After spending 7 years at the same international school library, thoroughly weeding it, infusing new materials, completing series so that all volumes are available, training the staff, and running out of ways to improve the library within my power, I moved onto a new job. This has opened a whole new world of challenge.
The history of the library that was communicated during the interview process was that the librarian had been trapped outside the country by COVID19 restrictions for 18 months. Onsite library services had been continued in a limited way by a local staff member from another department and a volunteer staff spouse. The previous library management system had been OpenBib, an open source free software with limited functionality. A Follett Destiny system had been acquired, but there was no way to export the records from the old system to import them into the new system. The school campus was new, opened in 2018. The library is centrally located and two floors. The ground floor is for primary students and the second floor is for secondary students. The school itself had started in 2004. The current curriculum is International Baccalaureate through all year levels. Funding for new books is LARGE.
When video chatting with the temporary staff, the physical challenges were discussed. The shelving in the primary library is six feet tall, bolted to the floor, and curved. It could not be more inappropriate for a primary library. The picture books are organized by three or four reading levels – Red, Yellow, Green, Blue. Over the picture book area there is a net area that is considered a safety concern. Many of the books do not have records in the new catalog because there was no way to transfer the records of the old system. There is a need for graphic novels and middle fiction. The catalog could not be accessed from off campus.
These are the things I knew going in. That being said, I knew it was a fixer upper situation, but not just how much of a fixer upper.
After moving across country and visiting campus for the first time, I accessed the catalog and ran a report of all book records to take home and analyze in order to familiarize myself with how things were organized. After many hours, I ended up with a 10 page analysis document.
What I found is 45 location codes, implying that there are 45 different shelf sections where books can be found. (The reality is more like 14.) Within each location, I found a wide variety of call number formats and elements. For Middle Fiction alone there were 15 variations of call number:
| FIC AUT | FIC AUT B-1 | FIC 812/.54 | MF AUT | MF AUT B-1 |
| MF AUT (G) | FIC SWI (RL) (LP) | FIC 892.7/36 | MF AUT (G) Vol 3 | MF AUT Vol 2 (G) |
| SF AUT B-3 | SF AUT | [Fic] AUT | MD AUT | MS AUT |
How was anyone to put these in any kind of order on the shelf? What did some of these elements stand for? Clearly, some of these were not actual Middle Fiction. Also, it is clear that the creator of the call numbers did not understand the Dewey Decimal Classification System.
The most astonishing call numbers were on items in the “Bilingual” location code. Also, there are no shelves in the library designated as Bilingual, so there is no way to know where these books actually are in the library.
| POF (Bi) ROS (P/E) | VF (Bi) BRO (V/E) | VF (Bi) ROS (V/E) |
I have never seen anything like this in any other library where I have worked. It is as if the creator of these call numbers felt the need to include all the information about this book inside the call number instead of in the bibliographic record.
I decided that there was a need to reorganize everything and relabel everything so that it would actually be possible to locate a book using the catalog record. I have never before walked into a library where the catalog could not be relied upon to direct me to the actual book.
The shelving is indeed curved like snakes, too tall, and double sided with no back guard to keep books from being pushed off the opposite side. The chapter books (labeled as chapter books on the shelving, but having the location code Upper Primary Fiction in the catalog) are arranged by author from A to Z, left to right. The Middle Fiction (Middle School Fiction in the catalog) is arranged by author from A to Z, RIGHT to left. Also, the shelving for this section is up against a cement seating circle and a building support pillar on the other side, so that some shelves are inaccessible. The choice was made to use the left side of the shelving for the first half of the section and the right side of the shelving for the second half of the section. You have to walk around the pillar or the seating area to access the other half of the section.
Upon starting work, I discovered that the new catalog system (Follett Destiny) had been set up in the most basic way. There was only one circulation type (Regular) and only two patron types (Student and Faculty). This meant that every book in the library could be checked out by any patron and all would have exactly the same due date. After checking out a few books to teachers and noticing that the due date was 3 years into the future, I found that the circulation policy for teachers was set to 999 days. There was a need to completely review the system set up and set new library loan policies.
The Upper Primary Nonfiction is arranged by Dewey Decimal Classification from left to right. The Middle Nonfiction is arranged by Dewey Decimal Classification from RIGHT to left.
The decision to arrange books from RIGHT to LEFT, seems to come from an idea that the arrangement must start at the end of the shelving nearest the circulation desk, instead of just making everything LEFT to RIGHT.
Chinese books are on a single set of shelves, labeled as Fiction and Nonfiction, but not even remotely organized by those distinctions on the shelves. Most books have no spine label with a call number at all. Those that do have handwritten labels with 495 as the Dewey Decimal Classification number, which is for Chinese language not Chinese literature.
There is no shelving in the library labeled as Reference, but there are shelves in which all the books are dictionaries of some sort. None of these books are recorded in the library catalog.
On the far wall a section is labeled as Teacher Reference. These books were not in any kind of organized arrangement, although most have spine labels with call numbers. A significant number of picture books were included in this section. I have since moved them to the picture books section so that they can be used by students.
A section of shelving contains class set novels and nonfiction copies. These were not arranged in any kind of order and not necessarily with all copies together in one place. They have since been alphabetized by title.
Another section along the adjoining wall contained what I had been told was “new books” that needed to be entered into the catalog, but it turned out to be a mixture of new and old books that need to be entered into the catalog. There is no organization to them at all. Not even by type – picture books, middle readers, secondary novels, etc.
The rest of the shelving in the library is filled with old textbooks that are no longer in use. There are two reasons for this. The first being that books cannot be discarded. The second being that someone thought that the sight of shelves filled with unnecessary books was better than the sight of empty shelves.
All of the above books are on shelves that are openly accessible to anyone in the library.
International School Librarian 