The Darien Library reorganized its Children's Library in 2009 based on a user experience survey. The new organization arranged collections intuitively for browsers and seekers, with picture books sorted by subject into color-coded sections like Celebrations, Concepts, and Nature. This empowered both children and adults to find materials independently. The reorganization increased children's circulation by over 50% and boosted their collections to over 40% of total library circulation.

1. K i d L i t ReO rg 2009
The reorganization of
the Children’s Library
at Darien Library
Created by Gretchen Caserotti
Head of Children’s Services, Darien Library
gcaserotti@darienlibrary.org
This document and all images are licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike

2. Children’s Librarians,
sound familiar?
“Excuse me, my son
is three and he
LOVES trains. Where
are those books
located?”
P at ro ns as k t hi s ,

3. Old Darien Library
Juvenile = antiquated “library speak”
a nd l ib r a ri e s g iv e
t hem t h i s .
The Picture Book Area = traditional arrangement by author’s last name. Convenient for
library staff, not helpful to browsing patrons seekers who predominantly look for materials
by subject.

4. User Experience Survey
42% of respondents said they could NOT find
materials easily in the Picture Book Area.
46.2% respondents rated the ease of finding materials appropriate for
their child as “Good; I find what I’m looking for 2 to 3 out of 5 times.”
64% said they needed help to find materials.
100% of the time, patrons sought help from a Librarian.
Survey conducted Fall 2008
Our patrons spoke and we listened.

5. How do patrons actually use the Children’s Library?
Graphic courtesy of Nate Hill

6. A fresh start: January 2009
New Darien Library
Our goal was to design a library with the users experience in mind. This library would have
collections arranged to fit the needs of both Browsers and Seekers.

7. I nfluences
Survey results showed people rely on the public library for early literacy
information and community connections.
Early literacy research shows that how adults use books with pre-readers
is often more important than what book they use.
Literacy skills develop in the first five years of a child’s life.
We recognize that this is half of our service population, but they were
only using the Picture Book collection.
Adults are decision makers for pre-readers, are predominantly browsers
and if seeking, they ask for things by subject.
People don’t understand library coding systems, they just learn where
things are in the physical space.

8. Darien Library’s New
Children’s Print Collection
First Five Years Collection
A collection for pre-reading population that has a more intuitive arrangement; picture books
are color-coded and arranged by subject.
Kids Collection
A collection for kids reading on their own. Now uses more familiar language while retaining
a simple traditional shelving arrangement.

9. I ntro ducing t h e co l l e c t i o n s

10. Darien Library’s
Kids Print Collection
Independent Readers Fiction Non-Fiction
Biographies Picture Books for
Graphic Novels Languages Older Students

11. Darien Library’s
First Five Years Picture Book Collection
Celebrations Folk/Fairy Tales Rhymes & Songs
Concepts Growing Up Stories
Favorites Nature Transportation
Non-picture books in the F5 Collection
Parents Learn to Read

12. Celebrations
This section includes books about holidays,
parties and special events.
✴ Includes traditional holidays such as, Christmas,
Thanksgiving, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Jewish Holidays
and more...
✴ Weddings
✴ Birthdays
✴ Mothers Day, Fathers Day
✴ Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo

13. Concepts
ABCs, Numbers, Shapes, Colors, Time,
Opposites - This section has books
designed to introduce young children to
basic ideas.
✴ Examples
of books in
this section
are Mouse
Paint (Walsh),
Telling Time
with Big
Mama Cat
(Harper) and
Chicka Chicka
Boom Boom
(Martin Jr.)

14. Favorites
This section includes popular series, great
read aloud stories, staff picks and classic
picture book authors and illustrators.
✴ This is a section that existed in the old library, but we
doubled it in size.
✴ We recommend agreeing on which authors/illustrators
and series to include before you begin sorting the books!

15. Folk/Fairy Tales
Magic pumpkins, giant beanstalks and
mischievous creatures abound in these
folk and fairy tales from around the world.
✴ This section is
shelved by title, so
many versions of
same story are
found next to each
other
✴ The books are
evaluated by
Librarians to be
appropriate for
younger listeners.
Folk tales for older
kids are shelved in
Kids Non-Fiction
398.2

16. Growing Up
This section includes books about the
child’s experience, relationships and
important milestones
The books in this section are about:
✴ Body parts (eyes, nose, fingers, toes)
✴ Emotions (fear, worry, anger)
✴ Family situations & relationships
(going to visit grandparents, parental
love)
✴ Nutrition/Health
✴ Sibling relationships
✴ Going to school

17. Nature
This section includes books about animals,
dinosaurs, weather and our natural world.
✴ There is a fair amount of non-fiction as well as fiction. They are shelved with fiction first (by
author’s last name) and then non-fiction in DDC sequence.
✴ These are only books with animals doing animal-like things (no anthropomorphism).
✴ Pets are included in this section.

18. Rhymes & Songs
This section has stories that can be read
AND sung! It also includes nursery rhymes
and Mother Goose tales.
✴The Mother Goose books pulled from 398s (Old Mother Hubbard) and song books from 780s (If You’re Happy
and You Know It) are all circulating now!
✴Poetry picture books for younger listeners were pulled out from the 811s and included here.

19. Stories
Adventures awaits in this section of stories about
faraway lands, magical creatures, princesses and
pirates. These are stories that defy
categorization!
✴ We thought this would be the largest section, but it wasn’t. Nature was.
✴ Bedtime stories are found in this section.

20. Transportation
This section contains books about
trucks, trains, busses, bikes and all
manner of things that go!
✴Transportation books are arguably the most popular request.
Shockingly, it actually had the fewest books after sorting.
✴Now the books are more visible and circulate more frequently so
we need to buy multiple copies (5 or 6) of each title.

21. Learn to Read
Look to this section for books and materials
for beginning readers.
✴ Shelving in this section is done by function, not
format. It includes book kits, phonics CD-ROMs,
books with a CD shelved together with regular
beginning reader books.
✴ It is now, the highest circulating collection of the
entire children’s library.
Parents
✴ Materials purchased for parents using the Children’s Library complement the pregnancy
and parenting books in the adult non-fiction collection.
✴The include a combination of general parenting & picture books that tackle difficult
issues (adoption, death, divorce, potty training).

22. Converting the Collection
One book
at a time,
we made
a
decision;
Who is
this book
written
for and
what is it
about?

23. All 16,000 picture books were converted by
the Children’s Department staff with
updated records and spine labels over the
course of six weeks.
It drove us a little crazy.

24. But it was worth it!
Children’s Circulation Statistics
From July - November 2009, Children’s Books circulated 50.2%
more than the same period in 2008.
Books are over 76% of the total circulating materials in the
Children’s Library Collections.
Total Children’s Circulation was 33.5% of the Library’s
total circulation last fiscal year at this time (YTD 08-09).
Total Children’s Circulation is now 41.4% of Darien
Library’s Total Circulation.
Children’s Books are presently 51.9% of the Darien
Library’s print book circulation.
(July - November 2009 YTD)

25. Empowers the Child
All of the F5 Collection
shelves are 48” high.
Children can reach the
materials on their own.
Children can find their
favorite books by the
different colored labels.
Kids of all reading levels
know where their favorites
are in the room.
“Grandpa, the truck books are the red books over here!” -Four year-old boy

26. Empowers the Adult
Now adults know what kinds of
books they are choosing from
when they look at a shelf.
Adults have the option of
searching the catalog
independently, asking a
librarian for help or browsing
on their own.
“What impressed me most about the new Darien Library is the fact that the books, everywhere,
but especially in the children’s room, have been shelved, labeled and organized in a way that
makes me feel less like a moron and more empowered to find what I’m looking for on my own.”
-Nicole Lyons, All About Darien blog

27. Empowers the Staff
Picture book circulation can be tracked in a way that provides
more insight into what the patron’s interests are.
This organization steers Librarians to invest in areas of the collection
that are in high demand.
Librarians are allowed more time to work with patrons in-depth and
to conduct programs.

28. What’s Next?
Bedtime Stories/Lullabies; we chose not to pursue as a section
originally, but realized through the conversion process that it is
worthy of being a section.
We’re still discussing organizing Kids Fiction by genre and whether or
not we can break up non-fiction into similar sections.
Mixing meaningful medias is the way to go! We are starting to shelve
media in other sections where appropriate; biographical DVDs now go
in Biographies and language learning medias in Languages.

29. K i d L it ReOrg 2009
Created by Gretchen Caserotti
Head of Children’s Services, Darien Library
For more information, please contact me at
gcaserotti@darienlibrary.org
This document and all images are licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike

30. Thank You
Darien Library Administration:
Louise Berry, Library Director
Alan Kirk Gray & John Blyberg, Assistant Directors
Darien Library Children’s Librarians:
Anna McKay, Claire Moore, Kiera Parrott
Edie Blyberg, Elizabeth Montanez, Linda Ford, Samarpana Tamm,Veronica Ponce
Darien Library Staff
Linda Braun & Kate Sheehan
Graphic of Darien Children’s Room Reorganization:
Nate Hill
Design Assistance:
Andrew Davis