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Thank you to all who responded to my query about recommendations for
picture book shelving and comments on picture book bins. I've copied all
responses below. 

Kathryn Turner
Librarian
AIGS
Guangzhou, China
kturner@aisgz.edu.cn

Standard;Our fiction picture books are located in the everybody (E)
section of our library. Then we shelve them according to the author's last
name. I have found that students will learn to note the author's name if
it is a book they like and they also remember where these books are
located. By starting early, this helps as the students move to the fiction
section - as we shelve the books in fiction area according to the author's
last name.
***
Put call numbers (call letters, actually) on all picture books. Mine are E
and then the author letter (was this way when I arrived 31 years ago.) I
would put three letters on spine if at all possible as it would help to
keep the alphabetical sections more organized. I only have a library of
8,000 titles so the way it is works OK, but it is hard to find/shelve easy
fiction (picture books). I just have kids put them in the"B" section and
leave it at that. I sure can tell what books don't go out as they are in
their original spot come inventory time...
***
Naturally the bins are MUCH easier for the kids to go through.~ VERY
user-friendly
***
TWICE, I inherited collections with a massive number of paper copies.~ I
pulled them (from the shelves) and kept them in bins.~ A nice visible
spine label on the upper front corner would help if the bins were labled A
to Z.

However, I put as much of my (hardcover) picture book section that I could
in Non-Fiction.~Holidays, Religion, FolkTales, Fairy Tales Math, Science,
Language, Literature (fractured tales can go in a parody section),
biography, you name it.~The books don't come with these more specific
Dewey subject headings.

You can probably do some weeding too.~ Get rid of anything not USEFUL
especially if it's old and worn out.
***
We have short shelves (42 inches?) which can hold 3 rows of chapter books
up and down, but I adjusted them to hold 2 rows of tall picture books.~ We
display favorites on top of the shelves.
***
Even kindergarteners can learn to find books that are shelved.~ It teaches
them early on that all books are shelved by author's last name. . .
***
I have shelf dividers. For several years I tried to keep the books in
strict order. I finally gave up. It was taking way too much time. Books
are shelved by first letter/last name. Small enough collection that if a
book is supposed to be in, we can usually find it.

I always had them alphabetically by author. Some people believe in having
Fiction and Easy alphabetically by title WITHIN author, and that would be
people who had more time than we ever had in my library!
***
Our district used to have bins, and all schools but one have replaced them
with traditional shelving.~ My best friend still has her bins, and she
doesn't want to give them up.~ Yes, they make it harder to find books, and
no the staff doesn't like them.~ The students LOVE them, and she is
determined to keep them for the students.~ What her students like they get
to keep, at least as far as these bins go.
~
Just a thought about the one hold out in my district.~ She is a good
friend, well respected educator, and a wonderful librarian.~ Maybe you
will keep yours, too.
***
We used to have all our books in bins.~ They took up a lot of space and we
could never seem to find books that we were looking for.~ We removed all
of the bins and designed shelving units that are adjustable so that we can
convert entire shelves into displays that hold 3-4 books.~ We also had
book displays put onto the ends of each of our shelves.~ We try to keep
most of our shelves only 3/4 full so that a display book can go on each
shelf and we use the tops of our shelves as well.~ I can honestly say,
that this has worked much better than using the bins.~ We can find books
and we are providing an environment that is appropriate for early
childhood children.
***
I hate Easies when it comes to shelving.  So here is what I do. I do
shelve in general order only.  So in the fiction section there is a shelf
with just the books whose author's last name begins with A's, and so on
down the line.  They are just there, no order begins with the letter
whatever.  I do have a shelf that has Dr. Seuss and one for Berenstain.
 
In nonfiction for the easies I do the same so all of the 100's are
together, etc.  but not in sequential order.  I do split out the 300's. 
One shelf for fairy tales and one shelf for other stuff.

I have all my picture books on the bottom two shelves of our five
shelf-bookcases ? fiction is gupstairsh on the top 3 shelves, E books on
the two shelves beneath, all along the wall, in alpha order. (We are in a
narrow room originally designed for storage, about 20 x 30 ft. long, so I
have two nice long walls for shelving). I bought the yellow lettered
(A,B,C etc.)stickers from Demco and taped (with Scotch book tape) the
authorfs last name initial below the spine label. They make getting the
books back to the right shelf easy enough for student helpers to do. I
donft alphabetize the individual books on E shelves, just the fiction
shelves. As long as all the A authors are together, etc., it usually
doesnft take to long to locate the book.
***
I have arranged my picture books by subject categories.~ I have about 25
categories, including such things as School, Dogs, Cats, Food, etc.~ Each
book has a label on the spine indicating the category, there are shelf
labels for each section with a representative picture.~ I used the global
edit feature in my cataloging software to change the location of each book
to reflect the category it is in.~ 
Why did I do this?~ Most K-2 kids (the biggest audience for picture books)
don't pursue books by specific authors, but by subject.~ Also, the
teachers tend to teach thematically, so it's easier and more
productive~for them to browse.~ Of course, sometimes the category the book
is placed in seems arbitrary, but no more arbitrary than arranging these
books by author. 
It was a ton of work to set this up initially, but users love it.~ By the
time the kids are actually ready to locate materials alphabetically by
call number, they are generally starting to read the "chapter books"~
which are arranged conventionally. 
***
I work in a public library. Our picture books are shelved alphabetically
by author's last name on low shelving. The shelving units have 3 shelves
and are on wheels to allow us to rearrange them easily. When we were
planning an expansion, our architect tried to convince us to use bins but
we refused since it is so difficult to find anything. I would recommend
going to some sort of low shelving.
***
The best shelves that I ever had for picture books when I was teaching
Elementary were divided like a tic tac toe board. The bookcase had two
shelves and each shelf had two dividers (permanent). This gave each
bookcase nine square shaped holes to shelve the books in and no book ends
to slide around. I have seen these type shelves that had different color
backings to the different holes.
***
I have my picture books arranged by first letter of the author's last name
on the shelf.  Instead of trying to read the names on the spines, I have
put colored dots on all the spines.  All the "A's" have big red dots, the
"B's" 
have yellow dots, etc.  I have pull out sections for Dr. Seuss, Marc
Brown, Eric Carle--all authors that have LOTS of books.  All picture book
non-fiction I shelve together under the call number E NF and put a large
hot 
pink dot on the spine.  Our K and 1st graders are not allowed access to
the regular non-fiction section.  When I set this up I figured out which
sections had the most books, and put the single dots on those first. 
After I had used up all the single colors of large and small dots, I made
"bulls eyes" by putting a small dot in the center of the large dot.  This
system has worked well.  It's really easy for us to shelve, and the kids
can put their own books back by matching dots.  The only time it is a pain
is when we are looking for a specific book in a large section, because the
books are only grouped by first letter.  But the time saved shelving all
the other books more than makes up for the few times we have to do that.
This is the third library I have used this in, and it really saves time. I
hope this helps.
***
Each of my picture books has a spine label with the first three letters of
the author's last name and we shelve them in alphabetical order.  It does
take work to keep them in order, but I think the kids need to start
learning as soon as possible how to keep library shelves neat and orderly.

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