Genre Allocations - Update

As I continue to organise fiction books into genres, I also managed, in recent weeks, to create on Microsoft Word simple genre labels which can be printed onto label sheets, which will cater for genres or collections where RAECO may not offer a label e.g. HSC.

I used the template 12602 from RAECO as their labels are the same size as the genre labels that they sell to maintain consistency.

Once I start printing them and placing them on the spines of books, I will share them, and hopefully, this will save some time for those in desperate need of labels.

There are two collections that I made labels for - HSC and Stack Collections as there is no effective system in place to distinguish them from items in other collections. 

Book Week Parades - For and Against

I am doing a blog entry for the School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW) on Book Week Parades following an article published by Antoniette Latouff in The Sydney Morning Herald on 25 August 2022 in which she was critical of decisions by schools to hold them because of the frustrations raised by parents, and questions how it relates to improving literacy.

Click here to read that article.

I would also recommend an article written the following day by Caitlin Fitzsimmons in the same publication putting in a case for book week parades. She highlights that it has become an annual tradition in our schools but also promotes literature. In addition, she rebuts arguments about some of the "hassles" in organising costumes and highlights that not much effort is needed for a good costume

I will update you when the article appears on their blog, but note that it will not be available publically as it will be for SLANSW members only. 

Genre Allocations (for labels)

Fortunately, I have done this in two previous schools, but I am working through the fiction collection in my current school to determine genres for each fiction item.

In 2018, I did an entry on this topic.

I have decided to do it because the fiction books don't have genre labels at all, and have felt that it has stopped students from selecting books that they wish to read. I was told it had been based on the need for students to be able to locate and select books independently. Having labels was seen as an "impediment".

Unlike in 2018 at the school in question at the time, I have seen here that there is an even greater need for it. Students have indicated that they don't know if a book belongs to a particular genre. I observed it recently with Year 8 English classes visiting the library to borrow fantasy books - Several students asked me to find out if it was a Fantasy book or not, searching for it on OLIVER. This was time-consuming.

Do I still hold the same views in 2023 from what I wrote in 2018 - yes.

Also, there are no labels for the Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) featured, whether its on the spine or inside the cover, causing more difficulty for those participating in PRC. 

Am I doing this with formal genrefication in mind - I will explore it but that will come later. 

Schools Catalogue Information Service

To date, I have not posted about Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS).

In recent times, I have had to rely on it to have a number of older items in the library collection catalogued. Generally, they have made it easier for us as school library staff to catalogue items by virtually ending our need to manually catalogue an item. 

I have had to search their catalogue to determine if they have data for the resource, then transfer either the SCIS ID or ISBN into the data entry in the catalogue (Available on OLIVER), then either enhance or overwrite the existing data. 

If it has not been listed, then I place a request with SCIS. 

I am impressed by the service that allows us to photograph key sections containing information about a book such as the cover page, copyright details page etc, fill in key details and forward onto SCIS. The book does not physically have to be sent unless SCIS request it. 

Whether the book was published yesterday or many years ago, don't worry about having to catalogue it yourself. It does take a little time to take photos or scan the pages you need and fill in the online form, but it will save hassles later.

Also over time, if SCIS updates details and the data was obtained through SCIS, it will update it on your catalogue. 

Is your library collection really ageing? - Progress Report + ClickView and OLIVER

Last week, I completed the list of books without publication dates to determine the age of the books in my library collection, and the final figure reflected an estimate that I took back in November when using a spreadsheet; I applied a formula from the Awful Library Books Blog and OLIVER got it to within one year of the estimate.

Now, I will have a date to start aiding me in weeding an ageing collection and target books that are older than that date before shifting to books past that date. 

But I also discovered a fault in OLIVER that was keeping my collection appearing younger than it should be - Clickview Items were appearing as books in format. It meant that in OLIVER I had to change the format to video to ensure that only books were listed as format and change. 

Another opportunity arose as well, updating catalogue records on SCIS as well. There are a number of items that are not linked to SCIS, which means extra work, but I feel that it is important to ensure that each book in our collection is correctly catalogued but also with the correct data. SCIS is integrated with OLIVER which means data can be automatically updated. 

Is your library collection really ageing?

As a member of the Management Committee for the School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW), I wrote a feature for their blog on determining the average age of books in your library collection.

Being a members-only article, I will not post it here in its entirety, but I will provide you with a link to the Awful Library Books Blog if you want to read up about the process, as it was a source that informed me in preparation of the article

I have found it useful as a starting block to weed books, especially if there are a lot of books to weed. It means that books that are not as old face the chopping block first.