When I started my position at Indian Mills Memorial School, I realized right away that I wanted to reorganize things to my liking. The regular fiction and young adult fiction area were too crammed, the professional area was not in a great spot, and the Reference area was taking up a lot of space. After asking talking to teachers and staff, I discovered that the Reference Area was very rarely used and even if a student wanted to borrow a book, they were non-circulating. This may have worked back in the day when students had to go to the library to do all their research. But 21st century students do not have to deal with that. They can find information 24/7. As I thought more about how I could move things around, it dawned on me . . .
Why not move the Reference Books into the regular collection?
As I began to go through the Reference Area, I noticed that we do own quite a good amount of sets/series in this section. I decided to put Reference books that are stand alone books in the regular Nonfiction area. For the set and series Reference books I created an area at the end of the Nonfiction area with all the Sets and Series books.
Once I reinvented my Reference Area, I was able to move my Biography to the area where my Reference Section sat originally. I was also able to move all of the Professional books tot he end of the Nonfiction section.
My Reasons For Getting Rid of the Reference Section
- We Needed More Space - My library is nice sized, but it is not huge. We have a large Nonfiction section, and an extensive amount of Fiction. I needed to make room for current and future purchases.
- Creating a 21st Century Library Media Center - As we add more research programs, we plan to spend less money on Reference books. In general, I prefer to put our money into up to date digital reseources. Students can have access to these resources 24/7 on a 1:1 availability.
- Why Not Allow These Books to Check Out - We actually do have some really great books that were part of the Reference Section. So, why keep these books in the library at all times? I think it's so much better to allow students to borrow them.
So What's Next?
So far I have weeded very little of these books. Maybe it's because I am very new to this school, and I wanted to see if moving some of them to a different area and allowing for circulation would make a difference. By next school year, I plan to weed through the entire Nonfiction area. The Reference books need to be changed in our circulation system. This will take some time, and is not a huge priority, since students understand that we no longer have a Reference area.
I am quite happy with the look of the library. Many students have started checking out some of our great Reference books!
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