The Shelves are Categorized.

Today was a very productive day, working in the library. I was given lot of help by my wife and son, who were kind enough to come in and give me a few hours of their time. When we were done working, all of the books were properly back on the shelves in their new category sections.

The Shelves used to be in a U shape around the room

So, not only is the system new, but the room arraignment has changed.  

My Shelving sections for the Facili System are as follows:


Favorite Choices (containing the Unexplained, and Graphic Novels)

Sports and Activities (including Drawing, Arts and Crafts and Magic)

Jobs, Transportation and Inventions

The Arts (and writers)

Poetry

Tales (Tall, Fairy, Myths)

People and Places

U.S. History

World History

Holidays and Cooking & Food

Science and Math

Human Body

Nature

Plants and Farming

Space

Animals




Now that the books are on the shelves, I have to put shelf labels on them, and organize the categories. As that work will start in the next few days, I am continuing to change all the call numbers in the Card Catalog.

Good Bye Dewey, I have A Name for The New System

I spent three hours or so today working in the library. I know a Teacher/Librarian working in a library doesn't sound that exciting, but It was actually a big thing, for me. I started the process of shelving the books in the new categorization system that I am using instead of Dewey.


For those new to the blog, I have decided to do away with the Dewey Decimal System in my K-5 Elementary School Library. You can read the other posts for my reasons why. After many hours of changing call numbers, I finally got to move the books to their new shelves today.Although it started out slowly, I am very excited about the way the system is going to work. As you walk into the Library, the room flows from category to category now. From the front of the Library back it actually follows a logical order as the subjects move from one to another.

As I was working today, I started thinking about the new system. The wonderful Librarians at The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, who ditched the Dewey Decimal system at their school (and have been very helpful in answering my questions as I got started) named their system Metis. On their website they say, "We have named the system in honor of the crafty Titan who is the mother of Athena and the eternal source of good advice for Zeus." That is a pretty neat idea. So, I thought I should come up with a name for my system also, since it doesn't quite follow the Metis model or the BISAC Standards.


Now I am not a very vain person, So I couldn't go Dewey-like and name it after myself, and I am not sure my library will ever be a place of the Gods, so I couldn't go with a Mythological name, besides my favorite Greek God since my college days when I first learned of him is Dionysus (the God of Wine and Fertility) and I don't think that is an appropriate name for an elementary library system name.


So, I thought about other options. I am a big Disney fan and am inspired by innovators, like the Disney Imagineers. Lately, I have been reading and listen to some very talented people who have done research on innovation and creativity and I wanted the system to reflect that idea, that it is new and different in the sense that it is innovative for a school Library to Ditch Dewey. The more I thought and looked into words that portrayed this idea, The further I got form why I was doing this. Why I was scrapping Dewey. I am doing it to make it easier on my students and staff and also on myself. It isn't for innovation for innovations sake, it's for ease of use and hopefully a more enjoyable Library experience. So, I have decided on a name, I think best describes the new system; as it means what it is and what using it should be. I have named my new Library System the Facili System (pronounced Fah-Chili).


Please continue to follow along as write about how my work in the Facili System proceeds.








For More information on Metis, check out their website here.
For those of you who have not googled Facili yet, It is the Latin word for Easy.

The Cost of Twelve Days Of Christmas

Welcome to the Thoughts of an Anti-Librarian, I'd like to share one of my Favorite lessons this time of year, I do with my Fifth Grade Students. What they have to do is find the cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  This Christmas Price Index is calculated each year by PNC Bank (in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania). According to their website, “It began 28 years ago when the chief economist at PNC Bank decided to figure out how much it would cost to buy each of the gifts..”

When my students do the project, they have to find,

A.     The cost of each of the presents (and a Partridge in the Pear tree is separate).

B.     The cost of all the presents together.

C.     The cost of the entire song (each present given each day).

It is really kind of funny when they first start working on the project. Some of the kids will start looking for shopping sites, EBay and Amazon are the big ones they choose. I have to remind them at this point that they need to find the actual present not an ornament or a porcelain figurine (you would be surprised how much porcelain is used on the twelve days of Christmas).  One year, I actually had one group that found an exotic bird store and was upset when they couldn’t get a price for  French hens, they actually wanted to call the store and ask if they could get a price.

Once in a while, I get a group that starts Googling the words, “Cost of Twelve Days of Christmas.” This will take them to new sites that talk about the PNC website, but most of the time, they don’t realize that this is the website they need. Sometimes they find the Christmas Price Index from a previous year; they are so disappointed when I point out it is the wrong year. What is funny is that they don’t repeat their search with the same words just adding the current year.  When I point this out to them later, they get usually can’t believe it. (I never help during the lesson, I always review after the lesson what worked and what didn’t with the classes).

I think I enjoy this project so much, because the kids can’t believe that each of these items are real and they actually cost so much.  I have done this lesson with 6^th grade also, but I would be careful about doing it in too high of grades, because the cost of Nine Ladies Dancing is  about $6300. The comments that could be made about paying a dancer, especially that much, could get inappropriate the older the students get.

This is a great lesson for practice in using Search Engines and using the internet to gather and organize information and to solve problems. The kids not only enjoy it because they get to use the internet, but also because it has to do with presents and Christmas. I enjoy it, because once I show them the PNC Website and they enjoy reading through the information and looking at the graphics that they have. I also like the fact that they don’t consider this a Math lesson, although we cover a few Math concepts as we discuss the answers, to my three questions. 

For more information on the PNC Christmas Index checkout this article on The Inspiration Room.