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Greetings, There were piles of messages about this topic and I was asked to post a HIT. I've included my original question with the replies below. The reason most people give for separating the two types of books is that soft cover picture books seem to get lost on the shelf. If that's the case why isn't everyone separating out the soft cover nonfiction books too. (Of course that was also done at this school and I can't find anything in the nonfiction section!!! At least the library monitors seem to know where to shelve things.) I'm going to inter file all the picture books and ask the library monitors to 'Front' the books. Of course this will all take time as the policies will also have to be changed for these books. Randi original message: I'm wondering how most elementary school libraries are shelving their picture books. I've just moved to a new position and the previous librarian separated the soft cover picture books from the hardcover ones. They have a call number of Pb and they're stacked on shelves according to title. I know we've discussed before about how you can do what's best for your school, but I'm finding this very confusing. I did have a special ABC book stand that I used in my last school to hold all the Robert Munsch, Clifford, Author and Bernstein Bear books. It also held the early 'I Can Read' type books. I had also colour coded all the picture books which was a ton of work, but it would probably be easier to do that then to change all the spine labels on the paperback picture books. Any thoughts here? Is there a good reason to keep the soft cover paper backs separate? Lots of ideas here. _________________________________ I hate having to look lots of places for stuff. Mine is all intershelved. I try not to buy paperback picture books. _________________________ I was using some book fair profits on paperback picture books and have decided not to anymore because they get lost on the shelves with the hardbacks. I think any situation in which they are shelved in the usual library shelf way is going to mean that they are not very usable or checked out much ______________ I combined mine, too. The only reason I could think was that it's hard to find the paperbacks by browsing if you use bookends with picture books. I don't; I use fixed dividers about 4" apart with about ten books in between each one. The books are easy to browse through and I label the paperbacks on the cover on the bottom left hand corner. Mine are labeled E and the 1st letter of the author's last name. Also, some libraries don't catalog their paperbacks because they don't last as long (not always true if they are covered). I am very happy to have mine cataloged. ____________________ I don't get this myself. I never liked segregated books as a student and I don't like them as a librarian. From what I can see, students aren't so much looking for a paperback or a hardcover. When they want Corduroy, or "a Jan Brett book" or a Dr. Suess book, they don't care what binding, and it's so much easier just to go look under Freeman or Brett or Suess and know it will be there, without wondering what special binding category or area it might be in. ___________________ I keep my hardcover and paperback picture books (we use the E designation in the call number followed by the last initial of the author) interfiled. All those whose author's last name starts with A are together, but not alphabetical within the letter. That means if you're looking for a specific one, it sometimes takes a little while to find it. I have baskets for the Froggy books, the Arthur books, the Franklin books, and the Clifford books. I also have all the Easy Readers (I Can Read, Henry and Mudge, etc (and there are lots of them, too, as well as lots of picture books) in a separate bookcase. They have the same call number system as the picture books, except they have an ABC Easy Reader sticker on the spine and EASY in the location in the computer. Only that some of the paperbacks are so thin they seem to get lost on the shelves or jammed inside other books. When I came here I deleted and gave to classrooms all the thinnest paperbacks. The others are interfiled with the hardbacks. ___________________ We used to have ppb separated as well back when I worked as an aide to the previous librarian. When I shelved the books, they all went in the right place, but when our numerous volunteers reshelved…. When I took over, I did a huge weed and rearrangement and interfiled the ppb and hardcover and it works better for me. I don't separate ABC or "Easy Readers." I try to avoid special collection areas because I feel strongly that students should learn how information is organized. I still have volunteers misshelving books, putting books back which weren't checked in properly, checking books out to the wrong kids... sigh. _______________________ I have all of my hardcover picture books shelved separately and my paperback Everybody books are in wooden boxes (same approximate size as a Dairyland box). This seems to work fairly well. Each box has a certain number of letters of the alphabet eg A and B. I don't care if they are fairly mixed up and it gives my primary students something to do when they are finished their work--sort out my boxes. Each paperback Everybody book has a yellow label in the top left hand corner with the first letter of the author on it so it makes sorting fairly easy. I like this section because the paperback books would get lost between the hardcovers. I also have smaller boxes on my window shelves for certain types (Munsch, Arthur, etc) One of my questions is what to do with "Everybody" books (picture books) that are not for primary students. Do you have a separate section for those books? An example might be Rose Blanche. _______________________ I definitely don't separate them. Why bother? I often have a soft cover and a hardcover of the same title...kids frequently like to read the same title with a friend, and keeping them all together makes it easier for the reader to find what they want. Some kids prefer paperbacks, some kids prefer hardcover. I catalog all the same except for the MARC 020 field descriptive of :(pbk.) or :(hc.), and the publishing information. I feel that soft cover and hard cover should be shelved together. Too confusing otherwise. I try to avoid a lot of "separate sections." ________________________ I intermix all of my books regardless if they are paperback or hard. If they are in a series I still put them on the shelf according to the author's last name. I find this a lot easier way to find the books the student requests. ____________________________ We shelve them all alphabetically, hard- and paper-back together, by the author's surname. We don't kill ourselves about the alphabetical order - that's all we'd be shelving - just first letter of author's surname really. All are catalogued, so clients can find what they need easily. _________________________ Last year I was in two different school libraries - each had picture books shelved a different way. At one school they were all shelved together. At the other school the hard cover spine labels have an "E" prefix & are in author order on the shelves. The paperbacks do not have a "spine" label; instead the label is affixed to the top right corner of the cover (& covered with mactac). Paperback call numbers began with "EP," & all the paperbacks are shelved in author order on top of the Easy hard cover shelves. We just write the paperback call numbers in felt marker...makes it easier to see the label. Have alphabet dividers between the letters, & pictures of characters (Clifford, Arthur...) above that book location. I prefer the second method (separated) because it's impossible to read the spine label on a paperback picture book, and, being so much thinner, the paperbacks tend to "get lost" among the hard covers or caught inside the hard covers. Shelf reading is also more difficult when they are inter-shelved. __________________________ We shelve all fiction (novels & picture books) by author last name. It's one of the first things the students learn...ABC order=author surname...even the kindies. I guess it depends on the layout of your library as to what works best. I know that I sure don't want the additional work of re-arranging the heavy shelving...so have left things as they are. Besides which...it works for us! Some of our schools have wall racks - the paperbacks are placed cover-out (in alpha order), with a "letter" on the front cover (usually upper or lower right corner). If you decide to keep the paperbacks separate...you may want to arrange them in author order. __________________________ I've been in my position one year. The very first thing I did was to put the paperbacks in with the hardcovers. I didn't understand the logic of separating them. I did not change the spine label on existing books (EPB), but am not using that designation on any new paperback books I put in circulation. (E) I separated Easy Readers, with a blue dot, in one bookcase. I also have Early Chapter book series separated to another bookcase. (Junie B., AtoZmysteries, etc.) __________________________ In a previous position I worked at a public library that did shelved paperbacks separately. They had quite an actively used collection and it was mostly for convenience. The paperbacks were kept in bins instead of on the shelves and weren't fully cataloged or attempted to keep in order. They were considered a browsing collection that people could just look through randomly. They shelved the hardbacks by author, but only kept them in order to the first 3 letters. It made it harder to find particular books, but made it lots easier for shelving and most of the things could still be found fairly easily. It wasn't my system (I was just a page at a time), but for what its worth that what they did. ____________________________ Like you, I followed a librarian who had that same policy. However when teaching children how to use the OPAC, it is much easier to explain that Munch (for example) is on the E (for everybody, easy) shelf then to have them look in more than one place. I incorporated all E books in E, including separately shelved Accelerated Books, regardless of binding. The previous librarian also had a section for non-fiction and "easy" non-fiction, which made no sense to me as you could not tell by looking at a first grade child whether they read at first grade, or 5th grade level. I teach my children how to self select "just right books" so that takes care of the level problem. The best part however, it that you are the local librarian, so you get to do what makes the most sense for your particular school ___________________________ Randi Louise Hermans BCTLA Vice President Teacher-librarian Evans Elementary K-6 Chilliwack, B.C., Canada rhermans@shaw.ca -------------------------------------------------------------------- All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/el-announce/ LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html --------------------------------------------------------------------