hello my name is chenade and for my individual
project I'm going to be talking about genrefication in school libraries so before I
dive in I wanted to back up for a moment and talk a little bit about the historical context
of genrefication genrefication is definitely a big buzzword right now in school libraries
but it is not a new idea we have all heard of Dewey um and his classification system The
Dewy Decimal System that was created back in the 1870s but that was not the end of the story
other people have worked on creating systems of classification and have done research into how
the classification of books in library libraries affects circulation and Patron happiness with
their experience so even even though this is a trend that's picking up steam recently
uh for example the American Association of school libraries devoted an entire issue of its
magazine to this question and featured a session on ditching dewy ditching Dewey genrefication
in your library at its n Nationa
l Conference in 2013 this isn't a new idea so when we talk about
genre ification we are talking about the process of organizing classifying and categorizing
items in your library into genres that's a pretty broad definition which is a good thing
uh because it can be done in a lot of ways so genrefication doesn't always mean ditching Dewey
as aasl um kind of hinted at in that teaser title because even libraries who do still utilize the
Decimal System often use genrefication strategies on a s
maller scale many libraries separate
fiction from non-fiction for example um or as graphic novels are becoming more popular
many libraries are creating separate sections for graphic novels so what are the benefits of
genrefication specifically in school libraries while genrefication can help students locate and
self select books much more quickly and easily and this helps boost their self-sufficiency and
their sense of confidence which can really help promote the enjoyment of reading it is
also more
developmentally appropriate for younger children who may not have an understanding of decimals if
we're talking about a library at an elementary school decimals might be a very confusing part
of the library for our kids but quite frankly even older students at the middle and high school
levels can sometimes be intimidated by decimals math can be scary numbers can be scary and the
last thing we want to do as a library is make our patrons feel like they are unable to navigate
our s
ystem genrefication can also support students who want to read a specific type of book but it
can also allow students to intentionally explore a new genre genrefication allows school librarians
to become more familiar with their collection this can improve their collection development
skills their reader advisory skills another big benefit of genrefication is that it follows
browsing patterns that our students are used to um our students are used to searching for certain
hashtags on social
media platforms our students are used to opening Netflix and seeing categories
like comedy horror um if we can make our library better match what they are used to what they enjoy
using what they see in their day-to-day life that can really be a benefit genrefication can limit
Choice overload and thus reduce Library anxiety and genrefication can also make reshelving much
quicker and easier for staff which in turn allows school librarians more time for collaborating
with classroom teachers wo
rking with students creating lessons on a digital citizenship you
know doing readers advisory all these things that are more beneficial than time spent on the
more mundane tasks like shelving books now it is important to also consider some of the drawbacks
of genrefication there can be inconsistency in genres from one genfi collection to another
unlike a very standardized system such as Dewey each Library if they're going to genri
you know for example their fiction they may come up with dif
ferent categories the categories
aren't always going to be the same from library to library we also have certain books that can
fit into multiple genres so then the question becomes where do you put that book and that can
be a big question because depending on which genre you put it under you may be encouraging or
discouraging some students from trying it with a genfi collection readers might limit themselves
to one genre and avoid all others you know for example it makes it much easier for
kids to always
go directly to you know the sports section or the graphic novel section whatever it may be without
even glancing at any other books most public and University libraries still use the Dewey Decimal
classification system and one of the main jobs um as a school is to prepare children for the next
step in their life prepare them for adulthood so there are concerns that too much genrefication
uh getting too far away from the Dewey Decimal System could put our students at a disadv
antage
when they go to college or try to use the public library system genrefication is a very time in
labor intensive process most school librarians are already pulled pretty thin and some people feel
that the rearrangement of the print collection should not be a priority um School librarian S
have a lot of other things to work on preparing for the digital shift collaborating with classroom
teachers teaching our students about digital citizenship and some people question whether
the time
and labor required for genrefication is really the best use of a librarian's Time
finally some Librarians have raised concerns that if we make the library oversimplified and and
completely remove the need for our professional reference Assistance or our readers advisory
suggestions we may be putting our own jobs in Jeopardy if a librarian is considering
implementing genrefication in their collection there are some steps that they would have to work
through my number one piece of advice is t
o First do your own research geny your library is a big
decision it's a timec consuming process and it should be something that you are very confident
that you want to do before you start the process once you have decided you do want to genri you
need to choose what you want to genri and which genres you will use um do you want to start small
and just pull out something like biographies or graphic novels do you want to tackle the fiction
section um it's less common but do you want to do you
r entire Library completely ditch dewy and
put everything into genres another important step before you start physically moving books
around for genrefication is to weed this is such an important step because genrefication is timec
consuming and you do not want to waste time genri Ying books that are not going to circulate um and
really shouldn't even be in your collection in the first place you need to consider calculating your
shelf space um look at the books that you have which genres do
you have more books for that are
going to need more space which genres could you fit on a smaller shelf signage you're going
to need to indicate the genre on the shelves on the books themselves you're going to need some
other type of you know appropriate signage to help guide your students to the book they're looking
for especially when this is new you're going to need to plan the work of physically flipping the
collection you need to be prepared for the time and labor demands of the actua
l switch and how
that is going to affect the day-to-day running of your library um while you're doing it you
know a personal example I'm trying to geny my library just the fiction section I went through
and I pulled all the books that I was planning to classify as Classics put them on a table I thought
they'd be good there for a little bit found out a couple days later we were having a big meeting in
the library we needed all the table space I had to clear them all off again so you really d
o need
to have some time set aside where you can make a little bit of a mess before you get to reorganize
and finally you're going to need to advertise and promote your new system you're going to want to
build excitement but also train um any staff you may have and your students other patrons teachers
your principal any stakeholders you want them to see how easy your library is to use how fun it is
to be able to quickly find books that you enjoy
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