Genrefication at the ERHS Library

As Teacher Librarian, I spend a lot of time thinking about books.  I think about the types books that ERHS students want to read, and how to keep you coming back for new books.  If I care deeply about the kinds of books we have, I also have to care about how you find books.  What is the point in developing a great collection of books if students can't find what they are looking for?  In order to solve this problem, many school Librarians have turned to genrefication.  Genrefication is a fancy way of saying "we reorganized the books to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for".  Traditionally, libraries organize the fiction section in alphabetical order by the author's last name.  This is great for Librarians, not so great for the book seeker.  Most students ask us where the scary books are or where the love stories are.  Sure, there are some authors that are so famous, every body knows their name (think Stephen King and John Green).  The reality is, most people who visit the library don't know what they're looking for until they know, ya know? We decided to start genefying the fiction section, and not look back. With the help of our wonderful Library Student Aides, we color coded all of our fiction books based on its genre, the category that best represents the theme of the book.  We then created signage for each genre, organized the books in the genre section, and alphabetized them by the author's last name.  Now, browsing the fiction section feels more like a book store and hopefully it will make finding your next great read even easier.
It has been about a month since we completed the genrefication project.  I have to admit, I felt a little bit of anxiety in the first few days.  I was so conditioned to books being alphabetized by the author's last name, that I felt a little lost.  It didn't take long for me to see how much better it is for our students.   Stop by the Library to check out our new fiction section, let us know what you think!