[LM_NET] HIT: Dealing with Series fiction written by multiple authors

[Elizabeth Fox <keokuk@CASCO.NET>]

Thanks to everyone who replied - there are some excellent ideas here.  In
keeping with many of your requests, I've kept your replies anonymous...
Again, I really appreciate your prompt advice!

Elizabeth Fox, Technology Instructor
Newport High School, Newport, OR
keokuk@casco.net (pm)
Liz.fox@lincoln.k12.or.us (schooldays only)
http://ta.gd/nhsmedia
--------------------
I am in an elementary school, but we have the same situation with, for
example, the American Girls collection books.  Below the spine label I put a
label that says "Multi-author Series" (self-made) and code them with that
location in my online system.  I shelve them in a separate section by
series, then by # (if they are a #ed series) within the series, since
students are usually looking for them in order.
---------------------------
In my K-5 library, we didn't have time to help each one of our little
guys find a princess book or a Star Wars book. It was the same "all
different authors" problem. So we created something called Basket Books. We
now have a basket for each of the popular fiction subjects that our K-2s
can't yet find on their own. We have catalogued them as BB Princess, BB Star
Wars, etc., so we can send the kids right to the basket to find what they
are looking for. We also use Destiny's Visual Search for our second graders,
and they have learned that if they want a book with a BB call number, they
just need to go find the right basket. 99% of our books are catalogued using
Dewey, so our 3-5s do learn the system, but Basket Books seem to work to
help our little ones get the book they want.
    My suggestion for you would be to shelve those Star Trek books together
(after all, isn't the idea to make it easy for kids to find books?) and then
catalog them Star Trek / Author's Last Name or some abbreviated form of
that.
---------------------
Although I don't have a "series" section, I found that grouping some
together made life easier for the students and me.  I have several series
that I put at the beginning of the fiction section, such as Dear Diary.  I
also put some of them in plastic tubs and place the tubs on the shelf where
the author of the majority of them can be found.  Popular series, such as
Captain Underpants are also in tubs.  As often as they go out, it is not
worth trying to put them in order.
--------------------------
I catalog them "properly" by author, or whatever.  However, I display them
together.  I have some cardboard book racks that I've acquired, as well as a
couple plastic table top spinner racks that I use.  The kids don't know who
wrote the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, or the the American Girl books.
They just want to read one.  Having all of one series shelved together helps
a lot.
------------------------
In my library (k-5 school), I do what they did for the Nancy
Drew author (known as Carolyn Keene, but actually the work of several
different authors.  I assign them a ³corporate author² so that they will all
be together.  So, in the case of the Geronimo Stilton series books, I have
them all under FIC GER (for Geronimo).  I still list the actual author as it
is in the record.  Just the call number changes, so that the books will be
together.
------------------
I have actually "ignored" the authors and used a standard call number like 
FIC STA  for Star Trek, for example.   I do NOT change the MARC record, only
the call number/locator number.  I'm getting ready to do that with my
American Girl series, which have about 4-6 different authors - so they will
all become  FIC AME.

I actually prefer that to having a Series Shelf or Shelves  - if you do
that, you'll still have to find a way in the catalog to indicate the
LOCATION of the books if they are not in a standard location.
----------------------
We have the old Follett Circulation Plus, not Destiny, so I think that's why
I can get away with this.  I change the MARC record (since it only happens
at my school, not districtwide) so that the local call number is STAR WARS,
etc. and change the spine label as well.  The books are still shelved
alphabetically in the fiction, just by STAR WARS instead of the author's
last name.  Although that isn't really accurate cataloging, I find that
circulation picked up a bit with those series, because it makes it so much
easier for the students to find.
------------------------
I would throw out the cataloging rules and catalog them all as F STAR
TREK or F TREK or something along those lines. I get a lot of free books
and graphic novels from our public library and catalog them this way (F
BUFFY, F SUPERMAN, etc.). They can just stay on the regular shelves, but
they're all together.
---------------------------
We catalog such books so that they will be shelved together: either by the
original author/creator--( For example we put all the American Girl books by
series under FIC AME) or when a new writer takes over a series we continue
to shelve the books with
the original author-- (e.g. BRO for all the Arthur books).
--------------------------
We are very naughty and put them together under FIC STA      The proper
author information stands in the catalog,  we just change  the call number.
We do that for American Girls and That's so Raven and any other like that to
make it easiest for the student to find which is my goal.

It can encourage lessons in how to use/understand the catalog.  i always say
I could put the location as "under the librarian's desk"  and they should
still be able to find it if it's clear in the catalog
--------------------------
We were given about 75 of the Star Wars books a few years ago and faced the
same problem.  We catalogued them as FIC STA and that seems to work fine.  I
did find a site that had the series listed in order and I color coded and
numbered the spine labels accordingly.
------------------------------
I decided to shelve them by the name of the series. For example, the Halo
books are all under F HAL and the Bluford High books are all F BLU. It might
not be the standard way to do it, but we don't have a section just for
series books, and some of these series books are the types that kids who
aren't big readers or very library savvy want to read. My take on it is if
they can easily go to the shelf to see what is in that they haven't read
yet, it will help make them more comfortable with reading and the library
and more likely to keep coming back. Similarly, I shelved the Unauthorized
Twilight Companion book under F MEY even though it isn't written by
Stephenie Meyers. When I had it in the non-fiction, no one was finding it
since the students who read Twilight didn't think to use the catalog to find
other Twilight related materials. Once the popularity dies down, I'll move
it back to non-fiction, but for now, it is allowing the students to find it
and read it.
----------------------------
If the first Star Wars book I get is by White, (or most of them are by
white), then I change the call numbers so they're all FIC WHI.  Not
correct, really, but the kids will look for them all together so that's
how I shelve them.  I don't have a special series shelf.
----------------------------
I have decided to have something new this year - it is a large shelving unit
with end to the wall and both sides will be series books, alpha by author,
so all the Hardy Boys will be together, Nancy Drew, etc.
I figure the catalog already shows series and I'm not even putting any
special labels on them - just telling all my shelvers and student helpers
where series books will now go.
---------------------------------
Our American Girls books are like this in our elementary library.  I have
them all together on the shelf, first thing in Fiction.  Since the series
begins with "A" that was an easy decision.  I used to keep a separate
"series" shelf, but we have too many series, so I put everything except Am
Girls back into the regular ABC fiction shelves.  I catalog the books the
regular way, everyone just knows that series is found at the beginning of
fiction.  I also have 3 non-fiction series that are shelved together as a
series.  I place them at the end of non-fiction and the students just know
where to find them.
----------------------------
Our series books are shelved separately for browsing together so it doesn't
matter who the author is
-----------------------------
In my elementary media center I have a series section with bins marked with
the name of the series, regardless of spine label.  I.e. all of the Star
Wars novels are in the Star Wars bin, regardless of author. But their spine
labels may reflect the first three letters of the author's last name (i.e. F
WES, F BLA, etc)   If I didn't have a series section, then I would have no
problem using the cataloging record generated by my system but affixing a
spine label with F STA (for star wars) on all of them regardless of author.
My goal is to make them easy for my patrons to find.
------------------------------------
I bought a three-sided portable shelving unit from Demco and put my series
like Dragonlance, Star Trek, etc. on it. I can tell the kids who are "into"
a series to check there for all the volumes that we have!! 
---------------------------
We had the Mary Kate and Ashley series in elementary.  With our district's
union catalog, there was no way to indicate a different shelf, so we decided
to keep ours "shelved" in clear plastic bins that would hold the books
standing up on designated shelves at the beginning of the fiction shelves.
------------------------
Against all the rules, I put them under the title of the series. For
example, American Girl books are under "FIC AME," Thirty-Nine Clues are
under "FIC THI." It works fine.
----------------------------
I do have a series shelf, but I hate it.  The library was like that when I
got there.  I intend on going in and recataloging the books and shelving
them with the others.  I have the star wars series that is this way.  I'm
just going to catalog them as STA.  Same thing with Pokemon, Scooby Doo,
etc...
-----------------------------
I'm a high school (9-12) Teacher-Librarian.  We also have lots of series
books by different authors and, yes, students want to find them together.
They care that the book is a Star Trek, or Star Wars, etc. book, not who
actually wrote it.  I don't have a separate shelf (shelving is an issue), so
I invented a three-part "Dewey number":  FIC (fiction)/SER(series - e.g..
STT
for Star Trek or STW for Star Wars/AUT (first three letters of author's last
name).  If label space is a problem, you could even leave off the author's
name - it's in the catalogue record, if anyone really wants to know, and it
might even be better to put the books in series order.  So the students see
FIC/SER/AUT and know where to find the book.

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