Being politically correct…even with your library sections

We are completely redoing the sections in our library - where books are located, what books belong in each section, and even the names of the sections as well.  A name says a lot.  So, here's to being politically correct…even with your library section headings and call numbers! :)

We have had the following sections in our library…until now.

ENF – elementary non-fiction

JF – junior fiction 

TR – teacher resource

E – easy

BB – big books

LIL - literacy library 

REF – reference

Because we are part of a Pre-K to 12 school, we cannot completely redo our call number sections without taking into account what already exists in the middle and high school libraries.  For example, middle school and high school libraries simply use the Dewey Decimal system for their non-fiction books (without any letter code in front) and just use an “F” for their fiction section, something pretty standard in many other libraries.  

The designation “ENF" (Elementary Non-Fiction) was placed before a Dewey Decimal number to specify that a non-fiction book comes from our elementary library instead of the middle and high school libraries.  However, sometimes the "ENF" designation has been confusing for elementary students, especially since we have another section in our library that is just “E.”  By dropping the “(E)-(F)” and just making it “N,” students will not find this confusing anymore.  It will not impact the middle or high school libraries either, since they do not have a section designated as "N."  Lastly, it will also be more in line with other parts of our library since we are dropping all sections to just one letter (for example, "LIL" will be "L," and “REF” will become “R”). 

Does this mean having to redo the spine labels?  Yes and no.  Because libraries get new books each year, we will have to create spine labels anyway for our new books (our order for this fall still hasn’t come, so here’s an opportunity in the making).  As for redoing non-fiction books that are already on the shelves, we want to drop our decimal points at least to the tenths-place anyway since it’s harder for kids to find books when there are too many decimals and it also makes shelving more time-consuming.  Therefore, we pretty much need to redo a lot of the spine labels  and will take advantage of this opportunity to switch them to “N.”  The only ones that we would be changing the call number labels for, not so much for the sake of change...but rather for uniformity, would be the books already on the shelves that don’t have decimal points beyond the tenths-place.  But, since we want to color code all of the section letters in the call numbers (more on that later), it is something we don’t mind doing.

I am not sure what to do about the JF designation.  We cannot really take off the “J” and just be left with “F” because that would confuse our books with those belonging to middle and high school.  But, it doesn’t seem that there is any other term you could call these books beside fiction (there are not really any good synonyms out there).  Please feel free to comment below and suggest one! :)  Until I come across a better term, this will be our only section of the library where the call number is made up of two initial letters instead of just one.  It would be nice to find a term that allows this section to stand on its own (not in the shadow of another division, not a mini-version of something else).  This would be sort of like switching from the term “junior high” to “middle school,” where the later stands on its own and doesn’t mean “less than” or “in preparation towards” something else, like the former one does.

"BB" has stood for "Big Books." We were going to just drop the one "B" from "BB" (in line with our push to have single letter call letters), but thought that "B" might be better for a "Beginner" section we would like to create.  We are now calling these books "O" for "Oversized" and will also include a few books under this call letter which we keep in the "Office" for certain reasons (more on that to come in another post).

We have a large professional development section and are changing the term “TR” to “S” for “staff” since other people besides teachers use this section (administrators, assistants…).  It also keeps us in line with our goal of just one initial call letter per section.  Again, we want to color code these letters and make them bigger, so we would be redoing the spine labels anyway.  Right now, these books have the call number "TR" and a Dewey Decimal number, but the books still do not seem to be grouped properly, even when shelved correctly.  I am coming up with a system to make this easier so that staff members not need to know the Dewey Decimal system in order to find books, and they can be re-shelved more easily.  More on this once finished.

In an previous post, I mentioned that we were changing the "E" from "Easy" to "Everybody."  We don't want kids to feel bad if they are struggling with books that are supposed to be easy.  But, we have since decided to change our "E" books into "P" for "Picture Books."  One reason is because that is what these books primarily are and another is because it will free up the letter "E" for another section we hope to create called "Emerging Readers." 

Drum roll, please!  Here are our new more politically correct (and more simply named) sections!

N - non-fiction

JF - junior fiction (the one I still struggle with)

S - staff

P - picture books

O - office/oversize 

L -  literacy library 

R - reference

However, the fun doesn’t stop there.  We’re actually creating new sections, something we are very excited about…meaning there will be a few more section letters you’ll get to meet. J More on that coming in a future blog post!