Picture Book Neighborhoods: Outcome & Recap

It’s the end of September and I’m sharing the ins and outs of how and why we reorganized our picture book collection in my library from typical author’s names to picture book neighborhoods. Our first week, I shared what picture book neighborhoods are, and why we chose to reorganize thousands of books. Previously, I shared how we decided on which neighborhoods to create. Last week, I took you behind the scenes into our process. Looking back today, I’ll be sharing Picture Book Neighborhoods: Outcome & Recap, I’ll be able to give you tips and tricks on what worked and what we should have done differently. And I’ll share the outcomes, including what our patrons think of the new organization method!

But, first – we’ve made it! It’s week four of our four-week series about creating picture book neighborhoods. I applaud you for sticking with me through these extensively long posts. I figure that if I’ve already gone through the process, our project might help another library work through their process as well.

Before we dive into our neighborhoods, let’s start with a little recap. Picture book neighborhoods is a different type of organization method, specifically used for picture books. Rather than organizing the collection alphabetically by the author’s last name, in this organizational method books are categorized by theme/subject matter and then alphabetized for easy access to specific titles. 

Overall

Honestly, I feel like our process was pretty smooth. Looking back, I would have probably ordered more label protectors from the get-go. We probably ordered 4-5 times from Demco as we went through the whole process. The hard part was really knowing how many books would be in each neighborhood, so at the beginning we ordered 4 boxes of each color we were using. Looking back, we probably could have ordered 6 boxes minimum and had less to order throughout the process.

And I think the biggest thing was that I really don’t think I understood just how much time this project was going to take. And that was our biggest learning curve. It took many, many hours to make all the changes we needed to. Granted, our picture book collection is over 15,000 titles, so there were a lot of changes that needed to be made. 

Final Breakdown

In the end, we finished the project with 12 neighborhoods and close to 16,000 books changed in the catalog.

• Animals – 4,137
• Concepts – 755
• Favorites – 1,048
• History – 394
• Holidays – 1,471
• Imagine – 922
• Me – 2,699
• Play – 566
• STEM – 1,040
• Stories – 1,436
• Tales – 1,010
• Transportation – 455

I think starting with the easier categories was a smart way to begin – pulling titles you know are in a specific neighborhood. The harder part came when we had to decide where something lived when it was very vague. Looking back, I think I probably should have just started going through shelf by shelf, book by book earlier in the process, rather than going through and pulling one specific category at a time. The latter took more time as I had to flip through the books on the shelves more times, rather than just getting them into an neighborhood as soon as I touched them. It was definitely a little daunting at the time, but I think it would have been easier in the long run.

Signage

We made 11×8.5” signs for each category and tried to clear off most of our shelves so you can easily see where each neighborhood resides. We also made a big poster of all the neighborhoods with examples of what you might find in each one.

Finally, we created a very basic map of the picture book shelves and labeled it with color-coded neighborhoods as an additional way for the staff and patrons to find what they were looking for. I think having these supporting tools for both the staff and patrons really helped them to better understand what was available and how to find it.

Patron Feedback

I’d say that overall the feedback from patrons has been very positive.  Our staff has done an amazing job of explaining how the new organizational system works and how to find material. Families with young children have taken quite quickly to the neighborhoods and love that finding books can be so easy when browsing. I’d say the hardest sell are long-time patrons who knew exactly where their favorite books were shelved. They have been a little more reluctant to adopt the new system, but everyone seems to be finding what they need very quickly. And what I’m quick to remind everyone, is that the catalog can still help you to find absolutely anything you need on the shelf. 

Overall, our feedback has been really positive from patrons including families and also teachers. The teachers are loving that they can browse a much smaller section to find titles that fit into their lesson plans and still be able to use the catalog to find specific titles. In fact, just take a look at our circulation statistics to see how people feel about our reorganization.

Picture Book Circulation

With COVID, it’s very difficult to compare circulation statistics just because of how much things have changed in the past few years. We were closed to the public for a few months, we were only allowing curbside pick-up for a few months all of which happened in 2020. And families have been slow to come back into the library as they figure out how to live with COVID on a day-to-day basis. But, after looking at the data, we’re on track to reach 40,000 check-outs by the end of 2022 which surpasses the past five years of data! So I’m super excited about that!

2018 – 38,112

2019 – 37,696

2020 – 16,288

2021 – 28,784

2022 – 30,082 (on track to reach 40,000 check-outs before the end of the year)

Minor Changes

We completed our project mid-June, right before Summer Reading began. Now, we’re beginning to find little things that need to be changed – duplicate copies in two different neighborhoods or books that were put in one category that should really be in another. Overall, there hasn’t been a ton of issues, but a quick label change and catalog change, and the books are getting moved to where they belong.

We also realized quite early on, that any book with a street designation (those in tales, concepts, and holidays) needed more information in the catalog. So, although the information is not actually on the spine label (each of these books includes an additional sticker), the catalog does give the street designation for patrons and staff to more quickly find what they are looking for. For example, the Christmas holiday books show this spine label in the catalog:

E HOLIDAYS
CHRISTMAS 

Rather than just:

E HOLIDAYS

The books have an additional Christmas sticker on the spine label to keep all of these titles together on the shelf.

The Future

My children’s librarian and I have both commented on the animal neighborhood as being too large. It’s almost double the next largest neighborhood. We’re not quite ready to make any changes yet. But, the possibility is there to figure out a way to create some “street” categories to make it easier to browse.

Overall, I’m really happy with how the project turned out. I could never have done it without the support and help from my staff. And I’m really excited to see how our circulation increases as more families discover the great books we have to borrow. Let me know if you’ve created picture book neighborhoods in your library or have any questions about the process! I’m happy to share more specific details, if necessary!

If you’ve missed previous content, please make sure you stop by and learn more:

• Week 1: What & Why
• Week 2: Define Neighborhoods
• Week 3: The Process