Easy Like Sunday Morning: The Work Begins

The Work Begins

Back to school professional development is finally over and now the work begins.   Those of you who are school librarians understand that 99.9% of the staff meetings take place in the library.   So this means librarians have to wait until all of the meetings have concluded so they can get to work.

Genre vs. Dewey Collections

This library has not had a certified librarian in a number of years.   Overall the collection is in good shape but needs more books that reflect the interests and culture of my students. You know I'm ordering Corretta Scott King and Pura Belpre Award winning books along with popular leisure reading books to jumpstart my readers this year.   One thing that frustrated the sheer heck out of me was the fiction collection was organized by genre and not by the Dewey Decimal System.  I will share the same comments here that I recently made on my Instagram page.

The first thing I noticed about this topic is that school librarians are split almost 50/50 and have very strong views about it.   I read a really good article written by librarian Hilda K. Weisburg called the, 'The Dewey Debate,' where she eloquently presented both sides of this argument.  I read it and realized that I have partially organized  my collection in the past by genre.  For example, I have shelved all of the Street Literature, Graphic Novels and Anime/Manga books together and in their own bookcase.  I think that is ok, seriously....(please don't call me a hypocrite!)    In my opinion, when the entire collection, including the non-fiction section of the the library collection is organized by genre, it just does not benefit students in the long run.  There is no transfer of knowledge when they are promoted or transfer to a middle school or high school where the collection is organized by Dewey.   Can you image a student asking their school librarian where are the, 'Drama Books,' located?  Now this student must learn the Dewey Decimal system, 'on the fly,' in order to search for the book that they want.  I can already see that some of my students will be frustrated with this fast paced method.  

Another issue I have with collections all organized by genre is that many of the books fall under multiple genres.  I have yet to find some sort of reasonable guidance in selecting the 'dominant' genre to classify it under.  For example, Sharon Draper's pre-teen novel, 'Out of My Mind.' could be shelved under, 'Drama,' 'Realistic Fiction,' or 'Stories About Girls.'    Having a school library collection organized by Dewey means that YOU the librarian must educate and demonstrate to the students how the collection is organized.   School librarians should have a strong knowledge of the books within their collections and can help their students connect to the books they would like to read.  I'll be honest, now that I'm back working with a middle school population, I have to re-familiarize myself with the literature while learning what has been written for this age group in the last five years.   When it comes to finding 'read-alikes,' and I'm not that familiar with the book that my student is reading, I use TeachingBooks.net, Good Reads and Book Browse.   All have a 'related-booklist' or 'read-alike- database embedded in their websites.

TeachingBooks.net

GoodReads.com

BookBrowse.com

I've also heard that genre organized library collections can increase circulation because the books are found in the same geographic area of the library.  This may be so however I have a tool that I use that seemingly gets kids reading:  book displays.   Yes, they are timely and sometimes expensive but definitely worth it because now you can direct students to books written by the same author and introduce them to new ones.  But identifying and connecting kids to books is where I show my greatest value to the school community.  I'm the building expert on literature for my students, teachers and parents and I help guide readers to the books that interest them.   I want my students to have a love of reading instilled within them along with the tools to find books in the library in another library.

Tracking the Number of Books Read by Students

That's one heavy circulation desk!

After my very strong and able co-worker moved the circulation desk by herself while I was in a meeting, (much love for you!) I had to tackle another issue: writing on the back of the book.   For those librarians reading this, before you jump on your soapbox please calm down and let me explain.  This school has not had a librarian in several years.  The majority of the staff has not worked with a certified librarian, so in essence this is a clean slate and a librarian's dream come true to introduce a teacher to the skill base and work of a school librarian. 

In past years, the teachers were putting a short piece of painter's tape across the back of the book and writing the name of the child who checked out the book, the date and how many pages they have read each day.   This was done in the absence of a librarian who could have provided a simple print out of books from Follett Destiny Circulation System that were checked out by the student.   To track books read by the students either Beanstack.org or Biblionasium.com could be used.  This is going to be a challenge for some of the teachers because they are adopting a new norm (or one they decide to use independently) and saying goodbye to one that has been used for quite some time.  It has to be done or I will be receiving books from students that will look like the one below.  Properly taking care of library books is the expectation I have of my students.

Writing on books.....No Way!

I hope you are enjoying my adventures working in a new school library  I think you would agree, with every school, there are different challenges, victories and adventures.  Overall, it's all good because my love for libraries is infectious and I hope my students, the teachers I work with and parents will recognize this rather than the look of shock on my face when I see something I've never seen before.  Until next time!