Ditching Dewey: Genrefying Your ibrary

Citation: 
Whitehead, T., & Robusek, D. (2016, June 23). Ditching Dewey: Genrefication in your ibrary. Retrieved from https://www.follettlearning.com/about-us/find-an-event/ditching-dewey-genrefication-in-your-library

Summary:
This is an hour and fifteen minute webinar put out by Follett. You have to register for it, but it is free to watch and it loads immediately. The video is moderated by the Follett Community Manager, but features Tiffany Whitehead (sort of the guru of genrefying) and Don Robusek who is the Director of Library Solutions at Follett. The video starts with Whitehead talking about the process that she has gone through to genrefy two libraries. She first completed this at a middle school several years and ago and just recently moved to a private high school and is in the middle of going through the same process. She outlines her process from weeding to categorizing to updating records in Destiny. She includes a number of images and visuals that make it easy to follow and seem far less overwhelming than I had initially anticipated. Robusek does the latter half of the webinar and explains ways that Follett is currently supporting genrefication as well as changes that are coming in hopes of further supporting this process. The webinar ends with a number of questions from the Follett community--these are answered by both Whitehead and Robusek.

Evaluation:
This was definitely enlightening. During one of the classes, my group began talking about this idea of genrefication. I had heard of it and thought about it, but listening to one of my classmates who had done it was really helpful. She directed me to Tiffany Whitehead and this webinar did not disappoint. Whitehead not only gives a lot of information on how to go through this process, but she supports doing it with data and statistics. Her "why?" was completely student and staff focused. She talked about how circulation has gone up significantly (more than doubled) and how it has impacted her interaction with both students and staff. Students and staff both love it and it has made the relationship with both better and freed her up to spend more time cultivating relationships and teaching rather than just helping people find books. It was also interesting to hear how Follett is currently (2016) supporting genrefication and the changes that they hope to make. I need to do more research about what has actually been implemented, but as of two years ago, Follett was trying to set up Destiny so that schools could more easily make this transition. In addition, they were willing to send out teams of trained professionals to work with teacher librarians to implement this in their own libraries. If you've ever thought about genrefying, this is definitely something to watch.