Beginning Reader Survey Responses

Many thanks to the 22 readers who responded to our survey on labeling and shelving books for beginning readers! Here's what we learned:

Question 1: What do you call beginning reader books in your library?
We suggested several possible responses to this question, and also had a comment field available for libraries that use other terms – a good thing, too! Of the provided answers, most said that they call these books Beginning Readers (6), Easy Readers (5), or just Readers (4). A couple use the term Early Readers, and one selected Beginner Books. Of the write-in responses, two use the term Levels or Level Books, one uses Juvenile Starters, one uses Primers, and one uses Early Chapter Books.

Question 2: How do you shelve your beginning reader books?
On this question, the vast majority of respondents (15) indicated that they shelve their beginning reader books alphabetically by author, while considerably fewer (5) indicated that they group books by level and then alphabetize. One respondent uses bins to separate books by level, and one shelves books by topic or neighborhood. A couple of write-in comments indicated special treatment to keep popular series or movie and TV tie-in books together, and a couple cited special treatment for nonfiction readers (either shelving them with the other nonfiction books, or shelving them within the reader section, but by topic).

Question 3: How do you handle leveling your readers?
The majority of respondents (10) said that they do not indicate any kind of level anywhere on the book, beyond what the publisher provides. However, almost as many (9) print the level on the spine label or use a color-coding system on the spine to indicate level. A couple write the level inside the book, and one respondent indicated that they write the level or use some system to indicate it on the outside of the book, somewhere on the front or back cover.

Within our small sample size, we can say that the typical collection of these books is called Beginning/Early Readers (or just Readers), is shelved alphabetically by author, and either has no indication of level, or has the level or a color-coding system to indicate level on the spine label. What about you? Didn't get a chance to respond to our survey? Or maybe you did, but you think you've found the perfect way to handle these books? Tell us all about it in the comments!