The Work has started...

I had been working earlier this week to group my non-fiction books into the categories that I am thinking about using for the new sections in my library. As I have moved along this week, I encountered a  dilemma when I was working towards Ditching Dewey. I had a moment (okay, actually a day or so) where I found that I worried about whether I should actually do away with my Dewey Decimal System. 


My reasons for changing my library include the students ease of use and to have the students check out and be able to find more materials. But as I was working through the 500 section of my shelves, I was having my doubts. They first started when I was working with the animals. I have decided to divide my animal books into two sections, Land and Water. As I was going through the many, many animal books, I was wondering if this was really necessary. I mean except for pets, all the animals are organized right there in the 500s. SO, why am I re-doing all of my sections? I finished dividing the animals and logging them into the computer (so I can change their call numbers) and pondered this thought for the next day and a half. 


Luckily, Friday night, I was at a retirement dinner and had the chance to discuss my worries with my friend and school's Reading Specialist who not only is a great supporter of my library program, but also has a very good understanding of children's literature and what they like to read. She reminded me why I was Ditching Dewey, and the quick two minute discussion we had reaffirmed my commitment to the new system. 


So, today I started back to my reorganization. I worked through the rest of the 500s and all the way through the lower numbers. I ended up adding a section to the shelving system; Jobs. I did come across a group of books that I don't know what to do with, I will research different categories and see where they might go, but for now they are in a pile on one of my shelves (luckily school is now closed for the summer and I have a few months to do all this work). I did come across a problem as I was working today. one of my sections is going to be "Tales". This section will include, Fairy, Tall and Folk 

Tales as well as Legends, Myths and Fables. My problem was that as I separated the books into these sub categories,  I found that I had so many Folk Tale books that I thought I should weed them. As I started looking to weed them, I couldn't decide which ones to get rid of. Many of them are newer and others that relate to our curriculum, that I didn't know what to do. My decision was to go on to another section and come back to this weeding thought later. My final decision on them was to just have a larger "Tales" section than I was planning and to keep most of the books.


At the end of the day, I had completed categorizing most of the non-fiction books that I have and I am getting ready to go after the Biographies, which I am going to shelve along side the non-fiction books in the new sections. 


Of course now that Summer Vacation has started, I will not be working everyday. My next day in the Library will be after the 4th of July, but I will be working on changing my call numbers for the card catalog and checkout system, as I can do that from home. 


Please keep following along as I chronicle my work away from Dewey. 

Moving Away From Dewey

As I move away from Dewey, the first thought I encountered was how do I separate my sections? Many people have argued, Dewey has its problems, but if you go away from it, isn't your new system going to have problems also? And if so, then why bother? I'm sure my new categorizing will have its share of complications, for example when I first started thinking about my sections I wondered where books about Pirates or Medieval times would go. (I have since decided that both of these will go into my World History section.)

For my new system, I have decided to use a modified version of the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) Headings, which according to the Book Industry Study Group website is used by "Many of the major businesses within the North American book industry"; In other words, these are the same headings that Amazon and Barnes & Noble use. In deciding to use these headings, I thought about how best to make it easy for my students to find materials, that would make sense to them.

The following list contains the section headings I plan on using.

ART
COOKING
CRAFTS
GARDENING/FARMING
GRAPHIC NOVELS
HEALTH AND HUMAN BODY
HISTORY

HOLIDAYS AND CUSTOMS
HUMOR
LANGUAGE
MATH
MUSIC
NATURE: ANIMALS
NATURE: EARTH
PLACES
SCARY
SPACE
SPORTS
STORIES (FOLK TALES/MYTHOLOGY/FAIRY TALES)
TRANSPORTATION

Other possible headings are:

BUSINESS
CULTURE
MACHINES
SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY

I'm being realistic in that, I'm thinking I may find that I need to modify my headings as I get into this endeavor, if that happens, I will update my list here also. I will also keep you informed of any other things that arise as I move ahead with this project.  

Ditching Dewey

 My fifth graders use the card catalog every week, they always find the book they want on the catalog and then ask me where they can actually find the book. They know how the Dewey Decimal System works, they know it is in numerical order, but every week, they have to ask where to find things. I have taught them how to use Dewey, labeled the high interest shelves and used increased signage to help, but to no avail.

So, I am going to shake things up; change the look and feel of my library, by organizing the shelves using a categorizing system based on the BISAC Subject Headings. Yes, I'm going to DITCH DEWEY. I got the idea reading about METIS, which I found at Brief Book Bytes.

It's not that  I don't like structure, as a teacher/librarian, I like being able to shelve things in an easy manner, it is just that I think that Dewey is outdated and the children don't really need it or use it. I honestly don't think most of the adults in my school use it either. They come in and ask where things can be found, the same as the children.

I have spent a lot of time reading both sides of the argument for 'Ditching Dewey' and everyone keeps using the phrase, "Librarians search and students browse", but I don't think that is completely true. I think students don't search, because they don't understand the system; even when taught, the whole decimal thing throws them off. I usually start teaching Dewey by talking and teaching about decimals. Students can understand the concept in 3rd and 4th grade, they can organize a pile of books without a problem, but using the system to find books confuses them once they go to the shelves. I believe, if the shelves were organized so that they could relate to them, it would make searching easier.

Thus, No more Dewey.

In my research about getting rid of Dewey, I also read, "Anythink’s WordThink: A Revolutionary Organizational System" and understand why they have more books circulating and more patrons using the library; it is easier for the patrons to use a BISAC approach and less intimidating, whether searching or browsing.

Anythink calls their system WordThink, the group in New York calls theirs METIS after "the Greek goddess of wisdom and deep thought". I have no idea what I am going to call my system (which is going to be a kind of mix of both of these systems), I'm more worried about making it work and figuring out how to do it.

So, over the next couple weeks and months, I will be sharing with you my journey from Dewey to my new system. I haven't even really started yet, and already I am thinking about the process in my sleep. I don't know if that is a good sign or a bad one, but only time will tell.

As the Garth Brooks song says:

sometimes you just can't be afraid 

To wear a different hat 

If Columbus had complied 

This old world might still be flat 

Nothin' ventured, nothin' gained 

sometimes you've got to go against the grain.

I guess we'll see if I sink or swim...

A Quick Book Thought about Wonderstruck

This past week, I read Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick and I have to say, I was blown away. The story like The Invention of Hugo Cabret is told in Pencil drawn pictures and words. Where Hugo Cabret needed both the words and the pictures to carry on the story, this book tells the story of a young man named Ben all in words and uses the pictures to tell the story of a young Girl named Rose. Ben’s story 

takes place in the present where he is trying to cope with life since his mother has passed away. One night he finds some information about his father he never met and the same evening is struck by lightning and loses his hearing. Rose’s story is set in the past where she is a lonely deaf child who knows her mother, but is ignored. As we read along their stories only seem to have protagonists being deaf in common. But as the pictures and words converge toward the end of the book we find that this is not the only commonality that the stories hold.

I enjoyed this book more than Hugo Cabret, which I liked and thought the story was good, but I never really empathized with the characters. I found Wonderstruck more compelling and the characters more to my liking. Both Rose and Ben are likable, characters who I could understand and relate too. The peripheral characters in this book help the story along very well; however there is one character that reminded me of Hugo Cabret in that he has a secret room where he should not. I don’t know if Brian Selznick wrote this character and sequence into the book as an inside joke for people who enjoyed Hugo or not, but it reminded me of a passage or two from the Caldecott Winner.   

I would highly recommend this book, and actually think that if Hugo Cabret won the Caldecott, this in my opinion should win it also. Because where the pictures in his other novel helped the story along, in this one they tell more than half the story. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it is considered for a Newberry, the story is that good.

Click here for more information about Wonderstruck.  

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.