A new trend in libraries is the “bookstore” model of shelving books. the idea is to group items together like they do at bookstore by general topic [see this article on the topic].

Today I visited the Walnut Street West Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. While perusing I noticed something was different. In the quiet of the stacks I could hear the light bulb go off in my head. There were no call numbers on the fiction just genre stickers. usually fiction has a sticker on the spine with the authors last name, these didn’t. I asked the very nice and helpful librarian who explained they did not do that because the authors name is already printed on the spine. This does name sense but to browse you have to turn your head sideways to read them. From a shelving perspective it is much easier and quicker to have a uniform label to look at. she did inform me that the Non-fiction had call number labels as well as some other materials.

I wandered over to look and saw what I thought was a book out of shape. It had a “j” before the call number (which in library parlance means its a “juvenile” book, some libraries use “Y” for “youth”). Before I could pull it off and place to to be re shelved I noticed more. Then another light bulb went off. “They interfiled the youth and adult nonfiction.” With truly only the second floor available to hold materials space is as a premium. Some adult nonfiction is more mature than others. Should children’s nonfiction be interfiled with adult? Should we do our best to keep a third grader from discovering the “Joy of Sex” or simply let them stumble across it as they browse?