Jan 4 2011

Picture books by subject

Darien Library KidLit ReOrg
The Darien Library (CT), they shelve their picture books by subject and each section is color coded to maximize findability. Learn more about this in their presentation –click the link below!

Here are various discussion on the listserv ALSC concerning the Darien Library picture books by subject project.

I don’t want to diminish Darien’s luster regarding the astronomical increase in their picture book circulation since they’ve changed their shelving scheme, but I do think it should be noted that the library moved into a brand-new, absolutely beautiful, state-of-the-art building at the same time as they unveiled the new picture book arrangement.

Perhaps more than a few percentage points of the increase can be ascribed to the excitement generated by this superb new facility. How much did any of the other circulation statistics in the library go up in the same time span? How many more people are using the building than used the old one?

I like to think of Darien’s new arrangement as “physical book lists”. In other words, where my library has a book list entitled “Things That Go,” Darien has a set of shelves for similar titles. I think Darien’s arrangement serves browsers very well. Those searching for specific titles or authors may prefer the old-fashioned arrangement. But maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to a new way of thinking.

As I remarked, previously, I didn’t run home and rearrange our picture books. There are an awful lot of picture books that defy categorization and many that could sit on more than one shelf (A B C DRIVE, for example. Is that transportation or alphabet?)

Miriam

I appreciate your respectful comment Miriam. There are a few factors that contributed to the circulation increase and no doubt, the new building was part of that. However, we opened in Jan. ’09 and I began tracking the statistics from July ’09-July ’10 so there was some time for the “newness” to wear off. I believe that the increase in usage came from the fact that we had many new users come in when we opened and found the collection to be more accessible and they kept coming back (which is wonderful!). The fact that we increased the amount of space for this population in the physical library also helped – instead of having one small area for half of our population, they have half of the room! People feel more comfortable spending time in the library than before.
As to the question of where to put ABC Drive, it is a good one and one that we considered carefully. If one were to be browsing, where would they expect to see it? You’re right, it could go in either Concepts or Transportation. One option is to order another copy and put one in each. Obviously, we can’t always afford to do that. If a patron was seeking that book, they would look it up (or we would with/for them) and the catalog would tell them where to look on the shelf. We kept a section called Stories to have a place for books that defy a category and market it as a wildly imaginative section, great for finding good bedtime stories. I don’t find that any more challenging or time consuming than hunting for books by subject in an alphabetic arrangement though.

As for who is doing the searching, I would argue that the people who are most commonly the searchers are teachers and librarians. Parents and caregivers (we chose to focus on them with this decision) have overwhelmingly supported this arrangement. And the kids! 🙂 While all of us were making adjustments, they were just busy discovering new books – it also might be worth mentioning that our in-house use has gone through the ROOF! We have to tidy the room to pick up all the books read in the library much more frequently than we had to in the old library. Those numbers are not calculated in our circulation stat.

I was nervous when we went live with this. What if it didn’t work? What if the parents hated it? We had no model to work from and only 6 weeks to convert the existing collections, but I had to move past my self doubts and take the leap. We had nothing to lose by trying. If it didn’t work, we’d go back to the old way. I think our community is used to us experimenting and trying new things out. Thankfully, we did not have to do that! We were able to refine it and make it better and stronger.

If anyone would like to chat more with me about it, I’m happy to do so. Please email me at my work address – gcaserotti@darienlibrary.org – after Feb. 1st, 2010. I am currently on maternity leave until then.

To all of you going to MidWinter, have a wonderful time and Happy New Year to you all!

Gretchen