The guiding principle for my summer grant work was how I could make the nonfiction section of the LS Library accessible and appealing to community members, especially K-4 students. The seed for this idea was planted in Fall 2022 when I visited a wonderful library in the East Bay and talked with the librarian about her nonfiction section and how the bins increased her circulation by quite a bit. I decided I wanted to create a nonfiction section where the students could find books by topic, photo, or number. Each bin would have a large label with these components.

I analyzed community use of the books and determined what new books I wanted to order. I focused on updating the collection and adding more books that I knew were needed (like holiday books, for example) as well as specific teacher requests.

I first figured out how many bins I could fit on the shelves. I began placing books in bins little by little and then cleared off all the shelves completely, putting the books on a cart. I looked at each book and decided if I wanted to do one of the following: keep and categorize it; offer it to the US Library; offer it to a specific teacher; offer it to the community.

After taking a deeper look at the collection, I added and omited categories based on current titles and titles I knew I had ordered. I also looked at books that had been removed from the "reader/green dot" section because they are nonfiction; I categorized what I wanted and weeded the rest as above.

I think the collection looks so inviting and that the community will love the changes. Over the coming weeks, I still need to do more work--as soon as I am 100% set on the categories, I will need to create the bin labels and number all the books.

I invite you to stop by and check out some nonfiction!