Alec Staley, Branch Manager, Worcester County Library – Ocean City Branch, Ocean City, MD (Population served: 6,900) Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024 February 23, 2024 http://nlcblogs.nebraska.gov/bigtalk

1. Genrefying
Your Public
Library
By: Alec Staley

2. I am currently the
Branch Manager of the
Ocean City Branch of
Worcester County Library
in Maryland

3. About the Ocean City Library
• Year-Round Population of 6,000+
• Summer Population Swells to 300,000+
• Seasonal Usage
• Tourists
• Unfiltered Feedback

4. What Is Genrefication?
• Genrefication is the process of
organizing, classifying, and
categorizing items into genres.
• This classification system can be
easier for patrons that like to browse,
and many bookstores use it for this
reason.
-North Dakota State Library

5. School Libraries
Vs
Public Libraries
• Genrefication has been more commonly used in School Libraries
• Public Libraries face the issue of having a constantly circulation
collection
• Looking at the future

7. Layout & Space
• Genrefication can be used as a tool to help deal with a difficult layout and space
• Breaking collections up allows for smaller sections to exist independently

8. What Can You Genrefy?
Fiction
• Organized based on genre, such as
mystery, fantasy, etc.
• Many public libraries have already
started separating some sections.
• Usually, the first place to start.
Nonfiction
• Organized based on subjects and is
less clearly established.
• Can try to move away from Dewey
altogether or work within the system.
• The Ocean City Library has kept
Dewey, but has genrefied the
nonfiction section.

9. Genre/ Sections at the OC Library
Fiction
1. Adventure
2. General Fiction
3. Historical Fiction
4. Horror
5. Mystery
6. Psychological
Suspense
7. Romance
8. Science Fiction &
Fantasy
9. Thrillers
10. Westerns
Nonfiction
1. Arts & Entertainment
2. Culture & Identity
3. DIY
4. Health & Wellness
5. History
6. In The News
7. Literature & Language
8. Professional
Development
9. Science & Nature
10. Spirituality
11. Travel
12. True Crime

10. Ocean City Branch 2nd Floor

11. Ocean City Branch 2nd Floor

12. Ocean City Branch 2nd Floor

13. Getting Started
1. Figure out what genres/section you would like
2. Figure out rules you will use to guide you
1. Will Historical Mysteries go in Historical Fiction or Mystery?
2. Will you keep authors together or separate them?
3. What sources will you use to determine where they go?
1. We use Novelist to guide us with making uniform decisions
3. Figure out what your patrons like to help guide you

14. Getting Started:
What You Will Need
Genre Stickers
• Can be costly at start
• Used for our Fiction
section, bought from
Demco
• Easy to change
• Allows more flexibility
• Provides color
Color stickers or tape
• Cheaper option
• Used for our Nonfiction
section, bought
masking tape from
Amazon and then used
protectors over them
• Easy to change
• Allows more flexibility
• Provides color
Spine Label Change
• Will take time
• Could run into system
issues
• Cataloger will probably
need to do this, or
working it out with
vendors
• Allows less flexibility
• Does not add color

15. Getting Started: Prep Work
• Work with all your staff, as everyone will be responsible for answering
patron questions
• The managers were the ones pulling the books and marking them, but all the staff
were kept updated of the process
• The staff were great at grabbing returned books and making sure volunteers didn't
shelve them before a genre sticker was placed
• Allowed staff to question genre decisions to get their input

16. Getting Started: Labeling
What we found that worked best for us
• It was very time consuming, but we found it
was easiest to pull every single book and
check it
• Using the rules we already established, we
would then place genre stickers on the book
and add it to a record set within our ILS
• We had 10 record sets for each of the 10
genres we broke our fiction collection into
• The shelf locations were changed at the
end

17. Getting Started: Labeling
What we found that worked best for us
• The goal of having books sit on the shelves
with their genre stickers was to hopefully
have patrons get used to where their
favorite authors will be moved
• As new books would be returned, staff
would grab them before being shelved and
hand them to the managers who controlled
the record sets
• Before shifting, all the books shelf locations
were changed

18. How It Looks On The Shelf And Online
Shelf Online

19. Finishing up: Shifting
What we found that worked best for us
• Shifting was a difficult process, but all the staff contributed and helped
• Attempted to do a gradual shift, one section every few weeks. Planned on taking
a few months
• Ended up shifting in a week

20. Finishing up: Maintaining
• Maintaining the collection is all we
worry about now
• As new books come in, they are
stickered before going onto the new
shelf
• We try to keep authors together, but
we allow for modifications to be
made to the system
• Weeding has become much easier
and more manageable now

21. Patron Feedback
• Some long-term patrons struggled at first, but they have quickly
turned around
• Since all the staff were included and understood what was
happening, they were phenomenal at explaining the new
system to patrons
• Almost a year has passed, and we have consistently seen an
increase in circulation for every collection that has been
genrefied
• The longer it has been in place, the more positive remarks we
have received, and more patrons seem excited to be in the
library
• Patrons have begun staying longer in the library and browsing
more

22. Connect With Me
Feel Free To Reach Out To Me At:
AStaley@WorcesterLibrary.org