storytime katie

This week, I’m talking labels and re-cataloging!

Since we had decided to merge two collection (J-E FIC and J-E Non-Fic), we needed to come up with a brand-new way to do the labels for the new neighborhoods.

Already, we had decided to list full neighborhood and a street on the label, with a slash in-between them to distinguish for both pages/clerks and patrons.

One change that I knew I wanted was to have the full author’s last name instead of the previously done three letter abbreviation. With this new system, “WIL” wouldn’t be a mixed-up shelf with Willems, Wilson, Williams, etc. interfiled.

Ultimately, we wanted to work with what we already had in-house supplies as far as labels went. All of our books — both Youth and Adult — use the same Uline labels (S-10770 if anyone wants to be super specific!) and Demco clear label protectors (SKU# 12882640). So I came up with how much more room I had under the label protectors and found a label system that I really like from The Library Store. We are using the 3/4″ by 1″ size in the following colors: Violet, Red, Orange, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green, Lavender, White, and Tan. The colors pictured online vary a bit from what’s pictured online, but we’ve been really happy with what we’ve received.

All of our spine labels in Non-Fiction are done vertically and we went that way with Picture Book City so that everything was easy to be read. The few problems are with the very tiny spines of media tie-in paperbacks.

As for our cataloging — yes, we are changing everything in the catalog. That means locations, types, call numbers — EVERYTHING. Since the idea for the project originated from my Circ/Tech manager, we have the full support of Technical Services.

So, the order of how we do things:

• Youth Services support staff, teen volunteers, and myself peel old labels off and clean books.
• I read each book and decide where it will go, make the label, and put the labels on. I also mark the book off on a master list of our picture books so that I can make sure we are accounting for every book.
• Technical Services make changes in the catalog.
• Pages/Clerks re-shelf items and shift if needed.

Basically, since we are a small to medium sized library, we just keep plugging along doing what we can each day to get this project done. Our projected completion date is before May, so I can concentrate on summer reading visits!

Next week, the first book section that stumped me…the 100s and “parenting” books!

Last year, around this time, my Circulation/Technical Services Manager approached me about something she had recently learned about a meeting — organizing picture book by subjects. She wanted to know my thoughts on it. I told her that it seemed like a good idea to me and that I knew a few neighboring libraries had done it to at least part of their collection. I promised to do my research and that once our big non-fiction project had been completed (re-labeling, weeding, and re-cataloging almost every book), I would be game to start on the picture books.

Fast forward to ALA Annual in June and I was unbelievably inspired by the presentation, “I Want a Truck Book!” (Link to materials are all located here on ALA Connect.) That presentation was worth the conference registration all by itself. When Gretchen spoke about the neighborhoods they had created, that was exactly what my library needed. And especially as the only children’s librarian, it was what I needed — a proven way to make this re-organization work when I’d be the only one making decisions.

When Amy posted at The Show Me Librarian in August about her kidlit re-organization, my excitement only grew. Amy had given me the kid-friendly name I was looking for to call our collection — Picture Book City!

Finally, in November our non-fiction project was done and I began.

We started with approximately 6,000 picture books, both fiction and non-fiction. It was my goal to get rid of our “blue dots” (non-fiction) and “green dots” (fiction) and integrate both into Picture Book City. I wanted to do this because I felt like our community didn’t understand what our easy non-fiction was. Also, the whole point of this project is to give the kids ALL the dinosaur books at once — I didn’t want to run back and forth between two sections.

I started with non-fiction, weeding as I went and also replacing a lot of materials. Reading each book forced me to evaluate whether or not the material was current and relevant anymore. I purchased some new materials about community helpers, the new “my plate,” and updated many more volumes.

While going through the blue dots, I began to realize that I wanted a bit more organization in my neighborhoods. A co-worker from the Adult Services department came up with the idea of “streets” in our neighborhoods. I began to develop some streets.

For example, in our “Nature” neighborhood, we have animals separated by where they live: “Nature / Farm”, “Nature / Forest,” “Nature / Ocean,” “Nature / Pets,” “Nature / Zoo.” I hadn’t planned on doing this originally but incorporating the non-fiction made it almost necessary for patrons to find materials. Already, I am receiving tons of great feedback from parents. When I finish this project, I will post a full list of our streets.

This has been quite a process and I’m very happy to share my journey — both satisfaction and frustration — as I go along. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will do my best to address them in a future post! As I’m going alone with the process, I’m hoping to have everything done by the time I have to do school visits for summer reading. I am blessed to have help from Tech Services to change the call numbers in the catalog and some support staff who have agreed to peel our old labels off.

Next week…how we chose to label and re-catalog our books and why!