Recently, International K-12 librarian Laura Wylie de Fiallos sent an email to let me
know that after changing her approach to nonfiction, circulation of the “E
Everybody” (K-3) nonfiction books in her collection had risen approximately
380%. Wow!
I invited Laura to write the following blog
post explaining how she did it. Thanks, Laura, for sharing your story.
For the past several
years I have been thinking about nonfiction’s place in our school library (both
literally and figuratively), inspired and challenged by Melissa Stewart’s blog posts,
conference presentations, and books for educators.
Despite my enthusiasm
for Melissa’s take on nonfiction, I wasn’t totally convinced that any changes
were needed in my library. Students had the freedom to choose
nonfiction, but they didn’t show much interest.
The nonfiction books for
K-8 were neatly arranged by topic on tall shelves in the back corner of the
library. Students could ask for help finding books about a particular
topic or use the online catalog and signage to find books on a particular
subject.
We started each school
year with a tour and explanation of the shelves and organization systems in
each part of the library, and then took another look at the nonfiction area
when the mandatory nonfiction unit rolled around once a year.
During that unit, we displayed
some nonfiction books near the story corner, so students could easily grab
them. We arranged the books by topic or by author or even loosely by the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction classification system.
But once the unit
concluded, the nonfiction titles were returned to the tightly-packed shelves in
the back corner, and the more centrally located displays were restocked with the
fiction titles students seemed to prefer. Despite Melissa’s statistics and
research, our students didn’t seem interested in nonfiction books. Checking them out was more of a “must do” once a year rather
than something they wanted to do on a regular basis.
Still, one of Melissa’s observations continued
to rattle around in my mind—maybe my personal preference for fiction influenced
students’ attitude. By making fiction more visible and accessible for most of
the year, was I sending an unintended message?
When I finally decided it was worth
trying a different approach, I knew I wanted the change to be manageable and
measurable, so I started small.
The library staff and I identified three factors we thought might
be discouraging students from utilizing the library’s nonfiction section:
1. Tightly-packed
shelves with no books facing out
Did the collection seem too
daunting?
Were the books not visible enough?
2. Relegating nonfiction
to the back corner for
most of the year
Were the books too far away from the
story
corner?
Should they be closer to other books
arranged
by targeted age groups?
3. Grouping books by
topic with no consideration
for reading/interest level.
Were K-3 students overwhelmed by the long,
complex books intended for older
readers?
Were grade 6-8 students put off by
books that seemed too “childish”?
We began our project by
identifying books with a K-3 interest level and changed their call number
prefix from J (juvenile) to E (everybody) by using a Sharpie to write an E on
the spine label over the Dewey number. At the same time, we weeded aggressively.
Next, we emptied a large
bookcase that was home to our popular series for new readers (Elephant and
Piggie, Fly Guy, Lego Star Wars, etc.) and relocated the books, confident that
students would seek them out wherever they were shelved. We are now using
this bookcase (located closer to our story corner) as well as a mobile bookcase
with cubbies/dividers to hold the E nonfiction books.
We have loosely grouped
the books by subject (oceans and ocean animals, sports/dance/gymnastics, our
world, how things work, pets, etc.) and are displaying as many as we can face-out
so the covers are visible. When students check out forward-facing books, we
replace them with other titles from the same category.
We have been amazed at
the results—an approximately 380 percent increase in nonfiction circulation between January 1 to March 12, 2020 before the
changes were made and January 1 to March 12, 2022 after the changes were made.
The rise in nonfiction circulation has been
significant and telling. It turns out my students are not the exception when it
comes to wanting to read and enjoy nonfiction books. They flock to the
nonfiction shelves just as enthusiastically as they
did when these same shelves held popular fiction books.
If you’re still “on the
fence” about your students’ enthusiasm for nonfiction, I encourage you look at
your collection and consider making some changes. You have nothing to lose, and
your school community has lots to gain!
Laura Wylie de Fiallos, MEd, MLIS is the librarian at a K-12
international school in Honduras. She began her teaching career in the
preschool classroom, then the preschool library, eventually finding her way to
the main library where she supports equity, inclusion, and diversity. Laura
considers herself a lifelong learner and will continue to learn ways to curate,
promote, and share nonfiction books in her school community.
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Topics
6 Responses
I am wanting to do something similar in terms of recategorizing and move to a more "book store model" of some forward facing books. Can you share your new categories and how you cataloged them? Do you still use Dewey numbers but just change the original # to one that made more sense for your students? Or did you come up with a new way?
Been doing it for years. I bought special octagon shaped shelves where every other side of the octagon is a display wall where I can display books from the shelves. There's also a small display on top of the shelving unit that represents what type of books they will find in that unit. We circulate as much non-fiction as fiction.
That's wonderful, Keith. Would you be interested in writing a post about it for my thsi blog?
Dear Anonymous,
Laura asked me to post this response to your excellent question:
Hi! We are just now trying to figure out how we can formally categorize and catalog them. Initially, we simply changed the call number prefix and the used a general sublocation (E nonfiction) in our catalog, and then placed the books on shelves labelled "Our World", "Animals", and "How Things Work" and in the mobile bins labelled "Pets", "Insects and Spiders", "DK", "Sports, Dance, Gymnastics", etc. It worked well as a temporary measure for this half of the school year as we moved the books little by little from juvenile to "everybody". But we see it won't work long term because it's too disorganized and very difficult if you want to find a specific book.
I am currently looking into Follett's nonfiction genre categories (I found them in Titlewave by searching for "DIY genre kit") and think we will use those categories (minus a few) without making further changes to our call numbers. We will simply add the spine label sticker under the current call number to indicate the category, and then change the sublocation in Destiny to indicate the category. We will place as many books as possible outward facing, and then will arrange the rest by Dewey within their category.
I hope that's helpful. Please let me know if you have any other questions. -LWF
I've modified my Dewey (I started about eight years ago) and I genuinely think it helps NF circulate more because things are findable and more manageable.
Hi! We are just now trying to figure out how we can formally categorize and catalog them. Initially, we simply changed the call number prefix and the used a general sublocation (E nonfiction) in our catalog, and then placed the books on shelves labelled "Our World", "Animals", and "How Things Work" and in the mobile bins labelled "Pets", "Insects and Spiders", "DK", "Sports, Dance, Gymnastics", etc. It worked well as a temporary measure for this half of the school year as we moved the books little by little from juvenile to "everybody". But we see it won't work long term because it's too disorganized and very difficult if you want to find a specific book.
I am currently looking into Follett's nonfiction genre categories (I found them in Titlewave by searching for "DIY genre kit") and think we will use those categories (minus a few) without making further changes to our call numbers. We will simply add the spine label sticker under the current call number to indicate the category, and then change the sublocation in Destiny to indicate the category. We will place as many books as possible outward facing, and then will arrange the rest by Dewey within their category.
I hope that's helpful. Please let me know if you have any other questions. -LWF