[Michlib-l] Tween Collection

[Logan, Valarie]

Jessica,


A year and a half ago I was asked to take-on ordering Tween books, thereby creating a Tween collection. We have a small library, so it was decided to not give the Tweens their own location. They are housed within the Teen and JFIC collections, with a designated TWEEN sticker above the spine label.


That being said, I spent the first few months researching what I wanted the parameters of Tween books to be, going through our existing collections, changing records, and adding designation stickers. I only work 11 hours each week at this library, so this could probably have been done more quickly. As I shelf books now, I will still scan the collections to see if there are other items that should be changed to Tween.


I've been ordering books and building the Tween collection for just over a year now. My biggest challenge is that after I have created my order, I have to double check our inventory, as well as both the Teen and the JFIC orders to make sure they haven't already ordered something that I am interested in. This is very time consuming. I am also selective with what I order due to limited space and budget.


As for processing, the difficulty for me comes in deciding if the new additions should be housed in JFIC or Teen. Deciding if the content is more mature than a JFIC label, or too immature for a Teen label has caused many a headache. (It would be SO much easier to just have a home location for the Tween, with a Tween spine label, so if you can, then do so.) When I place my orders, I print a copy of the order and then make notes as to how I want the spine label to read so those processing will know what to do. At first, there was a lot of second guessing my decisions by coworkers, due to other libraries having the books in a different home location. I felt I had to defend my thinking. The collection I am building is based on our patrons, currently owned series, reviews from multiple sources, and recommended age/grade from multiple sources. I also take the age of the main character into consideration as well as the content. Some orders are easy, some not so easy.


Yes, we have noticed an upward trend in circulation. Parents appreciate the age appropriateness of the Tween collection and the ease of finding the books with the orange Tween stickers whether they are in the JFIC or Teen collection-they are easy to spot.


Hope that this has helped in some small way. Contact me anytime if I can be of any further assistance.


Good Luck!


Valarie Logan

Media Para

Oxford Schools


Librarian Assistant

Addison Twp. Public Library ("Tween Librarian")

Oxford Public Library Youth Services