[CASL-L] [EXTERNAL] Genrefication question

[Finnegan, Kristen]

I color coded my spine labels using the transparent labels from Demco.

I only have 8 categories:

Teal: fantasy
Gray: sci fi
Yellow: contemporary/realistic
Purple: historical fiction
Pink: graphic novel (I shelve these with fiction or nonfiction depending on the topic, not with 741.5)
Fluorescent pink: verse
Orange: bio/memoir
Brown: mystery/thriller

If a book is more than one genre I will put up to two stickers on the spine (for example, a historical fiction novel in verse gets purple and fluorescent pink).

It’s not a perfect system, but it works for me and my students. ☺

Kristen


Kristen Finnegan
Librarian
Yearbook Moderator
Book Club Moderator
Lauralton Hall
200 High Street
Milford, CT 06460

www.lauraltonhall.org
(203) 877-2787 x133

[summer camp signature]


From: CASL-L [mailto:casl-l-bounces at mylist.net] On Behalf Of Rocca, Jen
Sent: Wednesday, June 2, 2021 10:13 AM
To: Cyndi Hansard <cyndi at aya.yale.edu>
Cc: CASL Listserv <casl-l at mylist.net>
Subject: Re: [CASL-L] [EXTERNAL] Genrefication question

We genrefied our fiction collection a few years back. We are a 9-12 high school of about 900 students. I don't regret doing it but it is absolutely an imperfect process.

How long will it take? The physical moving of books and updating the catalog is doable for a single person over the course of, say, a week. If they know what they're doing it can go pretty fast. The harder part is choosing the genres. We, as librarians, needed to identify the genres; then our clerk did the physical moving work over the summer. Genres are frequently not cut and dry. Is it dystopia or action? Is it mystery or realistic fiction? If it was a book published in 1980 about a story set in 1980, is it historical fiction or realistic fiction?

We kept the call numbers the same but changed the publication of the book in Follett. The genres we used in the end (not that this is ideal - just the best we could do at the time):

  *   action / adventure
  *   historical fiction
  *   humor (later deleted)
  *   mystery / horror
  *   realistic fiction
  *   romance
  *   sci-fi / dystopia / fantasy
  *   sports (thinking of removing)
Each genre has a color. The color label covers the call number on the spine and matching colored signs above the shelves indicate what section they are in.

Many kids really like this when they're browsing. It leads to hiccups sometimes. If a kid asks me where Divergent is I know it's by Veronica Roth but do I remember the genre? (turns out I put that in action/adventure instead of sci-fi/dystopia because the sci/fi dystopia section is MASSIVE - so not always cut and dry)

I'd say you could start picking away at it by adding sublocations in the catalogs now. Or just physically tagging or stacking the books by genres. That way the physical movement can happen over the summer.

And it's ongoing. We just found The Monstrumologist in realistic fiction. Pretty clearly horror. Sometimes the book description alone isn't enough to determine its genre. So every new book that gets added needs a determination.

I hope that helps. At least a little. I don't think we mastered a system for doing it - but we did manage it so... that's something!



On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 9:18 AM Cyndi Hansard <cyndi at aya.yale.edu<mailto:cyndi at aya.yale.edu>> wrote:
Good morning, all.

I am getting ready to genrefy my school library, and I have questions. My school serves grades 7-12, and we have approximately 3700 fiction titles/graphic novels.

My first question is -- approximately how long will it take to label and move that many books? For the most part, they do not already have genre labels. My assistant is hoping to pick up some summer hours to work on this project, but we need to provide an idea of how many hours it might take. I'm thinking about 5,467,892. Maybe one of you can give me a more hopeful number?

Also, for grades 7-12, what categories do you use? Do any of you simply color code the spines rather than use specific labels? For example, I'm thinking it would be nice to put mystery, thriller, and horror all together, so maybe they could all just have a green sticker with a green sign that clearly labels the section. Thoughts?

Thank you all in advance for your help!
Cyndi Hansard
Parish Hill Middle/High School
Chaplin, CT
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--

Jennifer Rocca (she/her)
BHS Teacher Librarian
203-775-7725 x-7775

"We are a learning community committed to fostering intellect, respect, and integrity."
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