Gwen Bartlett presented an interesting session at the spring KASL conference, Update your Library using the Bookstore Model (MS Word).If you have been working in the same library for as long as I have, looking at your space with fresh eyes and sprucing it up is worth a little thought and effort. Consulting some of the students isn't a bad idea either. The spectacular Unquiet Library has an inspiring post about how they shook their library up a bit.
And just yesterday, I watched the following webinar by two Topeka Shawnee County Public Librarians on how they are in the process of redesigning the nonfiction section one bit at a time. Though not everything they have to say is applicable to every other library, their thoughts will make you look at your collection in a little different light. Get the details and archive information for Why Do We Dewey? Redesigning the Customer Centered Experience on WebJunction Kansas.
You also might refer to the thoughts of Stephen Abram and the work of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative.
The key to an inviting library, after looking at the work of these people, is looking at the library in terms of user experience, making the space as inviting as possible while anticipating the needs of your students and teachers and empowering them to effectively interact with the information available. While maintaining the integrity of the database, the collection should be as browser friendly as possible.
Though the grand idea sounds overwhelming, any library, no matter how understaffed and underfunded can start small by:
1. Improving visual merchandising.
2. Improving organization.
3. Creating displays in stacks.
4. Creating shelf headers.
5. Creating effective shelf labels.
6. Creating better end cap signs.
7. Developing space for more face out books.
8. Creating relevant art work.
9. Stickering the books with broad subject or genre headings.
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