Re: Should librarians shelve books?

[Mary Ann Grundborg <GRUNDBORGk@AOL.COM>]

I've been watching the shelving issue as it has evolved, and finally want to
contribute my two cents' worth.

Several years ago, when I was in an elementary school library, when I didn't
have enough help with shelving, I would just put books on top of the shelves
where they should be shelved. Then I saw that those books were circulating
more and more.  Students were taking those, instead of really looking on the
shelves, thinking that because they had circulated before, they must be good.
 I saw that certain older books, which didn't look so good any more, were
simply sitting on the shelves, unnoticed. I began to pull some of those and
putting them on top of the shelves, as if they had just been returned, but
not shelved yet.  You guessed it - they began to circulate!  The students
thought that their friends had just returned them, so they must be good.  I
think that this, more than any amount of booktalks, promoting, etc. "sold"
those older, but bedraggled looking books to those students.  I had many a
chuckle over this "trick" that worked so well!

Mary Ann Grundborg
Librarian, St. John's College High School
Washington, D.C.
grundborgk@aol.com

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