Subject Dividers

I can't take credit for this idea; I read about it on one of my librarian Facebook group pages. But it was a very good thing I happened to see that post, because upcycling and repurposing materials is something that I believe very strongly in.

I have been on a mission to make the library more easily navigable by the students; even the Kindergarteners should be able to find some books on their own. One way of helping students know the library collection better is to have everything as clearly labeled as possible. Many times, students will come up to me or my co-workers, in the midst of a busy checkout time, and say "Can you show me where the books on mummies/the Titanic/lions/dinosaurs are?" It's not a big deal when it's one student, but when you have an entire class of students wanting personalized tours of the collection, and there's only 10 minutes left in their class time, it's not feasible.

So, when I saw this idea on making for subject dividers for books shelves, practically for free, I knew what my next project would be.

I have an excess of outdated encyclopedias, thesauruses and other reference books right now. The information is outdated, and thrift stores don't want them so it becomes a nuisance trying to figure out what to do with them. 

So, I figured I would put them to work. I covered the spines  in bright blue duct tape. Then I used a sharpie marker to write the names of some of our most popular topics on them.

Then, the subject dividers just sit on the shelves ahead of the Dewey classification they represent.

Now, if a student asks for books about mummies, instead of saying "Go to section 393.3 in the non-fiction collection, I can show them the section, next to the bright blue duct tape, and they'll know where to go next time they want to read about that good ol' King Tut.

Speaking of whom, I recently with draw a book titled "How to Make a Mummy Talk" so I decided to take a selfie with everyone's favorite pharaoh:

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