Bins for Biographies

 Our biography section has looked roughly like this since I took over the library three years ago:

Have readers been able to easily and independently find books about people of interest?  No, especially because it's difficult for many of them to know how to spell the last names of individuals without asking me first, taking that piece of paper over to the shelves, and then navigating left to right, top to bottom.

Getting books and information into their hands is more important to me than first making sure readers can fluently navigate through the alphabet, shelves, and finally title (if they know it). Without a library assistant, I can't always leave the circulation desk or pause class instruction to show every person looking for a biography how and where to find it.  Frankly, independent browsing is what helps students develop their confidence while freeing me up to handle every library task that traditionally used to be assigned to not one but two full-time staff members.

My solution?  Weed, sort, and classify biographies by profession/skill, notoriety, or prestige, and then tuck them front-facing into bins so readers can easily flip through to browse and/or find who it is they're looking for.

I purchased these bins from IKEA :

 

... and then got to work sorting so I could make labels that would fit the front of the bin.  I looked for clipart that would suit each profession and decided to use black and white illustrations to keep the biography section consistent, organized, and clean looking:

I laminated each label before taping it to the front of the bin.  Then I put the bins on rolling carts so I could sort books into their appropriate category.

Here's what the bins looked like about an hour later:

When I started didn't realize that I didn't have a single biography about an actor, so I changed the label on the bin so that I could give First Ladies their own location. 

Wiping down the shelving before putting the bins on in alphabetical order by category was a must-do:

I can't wait to see students again this week and see how they respond to this change!

What do you think?