I am in the process of introducing spine labels at school, encouraged by the fact that most schools do so.
It has helped me immensely in helping students (or myself) in choosing a good book to read. It is part of a broader objective to move the school towards genreifying the fiction collection. Research has shown that dividing the fiction collection into genres does increase borrowing. Students feel more guided in their selection of books to read.
I have had some conversations with students this week telling them about the spine labels and they are in fact excited by the idea. It might be because its a fresh idea, or being able to easily find books in a genre that interests them.
The labels are primarily being sourced from Raeco, but some will be made in house.
I cannot find anything explicit on research about the impact of genre labels on books. However research on the broader topic of genrefication might give us some answers or clues like the link provided here.
Feel free to download and use the poster that I created for my students. It doesn't need to be too fancy.
