Genrefication

I am genrefying my library. You heard it - out with Dewey in with genre sections. Sacrilege - comes the collective gasp of the many librarians to whom Dewey is sacred. You are not preparing our students for college if you take away Dewey. I don't understand this statement - honestly most college libraries are not in Dewey either, they instead use the Library of Congress classification system, a system totally different than Dewey. So what difference does it make what classification system they are using in my library, as long as they are taught how to search and find resources within it? These are the skills they will need to search and find resources no matter what classification system they use later in life (yes, there are more than just these two! Scary huh) 

Why did I decide to do this? Do I dislike the Dewey Decimal System so much? Mr. Melvil Dewey thought of an ingenious system for organizing libraries. One that has been in use since its invention in 1876. I have fond memories of childhood library visits and using the card catalog (Yup I said card catalog) to find the Dewey location of the books I was looking for. That said I will reiterate - it has been in use since 1876. Dewey has long been outdated -  computers, electronics and technology hadn't been invented or even considered possible when he created the system and these books have only grown in scope and don't have anywhere else within the classification system to grow to. Fiction, which is half of my collection, technically falls into the 800s but most libraries, school and public alike, don't put it in the 800s but instead have a Fiction section. I can't remember a single library that actually has its fiction section within the Dewey Classification System, so already we have as a society moved away from Dewey - I am just taking the next leap. 

Since the explosion of YA and Middle Grade titles started about 10 years ago the need for genrefication of fiction sections has become more and more needed. Students identify with a genre and want to read other books within that genre. Today there are enough choices to support having different genre sections in the library. So genrefying fiction just makes sense. I am also genrefying nonfiction, and taking that a step further and interspersing it within the fiction sections. Say what? Yes, now nonfiction sports books are going to be next to the sports fiction section. Poetry books will be next to the novels in verse section and so on and so on. I want the students to notice the nonfiction books, to pick them up and read them. There are so many nonfiction books that are amazing and need to be read. The way they are now, they are gathering dust and lonely.  Genrefying will put more titles in the students hands. And in the end isn't that my job as a school librarian? So for those of you who think I am harming the students by taking away Dewey I have only this to say - I loved Dewey, but as with all things that are no longer useful, it is time to move on and move forward.