To genrefy or not to genrefy - is that the question?
- Library Support
- Oct 29, 2019
- 1 min read
Please read the white paper on Genrefication on the Scan pages and then add to the conversation about this topic on this blog post..
How do you think genrefication works best in a school library?
What are the elements we should consider both as an individual school and state wide?
What are your top 10 genres for Fiction?
I am very interested in genrefying the fiction section. High school students like to be in control and like to identify with what they know and like. They are used to easy access with social media and content that matches their interests. This is what reading for pleasure is competing with. Popular fiction that is easily accessible is an important aspect of the collection and is highlighted in displays. Most of my students have had limited experience of libraries and don't follow authors. They connect through their interests and this often results in my leading them through genre discussion and showing them several books in that genre to get them reading for interest or pleasure. I am initially thinking…
I was very old school about keeping to Author fiction shelving until I was off school for a while and when I went to a shop with some books I automatically went searching for the style of books I like, together, genrified obviously. I suddenly realised for kids who we are trying to encourage to read, they will go looking for the type they like. If we make it too hard they will give up and just say the usual... I don't like reading. If we can make the choosing easier then why not?
The difficulty is in deciding which genre some books should be put in if they have a range of themes, a mystery with comedy and a…
I think that this is far from a simplistic discussion and is far-reaching into the raison d'etre of school libraries and TLs. We need to look carefully at our goal, which as teachers should be around student access to curriculum and outcomes, with all the associated realities of that, including equity, disability, language and literacy etc.
I went on study tour with CSU on the October holidays and found an overall impression that libraries are moving to the virtual space for their non-fiction collections but remain very important as community/learning spaces. The experience, and my own experience at CSU - where I have never entered a library or touched a book physically, yet used the online library extensively - leads…
Fiction Genrefication - We want students to easily access books but we should be making more use of the 'search' in OPAC in the Oliver Library System by showing students how to use it and/or helping them find what they are after. Search by 'Genre' is not hard to do and there are a large number of genres in SCIS. I get the impression that TLs having conversations with students about books (and asking the right questions) seems to be in decline (surely we are not that busy!). In our High School Library, having separated 'series' books from the rest of the fiction, identified by author, makes it harder to find and shelve fiction books. I dread the thought of…
I agree with Elizabeth Moss. I am beginning the process of adding genre stickers to books but I will keep the books in alphabetical order by author. Children often discover an author and read more books, initially in a series but sometimes moving on to other works by the same author. To separate an author’s works because the author chooses to write across different genres could prevent children from broadening their reading experiences in this way.
Many books do not fit neatly into a genre category, or could fit into two. One child may enjoy the adventure aspect of the Wizard of Oz, while another will respond to the fantasy element. Where should the book be shelved? And once shelved,…