For the past few years I’ve been reading about library’s who have been replacing the dewey decimal system with genre shelving. YIKES! No dewey decimal system? Every librarian I’ve read about wrestled with this new concept at first but after revamping their shelving system, they LOVE it! And the students love it! The main reason I resisted is that my goal is to equip our students with skills so that they can use any public library and to use its resources with confidence. Fact: The King County Library system has changed to genre shelving.
Ditching Dewey is a mind-boggling idea for many in the library world. The most frequent worry that I have heard is “What will happen when the students go to middle/high school or the public library and they don’t know Dewey?” Fact: Elementary and middle school media specialists have work with students for years spending hours, even weeks teaching the ins and outs of Dewey. I’m also fairly certain these teenagers knew little to nothing about how to find books in the library without the assistance of the librarian yet they still managed to find the books they wanted.
Fact: Almost all college graduates have successfully made the transition from Dewey to Library of Congress classification, and most of them have meanwhile managed to purchase books from a bookstore using an entirely different classification system. As soon as they needed it, they learned the system as any college graduate will testify to!!!
For example: a student say’s to me “I need an adventure book” and, although I have labels on the book spine specific to genre, these books are mixed in with ALL the other genre books. Okay, so we have six search computers BUT, by the time the student searches by subject adventure and then goes to the shelf, many times the books isn’t what he/she is looking for.
Our campus library is BIG! We have tons of books! Having been a school library since the 1980’s we have the latest and greatest and even books out of print! Students have about 15 minutes to find their books. That’s a lot of looking! I don’t know about you, but when I go the library rarely do I use the search computer. I head to the section I’m interested in, I look at the cover, I read the book jacket, I read a chapter or two…these are not luxuries of an elementary student! There simply is not time. Especially when a book report on a specific genre is required by a classroom teacher.
Student frustration with finding the books they want to read is the major reason I am switching to genre shelving in my fiction area and eventually in the non fiction. For example, mystery books will be together, Fantasy book will be together, science fiction books, graphic novels etc. The call number will still be Fiction with the authors last name but now, when a student has a Science Fiction report, he/she can go directly to that shelf. But most importantly, when a student doesn’t know what they want to read, the specific shelving will help narrow their search.
This is a BIG project! Some of my books are genre labeled, but more than half are not. Then I have to change the sub catagory in the destiny catalog, move ALL of the books to the proper shelves, and lastly, but most importantly, provide amazing signage! And I ask myself…WHY am I doing all this before BOOK FAIR! Why don’t I wait until SUMMER! But when I started seeing all those shiny genre labels on the book spines I just had to start in!
And now, onto the non-fiction books.
I’ve read countless blog posts and articles about librarians who ditched Dewey completely. I may not like Dewey 100%, but I do like the basic organizational system. In many ways it really works. I’m not ready to destroy a system that had its merits. I just wanted to re-vamp it.
When students go to the shelf to find books on panda bears for example, they expect that all the panda bear books will be together, as in next to each other. Not some here and some more 5 books away farther down the shelf. After all, isn’t that the point of the numbering system? It’s what the kids think. Of course, that’s not how it works in reality. After reading countless blogs here’s what I concluded.
Generalized books on multiple mammals are 599, but all land mammals are 599.1 plus the animal name. For example, 599.1 ELE (elephant) All the elephant books have the same call number and are placed on the shelf next to each. Instead of having to remember an author’s last name, a student can search for a book on the shelf in alphabetical order by animal. It’s simple. It makes sense. It meets my objective of making it easier for kids to find books on the shelves independently.
As I said, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now and today I talked to the fifth and sixth graders about it. It made sense to them, too!
I want our school library to be a place where students can successfully and easily find the books they want. It’s not a book depository that must uphold the merits of an organizational system developed in 1876. I’ve observed the patterns of our students for many years now and they are frustrated by our system. If I was an elementary aged student, I wouldn’t like how complicated it is to find a book in the library when it’s so easy at a bookstore.
There’s nothing like a new year to begin a new system!
Those who have inspired me!
http://www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/?p=668
http://e-literatelibrarian.blogspot.com/2011/06/mr-dewey-i-bid-you-adieu.html
https://awrinkleintech.wordpress.com/?s=dewey&searchbutton=go%21