Monday, May 7, 2012

Genre shifting the library

About two months ago, (Feb, 2012) we decided to make the entire library genre based.  We began by labeling all of our books with 40 different genre stickers.  We scanned each book, found its genre and created a sublocation for each.  We also scanned the subject headings and started a category search with our catalog.   Friday April 27, we started moving the books.




We also made a bulletin board showing the kids the change.   Each section has a poster identifying the genre and labeling some of the words that describe it.




 


We also have two cases of old yearbooks that never sold and we are wrapping those with colored paper and contact paper and attaching the labels to the spine to make markers.  The kids will have so much luck finding things.  We are certain there will be success. We are also hoping some of our kids see books in different genre and attempt to read them.  Maybe we can open them up to a new type of category to like!


About two weeks ago, we completed the general fiction section, ended up weeding a slew of books that were falling apart or outdated and started working on the biography section.  We decided to include biographies in this structure becaus so many of our assigned research papers are based on people and we wanted to make the entire process easier for our kids.  We wanted them to be able to go to a section, grab their books and go.

As of this moment, the students have caught on that the books have stickers on them.  When someone comes in asking for a genre, I tell them the sticker to look for and they walk the stacks.  Soon, they will be able to look in one area for a title.

We are placing the genre signs at the end of each shelving area.  We hope it helps the kids identify books that have the labels.