News photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena County Library Assistant Director Jessica Luther places a newly categorized and labeled book on a bookshelf Thursday. The library is transitioning from the Dewey Decimal System to the new browse method.
ALPENA – The new book organization system being implemented by the Alpena County Library is designed to allow patrons to more efficiently find books based on their interests or request information on specific topics.
Melissa Chiavaroli, the developer of the browse method the library is switching to, said this on Thursday.
The new system only applies to non-fiction books.
The library is switching from the Dewey Decimal system to the Browse system, which works similarly to the way books are classified in bookstores. It is hoped that this system will address concerns raised by some Alpena residents and reduce the likelihood that a minor will come across a book that some people consider to contain sexually explicit material.
The change in the presentation of the books means that the books in question, such as “Let’s Talk About It”, “It’s Perfectly Normal” and several others, will remain in the Young Adult and Teen section where they currently are, but will be labeled with their subgenre.
Chiavaroli, who has served as community relations manager for Barnes & Noble in Warwick, Rhode Island, worked at the Library of Congress and now works as director of reference at the Cumberland Public Library in Rhode Island, said people often go to a library and have trouble finding a book they’re looking for or books on specific topics.
She said the Dewey Decimal System is outdated and can be confusing for people who don’t go to the library regularly. The Browse System, she said, divides books into nine categories, each of which has subcategories, making it easier to find specific books and topics.
Chiavaroli said the new system also prevents people from browsing aimlessly on the bookshelves.
Chiavaroli believes the browse method is designed to guide children to topics that interest them, while alerting parents to material they feel is not appropriate for their child.
“It makes it easier for parents to use the library,” she said.
In the browse method, each of the nine categories is represented by a color and all books within these categories have book identification tags whose color corresponds to the respective category.
She said that to achieve optimal results, accurate and legible signage in the library is crucial.
When the Cumberland Library decided to move away from Dewey and adopt Chiavaroli’s system, staff and administration knew it would be a shock to patrons. To prepare them for the change, the library launched an education campaign to inform and engage citizens.
Chiavaroli said she spoke to many people, explaining how the new system would work and how it would be easier for them to use. She interacted with people on social media to ask and answer questions and consider suggestions. She said early and frequent community involvement helped ensure the implementation went smoothly and won the support of most people.
“Of course, some people don’t like change and there were some who were upset that we were moving away from Dewey, but it was really out of step with the times and outdated,” Chiavaroli said. “I know the majority of people like it because if they didn’t, we would hear about it. We worked with the public so they wouldn’t just come in and see labels and a big change. Most felt like they were part of the process.”
Chiavaroli said the browse method offers other benefits besides being easy to use. She said libraries that use her system can operate more efficiently, which can save money. Chiavaroli said the browse method reduces shelving time because the books are filed together under the category banner.
This makes it easy to see what a library has on its shelves, which books need to be added and which need to be removed, she said.
Chiavaroli said upfront costs are limited and mainly include staff hours, spine labels and spine label covers. She said after the initial investment, the cost of maintaining the collection is limited.
Because the Alpena library’s youth nonfiction section has over 4,000 books, Assistant Library Director Jessica Luther said Tuesday that converting Dewey to the browse method will take time. She said once the youth section is ready, staff will begin the same process in the teen and young adult sections.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” she said.
The change in the books’ categorization came shortly after Alpena County commissioners intervened after critics of certain books and their locations in the library asked the county for help in moving the books to what they believed was a more age-appropriate area of the library. Many of the commissioners supported the library board moving the books, but library officials said doing so would censor free speech.
Reach Steve Schulwitz at 989-358-5689 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.
