Back in November, I did a week of school
visits at the Highland Park ISD elementary schools in Dallas, Texas. As I
perused their library collections, I spotted something I’d never seen before—a
Popular Nonfiction section. Wow—what a great idea!
It turns out
this exciting, heavily-used section was the brainchild of Amy Jent, the school
librarian at Bradfield Elementary. I asked Amy if she’d explain how and why she
developed this section in a blog post, and I’m so grateful that she agreed.
Thank you, Amy,
for sharing your ideas and experience with readers of Celebrate Science.
If you’re an elementary school librarian like me, you might be
familiar with requests like these:
Where is…a Minecraft book?…a Pokemon book?…the Extreme
Weather book series?…What if You Had Animal Teeth?…the book
where Fly Guy visits the White House?…a LEGO Ninjaga book?….
I want a book about…Mexico…Jaguar vs. Skunk……the
Houston Astros, no wait, the Dallas Cowboys…Gymnastics…Disney
World…Stonehenge…Roblox….Rubies….Navy Seals…Bigfoot….
The list goes on and on.
As a new elementary school librarian, I spent a frustrating amount
of time combing through the nonfiction section with children wanting a certain
book about one of the many popular topics they crave.
The problem wasn’t a lack of resources. Rather, it was the time it
took to look up a topic in the library database, write down the call number,
and then locate the book—which was often not in its correct place to begin
with. Sound familiar?
I also noticed that many popular nonfiction topics and series were
scattered throughout the library when organized by their call numbers. I knew
something needed to change, but I wasn’t sure what or how. Initially, I decided
to organize the sports books by sport and series, which was a very small step
that eventually led to much more, but first, here’s a little history….
At Bradfield Elementary, we have a brand-new library with a
seasoned collection that I weed and develop on an ongoing basis. The first time
I heard about genrefying books in the library, my immediate reaction was, “No
way. Not happening.”
Around the same time, I attended the 2018 Texas Library
Association conference in Dallas, Texas, and heard Bay Shore Middle School
Librarian and SLJ’s 2015 Librarian of the Year, Kristina Holzweiss, give
the closing keynote speech, The Power of “Yes, AND…,” a unique
concept for developing and deepening relationships and instructional
opportunities. My takeaway was to try saying, “Yes, AND…” to new ideas instead
of “No way.”
So, I listened, and I responded, “Yes, AND…” when one of my
colleagues shared her plan to genrefy her school’s fiction chapter book
section. Next thing I knew, my “Yes, AND…” response led to my own chapter book
genrefication project.
That’s when I started thinking of our library collection in a
different way—from the perspective of our young patrons, ages 5 to 11. How
could I create a simple system that was easy to maintain and also helped our
students find the series or topics they love to explore? “Yes, AND…!” The
Popular Nonfiction section was born.
I always say this is the part where Library Science becomes more
of an art than a science. My library assistant and I started brainstorming—What
are the popular topics and series that are spread throughout the nonfiction
section when categorized by the traditional Dewey Decimal system? We made a
list and started pulling books to put in Popular Nonfiction.
Over the years, we’ve tweaked our system. We use Demco genre tape
that fits into a broader genrefication
system in our library, and we also updated our Destiny
Catalog to indicate the Sublocation of “Popular Nonfiction” for all the
titles in that area.
Like anything, our system has its pros and cons. The biggest
advantage is that students can find the books they want with little or no assistance,
and shelving is easier since Popular Nonfiction titles don’t need to be in
exact Dewey order, as long as books in a series or about a specific topic are
together on the shelf.
The main challenge arises with our shelving volunteers. It can be difficult
to teach them the “art” part of the shelving process. Sometimes they put books
in the main nonfiction area instead of the Popular Nonfiction shelf. Luckily, we
can easily identify those books because they have the special Popular
Nonfiction genre tape. Overall, the Pros outweigh the Cons.
On the horizon, I am excited about more “Yes, AND…” projects for
categorizing fairy and folk tales (AKA the 398.2s) by story—all the Cinderella
books together instead of alphabetized by author, for example—and organizing
our biography section by topic (Presidents, Artists, Sports Figures, etc.)
instead of alphabetized by last name.
If you’ve been hesitant to embark on your own genrefication
project, I encourage you to join me in saying, “Yes…AND!”
Do some research and read blogs from librarians who’ve had success
with genrefication. Most importantly, start small and don’t be afraid to ask
for help. I think you’ll be glad you said, “YES…,” and I know your young
patrons will be pleased with the results.
Some of the subsections we have in our Popular Nonfiction section
are as follows (in no particular order), but don’t be afraid to create your own
subsections based on your collection and patron needs.
—Guinness Book of World Records
—Fun Facts
—Where/What Is? Where/What Was? series
—Eyewitness series
—Versus and Who Would Win series
—Military Books
—Gaming and Minecraft
—Series about States and Countries
—Animal Helpers
—You Choose
—The Totally Amazing/Wacky Facts series
—History Smashers
—Basher Science and History series
—Unexplained Mysteries
—Rocks and Minerals
—LEGOS
—What if You Had…
—Fly Guy Presents
—Espanol—popular series written in Spanish, Pura Bel Pre winners,
and other books that have been written in both Spanish and English (for
example, Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market)
Additionally, we organized the 700s by sport or game instead of in
exact Dewey order—Games, Magic Tricks, Basketball, Baseball, Football, Cheer/Dance/Gymnastics,
Extreme Sports, Motor Sports, Outdoor Sports, Lacrosse and other sports topics.
Amy Jent has been the librarian at Bradfield Elementary since 2016 and
is an active Texas Library Association member. She graduated from Texas
Christian University (GO, HORNED FROGS!) and later received her Master’s in
Library Science and Information Studies from Texas Women’s University. When not
at Bradfield, Amy enjoys reading (of course!) and spending time with her
family, cheering for her sons on the lacrosse field and hiking and skiing in
the Colorado mountains.
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2 Responses
What do the demco colored labels say? Are the genre labels for the nonfiction topics? I’m curious as how shelving works and how your spines are labeled so volunteers would know where to put things correctly. Love how it looks and that it’s working for kids!
Thanks for your comment Kim. Here's Amy's response:
Thank you for the great question. The Demco labels are "Clear Color-Tinted Label Protectors," item # WS12803520. The usual Dewey call number classification is visible under the colored label, which can be removed if the system needs to be changed or abandoned. We have genre "cheat sheets" displayed throughout the library. See the blog post for a link to the "cheat sheet."
Training our volunteers is a bit if a challenge, but once they start to understand the system, it actually makes shelving easier. If a book is put in the wrong place, it usually stands out because of the color-coded system. In addition to adding the colored labels, I used the Follett Destiny help feature to learn how to indicate a book's sublocation in our Follett Destiny catalog (linked in the blog) and have taught the students to look to see if there is a sublocation when searching for books in the catalog. Hope this info is helpful!
Amy Jent
https://sites.google.com/hpisd.org/bradfieldlibrarymediacenter/home