Dewey or Do We Not?
The Gatlinburg Story
Anna Porter Public Library
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
September 10, 2009
Actually, We Dew
But first who are we?
• APPL is a 501( c ) 3
• “To provide library
services to the City of
Gatlinburg”
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6 employees
20,000 items
8,000 square feet
$208,000 annual budget
$ 18,700 materials
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Population = 5,000
97% are Caucasian
20% are over 65 yrs.
56% students on Federal
Free & Reduced Lunch program
• Seasonally = 35,000
• Economy = Tourism
The Idea and the Timeline
2005 and 2006:
• Exposed to “merchandised” libraries in
Columbus, Ohio at ARSL
• Visited Columbus to collect subject categories
2007 and 2008:
• Weeded & shifted the collection into new
“bookstore” groups
• Re-cataloged and “stickered” the books
2009
• Moved into new building in March
“Merchandising”
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Excellent Signage
Fronts out – 17%
Displays
Do not use the top or bottom of traditional
shelving
Use lower shelves
Traffic moves to the right
Add pleasant scents - cinnamon, apples, coffee,
lemon, orange
Music, maybe?
Read Chris Rippel’s “What Libraries Can Learn from Bookstores”
http://www.webjunction.org/marketing
Making The Decision
• Choose your classification system (Dewey, BISAC
whatever)
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Evaluate the Circ-Cat system
Evaluate the space Renovation? Expansion? New building?
Consider the size of your collection.
Know who will make the changes
Know who will pay for the signs
Evaluate the cataloger
Important Considerations
• Weed Weed
Weed…..and Weed…
• Displays are crucial, and take time
• Each new book’s cataloging must be
evaluated per the collection
What To Do First
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Placement
Classification system
Subject categories
Circulation/Cataloging software
Stickers?
Conversion method/personpower
Add signage
Old Building
Subject Placement Decisions
• Use new subject
categories
• Where is available space
and what category should
go there?
• What’s big to leave where
it is? Ans: Fiction
• What’s little and can
move first? Ans:400s
• What moves next after a space
opens up? And so forth….
APPL Actions
• Fiction stayed on 1 side
• Juv & Teen material
stayed on 1 side
• Science and Sports
moved to the Juv side
New Building
Subject Placement Decisions
1. Available space
1. Smoky Mountain Collection
2. Teen Corner
2. Bookstore placement concepts
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People move to the right
Adjacent subjects in 3 visited bookstores
Vague 001 – 900 Dewey concept
Available Space – leftovers….
Classification Systems
• Dewey
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641.59519=Cooking,Korean=COOKING
Allows for finer more specific shelf placement
• OSC (Open Shelves Classification)
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“a free, humble, modern, open-source,
crowd-sourced replacement for the DDS
A collaborative effort by LibraryThing
members
Coordinated by the founder of LibraryThing,
& two librarians, one at the Pratt Institute
www.librarything.com/groups/buildtheopenshelvesc
• BISAC (Book Industry Standards
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and Communication)
The basis for WordThink
COOKING/RegionalEthnicAsian or
Cooking International
Books alphabetized by title within each
area
Classification System
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Choices
Dewey
Modified Dewey
BISAC
WordThink
Modified Dewey
because
• No wheel re-invention
• Dewey allows specificity.
Ex. Transportation
• Based on Dewey
(DDC20)
• Books come with
cataloging
• Could switch back if it’s a
flop
Circulation/Cataloging Software
• Must have a field for Shelf Location
• Apollo by Biblionix
Spine Labels
• Leave the Dewey number/author’s last
name spine labels the same
• Add subject stickers for each subject
category.
• Why? Easier re-shelving
Subject Stickers
Conversion Method/Personpower
Direct Conversion
• Ex. 800s
• We used computer
literate volunteers
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Difficult Conversions
• Ex. 300s & 600s
• I did it
Pull books
Add Subject Category to catalog record
Put in new place
Have volunteers add the subject stickers.
Summary
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Who we are
How we came to do this
Timeline for the conversion and the new building
Issues on which the decision was based
Considerations not to forget
Where to start? Shift what to where?
How categories were developed
Shifted and stickered the collection in the old building