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Thank you to everyone who responded to my request about how you have made your "series section" work successfully on your campus. I find myself needing to reduce the number of books in my current fiction section by about 15 shelves! to accommodate the installation of an interactive whiteboard. (And yes, I have weeded to the bone already.) We are slowly working toward a new design in our library and I felt that rather than move books around every few months until this renovation comes to full fruition, separating the "popular series" books from the rest of our fiction section allows me to accomplish my short term need for room AND cause the least disruption for the rest of the library collection. When the renovation is complete we may or may not keep the series books in a separate section. I decided that I will put a "marker" of some sort on the shelf where the books would be located to indicate their new location. Since this may be a TEMPORARY fix I do not think I will change spine labels or cataloging, but will probably put some kind of sticker on the spine to indicate series. I have a dynamo label maker and a red S on the side would probably be serve my purpose. (Should this become a permanent change cataloging will be also be changed.) Following are the responses to my request: (Names have been omitted to protect the innocent! :-) I added a prefix above the call number in the computer record: SERIES FIC OSB I am in the process of adding this prefix on the books' spines, and making signs for the bookshelves I am finishing up my first year in the library. When I started in September, books in a series were in two different places in the library: easy fiction series and fiction series. One group had green labels, the other had yellow labels. Parent volunteers had no trouble shelving them and kids would go look for them in the right place, BUT THE CATALOG GAVE NO INDICATION WHERE THEY WERE SHELVED. I am a little Kids would ask me to help them find books; we’d look at the library catalog, write down the call number, and then we couldn’t find them on the shelf. I looked like an idiot because I couldn’t find the books! I fixed the spine labels on these books and I shelved them in fiction and in E fiction (E is for Everybody). My students have no trouble finding them when they use the library catalog. My goal is to get them to find things by themselves most of the time. With the old system, kids would just browse the “books in a series” section, but if an author also had other titles that weren’t part of a series, the students never discovered them. I hope you post a HIT - I am planning on doing the same thing for the same reason. I don't have extra library shelving, but there is a metal rack they used to use that has been taking up space. I won't fit ALL the series on it, but I hope to fit most. It has six shelves on each side and they are only 8 inches deep - perfect for paperbacks. It will be near the fiction, but a bit apart - and I'm relying on the clerk and I remembering that these go on the rack... I am planning on using a 'sublocation' of series rack in the catalog. Good luck - and I look forward to seeing what others do. We have done this at our library and use 1/2" dot stickers to indicate that the book is part of a series. We use dark blue to indicate upper elementary series (Nancy Drew, Redwall, Lemony Snicket etc.) and bright green to indicate beginner series (Junie B., Magic Tree House, Nate the Great, etc.) It has worked very well Our city libraries use a juvenile system where picture books are ‘J1’ and chapter books are ‘J2’. They have a sticker at the top of each spine with either a red ‘J1’ or a blue ‘J2’. I have mirrored the city system in our school by putting a red ‘1’ or a blue ‘2’ at the top of each spine. I modified this system when I decided to pull series books and put them in a different section. When processing series books, instead of J2 Bro, for example, I would enter it as J2Y Bro, (the ‘Y’ stands for yellow). When labeling, I use a yellow ‘2’ instead of a blue one. This way it’s immediately obvious where to shelve them. In my ‘Favorite Series’ section I shelve series in alphabetical order according to the name of the series, i.e, A to Z Mysteries, Boxcar Children, Cam Jansen Mysteries, Dear America, Fairy Realm, etc. It’s worked really well. I separated series out last year and at the end of the year I put them all back in with the rest of the fiction. I had a hard time with what constitutes a series. Two or Three books? four or more? How popular did they have to be to get pulled? Arrgh....I decided it was easier to keep it simple! I have our popular series in another section and I think it works well. We use the prefix SER plus we use the yellow label protector, so that we know just by a quick glance where the books need to be shelved (or that they are in wrong spot!) The shelves are labeled as well. In my library we have separated out the Popular Series fiction books. It will definitely make the shelving easier, and will free up a lot of space. In order to designate these books, we leave the call number the same, but have a flourescent green dot that is placed right above the call number. That alerts everyone that the book is shelved in the Series section. By using the flourescent green it's very easy to spot one that may get shelved in the wrong place by mistake....but that almost never happens since it stands out so much. Go for it, all the way. I've done it, and the kids in my library love it. I put every series in it's own small bin box (6" wide, 12" deep, only 1.5" tall at the front, so the frontmost cover is visible). I made an entire row of these boxes, all with covers out, which saved shelf space AND made them more inviting. I liked it so much that I went still further, and got 6" wide plastic bins for heavier books (most of the series are pbs), and then labeled those bins for some authors, as well as series. That made it possible to ALSO put both pb and hardcover for popular authors in the same face-out labeled bin. I started with 20 boxes. I probably now have 120. Each one saves 6" of shelf space and results in a book facing out at that spot all the time. Most are clearly labeled, for the long term (that took time). The kids love it. Yes, the volunteers are sometimes unfamiliar with the series and miss. But those misses are fairly easy to spot, and the kids themselves come in every day and volunteer to put the series away, because a) it's easy, and b) they enjoy them this way, so putting them away is fun. I try to minimize the misses, if possible, by sorting the cart so that all of the series books are lumped together (they also tend to be pbs, which are light). You won't really need to tell the kids where it is... there will always be a crowd. :) And I didn't update the catalog. My rearrangement came because we moved for a remodel, and time to correct the catalog on that scale was not extant. Since my initial positioning of the series row was at fiction, and was highly visible, no one got confused I have done this too, but mostly with the Junie B, Magice Tree House, Zack Files and that level of fiction. I got clear empty video tape box holders, made a spine label for them, and then put the Series name at the top "Magic Tree House" and then "See Series Book Shelf" under that and then at the bottom of the spine I put the call number F Osb...the same as all the other books. I then put it as a place holder on the regular fiction shelf. At first the kids brought the video box to me (even though I had told them about it and shown them) asking me what it was, and look what I found, but now they all pretty much know what they are. My volunteers are harder. They sometimes still put the books back on the regular fiction shelf. When I find them there, I just move them back over to the series shelf. The kids do the same thing...they'll often tell me and I thank them for putting it back with the others and for being so observant. I don't mark anything in the catalog, or have anything special on the spine of the books. I did mark the shelves as the series shelves and label each area as Magic Tree House, Bailey School Kids, Zack Files, etc. It did not take kids all but 30 seconds to figure it out! The hardest ones for my volunteers are the Box car children series because it doesn't say "Boxcar children" on the covers. All the other books somehow make it clear that they're part of an ongoing series. I hope this helps. If you get some really clever ideas, could you please post a hit? I would appreciate seeing if there is anything better than this. We have a separate section for series. In my old school, we put them in baskets which the kids loved. It was easy for them to flip through the baskets. Here they’re up on shelves. We put “Series” in the 852k field in the catalog so the kids know to look there. We don’t put any sticker on them. Occasionally they end up back on the regular shelves by mistake. You will definitely need to mark them in some way - even just a small colored dot helps. Several years ago I took over a library that had limited space so the librarian had created special shelving areas for certain types of books. However, the books were not marked in any way so I never knew to re-shelve them in that area creating chaos for those used to finding the books in those areas - it was hard for me to remember just what the special sections were and if a book fit into that category. I quickly integrated books back into the collection and used the special shelving areas for other things and clearly marked them. The dots/stickers were supposed to let those re-shelving know where to put them, but were also easy to pick out on the regular shelves if misplaced. Using the Jim Trelease method of "grouping series books" in the library, we purchased plastic "wash tubs" (like the ones you can find at the dollar store which are about 16" x 20" in size). All of the tubs were white, so we created large colorful labels, laminated them, and then (using large book tape) taped them to the front of the tubs indicating the SERIES name (like "Junie B. Jones"). Then we placed each title from a specific series in the designated tub. We could get about 20-25 paperbacks in the tub or between 12-15 hardback books in them. To make it easier to locate visually, we grouped the tubs in one shelf area and called them "Bucket Books"---then each tub went on the shelf alphabetically by the series' name (to make it easier for the younger non-readers.) So our "Arthur" books came first, then "Berenstain Bears", then "Clifford the Big Red Dog"...and so on until we got to the "Zack Files." Using the Visual Search module in Destiny, I created "Bucket Books" as a visual icon to add those specific titles for each series that had a "tub." Then when the student clicked the "Bucket Books" icon, each series that was available was seen (with a picture of the character--such as Clifford) on the screen. Students could click the picture of the book character and could see the list of books which were available --- this was done using Destiny's TitlePeek program which showed the book's cover. The students could see the book cover and then read the words...IN or OUT. It made it very convenient for those kids who wanted to search the online catalog before browsing the tubs. They also reallized that sometimes books came in but weren't shelved immediately, so they could find out if their favorite was still on my bookcart or not. By the end of the year, I had first graders who could use the Visual Search online and then locate the book in the Book Buckets like they were "graduate students!" *grin* I don't do this; I feel that it does two things: 1. It creates confusion for kids and shelvers. You will have books shelved in both sections; kids will have to look in more than one section for what they want. Plus, if we're teaching kids lifelong library skills, most public libraries don't do this - unless a series has multiple authors like American Girl, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, or Dear America. For those types of series, I can (possibly) see the usefulness of a special section. 2. What determines what is a "popular series"? How often will it be updated? What criteria would you use to determine what books deserve the special designation, and how will you know when to put them back with the "unpopular" fiction books? And, most importantly, what does it say about the books that don't make the cut? I inherited a library that did this, and I've helped a few new librarians correct this in their library. Keeping the fiction section intact has always been the popular choice. What we've done is the same, but instead of taking them to another place we've put them on top of the shelves so they are more visible. We don't change anything in their call numbers, and yes, sometimes our volunteers put them back in the regular shelf, but once you tell them not too, it works perfectly! I inherited a library last year and a few book series were shelved separately. The kids really kept those books checked out. Some of the series that were separated are Junie B. Jones, A-Z mysteries, Dear America, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Geronimo Stilton, Hank the Cowdog, etc. All these books are placed in several shelves at the front of the fiction section with a label underneath identifying the series. My volunteers love reshelving these books because it is so easy. When all the books came back this year, I couldn't believe how many I really had. They are always checked out. We have our fiction set up like this and it works really well! We have the series books after the rest of the fiction books, they have the prefix "SERIES" before our regular fiction call numbers (FIC & author's last name) and the books also have Series stickers on them. The kids love the set-up and know just which books are series and belong in the special section, and they go right to it. They can get very upset if they find a series book mixed in with the regular fiction! We also have a little cheat sheet posted around the fiction section with the different genre stickers and what they mean. Our fiction circulates well, but the series books especially so. We have blue dot stickers on our popular sets and series and have them shelved in a separate area. This works well as our students and our 5th grade "helpers" all have no problem with finding the books. If only I could do the same in non-fiction, sigh. In my last school I used "S" above the FIC and author's name. We have a special section for popular series books. It is located next to the door and the kids all know about them. I do have an amazing assistant and she sees to it that the books are shelved in the proper area. When we check in books we make piles on the corner of the circ desk of these books and they can go to their proper area. Of course there will be occaisonal books that make it to the general shelves. Some of the series we do are Junie B., Eyewittness by DK, graphics by Capstone, Harry P, American Girl, Wishbone. We also have 3 shelves for the new books that arrive. Would this work: Put a marker where the series books *would* be, if there weren't shelved in a differert area. For example, in the SNI section of fiction, put a little sign that says "Lemony Snicket books are shelved with the Series books in the front of the library." That should remind both your shelvers and your patrons that these particular books are in the Series area. We're a small PreK through 8th grade school library with over 10,000 books. We went to this system two years ago because I only have a part-time aide, and shelving was so difficult. It has worked REALLLY well to speed up shelving. Also, I find the books are going out a lot more. To organize the sections I've done a few things. I've placed colored dots on the spines for the different sections. Blue for Easy Readers (Pre-primer types of books), green for Easy Chapter (only series such as Junie B., Geronimo Stilton, Magic School Bus, etc. comprise this section), yellow for animal books, and pink for Easy Graphic Novels. Our extensive collections of I Spy and dinosaur books are displayed in special revolving racks because they go out more than most. I've also gone into the OPAC and typed in the section where the books are now housed to make it easier for teachers to find the books if necessary. I have the same problem that you do, in that I do not have sufficient shelving capability to house all my collections - fiction or nonfiction. I inherited a library last year that had been staffed by a paraprofessional for many years,and a collection run by Accelerated Reader. The result is that I have LOTS of series fiction - I'm talking about 100 Boxcar Children, 75 Nancy Drew, 50 Wishbone, not to mention Lemony, Harry, Junie, Dear America etal. Their idea was that if one copy was good, then 3 to 5 copies must be better. Yes I'm weeding, but to solve the shelving issue, I went and bought cute baskets, tubs, trunks, suitcases an other interesting containers to hold these many books. Goosebumps are in a big cauldron, Hank is in a galvanized tin water trough, Clifford is in a puppy bed basket. You get the picture. The kids learned with one swoop where everything is, so they are no problem and all the fiction containers are in the fiction section, picture books with picture books, etc. A few of my volunteers never got it, but the majority did. This year I'll get some labeling on the containers, and do a better job of volunteer orientation. I did not do any special spine labels or cataloging. As a general rule, I don't like stickers - they gunk up the spines and look unattractive. I'm spending most of my summer trying to get the AR stickers OFF the books. There are some good articles and books about merchandising your library that I've read and seen. You might look for those, and think Barnes & Noble when you are creating displays and making books accessible to the kids. This week I just moved all my beginning chapter books for the same reason, space, and I am going to get silver star stickers for both the volunteers and the kids' identification ease. Other books in easy reader and on the fiction shelf have round, colored stickers so I have to have something dramatically different or there will be confusion. I have segregated mine on a cart and will do a de-briefing(!) about them to both volunteers and the 1st and 2nd graders next fall. I think it will be successful, I hope so! Rachel Hinds Librarian Carleston Elementary Pearland, Tx _mcquita2@aol.com_ (mailto:mcquita2@aol.com) "If you're here on Earth and you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room." - Farrah Gray ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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