School Name: Nakusp Elementary
School District: SD#10 Arrow Lakes
Inquiry Team Members: Megan Martin: megan.martin@sd10.bc.ca
Sheri Boswell: sheri.boswell@sd10.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: megan.martin@sd10.bc.ca
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE
Focus Addressed: Will students have more independence and select more non-fiction books if we use a non-Dewey Decimal Classification in the library?
Inquiry Story: The library uses the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), and it can be difficult for younger students to locate books. Often the books are out of reach and the covers are not visible for students to see what the book is about. We created small bins of non-fiction books and dispersed them through the picture book section. We used spacing to increase opportunities to browse books. Non-fiction books were also added to the weekly book displays. We collected circulation data from the 2018-2019 kindergarten class and compared them to the 2019-2020 class. We noticed an increase in non-fiction circulation that was steadily growing, and predict it would have continued to increase had we returned to school in April. Students and teachers in other grades were also using the bins and selecting non-fiction books more often. We saw students choosing more variety in non-fiction and an increase of girls selecting non-fiction (compared to the 2018-2019 school year where we noticed boys tended to choose non-fiction more than the girls). The bins also increased independence in the library for all primary students.