To Genrefy or Not to Genrefy? That is the question...

Genrefying Your Fiction Section

A topic about school libraries that is very interesting to me is genrefying. Before I became a school librarian, at the beginning of this school year, I had no idea what this meant. For those of you who don’t, genrefying means that fiction books are organized by genre rather than by the standard Dewey Decimal System.

I have heard arguments for both sides of this issue. Librarians who are pro-genre say that it makes it easier for students who are interested in mystery to find all the mystery books together (similar to how a bookstore) than having to use the library catalog to find each book.

Common reasons to genrefy include:

1. Increased patron ease of locating books
2. Easy to identify collection needs
3. Increases appeal of many books
4. Provides opportunities for genre study
5. Increase overall circulation

Opponents to genrefication, say that it can become too confusing when a book might fall into more than one category--what do you do? (ex: a romantic science fiction book). Other people who don’t like this idea say that it makes it too easy for students to get pigeon-holed if they refuse to look at anything other than their favorite genre.

Common reasons not to genrefy include:

1. Consistency lacking from one library to another
2. Unclear labeling
3. Discovery and exploration is taken away from students
4. Takes lots of human energy/time to make the switch

I see both sides to this argument and although I currently work in a Dewey library I could see myself one day trying genrefying.

Here is the link to a YouTube video that spells out the pros and cons very nicely: https://youtu.be/XL4pdZ8S7H4

Here are some websites that tackle the issue:

1. 5 Steps to Ditching Dewey: Genrefication in Your School Library http://ideas.demco.com/blog/5-steps-to-ditching-dewey-genrefication-in-your-school-library/
2. So You Want to Genre-fy Your Library… http://www.ala.org/alsc/genrefyyourlibrary
3. YA Books and More: Why Genrefy? The Hows and Whys I Decided to Change http://naomibates.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-genrefy-hows-and-whys-i-decided-to.html