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Copy of The REAL draft of Rebooting Your Collection
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
REBOOTING YOUR COLLECTION
Layout with Patrons in Mind
How did a bunch of long-time children's department librarians decide to re-organize the whole place, get buy-in from the rest of the staff plus the administration, AND keep the excitement of it all going through a year of hard work and hassles?
Photo by Jazza2
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When you've been in the same space for 17 years, it's easy to think "surely the people who built this place in 1999 knew the perfect layout for a children's department!"
But when we took a closer look, we could see some room for improvement.
But when we took a closer look, we could see some room for improvement.
Carmel Clay Public Library
Hamilton County * 1 Building * 80,000+
We have one building that serves more than 80,000 people. One Mobile Library.
Panorama Slide
Show the whole CYS Dept. for overall picture
It's a big children's department with lots of collections that can potentially confuse patrons.
Challenges
A department of this size, with lots of materials in different collections, is going to have some challenges. Access is key - helping patrons get exactly what they are looking for, without unnecessary obstacles.
Photo by exfordy
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One obstacle:
Fairy tales and nursery rhymes--so important to childhood--go unnoticed because they're way far away from our picture book collection and the children's play area. We know that patrons want them, because when we move them out to display them in the highly-trafficked areas, they go like hotcakes.
Fairy tales and nursery rhymes--so important to childhood--go unnoticed because they're way far away from our picture book collection and the children's play area. We know that patrons want them, because when we move them out to display them in the highly-trafficked areas, they go like hotcakes.
WE HATE THESE.
We didn't ALWAYS hate our spinners--they hold a ton of books in a small space, but as our collection grew, they became less of a "pro" and more "con."
1. The books were often hard to find (e.g., all books w/ "S" authors piled onto 3 spinners, in no order).
2. Many titles in our collections were in both hardcover and paperback versions. "JPB" was one more place we had to look for a title.
3. The signage was small and unnoticeable. Many patrons didn't know where the "JPB" section was.
4. JPBs required additional processing: green spine stickers to indicate series books, stickers w/ letters for books alphabetized by author's name, plus frequent changing-out of series, which meant lots of shifting.
5. TS was happy to have one fewer collection to keep track of.
6. The wire racks snagged my sweaters and cut my knuckles.
1. The books were often hard to find (e.g., all books w/ "S" authors piled onto 3 spinners, in no order).
2. Many titles in our collections were in both hardcover and paperback versions. "JPB" was one more place we had to look for a title.
3. The signage was small and unnoticeable. Many patrons didn't know where the "JPB" section was.
4. JPBs required additional processing: green spine stickers to indicate series books, stickers w/ letters for books alphabetized by author's name, plus frequent changing-out of series, which meant lots of shifting.
5. TS was happy to have one fewer collection to keep track of.
6. The wire racks snagged my sweaters and cut my knuckles.
We love this...
Early Literacy display area! [Show next slide of kids hanging out]
This "early literacy feature"--meant to appeal to toddlers and preschoolers--has lots of display area for and interactive elements.
[got to next screen]
This "early literacy feature"--meant to appeal to toddlers and preschoolers--has lots of display area for and interactive elements.
[got to next screen]
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It's right in the middle of the picture book collection, where all the little ones pass by on their way to storytime or the play area. Ideally, it's the go-to place to take parents who ask for help finding great books for their toddlers and preschoolers.
...but it's not foolproof.
Sometimes the books that make it to this display really aren't meant for little kids.
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1. popular JNF series not grouped together (because Dewey)
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2. JNF seasonal books separate from Fiction seasonal books
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3. Many patrons want to check out a title's print version along with the audiobook.
Photo by jeff_golden
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4. During busy times, materials take a long time to get from circulation to shelf.
FIRST STEPS:
BUSINESS AS USUAL
Collectors' meeting, Sept. 2015. Ideas for meeting SOME of our challenges. Just taking a step or two in the right direction, easing into doing things a little differently.
Photo by pellethepoet
Original agenda items:
- Fairy tales and Mother Goose
- Group seasonal books
- Group JNF series
- Interfile print and audio books
Here was the modest plan that came from that meeting. Just four things, but making these happen would require considerable work. Plenty to keep us busy for a while.
Photo by Albuzzzzzz
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This is Gina. We worked together the evening after the meeting I just described. She wasn't there, because she's not a collector, but she's got mad spatial skillz, so I needed her help figuring out how we could shift the JR and J fiction section to make room for the their audio counterparts.
[describe how one idea led to another and caused us to re-think the organization of the whole department.]
THEN talk about meeting with Renee' the next day to tell her about the ideas.
[describe how one idea led to another and caused us to re-think the organization of the whole department.]
THEN talk about meeting with Renee' the next day to tell her about the ideas.
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We had to get buy-in from key people--TS manager, circ manager, and director--before we could move ahead. Renee' met with each one individually.
We also had another collectors meeting to talk about all the improvements we wanted to make--one of our best meetings ever, generating lots of excitement for the changes.
Lisa, TS manager, told me later that they had lots of "good conversations" about this big move in their department, and they picked up on our excitement. They willingly took on all the challenges for 2 reasons:
1. the focus on improving customer service, and
2. the eventual improvement in their workflow on account of reducing the number of collections.
We also had another collectors meeting to talk about all the improvements we wanted to make--one of our best meetings ever, generating lots of excitement for the changes.
Lisa, TS manager, told me later that they had lots of "good conversations" about this big move in their department, and they picked up on our excitement. They willingly took on all the challenges for 2 reasons:
1. the focus on improving customer service, and
2. the eventual improvement in their workflow on account of reducing the number of collections.
Photo by soukup
On your mark...
Shelving inventory, weeding, planning!
show shelving inventory spreadsheet?
Get set...
Schedule time for moves; communicate plans
Meetings with circ and tech services,
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Renee' planned out the order in which we had to move things, so all the pieces could fall into place with minimal disruption.
Note:
1. Start and end dates
2. Repeatedly moved shelves and kept weeding
3. Orange steps indicate that those collections had to be taken to TS for processing.
Note:
1. Start and end dates
2. Repeatedly moved shelves and kept weeding
3. Orange steps indicate that those collections had to be taken to TS for processing.
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We moved at least 100 of these bottom shelves to use elsewhere, and found 16 years of filth hidden underneath.
[before Nov. conf., add slides of teens and me cleaning]
[before Nov. conf., add slides of teens and me cleaning]
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This is Beth lugging one of those millions of shelves to the back office.
Then we'd trade out the slanted shelves for the flat shelves, and finally retrieve the flat shelves to put them in their new home.
Then we'd trade out the slanted shelves for the flat shelves, and finally retrieve the flat shelves to put them in their new home.
Photo by LaurPhil
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J Fiction shelves required considerable adjustment, w/ tools and such, so Mike (our maintenance guy) handled that. [click to next slide]
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Mike again.
Other than this section, we and teen volunteers did all the physical labor of moving shelves and books and everything else.
Other than this section, we and teen volunteers did all the physical labor of moving shelves and books and everything else.
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Here's where the Graphic Novels used to be, ready for us to spread out the J Fiction section (with the newly-added paperbacks and audiobooks interfiled!).
We hated these.
Remember these?
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I loaded one cart at a time of paperbacks. After weeding, and reordering when necessary, I took the cart to Sandy in TS.[click to next slide]
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...for recataloging and replacing the spine labels.
Once Sandy returned the cart (within a day or two), I interfiled them with their hardcover counterparts (J, JR, or MS), then loaded up another cart of JPBs.
Once Sandy returned the cart (within a day or two), I interfiled them with their hardcover counterparts (J, JR, or MS), then loaded up another cart of JPBs.
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Slowly but surely. we cleared out the spinners.
We love this!
e
Use bins to make popular series easier to shelve and easier for kids to browse. Also "cleans up" shelves, as many of the paperbacks fall over on shelves.
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insert pic of BOUNCE sign here to explain the purpose of the BOUNCE stickers on books
[mention that we'll have a BOUNCE sign on display they can look at if they want to see details]
[mention that we'll have a BOUNCE sign on display they can look at if they want to see details]
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no comment--just whip through this and next slide to show people enjoying the early literacy books
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Bibliotherapy books moved....
[click to next slide]
[click to next slide]
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...next to the Parent/Teacher section. More visible, and the collections complement each other.
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Speaking of cataloging and reorganizing, here is another section that needed attention. Career books w/ spine labels
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Binder in the career section w/ list of titles arranged by Author and Subject.
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Remember these?
1. popular JNF series not grouped together (because Dewey)
1. popular JNF series not grouped together (because Dewey)
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"Permanent" display case for these.
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Popular JNF series display
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On other side of that JNF series display, we house our drastically reduced Reference collection.
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Here, introduce the idea of "Happy Accidents." Describe the great things that came about only after we had initiated the big changes.
Award winners re-emerge
New display space
Happy accidents:
New display space (we pulled these display racks from the old paperback area)--Read the Movie books and New Middle School Books.
Newbery and YHBA books were moved here, putting them near the rest of the books for older children (used to be lost back near the play area).
New display space (we pulled these display racks from the old paperback area)--Read the Movie books and New Middle School Books.
Newbery and YHBA books were moved here, putting them near the rest of the books for older children (used to be lost back near the play area).
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Middle school books are now much more visible
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Better space to display graphic novels
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Series books are getting numbers, and for authors with multiple series: colored dots keep them organized.
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While brainstorming ways to make more room for the J fiction book books now that the audiobooks and paperbacks are interfiled, we decided to pull out Classics. We've had such a positive response to this.
Hey! DVDs over here!
See notes: Arthur has been in this spot for years--I never noticed him before.... Having Arthur pointing the patrons to JDVD's new location was a happy accident.
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We hung an owl to direct people to the Classics and Popular Series collections.
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There isn't actually one of these Captain America shields up yet to guide patrons to the Graphic Novels, BUT we've turned in a work request for it! It should be up by the end of August.
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Tell anecdotal stories here about how patrons and staff [cue Lisa Dick] have reacted to changes.
Photo by arj03
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Have the collection moves paid off? Discuss stats here.
