Kids in Penn Yan will be going back to school in just one week! The Common Core Standards are coming to New York State public schools, and this will mean changes for kids and adults. One of the changes is an increased emphasis on reading non-fiction. The Common Core Standards recommend that children read as much non-fiction as they do fiction. You can find a very clear explanation of the kinds of changes the Common Core Standards will bring in this PDF from engageNY.
In the Youth Services department, we’ve put up a display to help highlight some of our non-fiction collection. Because of space restrictions in the library, our juvenile non-fiction is interfiled (mixed in) with the adult non-fiction in the lower level of the library, which can make browsing it difficult for younger patrons. With this display, we hope to show off some of the wonderful juvenile non-fiction in our collection.
This display also includes a “Very Fancy Non-fiction Randomizer Machine” to help people dive into the collection. If you’re not sure what kind of subject you want to read about, give the Randomizer a shake, take off the lid, and pull out a slip. The slip will have a Dewey Decimal number on it, and the subject associated with that call number. Once you have a subject you’re interested in, you can find that call number down in the non-fiction section of the library. Browsing call numbers near the one you’re interested in is a great way to discover books about related topics, too.
The Dewey Decimal system is a system that many libraries, including Penn Yan Public Library, use to organize their books and other materials. It was invented by a man from upstate New York, Melvil Dewey, who also invented a system of simplified spelling, which was never as popular as his system for organizing books. To learn more about the Dewey Decimal system, ask your librarian, or check out this blog from OCLC, the owners of the Dewey Decimal system.