I would like to hear from other librarians on whether or not they separate new books from their regular collection.
If you do, how do you do this? How long do you keep them separate before adding back to the regular collection? How do you keep them from getting put back on the shelf with the regular collection when they are returned?
Patrons often come in looking for new books so I would like some system to help them easily locate new materials.
Replies
Bev,
We have a large (2 sided) rolling rack on which we place our new items. There's a sign that came with the rack - one side says New Arrivals, and the back side says Young Adults. We roll this display rack into the traffic flow area just outside our (tiny) library and find that it attracts a lot of attention. It also has "end caps" - shorter shelves at each end - that hold a lot of smaller chapterbooks for our "tween" age readers. If you have a Demco catalog, you'll find it in the Display section - "Mobile Wire Display Islands" (my 2011 catalog has it on pg. 566). Despite the weight of the books, it rolls fairly easily with 2 people to guide it.
Since we are still checking out with cards I can place a colored Post-it note on the pocket to indicate a new book to my helpers when they slip (re-card) the books. I also write a numerical date on the card indicating the month we processed it, so that gives us an idea of when to remove it from the new rack.
If you go with the sticker route, I'd suggest adding the date as a help when it's time to put the item back on the regular shelves.
Another suggestion, if your cataloging program allows, is to add a New Shelves location. Then change back to the regular location when the item is returned to the normal location. Guess that's more work than most libraries want to undertake.
It seems that patrons often come in with just a few minutes to find something and other workers are not as familiar with what's new as I am so that is why I was thinking of separating the new books for a time period. I think I will go with the sticker so that other committee members will know to shelve in "new books" section. Thanks for the input! Bev
I do separate new books and audio visuals by putting them on a shelf that is labelled and clearly visible. As I usually do the shelving it is easy to put them back on the New materials shelf.
If you have other people shelving you could put a removable "new" sticker on the books.
I usually put them with the regular collection after 6 months, but that depends on how many new books we have. If a large number of suitable books have been donated, which does happen from time to time, I place them in a clearly marked basket on the display table in the library.
Hope this helps.
Kay Houghton, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Great ideas! Thanks, Bev