The biographies section has been a fun project to work on. Like most of the library it was overrun with books. It takes up one wall in the back corner of the library. Separate from the rest of the non fiction which complicated things, especially since the rest of the nonfiction books were in dewey and the biographies were organized by name. The librarian had gone through them almost two years ago to remove anything that was old or broken, and was able to put the entire collection on one set of shelves. The problem was that each row of shelves was full so there was no space for the books to breathe or for her to display any new books. We are also pretty sure that having so many books overwhelms the kids so they do not go back there often. It was not in as bad of shape as poetry or history, but it did need an update. Additionally the librarian wanted to add a section called “grouped biographies'' for books that discuss more than one person. That's not exactly how to organize biographies and autobiographies, but it does require space so we need to do some major pruning.
In preparation for this update I took a look at how other school libraries organize their biography section. Two aspects I thought were lacking in our system were relevance and topic distinctions. Most of the biographies and autobiographies were people the children were not familiar with which is fair as it is supposed to introduce them to people, but there was also no opportunity to connect with individuals they are familiar with. Current entertainers, artists, and athletes were not the focus of the collection so most of the students did not care to visit. Often the bIographies section was used for school projects which I'm sure was further incentive not to visit the back section of the library. Then there was the issue of how to search in that section. Say you did want to visit the biographies section, how would you find anything. To start you would have to know who you were looking for, and then hope that the labels on the books displayed who the books was about as opposed to who wrote the book. If not you would be led in the wrong direction. If you did not have someone in mind you would have to spend time scanning books for characters you wanted to know about. Politicians were mixed with artists were mixed with civil rights leaders were mixed with actors and so on, making the biographies section less than ideal for browsing.
That coupled with the fact that autobiographies, memoirs, and biographies were all mixed together and we knew we would have to overhaul the entire collection. How, though, was the question. Who was worth keeping and who was not. What were we trying to do with the collection and what message would we convey with the individuals we kept and those we removed. At the end of the day it is a school library, and for the most part the kids use the library for tutoring, eating lunch, making out, or reading manga books. Really nothing to do with the biographies section and why would they. This is the internet generation and that is where they are trained to search people, not in books. So to start I thought that relevance would be most important for that section. Who do the students have an interest in and who do they need to know especially in terms of research papers they need to complete for school. Given that it is the end of the school year, asking the history department for help was out of the question. We do however have a student volunteer and a few of their friends at our disposal during the week. Who better to build a biographies section in the library than the students.
I worried at first that this would be a big ask of them. For one thing they are children so my initial assumption was that they would not be able to do what I needed them to. What I needed was for them to remove books from the biographies section in an effort to trim down the size of the collection, create space for new books, and prioritize relevant characters for themselves. Now I myself am not a teacher and in the past when I have given them directions the project was a complete bust. I am not sure lazy is the correct term but literal was an issue with them to start. They needed much clearer instructions than I had assumed. That and they are a little lazy, but I can't really fault them with that. I could however worry that if I asked them to clean up the biographies section based on who they knew, who they had heard of before but maybe did not know, or who they thought was interesting that would set the library back more than help. What if they just removed every book on the shelves because they don't know anyone. What if they just pull random books to be finished with what I asked them to do. What if they damaged the books. What if they used that time to goof off instead of doing any work in the library. Not to mention they are all girls so how can I ensure that they keep books that would be relevant to their male classmates as well.
My ever supportive fiance and sidekick however assured me that when given authority children perform exceptionally well. I had asked them for help before I needed them to shelve books or just move them from the floor to the table. This in turn led them to lay on the floor in despair. The problem however was that I had not given them any real task. I had not asked them to think or care. As far as they were concerned, who cares where the books are at any given point. They had no autonomy when it came to shelving books, but they do have autonomy over the biographies section. I made sure it was clear to them that they were completely in charge of the biographies section. Who they thought was important was more important than what I or their teachers thought. This was completely under their control. Anyone you want to keep, do so otherwise remove them from the shelf and stack them neatly on the table. They had no reason to worry about getting rid of someone potentially important because after the fact the librarian and I would review who they decided to remove and replace anyone we thought would be essential.
That was all they needed to hear. They were much more thoughtful in their work than I had originally assumed and finished much faster than I had hoped. Even when they were bored with the task they kept on because they knew it was important. I heard them ask each other if they knew who various individuals were and where they had heard them. They shared past research projects they had done on people they found on shelves and what they knew. If they did not know who the book was about they read the back and inside cover. They did a quick google search. Or they asked each other. The three of them worked together incredibly well and considered what their male peers would want to read, what their generation wanted to read (i.e. not about Helen Keller) and who their teachers may ask them to research later on. It was really incredible seeing them think about issues and ask the same questions I do as a professional when working on an old collection. Maybe they’ll be alright after all.