1. A New Way to Organize with the Patron in Mind
BISAC
A New Way to Organize with the Patron in Mind
Introduction: Who I am
Who has heard of BISAC before?
Who has done something different in their library already?
Who is thinking about looking at different ways to organize their collections?
Lots of hybrid models, and other libraries who have gone through a similar transformation. Wilmington, Dover, Groton, Darien CT, Rangeview. We can talk about these examples a little bit later.
Deb Hoadley, Advisor
Massachusetts Library System
ext 309 (toll free in MA)
ext 309

2. BISAC Categories (Book Industry Subject and Category Codes)
ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES
ARCHITECTURE
ART
BIBLES
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
COMPUTERS
COOKING
CRAFTS & HOBBIES
DESIGN*
DRAMA
EDUCATION
FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS
FICTION
FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY
GAMES
GARDENING
HEALTH & FITNESS
HISTORY
HOUSE & HOME
HUMOR
JUVENILE FICTION
JUVENILE NONFICTION
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES
LAW
LITERARY COLLECTIONS
LITERARY CRITICISM
MATHEMATICS
MEDICAL
MUSIC
NATURE
PERFORMING ARTS
PETS
PHILOSOPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY
POETRY
POLITICAL SCIENCE
PSYCHOLOGY
REFERENCE
RELIGION
SCIENCE
SELF-HELP
SOCIAL SCIENCE
SPORTS & RECREATION
STUDY AIDS
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING
TRANSPORTATION
TRAVEL
TRUE CRIME
BISAC stands for the Book Industry Subject and Category codes. It is a standard and was created, maintained and revised by the BISG (Book Industry Study Group).
All publishers use these codes. There are over 3,000. Show the book example.
MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12

3. From the BISAC “bible” MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12
A volunteer typed in all the columns from the BISG website, and then as staff members worked on their sections, they created the spine label designations. Another volunteer typed our labels and put them on the books.
Ingram will now process this as part of their normal processing. In the past, they would charge up to $2 to handle 1 book. If you fill in the form, there is no charge. If they dp it, it is a $500 one-time charge.
Things do change, so you have to keep updating the book and the designations so they are processed correctly.
MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12

4. Record and label changes
This plays nicely with the consortium catalog, and their bibliographic records. A positive is that less time is spent shelving because decimals and finding proper placement of books will be easily identified. We will talk about how this translated into collection development skills for our library pages.
MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12

5. Motivation & Innovation
Browsability
Searchability
Items are placed together by category based on a language system, not numerical system
Collection development will be easier
Customer satisfaction
Staff time will be used for more patron interaction & reader’s advisory
People come to the library to browse for materials. Most common answer to “Can we help you find something?” is “No, just looking to see what you have.”
People want it to be easy to search, both in the library and online. They want independence to find their own items.
Words are easier to find than numbers.
By going through and re-classifying the collection, we weeded extensively. What wasn’t circulating and make room for materials people want. This led to better customer service and better staff/patron interactions. We no longer are helping them “look up a number” and guiding them to an area, we are interacting with them in a more meaningful way through reader’s advisory, asking more reference questions, etc.
MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12

6. Final Layout MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12
Since everyone wants fiction, mysteries an biographies, we make people walk through non-fiction to get there.
Turned shelving on a bias to create interest.
MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12

7. Justification Statistical data to support
Patrons love the new layout of the library
Patrons love the ability to look at the sections and find what they are looking for
Shelving is easier
No conflict with consortium/just a change in local call number
Statistics only show part of the picture. Most common question is how big was our collection that we converted to BISAC: We converted about 6000 titles.
Book Collection 58,882 30,610 (weeded almost ½ of our collection overall in the library)
Circulation 35,038 56,981 (62%)
Non-Fiction Collection 2,978 5,226 (76%)
March nonfiction circulation
May circulation (1 month after renovation – some books were still in boxes and not on yet)
Sept ,010 circulation (133% increase)
MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12

8. Information
Webinar by National Book Network
Book Industry Standard Group
Book publishers are putting categories on backs of books
I will post the link to the ppt on the MLS website.
Q&A
Library share what they have been doing.
MLS: Deb Hoadley 5/2/12