Organizing by Genres

Okay, I must like making more work for myself.

I had been thinking about rearranging the fiction section of the middle school area at Plantation Key School for the last couple of years. Now that I'm at the high school, I have liked the idea even more. Most students come in and ask for a book "just like this one". I have noticed that, like many adults, teenagers prefer to read one genre. Bookstores already know this, and they shelve their wares by genre with sections for mystery, romance, fiction and literature, history, graphic novels, art, health etc.

Coral Shores has an interesting layout of shelving. Due to study rooms and windows, the shelving is broken into many different sections, with fiction along three outside walls and the non-fiction stacks in the middle of the room. With fiction books being so spread out along the far walls, it is sometimes difficult to find the books. (Of course, more signage would help, I'm going to look into signs that hang from the ceiling as there is little wall space).

The moment that really got me thinking about this was at the FAME conference. While attending the Teens Can Read workshop, one of the presenters discussed how she had rearranged her Media Center and circulation doubled. Although worried about information literacy and teaching students who to find books, I realized that students would still be practicing these skills in order to find the location of the books. The teachers questioned thought rearranging the library would be a good idea, as did most of the students.

Now, I need to decide what genre to place each book in, order labels and apply, change the books in the computer, and rearrange the books. That should keep us busy here in the library for quite a while. Oh well, I like to be busy!