Recently, high school media
specialist and author Kerry O’Malley Cerra let me know about some of the exciting changes
happening in her Florida library. Thanks to her efforts, nonfiction circulation
has doubled! How did she do it? Here’s the story in
her own words. Thank you, Kerry!
When
I started my current job as a high school media specialist, someone commented
that the nonfiction section “is where books go to die.” I was horrified.
As
a former social studies teacher, I love nonfiction. Rather than buy into that
philosophy about the library’s nonfiction section, I took it as a personal challenge
and vowed to get those books circulating.
When
I examined the collection, I discovered “how to” books about computer
programing from the early 1980s, career books from the 1970s, and biographies
older than the current students. 93 percent of the books were more than 15
years old. No wonder kids weren’t checking them out!
After
weeding and adding current, relevant titles, I was ready to start spreading the
word about these changes. I used social media to announce new book displays and
looping slide shows to highlight new books. (See sample below.) Almost
immediately, circulation numbers started to increase.
Still, many students seemed reluctant. One teen said nonfiction “felt like reading
textbooks.” I asked some questions to find out what interests him and pointed
him toward books I thought he might like. He ended up choosing two and checked
them out. Guess what? He continues to come back for more.
Because
my media center is a hub for the morning crowd, it gives me a chance to grab students’
attention. Book Cover Bingo is a monthly staple, and it always involves a
theme—fashion, black history, celebrating native Americans, science, etc.
We don’t have time to discuss each book as we play, but I make a point of talking
about a few titles, and the kids know that all the books are in our library. Often
they check out the books I’ve featured on the same day.
I’ve
also implemented Title Talk Tuesday. I book talk one to two titles every Tuesday
morning. At first, I was unsure about including nonfiction, but both the
fiction and nonfiction titles are almost always checked out before the warning
bell rings.
We celebrate the end of each week with First Chapter Friday. Sometimes I read a
chapter aloud. Sometimes student volunteers take turns reading. Once, when I
was sick and lost my voice, I played the first chapter of a nonfiction
audiobook. What I thought might be disastrous turned into a beautiful thing.
Many students had no idea how engaging audiobooks can be. Monotone, they’re not!
Several students downloaded the free library apps on their phones and now
listen to audiobooks when they have time.
Students
know that book displays are my jam, so they’ve gotten used looking for new
themes every few weeks. The key to a successful display is drawing as much
attention to it as possible and then rotating the face-out books every few
days.
When creating displays for events such as Women’s History or LGBTG+ Awareness months, be sure to include nonfiction titles. Students will check them out! Here’s one of my favorite displays—fiction and nonfiction titles about female experiences by kick-butt women.
I’ve also been known to push nonfiction books—particularly picture books—on
teachers. Here’s a picture of me showing the social studies department how to integrate
nonfiction picture books into their curriculum.
I do this with other department too, and I send email newsletters letting
teachers know about new picture books in our library that might tie into their
lessons.
Picture
books are the perfect tool for introducing lessons and concepts or jumpstarting
debates. They’re visually appealing and accurate, and they allow for total
immersion. They can be read in their entirety in 10 minutes or less, and they’re easy for students of all levels to digest.
When high school students witness teachers reading picture books, the stigma of
them as “baby-books” disappears, opening the door for my final push—getting
kids to use nonfiction picture books for research purposes.
The
teachers at my school know to reserve time in our media center whenever they
assign a project of any type. I pull books in advance and read one aloud, so
students can hear just how beneficial these books are. Nonfiction picture books
can make research more efficient, especially when they have backmatter that
serves as a jumping off point for gathering additional information about their
topic.
It’s
taken several years, but I’m thrilled that circulation data proves my efforts have
been successful. Only 304 nonfiction books were checked out the year before I
arrived at my school. So far this year (my first full year without COVID
interruptions) we’ve had 623 nonfiction checkouts. That’s more than double! This represents about one-third of our total circulation.
But
the true success lies in the number of students who now request nonfiction for
me to purchase in future orders—biographies, true crime, money-management,
philosophy, and yes, even nonfiction picture books. Kids love nonfiction!
Kerry
O’Malley Cerra
is the author of the award-winning, 9/11 themed middle-grade novel Just a
Drop of Water and Hear Me, a middle-grade book based on the author’s
own hearing loss/deaf experience. Kerry earned a degree in Social Science
Education from the University of South Florida and currently works as a high
school media specialist in Florida. www.kerryomalleycerra.com
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3 Responses
How brilliant is this? If more librarians did that, it could change the world!
Thanks for sharing what you are doing to promote nonfiction in your library. Our library is also a popular spot in the morning before school starts. Do all students who are present at that time participate in your activities, or is it a choice that's available? I'd love to know more about it. Also, could you explain what book cover bingo is? I'm not familiar with that. TIA!
Stopping by to explain Book Cover Bingo a little more thoroughly since several of you asked. The idea came in a moment of frustration. I’m fortunate that I have the funds to submit two large book orders each year. These are sometimes 300+ books in each order. I hated getting new books in and simply putting them on the generified shelves and hoping kids would find them. I wanted a way to spotlight them, so Book Cover Bingo came to life. The first time I did it, it was a random collection of all new books, and while I still do that after each order, in between, I host monthly themed Bingo games, and the kids pack my library for this.
First, start by typing a list of book titles in a Word, Google, or some other generic document. Having this will help save time overall.
I’m a Canva girl. As both an author and a media specialist, it’s worth every penny for the paid version, but you can do Book Bingo with the free version, too. For Bingo, I use the “presentation” template and start by creating a cool background for the slides. Then, I duplicate it 95 times for a total of 95 slides. I’ve found this is the best number to use if you’re doing a game of blackout Bingo. If you’re doing single line Bingo, you could do fewer slides.
Once my slide is created and duplicated, I go down my book document and find book covers for each title using either Amazon or Goodreads (these sites use higher resolution covers which show up clearly when enlarged on the slide). Then I cut and paste the cover to a slide and repeat till it’s complete.
I originally used a Bingo card maker that generated 30 free randomized cards, which I then printed myself. https://myfreebingocards.com/bingo-card-generator Copy your book title list from the Word/Google document to the designated spot in this program. It’s super easy. As interest in my library picked up for Bingo, I needed more than 30 cards, so I got permission from my principal to purchase 100 cards for $10 from this same site each time I need it.
I announce Bingo dates via social media, school announcements, and my library Canvas page.
Give yourself at least 30 minutes if you do a blackout game. I project my slideshow on our Promethean Boards (similar to Recordex Boards) and call out the book titles as I scroll. Kids use pencil/pen to mark boxes, but I warn them not to ink it out completely because if I can’t read the title in the box to make sure they marked it correctly, then their card is disqualified.
The slide presentation of books allows students to see the covers and every few slides or so, I do my best to talk up a few of the books. Email me if you want to see a few samples. This site won't let me post photos in the comments.
NOTE: Print that document you created with the titles—preferably sorted alphabetically. Cross titles off as you go so you can quickly check cards as kids call out Bingo.
I hope this helps. Holler if you have more questions.