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Okay, now obviously you didn't see the big GRIN that I attached to my email (along with the wink and the nod---which means that I DON'T think we should be dividing the fiction into smaller groups). I wrote an article about this insanity for LMC entitled "From Dewey to Dalton" which describes the insanity of trying to find something in the bookstore when you search by genres. I wandered around the store for over two hours looking for a few titles that IF I had a card catalog and a well-defined fiction / non-fiction area, I would easily know where to start my search and locate my materials. In fact, the experience allowed me to become SO familiar with where things WERE NOT, that I did see a few things that I wasn't looking for and during my miserable search, I was able to help a customer who needed a book---that had been pulled out for a display that was tucked in an area where it probably shouldn't have been. My suggestion? If you think that searching for a book in a bookstore is the best way to find materials, go into a NEW bookstore and try to find four or five titles---make two of them classic titles and the others either a recently released or just released title in the past two or three years. Then begin searching without the assistance of a store clerk or their computers. (Trying to decide where those non-genre books might be located is even tougher....) I think the experience is exhausting and frustrating--maybe because I "know too much" about where things "should be" and when they aren't, it is frustrating! And by the way...I don't think people go to the bookstores to enjoy the "looking for the book" experience....they go to the bookstore BECAUSE THEY HAVE NEW BOOKS!! They also allow people to sit, drink coffee, have snacks, listen to music, and read their NEW BOOKS! (They have to offer something after the madness of the seaching experience....perhaps, we just need to: 1) buy LOTS of new books, 2) allow drinks and snacks in one area of the library, 3) play relaxing music in the background (and even offer those musical selections as possible "check-outs" at the circulation desk), and 4) offer small groups of displays of genre books that can be easily labeled and then located when they are placed back on the shelves later. There are lots of ideas to take from the bookstore concept....the arrangement is just NOT IT. My opinion only... ~Shonda Shonda Brisco, MLIS US / Technology Librarian Fort Worth Country Day School Fort Worth, TX sbrisco@fwcds.org http://www.fwcds.org/campus/libraries/default.asp http://webpages.charter.net/sbrisco/index.html -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/sub/ * LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html --------------------------------------------------------------------