GEN: Shelving easy books ideas

[Johanna Halbeisen Rebecca Johnson School]

My preference for shelving easy (or picture) books would be one that
makes sense to the kids so that they can find books they want without
teacher help.  The author's last name has very little meaning to kids
for most books (except Dr. Seuss and a few others.)  If I could
rearrange my section, I'd have bins and I'd reclassify the fiction by
child-centered categories.  The Common School in Amherst, Mass, has
this system.  some of the categories in their picture books are
Families and friends, Hide and seek (books that have things to look
for), scary stories (Where The Wild Things Are), Nighttime, No Words,
Real animals, Over and Over (the books with lines or choruses that
repeat (And the door bell rang. Drummer Hoff fired it off.)  The
problem with this system is that it takes a lot of time and thought to
set up.  Ideally you would consult with your teachers of k-2 as to the
categories they thought the kids would look for.  Then you work
together to decide what books go in each category.  The Common
School used different patterned tape to mark the bottom of the spine
for each category.  And their categories have evolved over the years,
new ones added, some collapsed or names changed.  The key is how
accessible can you make it FOR THE KIDS??  The more independent
they can be in finding good books, the more they can enjoy reading
and the more they read.  Isn't this what we are all about?

Then there is the nonfiction for k-2.  I got my idea for my picture
nonfiction books from a librarian in Shrewsbury, Mass.  The childrenUs
 librarian at the Shrewsbury Public Library observed that the youngest
patrons (and their parents) confined their browsing to the picture books
and that the appropriate nonfiction for that age group (shelved with
the rest of the childrenUs nonfiction) had a low circulation rate. To
address this problem, an easy nonfiction section was established in the
 picture book area, with books for children seven years and younger.  The
books were shelved in Dewey RclumpsS, ranges of call numbers.  The
clumps were arranged in  Dewey order, but books within each clump
were not.  There was immediate evidence that the plan was successful.
The circulation of the easy nonfiction began to rival that of the very
popular picture book section.  The staff also observed that it seemed
easier for children (and parents) to feel more comfortable in the full
Dewey arrangement of the nonfiction books for older children.
        This is the description of the system I used to create my
current system.  I made my Dewey clumps according to the books I
had in my collection.  The clumps in my second school library were,
to my surprise, a bit different from those in my first one.  I gave each
a name and a symbol (black silhouette).  The current categories are
1. Family and Community (roughly the 100-300, a circle of people
holding hands),
2. Folk and Fairy tale (398, a dragon),
3. Numbers and letters (400 and early 500, a stop sign [Tana Hoban's
books are a great part of this section]),
4. Science and space (I can't remember the exact ranges, Saturn),
5. Outdoors (includes plants and weather, a tree),
6. Dinosaurs(Brontosaurus),
7. Wild animals(590, a snake and a tiger),
8. Trucks and cars (and all transportation, 629, a truck and a car),
9. My body (610's, child with arms outstretched),
10. Farms and pets (630's, a barn and a cat),
11. Sports(790's, a batter) ,
12. Songs and Poems (some 793 and 800, musical notes),
13. Real People, Real Places (the 900's, Statue of Liberty).
One thing I recently figured out was to give each section a
number (1-13) and put a yellow dot sticker on the spine with the
number (yellow is our picture section color).  This way it is very clear
what section the book goes in and I can reclassify a book just by
putting a yellow numbered sticker on it.  And its MUCH easier to
shelve books.  They aren't in any particular order within a section.
You can create sections that are especially relevant to your kids.

Anyone interested in the Common School categories can send me their
snail mail address.

Anyone who likes these ideas or who does anything similar, please let me
know!!
--
Johanna Halbeisen                               "We are confronted by
Rebecca M. Johnson School(K-8)                   insurmountable opportunties."
Springfield, Mass
jhalbei@k12.oit.umass.edu                               Pogo