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

[Karen Stanley]

Adding to Trevia and Lesley's descriptions, there is another very valuable side benefit of this arrangement: re-shelving books is much, much, easier and more accurate.  Clayton does not circulate any of its books, but all the books are on open shelving and freely accessible to patrons.  Books have the usual call number label, and also a clearly visible small white label with the county name typed out affixed to the top of the spine.  Misfiles are easy to spot.
   
  Patrons are allowed to re-shelve books but are encouraged to leave them on book carts if they are not familiar with the shelving system.  Volunteers are available some of the time to shelve, and staff do shelving as well on and off during the day.  It goes very quickly.  I've seen times when we had eight or ten book carts fully loaded with books to be shelved, and three experienced shelvers could get them all put away in ten minutes.  Shelfreading is done periodically in the mornings before the library opens as other tasks permit; staff members are assigned to particular sections for shelfreading and assignments are rotated periodically.
   
  With the traffic that Clayton gets every day, it's important to keep on top of the reshelving, so this is an activity that goes on throughout the day and everybody helps with it.  But even on very busy days, it's really not a big deal, thanks to the sensible and efficient arrangement of the collection.  I shudder to think of what the task would entail if the collection was organized by straight Dewey rules; it would certainly require a lot more staff to maintain.  I'm very glad that the library system recognized several years ago that as a "special library", it was okay for Clayton to bend the rules and depart from traditional Dewey arrangement.  
   
  Karen Stanley, MLS
  Houston, Texas
  (Clayton Library patron since 1982, staff member 1999-2004, now working in document and records management consulting)
  

"Douthwaite, Lesley - HPL" <Lesley.Douthwaite at cityofhouston.net> wrote:
  A slight correction on the information from Trevia...At Clayton Library, the
arrangement is basically as she describes (and it works very well, our
patrons and library staff love it). The arrangement within states is general
state material first, then individual county books, arranged alphabetically
by county, then bound periodicals, as she mentions. However, books within
the states and the counties are arranged by Cutter number, not by Dewey.
The only place where we use Dewey is in our USA section.

Clayton Library contains material from all over the United States, in
addition to foreign materials and a large collection of family histories.
Most of our library users, though, are doing research in specific geographic
areas, and this arrangement suits them very well. We have been very happy
with it and can't imagine using any other system.

Lesley Douthwaite
Assistant Manager
Clayton Library, Center for Genealogical Research
5300 Caroline Street
Houston, TX 77004
832-393-2600

-----Original Message-----
From: Trevia W Beverly [mailto:treviawbeverly at houston.rr.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 3:38 PM
To: Librarians Serving Genealogists
Subject: Re: [Genealib] Why do you rearrange your collection? ** HOUSTON
**


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" 
To: "Librarians Serving Genealogists" 
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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