At the beginning of this school year, I looked back at my circulation statistics and was disappointed to say the least. I also began thinking about the search and discovery process of my students. What could I do to get kids to check out more books and get them more excited about reading? I had been investigating a movement in the school library world called genrefication (not really a word…yet), or the organizing and shelving of books according to genre. I thought that perhaps this could be a viable solution.

I approached my division head and he gave me the green light for the project. He was also pleased to learn that it wouldn’t cost much money. I also began soliciting parent volunteers for the process. I do not have an assistant in my library, and I knew I could not tackle this large project on my own.

My first step was to do a comprehensive inventory using Destiny. There were no records of any previous inventories done before I began working at Holy Trinity, and I knew that there were some discrepancies between the catalog records and the books on the shelves. Long story short, after the inventory was completed, Destiny identified a total of 2,200 items – yes, you read that correctly – that were unaccounted for. In my library, that was roughly one quarter of our collection! That will not happen again on my watch. 🙂

After the inventory, I thought about what genres I would use. I reviewed the spine labels available at Demco, and I also found some great descriptions of genres from other library web sites. I wanted to be clear about the genres but also not get too specific.

Now would be a good time to mention that I am not in favor of ditching Dewey. In fact, I am only genrefying (another made-up word) the fiction section. I believe that Dewey is still relevant and that it makes sense once students learn the basics of it. For fiction, though, kids’ browsing habits seemed to mirror genre types: “Where are the funny books?” “I’m looking for a good mystery.”

I decided on the following initial list of fiction genres:

Adventure

Animal Stories

Classics

Fantasy

Historical

Horror

Humor

Mystery

Realistic

Romance

Science Fiction

Sports

I also have a graphic novel area, which had already been its own section when I started working here. While not a genre per se, graphic novels are extremely popular and kids browse this section frequently. I’ve also added a small graphic nonfiction section, since this seems to be a popular and growing segment of the book market.

I knew that I wanted to use genre labels as opposed to the colored dots. To me, colored dots just complicate things in that students (and I) have to figure out what each colored dot means, instead of just seeing that a book is a mystery because that’s what the label says.

I collected lots of cardboard boxes and made temporary signs for each box. The volunteers began taking books off the shelves, starting with the letter A, and looking up the genre. I had them use Novelist K-8 Plus, which I am able to access through my public library. I like the genre categories provided in this database. After genre was determined, the book would go into the corresponding box. When students come in and see all the boxes, I get many reactions and questions. “Are you getting rid of all these books?” “Is the library closing?” It was a great opportunity to describe to my students what was going on, and to encourage them to look through the boxes and continue to check out books!

In the midst of genrefication

As the books were coming off the shelves, I began thinking about how to utilize the space. I decided that the genres would be alphabetical (adventure goes first, etc.), and that that was how I was going to put them back. So I grabbed the box of adventure books and started going through them one by one to add to the catalog records.

I created a list of sub-locations based on the genres. I went in to each record, changed the sub-location, and also removed any extraneous metadata leftover from days gone by. For example, I deleted notes that were inaccurate, and sub-locations that simply didn’t exist. I also corrected other inaccuracies (e.g. Junior Library Guild is not a funding source).

Screenshot of changing the sub-location in Destiny

Genrefication is also a great opportunity to weed. Since I was putting my hands on every single fiction book in the collection, I was able to make good weeding decisions based on the good-old MUSTIE acronym. I found several books that were from the 1970s, as well as books that had absolutely no circulation history.

As of this blog post, I have gotten about 75% of the books back on the shelves. I have temporary signs for each section, and I’m hoping to get help from our art department to make some permanent (and cost-effective) signage. I made a couple of changes along the way, as described below.

Here are some of my tips for the brave souls out there who decide to genrefy:

1. Remember that the decisions you make are not written in stone. You can always change a label if you decide to move a book to a different section.
2. Do not spend too much time (or let your volunteers spend too much time) deciding on any one book! You will drive yourself crazy if you do.
3. Leave yourself plenty of room as you put books back on the shelves. This way, when you go to begin a new section, you do not have to move books over and over again.
4. As soon as you change the location of a book in Destiny (or whatever automation you use), label it. This way you don’t forget where you left off.
5. Allow yourself the freedom to make changes to your system as you go. After seeing the way my collection is balanced, I decided to do away with the romance category. I didn’t have that many romance books (which is fine by me!), so I will be splitting them among the other genres as appropriate. Animal stories ended up being too specific, so I eliminated that category as well.
6. When making decisions about where the books should go, think about what might get the book the most circulation. You will undoubtedly find many books that could be assigned to many genres, but ultimately, what’s important is that the book gets borrowed and read.
7. Genrefication isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. It needs to be reflective of the search and discovery habits of your students, as well as the physical space that is available to you.
8. Forget about having nicely manicured nails during the process. I’ve had to peel, pick, and trim so many spine labels, that it’s just not worth it. Reward yourself with a spa visit when you’re done.
9. Breathe. A lot.
10. Share your experience with others.

Books re-shelved according to genre

Have you genrefied or are you considering it? If so, share your thoughts!