It’s been nearly two years since my amazing aide and I started genre-fying our library’s fiction section. While it was a TON of work, we have never regretted it. Since then, I have helped guide other area librarians in their own genre-fication projects and continue to spread the word about this wonderful new way to help readers find the books they love.
The last time I compared pre- and post-genrefication circulation statistics was only a month after we completed genre-fication. So, last week, I ran reports on circulation statistics histories. Even I was shocked at the enormous increases we’ve seen in circulation over the past two years. Here are the results:
(for each year, stats range from the first day of school to the Tuesday before Christmas Break)
It is important to note:
- Our school opened its doors in August 2009. The low circulation in 2009 is partly due to the fact that our Destiny system was not set up until about 6 weeks into the school year. Yes, we checked out manually for 6 weeks–not fun. Though the 5,090 circulations number is only for mid-October through December, it’s still disappointingly low.
- The only thing we did differently in our library between 2010 and 2011 is genre-fy the fiction section. Our library schedule has remained the same, and we are open for the same amount of time as we were in 2009.
- In 2009, our total student enrollment was around 800. In 2012, we are right around 850. This 6% increase in student population will account for a small increase in circulation.
Clearly, genre-fication at my school has been a huge success. We have gotten nothing but positive feedback from our teachers, administrators, other librarians, and most importantly, our students. I especially love it when students new to our school exclaim how “cool” our library is or how easy it is to find good books. As if that were not enough, shelving color-coded books is infinitely faster and easier. Plus, we can tell at a glance if a book is shelved in the wrong section. Bonus!
RELATED:
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Classroom or Library Book Genrefication Labels Thinking about genrefying your library? Want to update your current genre labels? This set of genre labels is designed save you time and help make your genrefied library beautiful and easy to navigate. |
Have you genrefied your library? Still on the fence?
I would love to hear your comments and/or concerns!