Knowledge is Power

My library is no longer a tribute to Dewey-Decimal symmetry.  It is a not-quite bookstore model/Dewey hybrid that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever … unless you happen to be an actual patron.  That’s because I have re-imagined the question of “where should this go” by looking at the picture from a student’s point of view.  I know from experience that my readers who read about sports don’t particularly care whether a book is fiction or nonfiction — many of them probably aren’t sure they remember what those words even mean.  They just want a book about football, or baseball, or hockey.  So I can steer those readers to their very own place in the stacks, and they suddenly feel at home.  I have inter-filed books on animals, mythology, supernatural, and war for the same reason.  General nonfiction, otherwise known as “the stuff no on ever reads unless they have a research assignment,” is still very much Dewey, with stickers and dividers to help lead the way.  To my more traditional teachers and parent volunteers, it’s a bit confusing, but to my students, it makes perfect sense.