Separate shelving for series? Not unless you change the catalog to
reflect the new location!
What is your catalog used for? It should describe the books and show where
the books are located, right? That's what the children are supposed to be
learning, isn't it?
I know most of us are working with old shelving, shelving of various types,
shelving without interchangeable parts that would enable us to re-configure
space to fit the collection. The temptation for I-know-where-THAT-goes
categories of books is enormous, but it destroys the utility of the
catalog--unless you change the call numbers of the books.
If you just want to highlight series in order to encourage children to
read, use the bright bins and milk boxes--but space them out through the
fiction collection as you need to, keeping everything in sequence.
If you decide you just can't keep everything in sequence, follow through
with changing the call numbers. After all, that's why most of us have FIC
or J or JUV or whatnot--the 800's just got too incredibly immense and our
predecessors decided they had to put the fiction somewhere else. And then
they changed the call numbers from 800's to F or J.
It's not that we can't vary library organization to meet local
circumstances. It's that when we do, we leave an indication in the catalog
so that new borrowers, substitute staff, and our own successors can find
the riches on the shelves.
Please forgive the rant--
Holly Wolf
Librarian, Palmyra-Macedon High School
formerly librarian, Macedon Elementary School
hwolf1@rochester.rr.com
>I've got 20 student-free days here in the library to put things in
>order. I was given a large 4 sided bookcase, and was thinking of pulling
>some of the more popular series books and putting them there. Then I
>started second-guessing myself. Will students miss out on the serendipity
>of grabbing Robert Louis Stevenson on the shelf above R.L. Stine? Will I
>create a ghetto of "junk food" reading? (my professor's description, not
>mine!) I'd love to free up the shelf space in the fiction section, but
>before I do, I thought I'd ask the experts.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Mary (who won't need to go to the gym after moving 44 shelves of picture
>books this morning!)
>
>Mary Clark
>Library Media Tech I
>La Costa Meadows Elementary School
>Carlsbad, CA USA
>760-290-2128
>Mclark@smusd.org
>
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