[aisle] Call Numbers

[Jen Brown]

My school has grades K-8, and it can be a dilemma to figure out how to separate the fiction. I have a section called "Series Fiction" (call number SFIC) for chapter books. This has the Acorn books, Branches books, Magic Treehouse, Ballpark Mysteries, Cam Jansen, Princess in Black, Boxcar Children, A to Z Mysteries, and many others. Mostly it includes series books that do not have to be read in any particular order, although there are some exceptions like The Last Firehawk, which probably should be read in order. Books in a series for older kids, especially those that should be read in order, go into Fiction (FIC), Young Adult (YA), or 7th and 8th Grade (YA78). My general age divisions (probably based more on interest level than reading level), are:

Early Readers (ER)-Leveled readers
Early Fiction (E)-Picture books
Series Fiction (SFIC)-Chapter books for grades 1-4
Fiction (FIC)-mostly grades 2-6, although things like Little Women and some others could go up to 8th
Young Adult (YA)-generally grades 5-8, although some would be fine for 4th
7th and 8th Grade (YA78)-just for 7th and 8th grade-characters in upper middle school or high school, more intense action, etc.

Our other sections are-
E Nonfiction-Grades K-4 (picture book nonfiction)
EB-Early Biography-Picture book biographies for K-2
Nonfiction-(Nonfiction for grades 2-8)
Biography (B)-grades 3-8
We separated out all of our Who Was, What Was, Where Is, etc. because those are so popular-they have their own section now.
I have been thinking about creating a "Narrative Nonfiction" section to try to separate out things like The Boys in the Boat (for young readers) that get lost in the midst of all of the informational books.
We are not genrefied, but all of the books in SFIC, FIC, YA, and YA78 have genre labels on them, sometimes multiple, to help with that.

It is definitely not an exact science, and I try to direct kids to books that will be right for them, as we all do. I also separated out the younger-level chapter books when I started like you are doing.
I hope this is helpful!
Jen

Mrs. Jennifer Brown
Library Media Center Director
630-668-1385 ext. 222
Where faith inspires learning
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From: AISLE <aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info> On Behalf Of Keary Bramwell via AISLE
Sent: Monday, November 7, 2022 12:22 PM
To: aisle at list.railslibraries.info
Cc: Keary Bramwell <kbramwell at graceriverforest.org>
Subject: [aisle] Call Numbers

I work at a pk-8th grade school that has call numbers all over the place. I'm trying to come up with a more unified system and make it easier for the different grades to find books at their level. The current call numbers/categories for fiction are YA, FIC (this is mostly middle grade but also can be a catch all), E (picture books), READERS, and GRAPHIC NOVELS. But what's included in each area is all over the place and not super consistent. I'm trying to create a section for chapter books (i.e. Acorn series or Princess in Black) to help my kindergarten to second graders navigate finding them easier. Right now, some of them are in the READERS and some of them are in FIC, not to mention the few I found in E. Does anyone have a section like this and if so, what do you call it or use for a call number? Any other advice on how you organize your library when it serves such a large age span to help the younger kids navigate it is welcome! I am moving lots of my picture books into bins, but I have limited space.

Thank you!

Keary Bramwell
School Librarian
Grace Lutheran School
kbramwell at graceriverforest.org<mailto:kbramwell at graceriverforest.org>
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