Yesterday I had a visitor! Isn't it nice when you have the opportunity to talk with and share with your peers? I had such a nice visit. It can get lonely being the only LMS in a building. Anyway, as promised, here is Cindy's guest blog post. Thanks again Cindy!
When I heard that Sandy had ‘un-Deweyed’ Edgemere’s library my
mind was kind of boggled. Who doesn’t have their library in Dewey order? (Other
than Library of Congress, what other system is there?) I mean, even when I went
to Greece two summers ago I visited their National Library and spoke with the
librarians there about how they catalog books and they use Dewey!
I had tons of questions for Sandy. Who picked the categories?
How are books in Destiny? Do you mix fiction and nonfiction subjects together? What
about books that have two main subjects? How did you decide where to put them?
How do students know where to look for them? What are the positives? What are
the negatives? I knew I had to see the library and talk to Sandy. So we found a
day and I went to explore the library and ask my questions.
I had some time to walk around the library while Sandy did bus
duty. I looked at the categories within the fiction and nonfiction sections. I
looked at categories within categories. I feel like most of the nonfiction
generally followed Dewey guidelines but with some awesome exceptions (space
books with books about space shuttles and also biographies about astronauts –
genius!). I asked Sandy how students found the books and she explained how she
taught it to the students. It really seems like an awesome system and one that
would definitively get some of those books that are never borrowed, out in the
open and into the hands of students. Sandy
shared that even the teachers are now more aware of the books in her
collection. (We can tell them about the books, show them how to use Destiny,
pitch our books, the databases, the ebooks...but it seems that Sandy’s new
system really let teachers see what is there). Sandy also shared how seeing the
books in these new categories (supernatural, for example, let her realize just
by looking at the shelves where she needed to focus when ordering books).
Genius!
I left with the idea that I need to try this with my fiction
section to start. I personally love fiction books and feel as though that area
is under utilized in my library. So many times students will ask me ‘Where are
the mystery books?’ and I will tell them to do a Destiny search for ‘mystery’
and we’ll locate the authors etc etc. (Put your own subject in there, we all
have those topics that students just can’t get enough of!) Sandy’s un-Deweying
puts these kinds of common subjects together allowing students to peruse the
titles and then select ones that are most appealing. After a thorough weeding I
plan to begin to make this change in the library at Villa Cresta. I can’t
believe it will be anything but successful. My kudos to Sandy for undertaking
this huge task –it is clearly what is best for students. Also, many thanks
Sandy for sharing your insights and your time.
