This video is a recreation of a presentation of the how’s and why’s of school library genrefication for the Shanghai School Library Network in November 2019 given by Leigh Collazo. Leigh is a certified K-12 librarian and secondary English teacher and has experience as librarian in multiple countries: China, Mexico, and the United States, and spends time coaching teachers and librarians around the world (in-person and virtually) how to genrefy their collections and explains the amazing benefits of doing so. She also discusses reasons NOT to genrefy and asks questions of listeners to help you to determine whether or not genrefication is the right choice for you, your patrons, and your collection.
Sara, "Your Personal Librarian", wanted to do something to help her students find books quickly, as their time in the library is always limited. The first thing they say is, "Where are the funny books?" or "Where are the graphic novels?", and that led her to genre-fying her school's library. Sara very clearly walks you through her genrefication process, showing you examples of books, labels, and signage on her shelves, and discusses how she used reports in her library management system (she uses Destiny) to assist in the process.
Sara received questions after posting the above video, A School Librarian on Genrefication - Things to Do, Traps to Avoid, and Surprising Benefits. In the video below, she answers those questions which include (but are not limited to):
Sara is back again to discuss how and why she decided to change from the Dewey Decimal System to a more book store-like classification of the nonfiction section of her school library. A quick statistic for inspiration: more graphic novels were checked out from August to December of 2018 in her library than the entire nonfiction section over the last 10 years! This was part of the reason that Sara decided to jump in and reorganize the nonfiction books, and this video walks you through her weeding process (again, weeding is a MUST) and how/why she chose the specific nonfiction genres sections that now houses the nonfiction books.