Biography Genrefication

The last part of making my middle school library 100% genrefied was doing our biography section. Before the biography books were organized by who the biography book was about as the call number (ex. a Kobe Bryant book would have B BRY as the called number). However, once I saw a fellow librarian of mine out of Grand Prairie ISD who had their biography section genrefied by different categories the biography books could go into I knew that was what I wanted to do with my collection because it really has never gotten a lot of check outs. So I did what I did with nonfiction (see previous post). I took all the books and put them into different bins by categories. There are less of these than what I used for nonfiction so I can list them: Actors/Celebrities, African Americans, Artists, Authors, Chefs, Inventors/Explorers, Musicians/Singers/Rappers, Native Americans, Presidents/Government, Religion/Mental Health, Scientists, Social Justice, Sports, Texas, War, and Women. The books were given a colored dot which matched the label of the bin so my library aides can shelve easily. In Destiny Follett under Sublocation I added the biography choices (ex. BIO-Artists) so we can easily find them in the bins when the books are put on hold. This has really made things easier such as shelving, grabbing holds and when the students are able to search for books themselves again (thanks COVID) it will make it easier for them to find books on topics and people they’re interested in. We are now 100% genrefied in my library and I couldn’t be happier. Circulation numbers are up, children can find books easier and I love the organization of it, as do my library aides. Let me know if you have any questions about the genrefication process and how you can get started!