Fiction Shelves

The good manners of searching the fiction shelves.

A great deal of time is spent maintaining the good order of the library shelves. This helps everyone to locate the book required. Users may help by knowing a little about how the books are organised, as well as some basic library manners. Fiction books are organised alphabetically by the author’s surname. Within the author’s collection, they are the organised alphabetically by individual or series title. A series is kept together, and many have yellow series labels with the reading order designated. Series are placed at the end of the section that includes individual novels by the author. Collections of more than one novel by the same author in a single volume are placed after any series. The books are aligned with the spine flush with the front of the shelf. This means that smaller books are not lost amongst the larger ones. Pushing the

books to the back of the shelf only provides the person shelving with more work and makes each book more difficult to locate. If a book is taken, it is good manners to push the bookend up so that no gaps remain and the books do not fall over, down the back of the shelves, or onto the floor. If a book is taken from the shelf but it is decided that it will not be read, it should be returned to the circulation desk or placed in the appropriate tub on the bench. Thank you for your good manners.