I was seeing a lot of readers wandering around the shelves half-heartedly, looking overwhelmed, uninspired, and unempowered. And I can tell you that when I was still doing static shelving, I was seeing a heck of a lot of readers walking out of the library without a book in their hands. It made me wonder, especially, why on earth libraries were still shelving and operating so vastly differently than bookstores, especially since we both have the aim of seeing people walk out our doors with books in their hands. Have you been in a bookstore lately? Do the readers ever look lethargic, uninterested, lost, or especially confused and overwhelmed when browsing in a bookstore? No? Ever wonder why that is? The discrepancy between what I was seeing in behavior of browsers in a Static Shelved library and what I was seeing in behavior of browsers in a Dynamic Shelved bookstore certainly stood out to me once I started looking. The way bookstores organize things is not an accident. If Static Shelving was proven to be the best way to get people to successfully find and choose books of interest, don’t you think big bookstores would use Static Shelving instead of Dynamic Shelving strategies? I think so. Bookstores don’t use Static Shelving for a reason, don’t you think? After all, big bookstores can afford the kind of market research that libraries can only dream of. Static Shelving does not make it easy for readers to discover new books of interest to them. I like to call this “Static Shelving.” Static shelving does not inspire readers. Where you look at the stacks or rows and its just a sea of uninspiring sameness. You know the ones I mean… the row after row after row of book spines in perfect lines, squeezed and crowded onto the shelves. One thing we, as librarians, can do to try to make this easier for our patrons is to ditch the outdated (and, let’s be honest, BORING) shelving strategies that have long been synonymous with libraries. But even when they do have those things (which our students do, thanks to our admin properly valuing and supporting the school library as well as in big part thanks to the incredible work our ELA department has put into incorporating in-class reading time, engaging independent choice reading assignments, and developing a culture of reading) it can still be tough to provide a collection that inspires and sparks student’s motivation to choose a book and read it. Understandably, because they truly have a lot going on.Įnticing teens to read is made harder if students aren’t given time and access to a well stocked and properly staffed library (staffed with a certified and degreed Librarian as well as skilled library assistant/s), of course. Teens are BUSY) it can be tough to entice them to make time for reading. With increasingly complex and over-scheduled lives, and so many media options competing for their attention (plus schoolwork, extracurriculars, social engagements, family time, jobs, other responsibilities… you get it. ProtTip: Here’s how I am able to get so many front-facing books without purchasing tons of actual book display stands: View ProTip on TikTok
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