HIT: Big Book Storage - Part 3

["Sandra E. Stephens" <stepsan@UDEL.EDU>]

Here's the final installment of Big Book Storage -
We were using single
skirt or pants type hangers to store our books on a rod.  Unfortunately as
time has gone along the hangers have weakened and most of the books are
now
laying on the bottom of the case.  Since these hangers are wider than the
bags we use for other storage (1") we can only get 36-37 per yard of rod.

After much thought and several mistakes I decided to try poster display
racks.  It has been the most successful.  The big books are in
alphabetical
order by title (sorry! but it works best for my teachers).
We have book + cassettte units that are stored in the bags and can fit
100+
in the same space.  In this case the extra space at the bottom for the
tape
really makes the difference. I got the racks from
Highsmith for about $120 each and I needed two.

We have replaced the racks this year with
some tubs which we can put the big books into.  The teachers
also do not seem to like the bags.  I do have a friend,
however, who keeps her big books in bags, but instead of the
racks, a parent helped to hang a rope in the lower part of a
long bookcase.  The books are hung there and slide easily along
the rope to find the title you want.  I just remembered, we are
using the racks for special books which we want to highlight.
I also have one of those houses, I think you get them from
Demco, which has a big book rack as well as a place to store.
Since the children like to look at big books I change the books
which are on this rack so that they can lie on the floor and
look at the books after story hour.  They treat them kindly.

Luckily I have an atlas stand that has pull out trays that we don't use
for atlas
es.
This works great for the big books!  Each tray holds about 10-15 big
books.

The following were in the HIT from last year that was in the archives -

An article in the School Librarian's Workshop (Apr. '96 page 9) deals with
big
book storage.

Try buying one of those net things that hang from a corner, like we put
bulky
stuffed animals in to unclutter our kids'bedrooms.

Buy large plastic bags with hooks for big books and hang them on a 6 ft.
length
of plastic chain from the ceiling in the AV storage room.

Put books in discarded coloring book stands from WalMart.

Shelve on ordinary 18" shelf units with racks installed on shelves (racks
are
for media storage).  Shelve books on their side.

Rescued a wire stand being thrown out by a drugstore; it looks as though
it
might have held newspapers.

Sandy Stephens        Maclary Elementary School
Librarian             300 St. Regis Drive
stepsan@udel.edu      Newark, DE 19711

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