We are a week into having students back for a new school year, and so far it’s been a rough one. Issues with a new campus wifi network (which in turn is affecting the only printer students can access – the one here in the library), an afternoon without power, and a personal case of covid have me feeling like I’m behind already. So there’s my excuse of why my homework… I mean this blog post, is late. And also my excuse as to why I’m following Diana’s example and sharing some of my goals for this year.

I need to weed

And weed. And weed and weed and weed and weed. I did a truly massive weeding campaign as part of the move to a new library space in 2020, and since then I haven’t really weeded at all. The shelves are getting quite full, and even with things checked out, I’m running out of room for everything. Plus, if I do indeed try out dynamic shelving (see below), I need more space.

I want more signage, especially in nonfiction

My genre signs are several years old, and while I loved them when I created them, I think I can do better now. I also want to really beef up my nonfiction signage. I tried adding the little magnetic labels that sit on each shelf last year, but I ran out of labels and they’re moving around a bit too much for my liking. So I’m thinking I want something that sits at the front of each shelf with the books, or even in between books if the topic changes mid-shelf, but doesn’t distract too much from the books themselves.

I want to try dynamic shelving

My students don’t search the catalog – they browse. And I’m not sure my current setup is particularly conducive to browsing. so, I want to try dynamic shelving. Dynamic shelving was created by Kelsey Bogan of the blog Don’t Shush Me.She argues that traditional spines-out shelving, what she calls static shelving, is good for the library worker, but not necessarily the library user. Dynamic shelving puts the library user first by making more books front-facing and adding visual interest with chunking, stacking, and other display methods, like how bookstores organize their shelves. Some of her suggestions were things I’ve already been doing, like organizing by genre and adding my own series numbers on book spines. But it’s the front-facing of more titles and visually interesting display techniques that I’m most interested in. I know it will work on my fiction shelves because they’re tall and around the walls like all of the example pictures I’ve seen. But my nonfiction is on short shelves in the middle of the room, and I’m wondering how this will work when the books aren’t at eye level. If you’ve tried out dynamic shelving in your library, I’d love to know how it worked and what tips you have for me!

So those are my not-very fleshed out, still in the early stages goals. If the printer ever starts working, maybe I’ll actually get to focus on them. What are your goals for the year? And if you’ve successfully done any of the above in recent years, I’d love to hear your experiences and tips – I’ll take all the virtual help I can get!