The Spoto High School Media Center is in the process of "Genrefying" its library books!

What does this mean?

Oftentimes students want to know where our "romance books" are.  Or our "horror books".  Or fantasy, science fiction, etc.  Like they have them at book stores.

Our library's fiction collection is still currently mostly shelved by author's last name (so that all of the Rick Riordan books are on the shelf next to each other, and before you get to J.K. Rowling's, etc.)

We also have our "new library books" display tables, and some permanent special sections (sections for "graphic novels and manga", "poetry", "careers and test study guides", "Florida Teens Reads" books, and "series books").

Genrefying is our process towards making books easier for students to find by the types of stories they enjoy reading.

Our Genrefying is being done in stages:

"Stage 1") Books on the New Books tables and in the Florida Teens Reads section now all have Genre stickers on the spines so that students can browse for genres they like.  Genre stickers will be put on all new fiction books as they are added to the collection.  And Genre stickers are in the process of being added to *all* of the fiction books in the collection starting with the newer library books and working our way back (and also on all library books as they are borrowed and checked back in).

"Stage 2") Library books are now searchable in the online catalog by Genre (but right now only a few will come up that way). 

All new books will automatically be getting Genre tags in the catalog from the company we buy them from as soon as they come in. 

Books that we already have will get the Genres manually added (usually at least a few each day).  So, keep checking back as more books will continue to be searchable by their Genres. 

(And as always, students can place Holds on books through the catalog by finding a book they way and clicking on Place Hold and putting in their student number.  I then deliver these books to the students in class.)

"Stage 3") Lastly (and most likely now until the 2024-2025 school year or later), all of the fiction books in the Media Center will physically be moved and put into separate Genre sections (a "Fantasy" section, a "Realistic Fiction" section, a "Horror" section, a "Romance" section, etc.).  But this won't happen until all of the books have been labeled on the spines with the genre stickers and genre "tagged" in the online catalog.

Link to online catalog: https://sdhillsb.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/spoto

To browse the Spoto online catalog by Genres:

On a desktop or laptop computer:  Go to the link above.  Click the yellow "Search" button without putting any words in the search blank.  On the left side there will be a menu of options with "Limit Search Results" on the left side.  The third choice on that menu will be to limit your searches by Genres.  Select a Genre by clicking on it and then click "Filter" above that.  To return back to look at a different Genre, click the X at the top of that menu by "Narrowed by: Genre: Fantasy" (or whichever Genre you were looking at).

On a mobile device (Apple, but I assume similar for others, too):  Go to the link above.  Click the magnifying glass to the right of where you would type in what you are looking for but without actually putting any words in the search blank.  On the right side there will be now be "Sort" and "Filter" there.  Click on "Filter".  The third choice on the  menu that comes up will be to limit your searches by Genres.  Select a Genre by clicking on it and then click "Filter" below that.  To return back to look at a different Genre, click on "Filter" again and then click on the X at the top of that menu by "Narrowed by: Genre: Fantasy" (or whichever Genre you were looking at).

If students have any questions, they can send a message to Mr. Young (Media Specialist) in Canvas.  Or email him at davidj.young@hcps.net .