Finding the book you want at the Greenwood Public Library is about to get a whole lot easier.
On its way out is the confusing and sometimes overwhelming number-based system of arranging subjects. Instead, in the coming weeks and months, titles will be grouped by easy-to-identify subjects labeled with words: animals, computers, cooking, religion, and 27 other categories.
“We were always thinking in the back of our head, ‘How do people ask for these books?'” said Emily Ellis, associate director of the library. “We identified main categories that grouped books together, but word-based instead of with numbers.”
The Greenwood library is implementing a system it calls Subject Savvy to organize it’s nonfiction catalog, replacing the traditional Dewey Decimal System that has been the backbone of library collections for more than 140 years.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryOfficials hope that the new organizing system makes the library collection more accessible, and encourages even more people to read, said Cheryl Dobbs, director of the Greenwood Public Library.
“We see this as an improved way to access our collection. We’re not leaving something; we’re moving to something better,” she said. “It’s a big shift, and not a lot of libraries in the state have done it, but we’re a good size to do it.”
Already, the process of changing over has started. Animal-related books have been grouped together on a shelf, with a large orange sign indicating where library patrons should start looking. The category is further broken down into easily digestible sub-topics — aquatic animals, birds, farm animals, pets.
Staff members have only just started on the nonfiction portion of the collection, leaving large sections of shelving empty as books are arranged into the new system. They are hard at work behind-the-scenes, putting new labels on the books and entering information into the computer system.
Book by book, what they hope is a better way is taking shape.
“It’s all about removing those barriers. When we got rid of fines and did auto-renewals, we wanted to get people back in. Once we have them in, we want to be sure it’s accessible,” Ellis said.
Creativity has led to a rise in popularity of libraries around the country. According to a Gallup poll conducted in December, people visited the library more often than movie theaters, live sporting and music events, and museums.
Greenwood has put an emphasis on having more patrons check out print books, and efforts such as getting rid of fines and auto-renewing items for people have been successful in doing that. Checkouts were up 22 percent from 2018 to 2019, Dobbs said.
Discussions about moving away from the Dewey Decimal System have been ongoing for about five years, Dobbs said. The Dewey system was created by its namesake, Melvil Dewey, in 1876. Books were placed into 10 categories, numbered from 000 to 999. Those 10 categories could then be broken down into smaller number groups to focus on specific subjects.
For example, the 500s are set aside for natural sciences and mathematics. But the 510s are used for mathematics, the 520s for astronomy and the 530s for physics.
The Dewey system has been used by public and school libraries for generations. But in recent years, more and more libraries have opted for a more simplistic categorization method.
In Indiana, libraries such as the Kendallville Public Library and the Wells County Public Library have changed to subject-based organization systems.
The more that Greenwood officials heard about these changes, the more that they felt it would be beneficial to their patrons, Dobbs said.
“Our drive and our commitment and our strategic plan is to make the library as accessible and as easy-to-use as possible, and not just continue with tradition because we’ve always done it that way,” she said.
Dobbs, Ellis and other library staff traveled to Kendallville and Wells County to see how those libraries implemented a subject-based system. They brought that information back to Greenwood and discussed thoroughly what aspects of those systems could work for them, and which ones needed to be tweaked to best suit their patrons.
The system they created breaks the nonfiction collection into 31 different categories, then adds subsets to further help people find what they’re looking for. If people were looking for information about the Bible or World War II or nutrition, all of the books related to those topics would be grouped together.
“With the Dewey system, books can be scattered. One subject might be spread out in four different locations, depending on what subject heading it was given,” Ellis said. “This brings it all together.”
With a system in place, the next challenge was rearranging the collection. All of the books for that particular category were pulled out together, relabeled and then placed in the proper subject groups.
Reorganization of the physical book collection started more than two years ago, when library staff relabeled the books in the fiction section. In the past, those books were labeled with a “FIC” abbreviation, as well as the first three letters of the author’s last name.
But for those who didn’t know what the abbreviations meant, it was difficult to find the books they want, Dobbs said.
Now, fiction books are labeled with the authors full last name, making it simple to quickly differentiate between authors. Series of books are also arranged together, with the names of the series on the label as well as which number in the series it comes.
Work on the nonfiction section has only started recently, and is expected to be ongoing throughout the year, Dobbs said. Also this year, they will start re-categorizing the children’s section.
The process will be lengthy, but library staff believe it will be worth it.
“Our goal is for Greenwood to read, and we’re seeing that happen,” she said.
Greenwood is the only county library system changing its categorization method. Neither the Edinburgh Wright-Hageman Public Library nor the Johnson County Public Library have made a switch.
The Johnson County system investigated a word-based system, but decided it wasn’t a good fit, said Lisa Lintner, director of the library system.
“As part of our previous strategic plan at (Johnson County Public Library), staff investigated the concept of becoming a bookstore model organization. While we found it wasn’t the right fit for our library system, we eagerly look forward to seeing how it transforms Greenwood Public Library’s collection and how their patrons interact with their new model,” Lintner said in a statement.
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Subject Savvy
What is it: The Greenwood Public Library’s new word-based system to find books.
How does it work:
- Books in the nonfiction section are now grouped according to subject, such as business, entertainment, history and religion.
- Those sections are labeled by word, rather than number, as in the former categorization system.
- Each section is further broken down into subsets for easier access to certain topics.
- Fictions books have been relabeled as well, adding the author’s full last name and grouping series together.
What’s changing:
- No more abbreviations
- No more numbers
- One topic will not be spread over several areas of the library
- Series fiction will include the series name and number on the spine label.
What’s not changing:
- Your catalog search will still begin with words — but now it will also end with them.
- Librarians are still available to help
Timeline: Fiction books have already been re-categorized. The nonfiction section is currently ongoing and will carry on throughout the year.
Information: greenwoodlibrary.us
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