In the sixth blog in our Library Lifeline series, we are focussing on how to arrange your library collection. This is a common topic of conversation familiar to many school librarians, which will, no doubt, leave some with a sense of trepidation. However, we are on hand to help you tackle the task of organising your school library, arranging your book shelves and cataloguing your resources.
Read on to find practical tips and helpful support from our expert ‘agony aunt’ – the School Library Association’s Member Development Librarian, Dawn Woods – who has a wealth of experience in the library sector.
The purpose of our Library Lifeline blog series, which is written in association with the School Library Association, is to support anyone working in a school library by answering their questions directly. If you have a different question you would like Dawn to answer, email worldofstories@literacytrust.org.uk. Your question even become the focus of a future blog!
What is the best way to arrange my school library? I’m unsure about whether to completely rearrange the entire collection into genres or stick to keeping non-fiction according to Dewey Decimal number and fiction in alphabetical order
Before you get started
The task of arranging your school library does not have to be overwhelming and can be broken down into manageable steps. However, my advise to anyone working in a library, before you commit to a full overhaul of your collection, make sure you consider what sort of library arrangement would best serve your school community and think about the advantages and disadvantages of different systems of classification and shelving. I've outlined some of the benefits and challenges to get us started...
The benefits of arranging your collection by genre
To illustrate my point about deciding on a system of classification and shelving, here are some scenarios to consider what take into account some of the nuances of arranging your collection by genre:
- Will you put all your fiction and non-fiction about the Second World War together?
- Will you separate your Shakespeare graphic novels from autobiographical books about the bard himself?
- Will you place all of your fiction into genres, and store this in a different place to your non-fiction which will also be sorted according to its genre?
If you arrange all your library books into genres, the advantages are that similar books are grouped together and this is less daunting for pupils choosing their book. It also allows pupils to more easily discover books similar to ones they enjoy, and improves their ability to identify genres according to front covers.
This method also allows you to place books within the genres most useful for your school circumstances. Additionally, library staff can see the strengths and weaknesses of a whole collection at a glance.
Not sure about genres beyond the usual ones? Have a look at our Young Readers Programme booklists to get an idea of more niche ways of categorising your books.
The disadvantages of arranging your collection by genre
The disadvantages of arranging your entire library collection by genre is that it may not expand your pupils’ repertoire for reading for enjoyment, and larger collections may intimidate some. If you are not shelving alphabetically it can also become difficult to locate a specific title, especially if the latter potentially fits into multiple categories.
Genre shelving also requires extra time and research to identify the books with which you are unfamiliar.
Shelving non-fiction according to genre can simplify the arrangement of stock, and again, you can tie this in to the subjects that are being taught in each year group. But be aware, this system doesn’t allow for much detail within each category, and it can be challenging knowing where to display titles which don’t fit into these genres. Additionally, you’ll need to decide if you’re keeping Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 books together or treating them separately.
Further considerations to help you arrange your library collection
What are the costs involved?
Cost needs to be factored in too. Will you purchase labels from suppliers such as Carel Press or Gresswells, and if your budget doesn’t allow this, and you make your own labels, do you have the time taken to apply them?
Do you have time and volunteer support?
Remember that with the right training pupil librarians are a fantastic resource for many of the tasks required for organising your library. For example, they can help research a title’s genre. You may have to separate the books appropriately for them and give them the corresponding labels, but they will enjoy being able to help prepare stock, will develop further skills, and experience a sense of pride and ownership in their library.
Start with a trial run
If a complete overhaul is too daunting, carry out a trial run. Dedicate a bay to displaying a different genre every term or have a paperback spinner with the most popular genre on. Keep all non-fiction and fiction together on whatever topic some year groups are studying that term and ask staff and pupils for feedback afterwards.
Remember that it’s perfectly acceptable to tailor the way you arrange your school library to your pupil needs and demands. It can be highly effective to categorise your fiction according to genre (whether you alphabetise this or not is your decision), and maintain your non-fiction according to its Dewey classification.
I’ve decided to rearrange my library! What next?
So, after careful consideration, you're ready to start rearranging your shelves. Here’s a handy checklist of actions to take:
- Decide on the genres you will have and use pupil-friendly terminology
- Determine if you are keeping fiction and non-fiction together or separately
- Decide on the category of each book
- If you have an electronic library management system enter a genre keyword for each title (this will also help you assess how large each section is when gathering stats)
- Calculate and plan the shelving according to the size of each category
- Print off shelf labels
- Have spine labels ready to use on the books
- When the library is not busy, place the labels on the floor or tables and physically sort books into piles. Put labels on corresponding books
- Take a small armful at a time and work your way steadily through the collection. Get your pupil librarians involved in this part of the process
- Place books back on their appropriate shelf
- Let everyone know how to find books using the new arrangement
Helpful additional resources
- Use the search facility on www.sla.org.uk to find a list of suggested fiction genres.
- Browse www.gresswell.co.uk for a range of contemporary classification labels for your library.
- Browse carelpress.uk a range of contemporary classification labels for your book spines.
- Find a more in-depth look at sorting an entire collection into genres on Mrs Readypants.