norm" for libraries is to have no "norm" at all! While we haven't completely ditched Dewey, we have genre-fied our chapter book section. What a great time to be a librarian, and an even better time to be a student at GES!
Historically, libraries were set up in a Dewey Decimal system. The appeal of the system is that it remains constant from one library to another. For instance, if you were looking for any sports books, you would find them in ANY library under in the following areas:
790- Nonfiction (Informational) Books about Sports.
92 or B- Biographies of famous sports people
Fic- Fiction Novels about sports stories
In our library, I want our students to walk in and find all of these books in one spot, with fiction and nonfiction paired together. My hope it to create a more concentrated area for our kids to find their books, which in turn, will increase their reading habits.
This is a work in progress. So far, in the last year, we have divided our library into the following chapter book sections:
Adventure
Fantasy
Realistic Fiction
Mystery
Sports
Historical Fiction
Scary
Science Fiction
Humor
Poetry
Fairy Tales/ Folk Tales
Benefits
Increased circulation- Our circulation stats increased significantly. This genrefication has increased our library circulation by about 1,000 books each month.
Readers Advisory- Kids figure out what genre they like, and read within it. When they become bored with one genre, we can easily direct them to a new one. For instance, when a child is a Realistic Fiction reader, there is a good chance they may enjoy Historical Fiction or Humor books, too! Genrefication allows us to easily steer kids in the right direction with books!
New life for books- When books are in the dewey decimal system, they are sometimes lost. For instance, our Greek Mythology books are shelved in the 200 section of non-fiction, and are often overlooked. However, when I moved them into the Fantasy section, they became popular again!
Shelving- Shelving is quick and simple with genre stickers. Books are shelved in alphabetical order within each genre, and it's super easy to see when a book is out of place!
What's Next?
Our next move will be to pair non-fiction, biographies, and fiction chapter books on the shelves. This is a big process, but I can't wait to see what it does for our students!
Keep reading!
~Mrs. Wahpekeche
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