Subject Matters

No subject =
No circulation

Weeding the fiction section in our High School collection involves more than deleting books that don't circulate. It's also about updating catalog records to be sure each title has sufficient subjects. 

If there aren't subjects listed, it's unlikely the book will ever be found (unless the title or author are known). Most of our patrons choose books by searching subjects. They enter topics like "Dragons" or genres like "Science Fiction."

To help them find more books, we're updating our fiction records to include a genre and at least one other subject. 

For genre, we're using these subject headings:
Realistic Fiction, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Action Adventure, Dystopia, Romance, Horror, and Humorous Fiction. Later on, we'll add stickers to the books' spines to identify these genres.

For other subjects we include topics or locations. The first place I go to get subject information about a book is Ohio Link. 

I can quickly copy/paste subjects into our catalog. It's also possible to "grab" a whole record to import into our catalog, if needed. If Ohio Link doesn't have the book, I go to GoodReads and LibraryThing and see what tags others have used for it. 

Other parts of the record getting an update: 
- Checking there's an "interest" level given
- Checking there's a cover image 
- Checking there's a summary in the "notes" section

Books with Cover Images = Better Circulation

We're hoping this fairly massive project will lead patrons to books more easily and that the books sitting quietly on the shelves will start moving.