The Children's Literature section of the library is extremely disorganized. As a student that was in the elementary ed program and is now working on my masters in teaching, it is upsetting to come to the shelves time and again and find all the books in complete disarray. There are books on the floor, stacked on top of each other, books that have fallen behind the shelves, and more. On the end of the shelves, where students put the books that they have looked at to be reshelved, I have seen a book sit for 3-4 weeks without being reshelved. It is quite often that I cannot find a book in this section either, even when it is listed as "normal on-shelf."

I wish I knew about this suggestion area before because I would have made a comment a year ago. Please please please do anything you can to help this sad section of shelves. I know that myself, along with many other graduate and undergraduate students would greatly appreciate a clean and easy to browse section as this area of the library is of great use to me in my education.
From: a graduate student

Patricia Selinger, Head, Preservation Department, responds....
The Juvenile/Young Adult Collection has not received significant attention in a few years and so many books were out of order that reshelving became nearly impossible. Staff have been shelf-reading the Juvenile/Young Adult Collection since January. A shelf-read consists of reviewing each shelf to ensure the books are in the correct order and then shifting to alleviate overcrowding. Staff is also identifying damaged books and faded labels during the shelf-read; these items will be repaired as quickly as possible. This project is labor-intensive due to the size and format of the collection.

As you noted, some sections of the Juvenile/Young Adult Collection are significantly out of order. These sections may be moved to the third floor sorting area where the reshelving can be staged easier and faster.

In reviewing this section, we realized the bookends on these shelves are missing. We will put some in place to correct this situation.

VCU Libraries is working toward a better Juvenile/Young Adult Collection and regret the inconvenience the shelf-read and sort has caused. If there is a particular book VCU Libraries owns that you cannot locate, please use the "Request" button in the catalog. We are making this area a priority and expect you will see improvement soon.

Thanks for your interest!