Classroom Library Organization: Someday It Will All Be Beautiful

I’m not sure how many middle grade and YA books I own. I’m sort of afraid to count. I’ve sorted them in lots of ways over the years, for my personal use and for my classroom. I've tried book-scanning apps, rainbow-fication, and assorted shelving configurations.

I mean, it's pretty

Here’s the system that has worked best for me for the past several years:

The short version – I classify my books into (mostly) genre-based tubs, code the book spines with patterned washi tape, and match the tub label card with the same washi tape pattern. I teach my students what types of books they can find in each category, and how to take care of the books as they search and return them. The long version, below, may help address details if you want to try this system.

Updating my class library for a new school year. I have more shelves to the right.

1. What categories do you use for book bins?

I base the categories on things that will be easy for my 5th graders to understand, and on the number of books I have that will fit in each category.

Realistic Fiction would be huge if I left it by itself, so I break that down into sub-categories, like:
Realistic Fiction – Serious Topics (Locomotion, On My Honor)
Lighter Realistic Fiction (Stink Moody, Lunch Money)
Realistic Fiction with a Fantasy Twist (All the Answers, Jake and Lily)
Realistic Fiction – Lighthearted Relationships (Dirt Diary, It’s Raining Cupcakes)
Realistic Fiction – School Focus (Because of Mr. Terupt, Ungifted)
and I still have five other tubs of “other” Realistic Fiction. When I have more than one bin for a category, I keep the same washi tape for all the bins. If I have two historical fiction bins, for example, both bins have the same patterned tape and it doesn’t matter which bin the book is returned to – that’s true for all categories with more than one tub.

Sometimes I have to combine categories. I put Poetry, Jokes, and Puzzles together in a bin, because I didn’t have enough books to fill one for each of those categories. I  have a combined bin for Sports and Outdoor Adventure, but I have almost enough books for those to have their own separate bins now.
 
I usually divide Fantasy into Talking/Thinking Animals and Magic Users categories. I use separate categories for Animals (realistic fiction again!), in which the main character is a human, but the story is mostly about the human’s relationship with the animal. Unless it’s an Outdoor Survival book, because there’s a bin for that.
 
Series bins are also part of my categories. These include the I Survived series, Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus, Warriors, and more. I also have author bins, and I sometimes combine authors into a single bin, like Clements and Cleary or Korman and Sachar.
 
I don’t have as much nonfiction as I would like, so biography gets a separate category, and then I have a few oversized nonfiction bins in addition to regular-sized nonfiction. As I add more books, I’d like to create “how-to” bins, science-themed bins, and more.

2. What if a book fits in more than one category?

This happens all the time. I used to agonize over the decision, and now I do my best and get over it. Woof, for example, is a mystery told from the point of view of a dog. Is that a mystery or a fantasy – thinking animals book? I think its mystery aspect is more critical to the shape of the book, so that’s where I put it. I also have bins for graphic novels, which are formats and not genres, but it’s more user-friendly for students to keep those together. Raina Telgemeier’s hugely popular Smile is an autobiography and a graphic novel, as is Cece Bell’s El Deafo, and I keep them both in the graphic novel category instead of biography.

3. Can students easily find books they want to read?

Our first weeks of school are all about introducing the class library and starting good reading habits. I pull books from tubs and we talk about elements common to genres, and we look closer at categories, and we talk about books that could belong in more than one place. I also do book talks all year long, and pull books to recommend to individual students through the year. When we get a new order of books for our classroom, we examine them and think about which category each book probably belongs to, understanding that we may not know for sure until we read them. Students get to know the class library pretty well, and that helps them make good reading choices. See my post about independent reading records for details about how students keep track of their reading over the school year.

Close-up of some bins with labels at the beginning of the year

4. Why washi tape?

I have tried dot stickers in the upper corner of the book, but I didn’t have enough different colors, and when I tried to remove the dots, parts of the cover came off, too. Washi tape on the spine of the book is great because it will pull off safely if necessary, and it comes in a fun array of designs.
 
It’s useful to use designs that are clearly different enough from each other to make it easy for students to return books to the right bin. I have a dark pink glitter and a light pink glitter that don’t look very different from each other in the late afternoon sun. Matching washi tape on the book and the book bin label make it easy for students to return books to the right bins.

You can never have too much washi tape

5. Don't the book bin labels come off?

Sometimes. It’s just an index card with tape. I could type them and make fancy label stickers, but I have glitter washi tape, so I figure I’m already fancy enough. I printed color-ink paper labels one year, and they looked nice, but they had rips in them mid-year as kids moved the bins. The index cards hold up a little better.I teach my students to handle the bins and books with care, so it’s rare that a label comes loose – maybe three a year.

6. Do you get your books back if you don't use a check-out system?

Almost always. Some go missing. Last year, I got them all back. The year before, I lost two, excluding a bag of three a parent returned over the summer after an intensive room-cleaning. I show my students my love for books, and they know I pay for almost all of them. Given the volume of books borrowed and read, they do a great job. I hate to lose a book, and I do have a special stash that I don’t allow home unless I do a specific sign out (I like Kelly Gallagher’s method: take a photo of the student holding the book and delete it when they return it directly to my hands).

Still, given the hours it takes to set up, manage, and update a checkout system, plus lost reading time for kids (especially if they browse, start a book, then return it), it’s worth it to me to risk a book or two. I write my name inside the front cover of every book. I don’t like to write it on the outside because I take photos of my own books for my website recommendations. I have seen teachers write their names on the front cover in Sharpie, or on the edge of the pages as a quick way to recognize books that belong to them.

Single-row book bins with index card labels. Washi tape shows where the books go.

7. How well do the tubs work?

My current ones aren’t fabulous. I bought some great tubs at a dollar store when I taught in Canada, and I didn’t want to move them all with me when I came back to the States. I regret that! They were sturdy, fit the shelves perfectly, and priced just right.
 
The only problem was that they didn’t perfectly fit two rows of books next to each other unless all the books were standard-sized paperbacks. One hardbound book in the mix wreaked havoc and led to bent pages if we weren’t extra careful, so single-row tubs have that advantage.
 
I bought my clear tubs at Walmart, and I have an impressive collection of unused matching lids in a cabinet. They work pretty well for standard-sized books in a single file stack, even most hardbound books. However, if kids pull the bins out by the edges instead of holding them underneath, the bins can break.
 
When you find a set of beautifully color-coordinated, perfectly-sized sturdy bins at a good price, grab them and don’t look back.

8. What about organizing books by levels?

I’m not a fan of organizing class libraries this way. My post about access and choice in independent reading discusses this, but one main reason is that it puts unnecessary limits on what students consider reading. Another is that books are not organized by level in bookstores or libraries (beyond general categories for children, pre-teens, and adults), so we aren’t helping students navigate those places to choose good books for themselves if we say “choose anything from tubs P, Q, and R.” I teach fifth graders, who are pretty conscious about being different from others, so separating their reading into obvious levels tends to make them more focused on their social labels than their book selections.
 
That said, I do apply some leveling in my class library. I use the words “complex” and “lighter,” relative to the average 5th grader in my school for some bins. For example, “Complex Mysteries” might include The Westing Game and The Mysterious Benedict Society, while Encyclopedia Brown might go in “Lighter Mysteries." I tried to do away with leveling all together, but I found some students had a harder time finding a match. Some pulled out mysteries, for example, which were great choices for some advanced fifth grade readers, but frustratingly difficult for other readers in that moment. Having some separation – just like the library separates middle grade and young adult books – made it a little easier for readers to find what they were looking for.
 
I talk with students about reading choices and habits frequently, and ask them to reflect about their reading, and part of this discussion is acknowledging that sometimes we want to read books that we know are “too easy” for us. It’s okay. Visit the bin. Pull out an old friend. Find a new one. You are never too old to read a book written for people younger than you are. I often gesture to the bookshelves and tell my students I’ve read 80% of those books, and I probably read all but about 30 of them as an adult. They weren’t written for me, but I still get something out of them, and not just because I teach reading.

Of course I want students to challenge themselves and try new books, but I want readers to visit any book bin without feeling negatively judged for that choice. Some years, some of my students are struggling to read grade-level books, and when everyone enjoys browsing through the “lighter” bins, nobody has to feel uncomfortable searching there.
 

9. Do class librarians manage this system?

A little. The beauty is that the system mostly takes care of itself, if I do a proper job teaching all the students how to return books to the matching bins. I do have a class librarian job, in which students look over the shelves to be sure everything is facing forward, in correct bins, and no tape or labels have come loose, but my students mostly look after those things as needed in class. I generally do the taping myself as new books arrive, but I did have a few student helpers do some initial taping on the book spines, and I have some student helpers record book inventory at the end of the year.

Silver glitter washi tape on the spine of each book

10. What are the steps to implementing this system, and how long does it take to set up?

Sort your books
First, sort your books to determine how many categories you have, and how many tubs you will need. I have about 30 categories including series bins, and about 50 single-row tubs. This will only take you about an hour if you already have a good idea of what categories to use, but it could take longer if you change your mind often, and if you have a lot of books.

If you're trying to organize your classroom library, you should definitely get a cat. So helpful.

Buy Materials
Second, purchase the tubs you need and a different color washi tape for each category. If you are using index cards with markers, you will need those, too, plus some tape to attach the cards to the bins. If you want to print labels on cardstock, or print them on white paper and attach them to cardstock backing for a little color, you could do that, too. Otherwise, you will also need to set up sticker labels to print for your bins (this will look prettier but take longer, and you may want to get extras in case a label comes off or you need to make changes during the year). The first part should only take you about a half hour for a shopping trip; the fancy labels option might add a couple of hours to design and print.
 
Apply the washi tape to the books and the bin labels
Third, choose a washi tape pattern for each category and put a strip of tape on the spine of each book in that category. This is the longest step, but if your books are at home, you can do it in front of a good movie or Netflix binge-watching session. Depending on how many books you have, this could take several hours.
Put a matching strip of washi tape on the book bin label for each book in each category, until all the books and bins are complete.
 
Books in Bins, Bins on Shelves
Fourth, put the books in the bins and arrange them on your bookshelves. You may find that some shelves draw students more readily than others, so sometimes it’s good to rotate bin placement. I keep categories of books and similar genres near each other as a general rule. This part only takes about five minutes, unless you are carrying them in to school from home, in which case you should bribe family members to help you.
 
Teach the System
Fifth, teach your students how to explore the bins, what they can find in each category, and how to properly care for books they borrow. If you do a book tasting at the beginning of the year, you can combine that with this introduction to your class library. Show them exactly how to return books to the bins – find the matching tape color, store it right side up, take care not to bend pages of that book or any other books in the bin, handle the bin by holding the bottom, and so forth.
 
Update as You Go
Sixth, as you get new books, you will need to add tape and add them to your bins. Occasionally, a bin will become too full and you will either need to add a bin in that category or create a new category. It’s also important (if somewhat heartbreaking) to weed out your collection of books periodically. I am terrible at this, but when forced, I usually put books out on a class table and offer them “for keeps” to my students first. I donate the rest to a local organization, like the library, the hospital, or daycare centers. You can also offer batches of them in online community sales.

After all that purging, feel free to shop for more books to add to your class library!

Here's wishing you a happily organized library that's inviting to students and welcomes all readers!