Teacher librarians need to set up their collection in a manner that is accessible to students as the availability and accessibility of collection in a library encourages students to read. The question then arises, how this can be achieved?

Some librarians believe that the tried and true system of shelving alphabetically by author surname is the best way to shelve fiction; others believe that by genre shelving they can encourage students to read more. A third group prefer a middle ground, where author arrangement and genre stickers combine to promote exposure to different titles as well as independent access.

However, students need to be taught and educated regarding the genres. It is likely that the Primary school students might not be aware of genres. It will be beneficial in High school as students will be able to quickly and autonomously find similar titles to ones they know that they enjoy. Regardless of whether it is a Primary library or a High School library, it is extremely important to teach students library skills. Even, the genre stickers on the spine label will be beneficial.

Classifying an item based on genre will be different for fiction and nonfiction. When the collection is classified by genre into a catalogue, a teacher librarian can identify the most popular genre as well as each genre’s most popular books.  It makes it far easier, for example, to find the most popular horror books. It will enable in making the right decision making for purchasing new books. It will also encourage students to read more as they will enjoy what they are reading and at the same time find variety of similar titles in their favourite category. It is important that there has to be uniformity across libraries in assigning genres to an item.

On the other side, there is a concern that students may limit themselves to one kind of genre and may not experience different genres. If students have to physically browse the shelves in their current A-Z configuration, they will be exposed to the full variety of literature available. Another, drawback is that the books by the same author may be in different locations.

Even if a student knows how to find a genre book in the catalogue, that skill may not translate onto the non-fiction section. Dewey decimal classification system (DDC) is used over last 137 years and has been revised several times. Organising the nonfiction by genre does not indicate the end of DDC in school libraries. SCIS also reviews the DDC and tailors it to suit the needs of school libraries.

By implementing generification in resources, the teachers will be able to help their students choose books; students will be self-selecting books with greater ease and the resources will be more engaging. To bring this change in school libraries, the role of teacher librarian will be to make all the stakeholders aware of the changes and also to educate the students through posters, talks and other displays with genre information and title examples.

References

Davenport, Susan (2017). Genrefying the fiction collection. Connections, 102, 6-7. https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-102/genrefying-the-fiction-collection/

Education Services Australia. Guidelines to using SCIS Subject Headings 2015. [Online] Available at: http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/cataloguing_standards.html

Eichholzer, Brendan (2014). Taking the guesswork out of genre. Connections, 91, 4-5. https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-91/taking-the-guesswork-out-of-genre/

Gordon, Carol A. (2013). Dewey do or Dewey don’t: A sign of the times. Knowledge Quest, 42(2), 2-8.

Jennifer LaGarde, Library Girl(2011). Arranging library fiction by genre. Retrieved from National Library New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/reading-engagement/libraries-supporting-readers/arranging-library-fiction-by-genre

Styles, Julie (2016). Architecture of genres. Connections, 96, 9-11. http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/issue_96/articles/architecture_of_genre.html