Posts from the ‘Library Life’ category

Nonfiction project update

Remember last summer when I said that I really wanted to figure out how to draw attention to the nonfiction section by using it to display…

New nonfiction titles include books on coronaviruses, space, BIPOC artists, spies, environmentalism, sports books, and video games.

Making our nonfiction more accessible

Grad school is having a “catch up on your reading week,” and I thought I’d use this pause between catching up on my reading and getting started on the two papers a week I have due between now and December 6, to report on how it’s going nonfiction-wise at my middle school library. TL;DR: Nonfiction circulation is up. Way up.

Experiment #7264532: “So You’re in Middle School, Now What?“ Pop-up Display

In my last post, I mentioned maybe doing pop-up displays with a mix of themed books from all parts of our collection to increase interest in our nonfiction offerings. Here’s my first attempt, themed around figuring out middle school. It includes a mix of graphic novels, fiction, biographies, and nonfiction books on various school, relationship, & health topics.

Making our nonfiction more browse-able: Part IV

My goal for this school year is to boost circulation in our nonfiction section. So far, I’ve rebalanced the entire collection to remove gaps, eliminate overstuffed shelves, and add more front-facing books. This week, I used WordArt to redo the nonfiction signs using thematically shaped word clouds that reflect the topics contained in each section.

Revamping our fiction shelves

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about our fiction collection. Before leaving for the summer, I redid our fiction shelves to make them more browse-able too.

Stack of books from our nonfiction section on voting, immigration, puberty, and body positivity.

Making our nonfiction section more browse-able: Part III

I continue to be obsessed with finding ways to make our nonfiction section feel more like the nonfiction section in a bookstore, and less like an inscrutable wall of books organized by arcane numerical wizardry. This week, how I’m planning to use the front half of the library to drive traffic to the back (where the nonfiction lives).

Making our nonfiction section more browse-able: Part II

As I mentioned last time, my current obsession is finding ways to make our nonfiction section feel more like the nonfiction section in a bookstore, and less like an inscrutable wall of books organized by arcane numerical wizardry.

Making our nonfiction section more browse-able

More than half of our collection is nonfiction, yet only about 14% of the books checked out in our library are from the nonfiction section. Most of those are for class assignments. And yet, this section is full of gems. Is it possible to entice students to browse our nonfiction section like they do our fiction stacks?

A snippet of my one-page poster that reads, "A Year of Reading: 2021-2022". In the lower right corner, there's an open book. Design by Canva.

An end of the year library report & why it matters

The teacher librarian at my school constantly talks about the importance of advocating for our school library and its services. So when I saw Kelsey Bogan (@kelseybogan) tweet about her one-page end of the year library report, I knew I wanted to create something similar for us. Here’s what I learned in the process.