A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words (But that never stopped me from talking!)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have a million words to say! Let me begin with the deconstruction of the nonfiction section (or as I like to call it - the "OMG! what a mess I have made of my library" moments).  As I shared in this post, I mixed up the sections to make it, hopefully, more friendly for the librarian (me!) and the patrons. This involved moving ALL OF THE BOOKS!  At one point, I looked around and wondered if I had lost my mind.  Here's the before photos as I worked on stacking (literally) books in their new homes.

Former 796-920 section - Now the ANIMALS

Former 639-795 section - Now Jokes, Supernatural and Once Upon A Time

 Note my trusty Post-Its :-)

Former 921-999 section - Now All About Me, Native Americans, Holidays/Traditions, Religion

Shelves are ready for books to be tagged and placed upon them.

Stacks and stacks of books!

Did I mention there were stacks of books?

Books and more books!

 

I started this slowly the week of Thanksgiving by closing nonfiction check out and putting all of the Sports books on a cart.  Then I attacked the 921 section to pull biographies of sports players along with biographies of inventors, artists, composers and anyone else of note who fit in another section. ( I did decide to keep presidents and founding fathers in the Who Am I? section instead of American History because there are so many of them.) Next, I pulled poetry and joke books that fit with other categories.  Thankfully, it was time for Thanksgiving Break.

 

Upon returning on Monday, December 1st, my Principal allowed me to get a 1/2 day sub for the afternoon and Chimere and I finished moving, stacking and shifting the remainder of the collection.  We also started an ever growing books to be discarded pile. 

 

Promptly at 4pm, the U.D. (Un-Deweying) Crew arrived.  7 of us dove in and started placing category stickers on each and every book and covering the stickers with very tricky sticky !#$%#%#  label covers.  By 7pm, our stopping time, we were a little more than 1/3 of the way done.  I went home very tired, very dirty and very anxious. Take a peek at the hard workers.

 Everyone loves the green chair!

 

 

 Back to work on Tuesday and the eyes of the kiddos were wide and wondering.  No one has ever seen the library such a mess!  Frankly, my eyes were wide and wondering too!  Wondering if this was going to get finished.  But promptly at 4pm, the crew was back to work their magic.  By the end of the evening, the labels were all on the books and many were on the shelves correctly but there will still many just laying on the shelves.  What's a girl to do?  Freak out! (Read it all here!)

On Wednesday, after our Professional Development meeting, Kelly and I returned to Edgemere to get all the books on the shelves correctly.  I am proud to say we only had to stay until 6pm.  And when we departed, to the untrained eye, the place looked great.  Just don't look too closely or you will see the subcategories are not yet defined.  But there is time for that.

And, on Friday, the angel Donna swooped in and put her expert weeding skills to work and deleted over 700 titles from the nonfiction section.

So, at this point, I would say we are 90% completed. For those of you keeping up, here's the REVISED REVISED revised timeline from this post:

1) Create classification headings for the FICTION section of the library based upon the interests of my students and DESTINY classifications.
2) Work with the library office to design spine labels that include a graphic and word for each section. A matching larger sign will be created to be displayed above sections.
3) Complete Fiction section re-do by Friday, November 14th. Just in time for American Education Week!
4) Create classification headings for the NONFICTION section of the library by Friday the 21st!
5) See #2
6)Complete the NONFICTION section re-do by December 3rd. That's right!  Just 2 short days!!!!!
7) Remember to run circulation reports and statistics before during and after the process.
8) Document, in pictures, the transformation.
9) Document, via this brand new blog, the transformation highs and lows.
10) Complete Common Ground proposal before December 21st.
11) Update library wiki (Ok, let's be honest, CREATE library wiki)
12) BREATHE!
13) Finish the signage for the Fiction section.
14) Get the subcategories in order and shelves labeled.
15) Get large signage posted.
16) Work on a plan for location field in Destiny OPAC.

So excited to see the reactions this week to the new and improved nonfiction section especially after an encounter I had in church today.  I live, work and worship all in the same community.  Today in church, a first grader ran up to me and gave me a hug.  Then she asked me if I was "finally done putting all those books back where they belong".  I was very happy to tell her that I was finally done.  She then proceeded to make me pinkie promise that she could check out a nonfiction book this week. 

Now I am off to watch my son, via the magic of LiveStream on the Internet, participate in a traditional college Christmas program.  Stayed tuned this week for some more details and data about the collection as well as student feedback.