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. 

What I Like Reading (Handout)

Last year, I created a resource for Teacher Librarians that could have two uses:

What I Like Reading

It can be used for either (or both):

1. Finding out reading preferences of students.
2. Genrefication of library fiction collections

I ended up using the handout for both reasons. 

Firstly, I needed to know what they enjoyed reading so I could help each student select suitable books to read given that the students I worked with had experienced difficulty locating books that they enjoyed reading. It helped me make more informed recommendations to students during their wide reading sessions. This provides a diagnostic assessment of student reading preferences. I scanned student responses and emailed each English Teacher a copy for their records. As we start the year, this will be a good resource to use in wide reading sessions. 

Secondly it helped me to plan and advise the school on how the fiction collection could be genreified. I tallied the results for each wide reading/English class and provided me with a broader indication of what the student body at the school enjoyed reading. You may notice that I mostly used genre labels from RAECO in the handout as I was proposing to utilise their labels when genreifying the collection. However, labels (custom made or accquired from any supplier) can be used. 

There was an additional benefit in that it better informed me on resources to be accquired for the library. For instance a number of students indicated that they enjoyed reading sports fiction and the library had very few books catering for their interest in this genre. In response, I had to order additional books encompassing sport. I also needed to expand our collection of humour novels/stories as it was identified as one of the most popular genres by the student body and some series e.g. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was in very high demand. 

If you would like a word.doc of this resource, please email me at either fabian.amuso@syd.catholic.edu.au or famuso.teachlib@gmail.com.