👏👏 Celebrating Collection Development & Improvement

 After a two years of deliberate weeding and intentional purchasing, the nonfiction part of the collection is something to celebrate!

In just one year's time, the average copyright age has improved by four years, and the nonfiction books are now nearly 20% of the entire collection vs. 15% in August of this school year. 

Upon moving to the high school a year ago, it was evident that the nonfiction collection had been neglected. Years ago--under different building leadership--the nonfiction collection was significantly impacted by decisions related to a library remodel. It's taken more than five years to recover to this point, so while the current stats might be paltry by some standards, they're pretty impressive considering where we started. 

So how did this happen? Small steps with focus! Because of the popularity of graphic novels, that was the focus area last year. Using grant money and a portion of the budget, including using a subscription to graphic novels from a vendor, the graphic novel shelves began to fill and appeal more broadly to students. Gone were the older graphic novels and those that primarily appealed to younger readers; instead, students could choose current, full color, popular titles. Here's how the case looks now:

And this year? After hearing from students about what they were interested in, the nonfiction collection grew in these areas: biographies, true crime, poetry, and history. Many of the true crime and history purchases also fell under the "narrative nonfiction" umbrella, like Blood and Germs, and American Murderer: The Parasite that Haunted the South, as well books by Erik Larson and others. Another focus area this year was agriculture-themed books. After receiving a grant from the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation (see earlier blog post), these 12 books also helped bolster our growing nonfiction collection and were popular among a broad range of students.

With measurable improvement so prominent in the nonfiction collection, it's inspiring to think of where the collection can be in another year's time!