Biography Genrefication

Genrefying the Biography Section

Psst, you know that the biographies are the most boring part of the library, right?!
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At least in my library, they get very little love. Except at project time, ‘cause for some reason EVERYONE does a darn bio project. But, that is a research issue for another day.
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Our biographies, themselves are great, but our shelves are so packed with books that some weeding and dynamic shelving has been in order for some time.

​In the process of preparing for the weeding and organization work, I uncovered  Jess Golz’s ’ awesome biography genrefication project. That was the push I needed to get my bios in order and circulating!

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I am fortunate enough to have a flexible library schedule, so I blocked out a week to tackle this project head on and get it all done.  I started by weeding heavily and then as I weeded, I organized the books into categories, using sticky notes on empty-ish shelves.  That is probably the part that took the longest amount of time.  And, was the dustiest part of the whole job!  

Then I moved the new group of books around so they were in areas where the number of books would fit best onto the shelf.  For example, all the artist books fit on one shelf, while the changemaker books needed a whole section of four shelves to accommodate all of the titles.  
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The back of each book got a sticker for to identify it as a part of that section and the books were scanned to add them to a copy category and shelf location in our circ system.  Next was setting them up applying dynamic shelving practices so there were outward facing titles and stacks of books in bins to break up the standard style of shelving.
It has been a satisfying process to see some seriously old books be weeded and then to see the newer books become more visible and accessible to our patrons.  It is definitely a process that takes some time, but has freshened up a much neglected section of our collection.

Why just biographies and not all of non-fiction?

• Doing the whole Non-fiction section would be way more than I was willing to take on during a 2 week-ish break in my classes.
• Our biography section was very out of date and needed a serious refresh!  I ended up weeding over 250 books that were over 10 years out of date.  I know, I know, bad librarian...but you know how it is with weeding, sometimes there are sections that get away from you and then they need a bit more love.  
  
• Now we can see all the awesome NEW biographies that have been purchased over the last few years.  They are not buried behind the musty and in some cases moldy-oldies.
  
• This is the shelf that our circulation desk faces every day...the view was getting old.  Looking at the overstuffed shelves that kids couldnt navigate was just too much.
  
• This is a great spot to do some dynamic shelving.
  
• Most students look for books by genre, or in the case of the biographies, by category.  They want the books on artists, or musicians, or presidents.  They aren’t always looking for a specific person.
  

How we (my library besties and I) figured out what categories to use...

• There was LOTS of debate and some very hilarious conversations over where to categorize some of the books.  The basic groups were easy, Artists, US Presidents, Entertainers.  However some of the other ones were a bit more difficult.  Like, where do the Holocaust survivor stories go? Or what about Kate Middleton, or Al Capone?
• Recommendation: grab a librarian friend to have these chats with, it will really help to keep things in perspective and help you consider all the possibilities for each title.
• After going back and forth we established a set of standard groups with some variation based on the differences between our collections and student needs.

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Here are the final groups that I landed on for our library:

Artists - painters, sculptures, fashion designers, graphic novelists
Entertainers - Actors, Singers, Directors, Comedians
Change Makers - People who were working toward a specific cause
Memoir - autobiographies
Survivors - narratives of survival (Holocaust narratives, and also stories of escaping war and child soldiers)
Infamous - the “baddies” as my daughter would say.  Gangsters, and all around bad guys and gals from history.  Think Vlad Dracul and Rasputin, and some pirates, but mosly books from the Wicked History Series.
World Leaders - Policticians and people on the world stage.
US Presidents
Adventurers and Military - Explorers, Astronauts, Spies, and Military Leaders
Science & Tech - Math, Science and Inventors
Entreprenures - business moguls (Walt Disney, Madam CJ Walker)

How do we keep things going back to the right place?

• Each book is getting a small sticker on the back of the book with the biography category on it, so shelvers know where they go in that section.
  
• In the circulation system, books have received a new copy category and copy location based on there genre.  Ex. Bio - Artists, Bio - Infamous
  
• There was no change to the spine label or other MARC record information in the catalogue.
  

A bit about dynamic shelving

• The choice to use dynamic shelving was very intentional.
• This is a somewhat unloved section of the library.  We want kids to easily be able to access the materials and see what is new.
• The dynamic shelving also makes it easy for us to replace and update those titles that are new and are being added to each of the categories.
• In addition to using book stands, I also am using these refrigerator bins as an additional shelving option.  I like these for on the shelves, but an not planning to use these as a way to transport items as they seem a bit more flimsy than I anticipated. So, great for just on the shelf and displays, but not for sending class sets out to classrooms. 
  
• ​Here is the link to the ones I bought (this is an Amazon affiliate link and I get a small commission at no cost to you, if you make a purchase).

Looking for other librarians who have written about this?
http://iroquoismslibrary.blogspot.com/2018/05/biography-genrefication-project.html
https://www.thenextgenlibrarian.com/blog/biographygenrefication
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Feeling inspired or have questions?

Comment below.