GEN: Rearranging fiction

["Catharine D. Wolf" <wolfh@VIVANET.COM>]

Quite a few publis libraries used to separate their fiction, bookstore =
style, as you suggest.

My two key questions are:  Is yours primarily a browsing library?  If =
so, interest-based sections are legitimate arrangement.  (You'll notice =
bookstores are slaves to alphabetical order WITHIN each section.)

                             Do borrowers expect to be able to find specific titles 
for =
themselves, or do you have staff enough to help the borrower who wants a =
specific title?  If borrowers must find specific titles for themselves, =
you will have to make a location code part of every catalog entry and =
you will have to teach students & teachers to read the code.

My personal belief is that our mission differs from that of the =
bookstore enough that
1)      Our borrowers often want a particular title.
2)      We have less staff-per-customer-on-the-floor, making extensive =
personal service difficult.
3)      Fewest rules make easiest learning (one alphabet, not 20).  I notice =
even bookstore staff sometimes have a hard time guessing which category =
a title has fallen into...

But I temper this hard line with lots and LOTS of displays.  The =
displays empty fast and it is indeed work to replenish them.  However, =
within displays the items fall in random order--easy shelving--and most =
of the fodder for the displays comes straight off the shelving carts.  =
Usually the most popular titles still have a copy or two on the regular =
fiction shelves, too, in case anyone doesn't realize there's a display.

Holly Wolf, Librarian, Macedon Elementary, wolfh@vivanet.com