HIT: HS Shelving Paperbacks (long hit)

[Cindy Denning <Cynden744@AOL.COM>]

Y'all really came through fast!  Thanks so much.  :)
Original question:  Intershelve paperbacks with other books?
Quick summary:  40+ comments, ~3 or 4 negative (one who hadn't tried it, just
thought it was a bad idea)  Everyone else highly positive.
Benefits:  easier to find books, aided hardback circulation
Rare drawback:  sometimes slipped behind other books

I had to edit a good bit--names, e-mail addresses, anything that wasn't
directly related.  I got it down to half the original length.  If part of
your comments are edited, that's why.

Cindy Denning
Ponder High School (TX)
cynden744@aol.com

I also have the paperbacks separate only because I have shelving for
paperbacks.  We too are moving to a new school.... in 3 years.... but I plan
to mix the books because I feel that the hardbacks get ignored!!!

I have gone into two libraries and have reshelved the paperbacks into the
fiction.  Nonfiction are of course shelved in the nonfiction.  Are your
paperbacks cataloged?  I have not regretted either move.  The books are
easiler to find.  The hard backs are used more.  It does not seem to slow
circulation of paperbacks.  They usually will chose a paperback if one if
available.

I am the LMT for a large high school. I, too, have separate shelves for soft
paperback books. For the student who want a pb, he or she knows exactly where
to go. I have found that some students want to carry only a paperback book. I
would suggest that you keep them separate. I also think that merging them
into the general shelving will lead to a lot of problems.

I completely rearranged the LMC this summer.  I had the same problem, so I am
trying all Fiction shelved together too.


I have all my paperbacks shelved separately and by author. This is not
limited to paperback fiction - I also have biogs and poetry, and non-fiction
in there. The kicker is mostly size and importance of the book.  If the book
is something really valuable in a study sense, such as an unusual volume of
stories, or a non-fiction that is particularly nice, I will cover it with
contact paper or Kapco, and put it in the regular stacks by subject.

My students, for the longest time, ignored the paperbacks completely. I
believe that this was because we had such poor readers that a book with small
print and few or no pictures just looked intimidating to them. More
and more they are being used.

If your paperbacks are used as much as you say they are, I would go to the
trouble to relabel them. The biggest factor against putting them in the
regular stacks is pure annoyance. They do get lost in the back of the shelf,
they slide, fall down, and disappear behind things. When shelved together,
it's much easier to find what you want, and to reshelve them.

This topic was discussed recently and many librarians feel that interspersing
the paperbacks among the collection is beneficial.  Students check out more
of the other books when they browse for paperbacks among the hard bound books.

When I first come to my library, the policy was to shelve paperbacks
seperately... for the reasons you listed... then we began purchasing hard
bound paperbacks... where do these go?  Kids would look for titles
in their Dewey numbers... and not find them... Same with fiction... To me
it's much easier to simply shelve books... and then we have a hard enough
time finding them for some students!!!  I know my life if easier now!!!  For
browsing students looking for paperbacks for leisure reading... don't worry
they'll find them!!!
However, only you know what is right for your students and faculty...

Hi, Although I'm at the elementary level, I too wrestled with the paperback
question. This past year I intershelved them and I think it worked out just
fine. They do tend to hide themselves but that's a minor point when we are
trying to locate titles. It is so much easier to look in one place. We used
to have them on spinners in alphabetical order by author but found they were
so often put back in the wrong places. Now it is so much easier. Yes it takes
time to put the labels on them but I think you'll be much happier in the long
run. We also are moving into a new school in the fall and I planned the
shelving accordingly. I also am going to intershelve at my K-2 library just
because of the ease in locating titles.

I had the same situation 10 years ago in a 6-9 library which I had just taken
over.   The only new books were paperbacks, and they were in a separate
section with a separate call number.  Our public library interfiles
pb's with hc's, so I decided to do thesame.  I've never regretted it!!  Of
course we've added 6,000 books  but the hardcovers go out more frequently and
it's a lot less hassle.  No separate call number--they are all FIC's.   They
still prefer the smaller format, so I'm always trying to order all my fiction
from companies like Permabound and Econoclad.

When I was at a high school we decided to intershelve the paperbacks with the
hard bound fiction.  Our fiction circulation increased almost 100% -- this
was due to other factors as well, but I was convinced.

I am in a one year old facility.  When we moved we chose to shelve paperbacks
on regular shelves.  I have not regretted it.  Now I have them before Fic
hardbacks--two separate sections.  That is a little confusing for
kids, but it works for now. If someone is looking for Brian Jacques, for
example, they have to look in paperbks and hardbacks...but they are sort of
close together--not on opposite sides of the library in three
different rotating racks (like we had before).

I did get a volunteer to put three letters on the spin label.  Now they are
in good order.

I like the idea of shelving PB with the rest of the books -- see if you can
get a strip of lumber behind the shelf(ves) which will keep the PBs from
going too far back. That's all I can think of right now.

I currently inter-shelve PB's and HB's.  I catalog everything. I am not
automated either.  I do not have a problem with the books shelved together.
I am one of those librarians who does not mind if the books are not a certain
distance from the front of the shelf.  On most of my shelves, the books are
lined up about mid-shelf.  This helps keep the Pb's from getting lost.

We have too many hard and paperback fiction titles to fit on existing
shelving, so we have gone to revolving "tower" racks from Demco.  We mark all
of our fiction with genre labels from Highsmith (more colorful than Demco's).
Hardbacks are shelved by author on shelves, paperbacks by genre on towers.
It's a mixed blessing.

When students have an assignment to read from a particular genre, the
paperback towers are very busy.  With fewer of our hardbacks labeled (we only
started the project about 3 years ago and are just getting to hardbacks)
those shelves aren't as popular.  Kids do browse both sections.  The biggest
drawback: some kids won't check both shelves for authors they like.  But
maybe that's not a format issue.  Even when we had very few paperbacks,
they'd read Wayside School by Sachar, but not some of his others.  I don't
know why.

I cataloged all of the paperbacks in the library in my former position as a
7-12 media specialist.  I do not regret the decision.  The paperbacks then
had subject cards so that when students were doing searches, those books
would also be part of their hit.

I didn't have any of them get lost in the depths and yes, students were
exposed to different authors and genres.

We used to have revolving wire shelves for paperbacks...Had to look all over
each rack if you wanted a particular book.  ..We then put all the paperbacks
in shelf to themselves.  Had the same problem finding a book.  Then in a
burst of lucidity we put them on the shelves where they should have been all
the time.  Now we can find the books...if a student wants THE PEARL  he can
choose hardback or paper, but he'll located it in one spot.  If we are trying
to check on an overdue book, we theoretically have one spot to look for it.
We have openback shelving (an idea from hell itself, but that is another
problem) and yes, they do get lost, but so do the hardbacks.

Shelve them in with the rest of the collection.  It will get the other books
used more and make titles and authors easier to find.

 As one who has gone from paperbacks shelved away from the hardbacks to
intershelving, I vote to intershelve so that all books by the same authors in
fiction and all books about the same topics in nonfiction are together.

Do not have a separate paperback section.  Start now using correct spine
labels on all new paperbacks.  The others will fall apart before you get
around to redoing them.  Just shelve them in with the fiction. If a book is
worth making available to the kids, cover it with plastic.  It will last just
about as long as a hardback with a little plastic on it.  Not that stiff
plastic--use that stuff like Contact paper, but it isn't Contac paper.  It is
in Highsmith with a blue grid on the backing, and, for the life of me, I
can't remember its name right now. Start discarding the older paperbacks as
they get raggedy. There is no reason to have a separate paperback section.
If they book isn't worthy of your library collection, it shouldn't be in the
room.

I am a middle school librarian, I shelve them all together and have for
years. Yes, sometimes they do get lost in between the other books, but that
happens with some other "thin" books, too. The real advantage is that
all the books are together and I don't (and the students don't) have to look
in several different places.

Are your paperbacks cataloged? Our public library does the very brief
cataloging for paperbacks. They shelve them on special end shelving units. I
always feel I'm just lucky if I find a book in the paperback sections (they
have mysteries, sci. fi., western, romance & other categories). I think if I
can't find something, then ordinary folks might have an even greater
difficulty.

I was having the same trouble with kids looking only at the paperbacks and
all squeezing into that space when classes would come so I intershelved with
the hardback fiction.  I don't regret it.  They get used to it and it does
help them "find" other books by that author as well as other authors.  I
don't think I'd go back to a separate section.

I've interfiled paperbacks with their hardback fiction counterparts.  It's
increased circulation and permitted the unending checking of both hardbound
and paperback editions of a title.  We've also interfiled story collections
with the general fiction collection.  It has greatly increased the use of the
short stories.

Yes it would help! I interfiled my paperbacks and found that more of the
hardcover ones ow go out too. The kids find paperbacks they like, and more by
the same author and read them all. They won't get lost in the hardcovers.

I prefer having paperbacks shelved in with the hardcovers, but because of the
"losing" of paperbacks that you mention, we keep them separate on the
shelves.  Our Tech. Dept. guys cut pieces of 2 x 4's to fit the shelf length,
and I put those behind the paperbacks to keep them from sliding back too far
on the shelf.I can fit lots of paperback books on the stacks of shelves and
have adjusted the height of the shelves to fit the paperbacks.

I think it's far better to intershelve them, because students will be led to
other titles by the same author or just other books.  But until I can solve
the shelving problem, we'll probably keep them all this way.  (If I
intershelve them,  I will have to change all the material types in the
database to "Fiction" rather than
"Paperback"--my predecessor named them that way.  Call numbers will also have
to be changed from PB to F, so it will be a BIG job.)

BTW, have you noticed how many new fiction paperbacks are oversized and won't
fit on shelves that mass market paperbacks are on?  That's another one of the
reasons I would like to intershelve--lots of the new fiction books only fit
on the shelves for the hardcovers anyway.

I ponder this same question every year :-/  Seems that the *right* way to do
things is to shelve the paperback in with the hard backs but I have never
quite convinced myself to do that.

When I was in grad school, one of the instructors said that she had done a
study in her LMS (middle school, as am I) and discovered that when she
intershelved the paperbacks with the hard backs, the kids nearly always (I
forget the ###s) still selected the paperbacks over the hardbacks. That is
one reason I haven't intershelved them.

Another is that I have so many students who run into the media center to grab
a book inbetween classes or at other times when time is very short.  They
always go to the paperback section.  Granted the "form" the
book shouldn't be the criteria for selecting it but...it is just a lot easier
to browse our paperback selection.  Perhaps that's because of the way the
media center is set up.

Some people (not just kids) just like the feel and weight of a paperback
better than a hardback.  For them, it might be too overwhelming to have to go
through all of the fiction section?  I'm not sure but I just haven't
convinced myself to intershelve them yet.

The one drawback, and it is a biggie, is that we have to look in two places
for a title --- the hardback section and the paperback section.  And
actually, with all of the special displays I have, we often have to look in
more than two places :-(

A final note --- because of kids' preferences and because of budget
restraints, I am buying almost all that I can in paperback!  When I weed the
fiction, I find too many hardback books that seem to have never been
opened and in fact, many have never been checked out! :-(  I'd rather be out
$5 for a paperback that doesn't "catch" than $20 for a hardback.  We do cover
the paperbacks w/contact so they actually often last as long
as the interest in them does.  And if not, I might replace the book with
another paperback or I might spring for the hardback if I think the interest
will stay.  Another good point for buying paperbacks is that so many of my
kids literally cannot afford to replace a hardback if it is lost or
destroyed.  They are more apt to pay
for a paperback and if they can't/won't do that at least we're not out as
much $$.

The current trend seems to be to intershelve paperbacks with hardbacks.  I am
going to do this myself this year.  Another advantage-paperbacks are often
not put in any order.  When you need to find a particular title, it is hunt
for the needle in the haystack time.  Putting the paperbacks in with the
hardbacks should eliminate that problem.

We have the same quandary in our middle school library, and I have found that
one solution is to shelve the paperbacks separately, but not display them
prominently.  It's a constant battle to keep track of them when they are
shelved in with the hardcovers, and if they are shelved like the other books
instead of displayed on a turning display that shows the covers, the kids
don't automatically go to them first.  Not that that's a real problem:  at
least they're reading.  But I agree with you that there's some great stuff
they're missing if they ignore the hardbacks.

Mix them together--paperbacks should ordinarily be shelved with hardcovers.
The fewer different places we make students look,  the more likely they'd
discover on their own what's available.

Just make it a project that you're going to work on and do it.  When I came
here it was that way, but with a small separate paperback collection.  We
just cataloged them as if they were new items.

I think it's worth it in the long run.  It makes your catalog better.

I shelve the paperbacks and hardcover books together, for the very reasons
you mention.

We shelve all of our fiction together no matter what the format is-i find the
kids prefer to check out the papaerbacks but will check out the hardcover if
it's on the shelf.  Our previous librarian shelved the paperbacks separately
and hardcovers rarely were circulated.  I hope this helps.

I'm the librarian in a large high school (1800) and I've struggled with this
for a number of years.  I think what I like best is to have them shelved
together with the hardbacks.  What you said about losing them in the "depths"
doesn't really happen as much as you may think.  I have found that my
students seem to prefer checking out a smaller, lighter weight book to the
big hardback, so that the paperbacks go first and then the hardbacks.  By
shelving them together, the kids see that there are more books of the same
title or author and the hardbacks begin to move.

Also, I do not put ALL paperbacks on the regular shelves.  I tend to
discriminate between paperbacks that are copies of hardbacks I have or are by
an author I have on the regular shelves, and "lightweight" paperbacks that
are the little romance novels (ie. Harlequins, etc.) or "hack" type reading.
This may be showing a prejudice of mine between what I perceive to be "good"
fiction and not so good fiction.  But the good thing about that rack of
paperbacks is that I have made it a paperback exchange rack.  Students can
grab a book off of that rack and take it without needing to check it out,
then bring it back when they are done with it; OR, they can bring in
paperbacks they have at home and exchange them for a book from that rack.  I
keep it close to the door and find that when a student is in a hurry to get a
book and get to class, they can get one quickly from that rack. Also, as far
as getting the books back, since most of these were donations to begin with &
are not in my catalog, I'm not as concerned with having them returned as I am
with others.  By the way, I only started this last year and I have almost
twice as many books on that rack now as when we started.  Students, parents
and teachers knowing that this is an exchange, bring in donations from home.
It works and kids read!

I've tried all the ways to shelve paperbacks.  I've settled on interfiling
all fiction books (paperback and hardback), the same as I interfile all
nonfiction books.

I'm a big fan of the interest labels available from the library suppliers.
They're good even for the older kids (I'm in an all-boys schools, grades
7-12).  That's one way of keeping the books from hiding (and to help you out).

 I am the media specialist in a middle school of 1000 students.  I moved our
paperbacks to the regular shelving 3 years ago because:

  1.  The students were not looking at the rest of the fiction collection.
  2.  If we had hardbacks and paperbacks of the same title, it was confusing
to the students to have them shelved in different places.

  Our paperback labels read  PB PAU.  We just shelved them, not having the
time to make new labels.  Any new paperbacks coming into the library get a
FIC label.  The studens are less confused and are not huddled around the
special pb bookcase which was not near the fiction section of the MC.  They
even check out hardbacks now.  I would make the move and not worry about
labels.  This isn't pretty but you could always take a permenant marker and
write FIC just above the author's last name.

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