PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
There are so many benefits of a genrefied non-fiction collection. I can highly recommend it, but if you are just starting out or are facing a large non-fiction collection, knowing where to start can be daunting. Here’s my step by step guide to genrefying a non-fiction collection.
Non-fiction is seeing a bit of a resurgence in recent years and I am very much here for it. I love non-fiction and think big, beautiful and relevant collections have so much to offer staff and students of all ages.
But how best to present and organise your non-fiction collection? Would a genrefied collection offer the most for your students?
It has been a while since I last shared anything on my website. I’ve had, what I think, is a petty good reason. This term has been entirely focused on moving into our brand new secondary school library space. I am currently the Head of Library Services at St Paul’s School and we have two school libraries on the campus. A junior school library and a secondary school library space. Last year, in the term 3 holiday break, my AmazingLibraryTech and I moved the secondary school library into a temporary location in the staff lounge area (usually used for meetings and special events). It meant boxing up all of our belongings, having our collection and shelving packed up and stored offsite, and keeping just a tiny live collection with us.
I was reading a recently published book about school librarianship and was surprised to discover a few throwaway comments about genrefication. It was represented negatively and raised the usual comments you might see on Facebook posts or in email lists, arguing against genrefication. I’ve decided to call out some of these comments and write my responses and thoughts to each of them. I’ve worked in many school libraries that have both genrefied collections and collections in traditional layouts. I am unashamedly for genrefication, but I have also been in schools where we chose not to genrefy some collections. It just wasn’t for the reasons below, and here’s why.
It’s the end of the school year and that means it’s annual report time. Or does it?
When I mentioned to a colleague this year that I needed to put together the library’s annual report, I was a little shocked by their reply – “Why bother. No one is going to read it.”
It made me reflect on why I create an annual report each year and why I firmly believe it is worth the time and effort to create an annual report.
Do magazines belong in the school library? It’s not really a question I ever asked myself until recently when it came time to audit our magazine subscriptions. But in our changing world, do magazines still belong in school libraries? If student interest drops, is it time to unsubscribe?
The first school library I volunteered and later worked in had a lovely magazine collection. It also had a most magnificent non fiction collection, but that’s another post entirely. The magazines were well used, as indicated by loan statistics and student use for browsing and reading during reading lessons.
This year, when I took over the library at my current library, I undertook a bit of an audit of the magazine collection. The magazines in the secondary library were hardly touched, let alone borrowed. Some of this could attributed to our new location while we awaited renovations. The magazines had to be tucked into a back corner. But stats from the previous years demonstrated loans half of that from my first school and only 12 loans total for magazines from the secondary library. It wasn’t for lack of promotion or choices. We had over 25 magazines in the secondary library and just a few in the junior library. Yet the interest and use of magazines in the junior library was huge. Massive loan stats, sneaky visits from junior students to the secondary library to borrow some of our titles, interest and love for magazines from the junior students was high. Continue reading
I love graphic novels but that love doesn’t come close to how much my students love graphic novels. They adore them. I’ve seen that time and again at all the school libraries I’ve worked in. However, their engagement with the graphic novel collection always varied and that’s because the graphic novel collections in all of those libraries varied significantly. Some were tidy and small, others large and outdated and one was big, plentiful and beautiful and let me tell you the students adored it!!
So, when I took over as head of library this year, I knew one of the first things I wanted to do was show the graphic novel collection some love. Lots of love.
I have shared a lot about my experiences and thoughts around genrefication. I have written posts and articles, shared how I first started by genrefying a young adult fiction collection, before moving onto non fiction collections. I’ve presented at conferences and webinars on the topic. But, a first for me this year has been inheriting a library collection that had already been genrefied. I had worked in libraries before that had collections genrefied by someone other than myself, but those times were only for part time work or contract work. This year, I have taken over the library and am now responsible for a library collection where the non fiction is organised by dewey, the biographies are separated, and the young adult fiction collection was genrefied over 5 years ago.
I had the great privilege of talking genrefication again by presenting a webinar with EduWebinar all about genrefication.
It was great to revisit my genrefication process, especially as I am looking to start all over again at my new school. It was also fascinating to revisit the research in this area and see what the current trends are.
If you would like to view the webinar, you can register for the recording at EduWebinar.
You will find my slides from the presentation below.
If you follow my blog or know me at all, you’ll know that I quite enjoy talking about genrefication. I am by no means an expert, but I love experimenting and reflecting on the things I have tried across a few school libraries.
I am so excited to announce that I will be presenting a webinar with EduWebinar all about genrefication.
Join me on Wednesday, 15th of September 2021 at 7pm AEST as we talk all things genrefication. The webinar is free for EduWebinar members or $30 for non members.
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