My hardworking assistant called me over to the fiction section in the middle of her inventory efforts. She pulled some books from the bottom shelf forward, pointing out the visible dust resting on top of their pages. She was worried about the dust; I was worried about the books not being read.
Later that day, I was replenishing our "Should I stay or should I go?" section. I had asked our library systems coordinator to run reports on fiction and everybody (picture) books that hadn't been checked out in three or more years. I expected maybe a hundred in each section; there were four hundred from each section! Yes, some of the titles and pictures seemed dated, but some were great classics, had timely topics, and were written by well-known authors.
Daunted by the numbers, I decided to pull a few dozen at a time to display. As I collected the books yesterday, I realized that at least three-quarters of them came from bottom shelves; students just aren't looking down often. The ones I pulled are now on top of shelves or off in a well-marked section, which we are advertising to our students. As one volunteer dad mentioned, "Product placement helps." We've done a "check out from the bottom shelves only" week before; perhaps that needs to become an annual event.
I'll be weeding the library this summer, which will hopefully open up some shelving--perhaps enough to fit our entire collection on the top two shelves, and use the bottom for displaying books face forward. That way, no great stories get overlooked. In the meantime, I'll be asking my students to look down when they are looking for a good book to read!
I'm sharing the "Should I Stay or Should I Go" theme w/ our media specialist. Yes, product placement helps. I read a post about point of view earlier this month and have been thinking about how I can get my teens on their knees to look at the world from a different perspective. The library seems a good place to change the sight line.
ReplyDeleteShare away, Glenda! I was shocked at some of the titles that hadn't been checked out; Lloyd Alexander's Black Cauldron series being one of them. The change of perspective project sounds great--and I'm thinking can be great fun, too!
DeleteI hadn't thought of "product placement" as a library concern. Your solutions sound good. Another thought... can these books be sorted into baskets and shared with classrooms, like bookmobiles do? Years ago when our books were limited, I would check out 20-25 books from the public library each week and keep them in a special basket in my classroom for students to select for classroom reading.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great suggestion, Alice. I do have several teachers who check out a couple dozen books for their classrooms on a regular basis. One even has her students pick them out for her during their library time! I'll suggest they choose one or two from our stay-or-go collection.
DeleteI'm impressed. If you have 400 unread titles in each section, your library must be extensive. Yea! I hope your idea of book placement will help some of these overlooked titles be check out. :)
ReplyDeleteWe do have a ginormous library, Ms. Donaldson--over 20,000 items in our collection. Then again, we have 1250 students on our elementary campus!
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