Dewey-Free: The final results

Last June I told you that we were saying adios to the Dewey Decimal System in our non-fiction area. It was a lot of chaos squeezed into a short amount of time. 


The good news: we survived! With lots of helpers, we re-catalog, re-labeled, and re-shelved almost 6,000 books in less than a week. The most difficult part was developing a manageable number of categories. 


The non-fiction genres I finally arrived at work for us. They might not work for you. Remember, our collection is tailored to 8th and 9th graders and New York State Learning Standards for these grade levels. This is reflected in the categories we chose. Here's a breakdown of what we went with. The order that they're listed in reflects the order they appear on the shelves. The spine labels are also color coded as reflected below. 


* Paranormal


* Games and Sports
* Travel
* Hobbies
* Cooking
* Performing Arts
* Fashion


* Transportation 
* Computers and Technology
* Art & Architecture


* Crime and Punishment
* Warfare
* Social Issues


* Global Studies
* Religion
* Ancient Civilizations
* Renaissance 
* Middle Ages
* American History
* WWI
* WWII
* Civil Rights


* Literature and Language
* Mythology
* Shakespeare


* General Science and Math
* Inventors and Inventions
* Elements
* Earth Science
* Life Science
* Pets
* The Environment


* Biography


Here's what a shelf looks like under the new system:


The "Hobbies" section.

Each spine label has the genre in huge, color-coded letters, and then the letters "NF" for Non-Fiction, followed by the first three letters of the author's last name. 


I'm having the kids do video tours with iPods for orientation this year, so click here to see what the kids will watch when they stop at the non-fiction section. 


I'll let you know how it actually works when the kids arrive next week. 

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