An order of about 150 new books is set to hit the shelves of Northwood’s library in the next couple of months.
When deciding what books to order, thought is given to what readers enjoy and what they would like to see in the library. The library staff takes note of what students check out and what the library needs.
“[In the most recent order] we focused on purchasing more manga and graphic novels,” school librarian Kelsie Adloo said. “That seems to be a really popular section of the library and we want to build it up. We want to make sure our readers have plenty to choose from.”
Narrative nonfictions were another big genre that made up a large amount of the most recent order.
“Instead of nonfiction with information that you can just google then gets updated year after year, we’re focusing on nonfiction that reads like fiction so it’s enjoyable to read,” Adloo said.
New books are ordered about two times a year, ensuring a constant cycle of adding and removing books off the shelves. The old books, however, do not go to waste and are instead put to use in other ways.
“We completely remove them [the books] from the system,” Adloo said. “I do leave them out for anybody who wants to take them as a free book, and I also offer them to the art classes to turn into projects before I throw them away.”
Because the books are constantly being cycled through, the Northwood library is in the process of making a wishlist that fills the gaps of what is needed on the shelves. Student recommendations are also listened to when putting together titles for the next order. The wishlist in progress has a different focus from the most recent order of books.
“For this current list our focus is a lot on poetry, we’ve had a lot of requests for poetry and for award winners and for diverse authors and characters,” Adloo said.
If students have ideas or recommendations about what they would like to see in the library, there are ways for them to voice their opinion and reach Adloo.
“I have an ongoing survey on our library website so anybody can submit a request. As soon as I get the request, if it’s available and if it is appropriate for the library then I will purchase that,” Adloo said. “They can come talk to me because I always want to know what students are reading. I try to read as much as possible, but there’s always things that I’m missing.”
