Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

(Amazon.com)

I have been know to comment at my book club that we need to get away from World War II books because there is so much written about that time period.  So, when my husband read this book over Christmas break and then passed it on to me saying it was really good, my first comment was "Is it all about Nazis?  I'm tired of reading about Nazis."

The answer is NO!  Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys is one of the best books I've read recently.  It's a story of refugees, hope and survival.  Salt to the Sea is a WWII historical fiction novel about refugees leaving East Prussia to obtain passage out on one of the many evacuation ships, one of them being the Wilhelm Gustloff.  The book centers around the stories of 3 refugees and one soldier.

Though largely unheard of, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is the largest maritime disaster in history.  The loss of life, over 9000 people, was much larger than the more well-known stories of the Titanic or the Lusitania.

Salt to the Sea managed to be both depressing and uplifting.  It made me question how much history is changed over time or covered up.  Why is the story of the Wilhelm Gustloff so largely overlooked in history?

Find Salt to the Sea in our library at: HISTORICAL F SEP

Library Signage

Our last step was to create signage for the new sections.  I wanted something that could be seen among all the colorful book covers as our current signs seemed to blend in.

After doing some searching online for signage, and realizing our school has a lot of spare chalkboard paint, I asked our team of carpenters to modify a design found online.  We used natural, untreated wood (both for cost savings and for the rustic look) and chalkboard paint.  Chalkboards make the section titles really stand out.

We were not able to put the chalkboard signs on the tall shelves without hitting the ceiling so I used a chalkboard background and printed posters to put in frames to keep with the chalkboard look.

We had about 40 signs made and our talented assistants learned to do chalk art via YouTube tutorials.  Here is our beautiful new library signage:

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

Believe it or not, due to only being able to order once per yer, our library did not have Turtles All The Way Down yet.  So, I picked it up when I went back home because so many students are requesting it.  My sister-in-law, also a librarian, said it wasn't her favorite work of his so I didn't start it with high hopes.  BUT...this is now my favorite John Green book!  I finished it in a day.  Those of you who know me know that I am an extremely slow reader so the fact that it only took me a day to read is amazing.

I won't give too much away but this book is about love, friendship, mental illness and resilience.  There is a billionaire, good friends, and a bit of mystery.  The ending, though not what I expected/hoped, is typical John Green.

Find Turtles All The Way Down in our library at: REALISTIC F GRE

Or, put a hold on it...it's already checked out! 😁

Creating Subsections

Now that we had all the books moved into their new sections, it was time to split the larger sections into subsections.  (Find our sections and subsections here.)  My amazing assistants did the initial split into subsections.  I then went through each subsection to make sure the books where where I wanted them and in many cases, created a new subsection or combined small sections.  New subsections of Teen Wellness, Education and Parenting, Artists, and Travel Writing emerged through this process.

We decided to keep the books in Dewey order within their subsection.  So that we know where to shelve a book, we put a sticker in the front with the subsection.  We also changed the location in the catalog to the section-subsection.  Here is an example of our destiny catalog entry:

(Yes, we have a Youtubers subsection!!)

And here is a subsection sticker in the front of a book from our History section:

This was one of the longest parts of the process, mostly because I looked at every book.  Once everything was in place, we created shelf labels and signage.  See my next posts for that.  Here are some photos of our Wellness section and subsections:

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle

(Amazon.com)

The Great American Whatever was the first book I read over the holiday break.  I wasn't sure I'd like it after reading the "blurb" but I ended up loving it.

Quinn had always wanted to be a Hollywood writer.  That was before the death of his sister and then his father leaving.  Now, Quinn doesn't leave his house. Luckily, his best friend drags him out to a party where he meets a very cute guy, his first love interest. Through his friendships and his new relationship, Quinn starts to accept his grief and start living life again.

This is a funny, uplifting story that I think will appeal to many of our avid readers!

Tim Federle also wrote the Better Nate Than Ever series if you remember that from elementary school.  This is his first YA novel.

Find The Great American Whatever in our library at: REALISTIC F FED

Changing Call Numbers

As we moved the books to new sections, we batch changed the call number prefix on the books as we went along. This helped us find books while we were in the process of moving because we knew whether a certain book was in its new location or still on the "Dewey shelves".

We decided to leave the Dewey number as is, both because the sections are still in Dewey order and because some day, a librarian coming into the school after me may hate that we dismantled Dewey and want to move it back in place.

The batch change to Music

Here are the new sections and the call number prefixes for Dewey:

SECTION	PREFIX	SECTION	PREFIX
War and Conflict	WAR	Paranormal	PARANORMAL
History	HISTORY	Modern Marvels	MARVELS
True Crime	CRIME	Business and Math	BUSINESS
Health	HEALTH	Science	SCIENCE
Wellness	WELLNESS	Animals	ANIMAL
Religion	RELIGION	Poetry	POETRY
Global Issues	GLOBAL	Literature	LITERATURE
Narrative	NARRATIVE	Myths and Legends	MYTH
Cooking and Food	FOOD	Travel and Geography	TRAVEL
Music	MUSIC	Biography	B
Art and Design	ART	Graphic Novels	COMIC
Sports	SPORTS	College Collection	COLLEGE
Fun and Games	GAMES	Bangladesh Collection	BC

Moving the Books

Once we had all the books labeled, we moved them to the new sections.  We counted a lot of shelves, made rough estimates of how many books we had for each section and went through several drafts of my not-so-fancy map until we found a set-up that worked for us:

First, we moved our audiobooks and DVD's to a back room; they no longer circulate often since we have video streaming (and no DVD players at our school).

Once we had some empty shelves, we moved our first section into those and slowly (one section at a time) moved each section as more shelves cleared.  The process went more smoothly than I thought it would and everything fit.  What luck!!

We kept everything in Dewey order in the sections, deciding not to split into subsections until me had moved everything.

Mr. Shoyab moving Realistic Fiction to its new location.

The new Narrative Nonfiction section.

 As we moved each section, we changed the call number prefix so we would know where to find books during the move.  See the next post for how to do this!

Welcome Back!

(Vicious-Speed, Creative Commons)

The library is looking forward to welcoming you back to school and hearing of your winter break adventures!