Exploring engagement with non-fiction collections: Sociological perspectives.

Chapman, Sherry

Exploring engagement with non-fiction collections: Sociological perspectives. (2018). Collection and Curation, 37(2), 43-49. Retrieved from https://sjsu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_emerald_s10.1108/CC-08-2017-0034&context=PC&vid=01CALS_SJO&search_scope=EVERYTHING&tab=everything&lang=en_US

Summary:

This paper finds that development of non-fiction collections from a sociological perspective is necessary to empower individuals and groups to resist power structures and social inequality.

Evaluation:

This paper is thought provoking when considering developing non-fiction collections in libraries and their value to readers. It also points out the “readers often appropriate non-fiction texts for purposes unintended by the authors.” The sociological perspective advocates for support for these materials in spite of dwindling budgets.

Selecting Non-Fiction Narratives

Rogers, Karen 

Wharton, J. (2016, January 18). Selecting and Promoting Nonfiction in Your Library. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from http://www.slj.com/2016/01/books-media/selecting-and-promoting-nonfiction-in-your-library-nonfiction-notions/ 

Summary:

     In this article on the selection on non-fiction narrative books to add to your middle grade library Jennifer Wharton has 4 criteria to use for selection.  The books you select should have a hook, be about an interesting subject, be relatable to kids, and have a clean design.  Middle school readers want their nonfiction books to be wordier than it was in elementary school, but still want interesting pictures to be included.

Evaluation:

      I chose this article for my blog post because with the new Common Core State Standards teachers are being asked to include more non-fiction narrative texts in their classroom lessons.  As librarians we need to be aware of this change in curriculum and meet the need by including non-fiction narrative selections in our collection development.

Budgets Are Limited, Student Interests Are Not

Micka, Tracy

INFO266, Fall 2016

Bill Ferriter (2014, March 3). Is Stocking Library Shelves with Nonfiction Content a Waste of Money? [Web log post]. Retrived from http://teachingquality.org/content/blogs/bill-ferriter/stocking-library-shelves-nonfiction-content-waste-money

Summary:

The basic idea here is that when school libraries are pushed into a forced choice between developing their nonfiction section by either spending money on print or spending it on digital (and this IS the case for most libraries as there is never enough funding), then the author suggests digital - in the name of student choice, currency, relevance, and expediency. Putting it succinctly, the author explains the lack of digital access as a situation where students are “forced to study what they CAN study instead of what they WANT to study.”

My Comments:

I spent longer than I planned on this article because I read every last word, including all the reader comments. And then I read it again. I think this is one of the most important articles I’ve read for this assignment yet...particularly for what it says about connection development.

If our job is to open the world of nonfiction to students and enable them to be self-directed, lifelong learners, then I think digital content is a must, and probably preferential to print books, which are quickly outdated and, without an unlimited budget, cannot adequately cover a breadth of subjects for curious children. That last point on breadth of subject matter may be contestable- for there are ways to incorporate student choice into purchasing decisions, and there is the idea that the collection should be focused (narrowed) anyway by the unique needs of the school’s community and curriculum.

Still, it seems common sense to me to build up nonfiction collections with digital access. There are nuances to the argument, however, and the real gold here is in the comments section, where readers make of number of important objections and clarifications. Such points include the idea that young and reluctant readers benefit from the tactile experience of physical books; not all students have digital access at home, so they need print books; and most importantly- providing digital access is not enough- kids need information literacy instruction.

Ultimately, this article is about how to get more bang for your buck and Jennifer Henry’s comment  (titled “Cooperation & Innovation”) has some great points about connection development that might help those of us on a tight budget not feel so constricted by that forced choice.

Dewey Lite: Flippant or Forward Thinking?

Gattullo Marracolla, E. & Parrot, K. Dewey-lite: a solution to the nonfiction problem (PDF document). Retrieved from Institution Handouts: http://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/NI14Handouts/Dewey-Lite_Handout1.pdf

From a collection development standpoint, is reorganizing the school library using a system other than Dewey Decimal a good plan?  The 2014 ASLA Institute presentation, Dewey-lite: A Solution to the Nonfiction Problem, explains some of the potential benefits of this method, such as a significant rise in nonfiction circulation, better visibility of a wider variety of titles, and ultimately a patron-focused collection.  This presentation may be an oversimplification of these benefits, although this has become a trend across US children's libraries, as well as in Canada and others.  So what would one of these library collections look like?

First, nonfiction sections are broken up into, what is considered more intuitive categories such as these mentioned in the presentation from Darien Library,

• Create: which includes music, arts, gardening, dance, and cooking
• Then & Now: which includes geography, history, and current events
• Animals: which includes all living things prehistoric and currently living

Or these from the Metis system as mentioned in a School Library Journal 2012 article,

• Languages
• Humor
• Community
• Countries
• Machines
• Ourselves

When the reorganizing first takes place, sorting, organizing and weeding will likely take place too.  These new categories may bring unidentified collection needs to light and/or may help to address some needs that had been previously identified.  

Here is a look at this process in action, and the reaction afterward of two elementary school librarians in Ontario, Canada.  

J. Hasselberger

Spring 2016

Throwing Dewey Overboard

von Mayrhauser, Heidi.

Parrott, K. & Gattullo, E.  (2013).  Throwing Dewey Overboard.  Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 11 (3), 3-33.

Length: 6 pages

Notes Summary and Evaluation:  This was an interesting article about a library in Connecticut that got rid of the Dewey Decimal System--and then the amazing results that followed.  I was interested in this topic, as classmates talked about the possibility of this after looking at our core, emphasis, and special collections in presentations three and four.

After reorganizing their picture book and early reader collections by topic (instead of author last name) the circulation went from 18,926 to 121,245 in the first year!  Then they went on to reconsider their older juvenile fiction collection and non-fiction collection.  I went into this article feeling that getting rid of the DDC would work in a small, non-fiction collection.  But for a large non-fiction collection this might be too overwhelming to find a single book, say for a paging list.  This library came up with a "Dewey Hybrid Model" or "Dewey Lite."  This meant that the collection was divided into several broad subject areas.  The DD numbers remained on the spines.  An example of how they moved things around is by putting all animal books together (500s--animals and 600s--pets).

Here are their main subject areas:

• Kids Animals
• Kids Create
• Kids Facts
• Kids Fun
• Kids Poetry
• Kids Self
• Kids Sports
• Kids STEM
• Kids Then & Now

This article also walks you through the entire process and gives lots of tips in case you want to implement something similar.  It also addresses possible problems, the main being outliers of these subject areas.

Young adult Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) non-fiction collections and countywide anti-discrimination policies.

Kimura, Camden

Stringer-Stanback, K. (2011). Young adult Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) non-fiction collections and countywide anti-discrimination policies. Urban Library Journal, 17 (1), 1-27.

Summary: In this article, Stringer-Stanback described her study of LGBTQ non-fiction collections in Southeastern states in the USA (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia) and whether there was a correlation between amount of non-fiction books on LGBTQ topics in the public library system and anti-discrimination policies in the counties in which the public libraries resided. She had two hypotheses: 1) that counties with LGBTQ anti-discrimination ordinances would be more likely to have a Young Adult LGBTQ non-fiction materials in public libraries; 2) that counties without LGBTQ anti-discrimination ordinances would be less likely to have Young Adult LGBTQ non-fiction materials.

Stringer-Stanback ultimate found that the statistics she found were not significant to prove her hypotheses. Only 25% of the counties she looked at had 50% or more of the titles on her 23 item non-fiction materials list. What she did find evidence of was counties with that were more demographically diverse had more items on her list.  She recommends further studies into the relationship on demographically diverse counties and Young Adult LGBTQ non-fiction collections.

Evaluation: This was an interesting article; I expected to see some correlation between anti-discrimination policies and library collections and was surprised that Stringer-Stanback found so little evidence to prove that. That her hypotheses were not proven suggests that there are more factors at work in the creation of collections than county policy. Of course, this is going to be true of any collection, but I did expect that county policy would have some influence on library collections. I did wonder if Stringer-Stanback’s list was maybe too short: she only had 23 items on her list and the items either came from awards lists (LAMBDA Literary Foundation Awards, Stonewall Awards) or from the ALA GLBT Roundtable bibliography. If there are only 23 LGBTQ non-fiction materials for young adults, then I find that extremely disheartening. Otherwise, she might want to look at expanding her list.

One fact she had that I found especially interesting is that all libraries she examined had What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir by E. Lynn Harris. This memoir is about Harris’ life as an African-American man and a gay man in the South. I wondered if this suggests that libraries are more likely to have LGBTQ non-fiction that is geographically relevant. However, I have no other evidence to back that thought up and it might be another idea worth studying.

Informational Text

Bailey, Rachel

Fontichiaro, K. (2012). Informational text. School Library Monthly, 29(1), 51-52.

Summary: This article addresses how school librarians can prepare the library to align with the common core state standards. Weeding is stressed so new narrative informational text can replace old, outdated nonfiction. Other ideas include advertising online databases, giving teachers pointers for classroom book collections and using instructional strategies to help students interact with the text.

Evaluation:  I like how practical this article is. For example, it recommends posting annotated bibliographies of new library books in the teacher bathroom stalls as an alternative to sending such information via teacher’s already overloaded email accounts.