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Kathrina commented on the post, Fluid Dates, on the site 2 days, 22 hours ago
Thank you @michael
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Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 3 days, 1 hour ago
Hi Heather, I am also being evaluated this year! That is a great idea to use for the evaluation. Thanks for the idea.
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Kathrina commented on the post, The User is the Sun, on the site 3 days, 1 hour ago
Love the metaphor, Heather! The user is the sun! This post is so inspiring to me and is planting some ideas in my head. Well done.
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Kathrina commented on the post, Kindness Machine! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️, on the site 3 days, 1 hour ago
I love this! I don’t have a machine but the wheels in my brain are turning about how I can make this happen in my school library…. Perhaps a kindness tree around the holidays!
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Kathrina commented on the post, Introduction, on the site 6 days, 1 hour ago
It’s such a small world @anjali !
I also took Houde’s graphic novel course and really enjoyed it. Cool blog, will definitely read more later.
Glad to be here with you!
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Kathrina and
Amanda Davidson are now friends 1 week, 1 day ago -
Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 1 week, 2 days ago
Hi Mary Ann, Ain’t that the truth! It totally aligns with how we search for info! And yes, my genres are alphabetized :).
It’s not perfect, and there is a lot of overlap, but it works in my school library!
Best,
Kathrina -
Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Hyperlinked People, on the site 1 week, 3 days ago
Hi Anna,
I greatly enjoyed reading your post. I appreciated reading about how higher education hyperlinks us, and the library’s role in hyperlinking people outside of higher education. I love the idea of the domino effect of the impact of libraries.
Best,
Kathrina -
Kathrina commented on the post, Vlog Post: Hyperlinked Communities: BookTok, on the site 1 week, 5 days ago
Hi Zoe,
I really enjoyed your vlog. Thank you. I did do one booktok but never came back around to it, but I really need to. Social media is definitely the best way to reach out to my patrons. I love that it is reviving the publishing industry as well. Thank you for the reminder about booktoks!
Kathrina -
Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 1 week, 5 days ago
My pleasure!
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Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 1 week, 5 days ago
Thanks, Tessa! Personally, I find the public library’s fiction section hard to navigate because it’s organized alphabetically. I know genrefying is not perfect but it’s a good solution at least at the high school level.
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Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 1 week, 5 days ago
That’s so great. I will have to put that class on my list of classes to check out. Thanks for sharing. Luckily I do have a lot of shelf space in my library so I can curate little collections on my shelves, but I also like the idea of having it online for kids to access. Thanks for that idea!
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Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 1 week, 5 days ago
Hi Zoe,
To be fair, when I started in my school library, the librarian before me had already started the process of genrefying, so I didn’t do any of it from scratch. But I do suggest you read the article that I cited by Smith because it’ll give you a pretty good idea. In the high school library, it is pretty easy to think of the big genres…[Read more] -
Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 1 week, 5 days ago
Hi Kristin,
Totally agree. It is indeed user-centered and the best part is that it helps them grow as learners and readers! -
Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X-Eliminating Library Fines, on the site 1 week, 6 days ago
Hi Tessa,
I have eliminated fines in my school library, and what a relief. Kids were avoiding returning late books because they didn’t want to pay. I have found that if I email or approach a student with a very late book, he or she will turn it in right away simply because I asked. A friendly reminder goes a long way. Not sure if that would work…[Read more] -
Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Toy Libraries, on the site 2 weeks, 2 days ago
Hi Zoe,
This is so great! I wish this had been around when my son was little. Kids outgrow and grow bored of toys so easily. This is a smart solution that will curb some of that waste, as well as save parents money. This is a great example of libraries being about people!
Kathrina -
Kathrina commented on the post, Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library, on the site 2 weeks, 2 days ago
Hi Aaron,
Thank you for your kind words! I totally agree that having the collection fragmented would be a major obstacle for the user (in this case veterans) and would not motivate them to use the collection. I actually wonder similarly if I can create little sections of non-fiction in my school library. Some popular topics are poetry, true…[Read more] -
Kathrina wrote a new post on the site Aloha-mora 2 weeks, 3 days ago
Assignment X: Genrefying A High School Library
I was a classroom teacher for 20 years, and as such, I learned that lesson plans were all contingent on the students. After all, you can’t s […]-
Loved this post Kathrina. And thank you for your years of service to our students and young people. I remember librarians who had an impression on me, and I’m sure you are that person to others 😊.
This subject of Genrefying Subjects is super interesting and speaks to the Library user experience for many different sorts of information seekers. This Summer, I had occasion to evaluate a library’s collections specific to one Information Community – Service Veterans. As you mentioned, I found the collection fragmented across the building and even into other library branches. Cataloged by type (Fiction/Non-fiction, etc.) and call number. From the viewpoint of a veteran just walking in off the street, this looks like chaos. It’s just the sort of user experience that would turn a user around and send them out the door.
There was no such thing as a Veterans section. I wondered if such a thing would be possible, and I’m convinced it would be – even if just in the form of a reading list. This wouldn’t be as approachable, but at least something.Thanks for sharing!
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Hi Aaron,
Thank you for your kind words! I totally agree that having the collection fragmented would be a major obstacle for the user (in this case veterans) and would not motivate them to use the collection. I actually wonder similarly if I can create little sections of non-fiction in my school library. Some popular topics are poetry, true crime, animals and cars. I don’t see why not. It’s super frustrating as the librarian to struggle to find these when they are commonly asked for. I wish this library that you evaluated could make changes based on your evaluation!
Kathrina-
Yes! Actually, making those changes was the second part of this two-part assignment (in INFO 275, with Dr. Rebmann – amazing class and professor 😊). I, of course, couldn’t rearrange the library…but I could devise a way to centralize information from the collection virtually. I created a LibGuide (linked here > https://ischoolsjsu.libguides.com/c.php?g=1331261) that, among other things, enabled me to curate a select list of books and other holdings targeted to service veterans. In a way, this placed a nice little collection on a “shelf,” albeit online.
If you can’t rearrange things, perhaps this is a substitute.-
That’s so great. I will have to put that class on my list of classes to check out. Thanks for sharing. Luckily I do have a lot of shelf space in my library so I can curate little collections on my shelves, but I also like the idea of having it online for kids to access. Thanks for that idea!
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Hi Kathrina,
Great post! I love that you genrefyed the fiction section. My high school library all the fiction books were together and even though it was a small collection it was difficult to navigate. I love your view of the library and the statement that you taught students, not a subject.-
Thanks, Tessa! Personally, I find the public library’s fiction section hard to navigate because it’s organized alphabetically. I know genrefying is not perfect but it’s a good solution at least at the high school level.
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Hi Kathrina,
Great post! Making the switch to shelving by genre is quite the undertaking! The design choice is user-centered and forward thinking. It is great to know that you are seeing an increase in circulation as a result. You mentioned that genrefying allows the students to seek books more independently and I think this sort of design choice is beneficial to teens in developing their sense of agency and improving their search skills.
-Kristin
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Hi Kristin,
Totally agree. It is indeed user-centered and the best part is that it helps them grow as learners and readers!
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How did you approach the genrefication project? I am in an elementary school library, and I have been putting more books in bins – like “magical creatures” – and a lot of popular sections in NF are binned – like “illusions” and “how to draw.” Getting fiction to circ is my biggest challenge. I think genrefication could really help. I would love to hear how you got started.
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Hi Zoe,
To be fair, when I started in my school library, the librarian before me had already started the process of genrefying, so I didn’t do any of it from scratch. But I do suggest you read the article that I cited by Smith because it’ll give you a pretty good idea. In the high school library, it is pretty easy to think of the big genres (romance, horror, suspense, etc) and just start moving books from there. It gets a little tricky trying to decide between suspense and horror sometimes or mystery and suspense, but you start to get a good feel for it. Good luck! Although I don’t have experience in an elementary library, feel free to reach out with any questions!
KathrinaSmith, J. (2015). Genrefication? A chronicle of one high schools experience. Collected Magazine, (16), 14.
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Thanks – and thanks for recommending this article 🙂
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My pleasure!
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@kathrina1
What a great idea! I bet your students love this enhancement. It sort of aligns with how we search for information online: we don’t search for books by an author whose last name starts with a “B”, we search by, generally, a topic or genre. Sure, sometimes we search by an author but I bet your books within their respective genres are alphabetical 🙂
I have my own books (very roughly) organized by genre as well.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Mary Ann-
Hi Mary Ann, Ain’t that the truth! It totally aligns with how we search for info! And yes, my genres are alphabetized :).
It’s not perfect, and there is a lot of overlap, but it works in my school library!
Best,
Kathrina
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Hi Kathrina,
I love your post! It is so inspiring! We genrefied in June, and already, just for the month of August, over 300 more books were checked out this year than last year. This is my year to be evaluated, and I am actually going to use the change in the library of genrefying. I will have the circulation statistics for each month since I transitioned into my current position and compare the numbers to this year. As soon as we are done categorizing biographies and graphic novels, I will get those numbers too. I can’t wait to see the change! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
-Heather-
Hi Heather, I am also being evaluated this year! That is a great idea to use for the evaluation. Thanks for the idea.
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Hi Kathrina,
I have the data from the last five school years using the historical statistics through Destiny (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xEZ4G_-NVd1OQ88fdPpGHwQGOuub1JTScLX1qwqdicE/edit?usp=sharing). Maybe this can help? A high school teacher that genrefied last year used this as her evaluation and she said it was really meaningful.
-Heather
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Kathrina commented on the post, Please Watch, on the site 3 weeks ago
This is so beautiful. I follow him on social media and didn’t know he is a SJSU alum!
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Kathrina commented on the post, Steal This Idea!, on the site 3 weeks ago
Love this.
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