Why Genrefy?

Last year, we genrefied the fiction section of our secondary library.  This is becoming quite common in secondary libraries and we have seen an increase in fiction circulation.  The students love that they can find a book that interests them quickly.  They even helped with the process of labeling the books!

We are now in the process of genrefying the nonfiction section in our secondary library.  Other common terms for this are "Ditching Dewey" or "Bookstore Model" This was a hard process to start and I almost didn't because it was difficult to find information on doing this in a secondary library and daunting to think of the work involved.

Why are we doing this?  Here are a few reasons:

1. It's very popular in our fiction section; we have seen circulation go up and I'm wondering if the same will happen with nonfiction.
2. Students don't use our catalog.  It's true.  No matter how much I teach them to use it, they don't.    I want to meet them where they are, which means making books easy for them to find without the added step of a catalog.
3. There are many great, high-interest, nonfiction books being overlooked because of their Dewey placement.  

Follow along as I blog about the nonfiction gentrification process.  I'll share materials and our process.  Contact me with questions. Or, if you are at the ECIS Library Conference this February, I'll be presenting there.