[Genealib] Why do you rearrange your collection? ** HOUSTON **

[Trevia W Beverly]

    I'm not on staff at Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research -
http://www.hpl.lib.tx.us/clayton/ - a department of our Houston Public
Library System (housed separately in multiple buildings on a two city block
complex) - but I am a  charter member of the Clayton Library Friends and
volunteer on occasion.
   Our set up is extremely user-friendly.  All of our family histories - an
extensive collection - are housed in the old Clayton House by alpha order of
the family name as the title or the major family name treated.
    In the newer building, we have the USA section ... lineage books, books
covering wide  geographical areas, etc. ... and within that section most
things fall naturally within the Dewey system.
    Then we begin the state section ... alphabetical.  Those individual
state sections are arranged with general first (books covering the state or
more than one county), then the counties (alphabetically) with the state. In
the county sections, Dewey again comes into play.
     At the end of the specific state section, the bound volumes of
genealogical quarterlies published within the state .. again in alpha order.
     It works wonderfully well!  This arrangement saves the patron from
having to look up the catalog # or remembering the Dewey # ...  they know,
for example, to go to TEXAS and then find Bexar (Bear) County. That's where
the Dewey # would come in handy but with this arrangement it is not too
difficult to browse that particular section with it.
    After the states section, foreign countries ...   and of course we have
the usual assortment of quarterly publications, vertical files, maps -
    And we have NO CLOSED STACKS!
Microcopy is on the second floor.

One of our staff members could probably elaborate on what I've said but
that's the gist of it -
Ya'll come see us some time!

Trevia Wooster Beverly
Houston, Texas


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cheryl Smith" <cheryls at plano.gov>
To: "Librarians Serving Genealogists" <genealib at mailman.acomp.usf.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 12:30 PM
Subject: [Genealib] Why do you rearrange your collection?


Hello,

I would like to rearrange our genealogy collection.  We have it in
normal dewey call number order.  Nothing is pulled out into separate
areas.  We are going to move the collection to a bigger area.  When we
do I would like to have the collection rearranged.  I know that most of
the genealogy collections out there are rearranged in some way.  I don't
want to know how because we've discussed that recently.  I want to know
why.

Thanks for any help,
Cheryl Smith
Public Services Librarian Senior
Harrington Library
1501 18th St.
Plano, TX  75074
972-941-7175

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