To better serve our patrons, the Becker Free Library will temporarily be closed for renovations. This is a very very small portion of our children's collection. It has become necessary to find a better way to catalogue our extensive book collections. The "stuff it so tightly on the shelf you can't get any books out" method has not been working so well. The main problem is that when you do manage to pull a book free, the other fifty books that were wedged in there with it come crashing out on to the floor. The kids are also fans of the "throw it on the floor when I'm done reading" method, the "hide it behind the toilet paper so Mom doesn't know I snuck more books into the bathroom" method, and the "take a new book to bed every night and leave them under the covers" method. Matt researched different real methods of book cataloguing, including the old Dewey Decimal system and the Library of Congress system.
After more discussion than was really necessary, we've decided to group non-fiction by subject and fiction alphabetical by author. Here Paul (our elected librarian) is sorting some fiction. Now, not being an engineer type myself, my brain works a little differently when it comes to organizing things. I have no problem remembering that I was reading
Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book the last time I was giving Renee a bubble bath, so of course it's shelved right behind the toilet bowl cleaner. I mean, come on, that's entirely logical. About a year ago, before we set up the library, I actually did organize the books on the downstairs shelves according to a very logical and easy to use system. By color. Everyone knows
Don Quixote is orange and
Robinson Crusoe is red, don't they? That's how
I remember things anyways, and if other people can't find books, that's not my problem.
To better serve our patrons, the Becker Free Library will temporarily be closed for renovations. This is a very very small portion of our children's collection. It has become necessary to find a better way to catalogue our extensive book collections. The "stuff it so tightly on the shelf you can't get any books out" method has not been working so well. The main problem is that when you do manage to pull a book free, the other fifty books that were wedged in there with it come crashing out on to the floor. The kids are also fans of the "throw it on the floor when I'm done reading" method, the "hide it behind the toilet paper so Mom doesn't know I snuck more books into the bathroom" method, and the "take a new book to bed every night and leave them under the covers" method. Matt researched different real methods of book cataloguing, including the old Dewey Decimal system and the Library of Congress system.
After more discussion than was really necessary, we've decided to group non-fiction by subject and fiction alphabetical by author. Here Paul (our elected librarian) is sorting some fiction. Now, not being an engineer type myself, my brain works a little differently when it comes to organizing things. I have no problem remembering that I was reading Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book the last time I was giving Renee a bubble bath, so of course it's shelved right behind the toilet bowl cleaner. I mean, come on, that's entirely logical. About a year ago, before we set up the library, I actually did organize the books on the downstairs shelves according to a very logical and easy to use system. By color. Everyone knows Don Quixote is orange and Robinson Crusoe is red, don't they? That's how I remember things anyways, and if other people can't find books, that's not my problem.
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