[LM_NET] HIT: ELEM Fiction section arrangment

[Jennifer Podolsky <scenn72@GMAIL.COM>]

Hi Everyone-

Sorry it took me so long to post a hit. I received many, many responses and
I want to thank you all in case I did not thank everyone who responded
individually. Also- I can not post everyone's responses b/c it would be too
long according to LM Net rules. Sorry to anyone who got cut!

The majority of responses favored multiple fiction sections, especially if
there was a wide range of grades in the school. This promoted students
browsing sections more effectively and finding books that are not going to
be too difficult for them to read. Also- those who have added more sections
in the past said that their helpers found it easier to put books back- not
harder. I think I am sold and I have started making some changes.

After listening to everyone's suggestions (and using many of them) I have
decided to not change call numbers yet- but instead add identifying stickers
to the spines. This will for now indicate where in the library the books go.
It may cause some confusion in the OPAC, but as soon as I am sure about the
configuration I will go in and make the changes to location. I have decided
to have the following sections in my K-8 library: Picture Books (or Easy
Fiction), Easy Readers, Intermediate Fiction, Juvenile Fiction and Young
Adult Fiction. This is actually similar to the way my sections were set up
when I worked at a public library and it worked well. I have also used
someone's suggestions of using baskets to organize paperbacks and/or soft
cover picture books that were donated and didn't have a home before.

One thing that I have noticed since I started moving things around in
putting up new displays- I have gotten so many compliments from teachers and
students! They have said how great the library looks and how nice and
appealing my signage is. I guess they do notice!!! He he

Anyway- here is my hit. Sorry to go on so long.

Jennifer Podolsky

SLMS

Califon School, NJ

Scenn72@gmail.com
---------------------------------------------
I had the same problem last year when I took over my K-5 library. Picture
books and easy readers both had P or E labels interchangeably. The junior
chapter books (Magic Tree House, Junie B Jones, etc.) and the upper grade
fiction were both labeled FIC.

I spent the summer pulling all the easy readers off the picture books
shelves, giving them a separate "You're Reading Now!" section, relabeling
and changing all the catalogue entries. I added a colorful "Fiction" label
to the junior chapter books, which are shelved separately, but didn't change
the catalogue entries. I mainly wanted my two volunteers to know what went
where! The kids are used to a colorful nonfiction label on the lower grade
nonfiction, so adding a label to the junior chapter books made the most
sense
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I am in a K-5 library now, but I used to be in a 2nd-8th library (weird, I
know) I have/had an everybody section (picture books) and a fiction section.
I didn't separate the fiction in the 2-8 library. The kids browsed and
looked for books that were appropriate with my guidance and the teacher's
suggestions too. I did on occasion have some 2nd grade student get a non
fiction book that was not on their level, but we usually worked it out. I
would put all your fiction together. You are not doing your students a
service to separate them. They need to learn how to navigate in a library.

I keep my easy chapter books in a separate section near the 'regular'
fiction. Each series (A-Z mysteries, Junie B, etc) has its own shelf and
there is a label on the front of the shelf labeling those series titles.
When I was in a tiny library I had those books in baskets. The kids seem to
like it that way. I have no help for shelving books, so the added benefit
is that the kids can put the books back on the shelf with no problem.
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I am in a K-8 library. My fiction is in two major sections: all the series
that have more than one author are shelved together at the beginning of my
fiction. These are followed by the rest of fiction. To make my life
easier, I put a red star on the spine of books that have content that is
appropriate only for 7 & 8 grade.

I find it helpful to refer to "easy books" as Everybody Books - no stigma
attached. That said, I have an Everybody section and the call numbers are E
and 3 letters of the
authors last name. I have a fiction section (more YA) with the call
numbers FIC and again 3 letters of the authors last name. I also have a
series section with the same fiction call number, but a colored dot on the
spine to indicate they are in the series section. This are mostly early
series that transition some students from the Everybody books to the
fiction section. Finally, I have a paperback section with the call number
PB and 3 letters of the authors last name. Within the PB section: red =
realistic fiction, yellow = mysteries, and a few other colors that break
down into sections that our users find helpful. So, basically we have
four sections for fiction.
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I am also in a K-8 libray iin a very small room. I
have my fiction in two sections, picture books and
chapter books. I put a yellow label cover on my
chapter books. I hope to be able to split my chapter
books into a YA section too so that I can stop telling
3rd graders that they have to be a 6th grader before
they can check out certain books.
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At our school of 500+ students, the library is divided into three areas
(not counting the reference section): picture books, fiction, and
non-fiction. There are about 12,000 books in the circulating collection.
The fiction area generally serves grades 3-8, with YA stickers placed on the
books that have more mature subject material/vocabulary.
My occasional quandry is where to put the "picture boooks" that deal with
sensitive/mature issues that I have seen more of in the last few years
If you have room, do separate out the Easy Reader ( but call them
Everyone's). When I had K-8 I had a sections of fiction and non-fiction for
younger readers and then I had the other fiction and Dewey's. I used color
dots to help designate those books that were for only the very upper
grades...but never really told the kids that, just steered the younger ones
to other titles and older ones to those. It didn't take long for them to
figure out, but no one ever commented.

What we have done at my school is put a colored dot on the easy fiction &
shelve those books in with the others. Easier on you, & the students know
to look for the dots. You could also use another color for YA books.
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I'm in a K-4 school and have previously been in a K-8 school. I do think
it's imperative to have different fiction sections due to content of the
older fiction. Perhaps you could create an "advanced" section for the middle
school kids.
I always segregate the easy readers. I am also now making a section for
"easier" chapter books - like magic tree house, etc.

I mark this sections with different colored dots at the top of the book and
then go into the catalog program and mark them with sublocations so that
students know where they are. I also clearly mark the walls and shelves
noting the different sections.
I have an easy section, a fiction section, and a non-fiction. Luckily
the 921s are shelved with the rest of the non-fiction (2 years ago I was
a library aide, and there was a separate biography section.

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This is always a difficult question for children's libraries, because
the reading ability of the 3rd graders is so variable, and finding books for
that "intermediate group" is a challange. Our Easy book section contains
books from K to 3, and our fiction section is supposed to go from 3 - 5.
However, we all know this makes it very difficult to locate beginning
chapter books suitable for third grade. I try to help this by setting up
special book collections on the top of shelves of beginning chapter books,
easier novels, etc., and keeping series paperbacks together on racks, such
as Magic Tree House and Secrets of Droon, which are reliably at that
intermediate level. No, it's not a perfect solution, but we do the best we
can with it. I think separating the books permanently into three
collections is too stifling for the kids
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My library has a Fiction section, (mostly chapter books) and an Easy
section, which has levels from .5-6.0 reading levels but is made up of
picture books. I have several large signs that say E stands for Everybody so
that no one feels like they are above using the picture books. It seems to
work.

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I work in a K-8 library and we have 3 sections for our fiction. One is
fiction for grades 3+, Easy (E FIC on the labels) for the picture books
and J READ (Junior readers) for easy readers. Each is shelved in a
separate section in the library and we put colored labels on the J READ
books to differentiate them for our volunteer shelvers. This
arrangement works great for us as the little kids have their own areas
to check out from and do not have to reach the higher shelves where the
fiction is located. In the J READ section there is both easy fiction
and non-fiction books
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I would not create a separate section. Instead, buy some spinning racks
and label them "Chapter Books for Young Readers" and keep that rack
full. That way young readers can find the fiction they need and
volunteers can help shelve books without having to have a Masters degree
in library science to figure the system out. I would also put shelf
aids to help locate popular series, etc. We have a Junie B. shelf
talker, and Capt. Underpants doll, etc....
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When I was down at that level, I had 3 fiction sections: E (Easy--would have
PREFERRED P for Picture book though), C -- Early chapter books, Fic--for
reading levels (and interest levels) grade 4 and up. AND the YA sticker for
7th/8th grade books. So it was broken down into 4 parts, but only shelved in
3. I also broke up by Nonfiction shelves. Left hand was low elementary,
right hand upper level. So on each shelf there are books of that number with
a split down the middle (okay, NOT quite middle, but close). Only the animal
section are they all intermixed. They are not listed different in the
computer. So it is just the shelver's idea of which side they go on.
Reasoning: This helps the K,1,2, ELL students find appropriate level books
quickly. BUT all students can check out from anywhere on the shelf. It is
just for finding that "small/.thin" book that would get lost with the books
for the older students. And I have 8th graders checking out the nonfiction
picture books, and K checking out the book as big as they are Racing Cars.
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I also have a small (600 sq. ft.) pre-k-8 library.I absolutely separate my
fiction section into smaller sections. Picture Book refers to a format, not
a reading level. Most picture books canot possibly be read by the target
audience and are, in fact, used throughut the curriculum at all levels. If
the picture book contains at least a 50/50 split between pictures and text,
I keep the "E" designation and put them together. If the book can be read by
the emerging reader and also has an "E" designation such as the "I-Can-Read"
books, I label them "J FIC" for junior fiction. This tells my new readers or
struggling ESL older kids that the vocabulary is easier and that there will
be pictures. I label general fiction with "FIC" and finally, I separate the
YA fiction with a designation of YA FIC. Lower grade students may not borrow
these.
I think that it is important to serve the patrons by making location and
access as easy as possible. This works for me. If I had more space, I wouild
separate popular series books like Goosebumps and Junie B. Jones. For now,
they are interfiled.
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My fiction books are currently divided into the following sections. Easy
picture books (both hardcover and paperback) are shelved in their own
section
together. I did put the learn-to-read chapter books on their own rack. All
of the rest of the fiction are shelved together, merely ordered by the
alphabet. I do not have a lot of space to create a lot of extra sections,
but this makes it a lot easier for my volunteers to shelve the books. I
would
like to have a YA section, unfortunately we do not have very many books
which qualify for it.
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I am just K-5, but what I do might work for you, too.
Picture books are in their own section. I do not call them "easy"...because
they aren't all easy. Some of them have reading levels for 5th and 6th
grade. The easy reader books in that section I put blue labels on (for
example, the Step Into Reading books).
Chapter books have their own section, the fiction section. The lower level
chapter books I put yellow labels on their spines. There are a few books
that are more mature, for example, the newest Newbery winner, and I have
"ask me" labels on those. The accelerated reader books have an AR label on
them.
The only books that are separated out are the trade paperbacks, and I have
them on spinners.
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We have: E; ABC-easy readers and beginning chapter books; Int-more difficult
and longer chapters; FIC - harder and longer still, but with a few of the
others thrown in; M-Minnesota fiction boooks by MN authors; S-series
books-Gecko, Babysitters and many of the rest; MYS-mystery; YA-for grades 6
and up; books marked with a green strip for multiple copies of a title. I am
thiking of arranging by genre to make acces easier for students....you know
"I need an adventure book etc"
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I think there IS such a thing as too many sections, but of course there is
NOT such a thing as too many books...

If I were you I think I would keep my E (Easy or Everybody) section, to hold
picture books, and have one Fiction section. If you want to make it easy for
kids to pick out the "easy readers", maybe you could put some sort of
sticker on the spine of those books that makes them easy to spot?
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I am in a K-8 school and I have three fiction sections, not counting the
Everybody picture books. There is a beginning chapter book section with an
orange label over the spine label. These are the books for first through
third, although if a fourth grader wants them it wouldn't be a problem.
There is a general fiction for almost everyone else. There is a Young Adult
fiction for grades 7 and 8 only. This is marked by a red label over the
spine label. I have a small library but I am still able to have them in
three different shelving areas. I would like to interfile general fiction
with the YA because there are many excellent titles in general fiction for
the upper grades but once they are "allowed" into the YA shelves they stay
there and never visit general fiction again.
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When I came to the school there was no YA or early chapter collection.
Having three fiction collections works well for us. I also have non-fiction
divided into "E"everybody non-fiction and general non-fiction. I am tempted
to deliberately mis-shelve some non-fiction into the YA section because, for
some reason, they also don't visit non-fiction after fifth grade.
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As long as you have different top line in call number you could easily have
three levels of fiction. E for Everyone(easy), F or FIC for middle fiction,
and YA for young adult section. What goes in easy is hard to decide because
so many picture books are written at fourth, fifth grade level or whatever
independent reading level. My students (K-5) search in the OPAC and there is
a map that will appear that indicates to them which set of shelves in the
library to find the call number range.
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I'm new this year in a K-6 school. I pulled out all the easy readers and
created a beginning chapter book section and I am working on changing the
labels to ER and the author's last name. As for the rest of your fiction
books since your school goes up to 8th grade... I also work in a public
library and in their young adult section all of the books are shelved
together but have stickers on them, "young teen" recommended for grades 6-8
and "young adult" recommended for grades 9 and up. So perhaps you could get
young teen stickers for the books for the older children and shelve them in
the same spot. I read somewhere once that children often gravitate towards
the books that are meant for them
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We have 1 fiction section for the older kids and an easy reader section for
the younger students. We put a red dot sticker on the easy readers to tell
them apart visually and they are also labeled this way in the computer. For
your first year you may want to use stickers to create different "sections",
use a colored sticker to mark young adult fiction and keep it on the shelf
with the regular fiction. Just allow certain grades to take books that are
marked a certain way. Then during the summer you can work to change the
collection to make it more student friendly. Just my two cents
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In my k-5 library I have FIC for
chapter books, ER for beginning readers up to level 2.9, E for picture books
( I am very tempted to change this to EP or just P), and PB for paperbacks.
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I serve grades K-4, and we have two fiction sections: One section of "E"s
(mostly picture books) and then regular fiction. K-1 students are only
allowed to check out from the easy section (though there may be exceptions
for high readers), which we have marked with crayon die-cuts. So they
know they are only to check out from the "crayon shelves." Works pretty
well! We don't have a separate YA section because our population only
goes up to 4th.
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I just left a K-8 school. I had two a Reference Section, Non-Fiction
(Dewey) Section, Everybody Section (Easy fiction & nonfiction) and Fiction
Section (only chapter books) Some early readers that were low level AR and
NOT chapter went in Everybody Section. Low Level AR non fiction, mostly
through 3.9 went in E section also. It was read more in that section. I
had a hard time selling the NON Fiction section, so I put the books were
they would be read. In library school, we were told to have as few sections
as possible so not to confuse the patrons (and of course spine lables
matched OPAC) but when I was the director of a Public Library, they
separated the Fiction into Western, Mystery, etc. etc. I later talked to a
professor about this as was told that what works best for YOUR market
(patrons) where they will look for material is the best place to shelve
books.
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We're K-8 and we have three fiction sections - Easy (picture books),
All-Star (easy reader chapter books like Junie B. Jones and Young Cam
Jansen) and Fiction (everything else). Some of the books in Fiction are
marked with a red sticker and can only be checked out by 7-8 graders (and
some 5-6 graders whose parents have signed permission slips). This keeps
books (and some magazines) that might include distressing material
(Holocaust, for example) or topics mainly of interest to the older kids
(dating, preparing for high school, and so on) out of the hands of the
younger students, as well as making the MS kids feel special. It works fine
for us.
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When I taught at a PreK-8, I had several
sections. I had the picture books, the beginning readers ( i.e. Go Dog Go,
The Cat in the Hat, etc.) which were in their own section marked at the top
of the spine with a dark blue circle sticker, the regular fiction shelved as
usual and some easy fiction in with them that had a light blue circle
sticker on the top of the spine. This served the purpose and it was easy to
shelve everything. We were also automated, but this was all in place
beforehand.
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When I came to my current district, the first year I was in two schools--a
PreK-2 and a 3-6. There had been no certified people before me. In the
primary school everything was mixed together. I had wanted to separate the
beginning readers from the picture books, but bec. I was in two schools and
there were time constraints I didn't. To date, this hasn't been done by any
other med. sp. since. In the intermediate school the picture books AND the
chapter books were all mixed together. DUH! I took all the picture books off
the shelves and organized them in their own section. Next to them, I shelved
all the fiction books from a-z.

One thing I have learned over the years is "make it simple for your
users!" Your little ones definitely need a separate area. We also put
some series of nonfiction together on separate shelves, ex. all
Checkerboard animal books together; all Eyewitness together, rather
than by Dewey (the spine has the correct Dewey number, we just shelf
together.)
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my Primary room which serves PK-4) had shelving for E, and Fic,
and series, and a bunch of uncataloged paperbacks just piled on spare
furniture. PLUS Easy Non-fic and J-non fic. I immediately merged the Non fic
into one group and haven't regretted that for an instant. Then I put all the
fiction against one wall: The E books are on the bottom three rows straight
across, the J Fic is on the top two shelves straight across. I made it clear
to all that they are welcome to shop from any shelf.
I think in your shoes I might consider dividing into E, JFic and YAFic
(with the understanding that your YA might not be equivalent to a YA at the
public library, since they are at most 8th graders) But train them that they
are allowed to shop at will.
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I'm the librarian in a K-8 parochial school. I have a "*Regular Fiction *"
section with standard call numbers, a "*Picture Book*" section with red
sticker call numbers of author's last name initial, an "* Easy Reader*"
section, with standard call numbers, but an additional yellow dot above the
call number, a "*Biography *" section, a "*Regular Non-Fiction*" section
with standard call numbers, and an "*Easy Non-Fiction *" section with
standard call numbers, but an additional blue dot above the call number.
Demco has all the labeling supplies.
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Thanks again for everyone's help!
Jennifer

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