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Thanks to all those who replied to my recent posting about category spine labels. I am attaching the responses I had, but many more of you were kind enough to send examples in the post. I was overwealmed by the response I had from this and the Reader Development list - thanks again. Jo Harvey Librarian, Reader Development Brighton& Hove libraries ************************************************************* Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead: Have you considered using colours. These are more neutral. The trouble with pictures is that they can date badly and they are open to subjective debate about appropriateness which can be a pain. For example I have heard comments about images representing black fiction. Sensitive issues that can be avoided by using colour (and/or shapes) Andrew Lewis e-Services Officer Library and Information Services Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 01628 796 592 mailto:[log in to unmask] Stoke: My advice is don't do it! Come up with a better system of lettering such as LB Bromley use: CRI for Crime SS for Short Stories HOR for Horror etc... Since leaving Bromley I've worked in 2 authorities where pictorial labels are in use and I think they're appalling. My reasons are as follows: * They're patronising to the reader * They're often inappropriate (in one authority the fantasy category was donated by a "fairy castle" - you ended up with books by authors like Clive Barker and Tanith Lee [pretty dark and frightening stuff] having a "fairy castle" on the spine!). * They can be downright silly (one authority used the image of a rocket standing upright to denote Sci-Fiction, a bullet standing upright to denote thrillers, and a lipstick again standing upright for romances. Not only did they all look similar and confuse readers, but they all resembled a phallus!!!! I'm sure readers were laughing at us over this.... * They're unclear. I've see a gun, a running man and a set of handcuffs used for crime and for thrillers. Given the small area on the label none of these images were especially clear and from a distance were totally indistinguishable. ... This is just my opinion, but there you go..... North Lanarkshire: Saw your request for labels - I use a mixture from LFC and Gresswell. Contact details are: LFC - 08458 506507 Gresswell - 01992 454511 - www.gresswell.com Hertfordshire: I will send you copies of the picture labels we currently use for Adult and Junior. One question, I am intrigued can you enlighten me on what the letters stand for, or are they just random choices. (V for Crime, TSF for sea stories and Q for general fiction and are there any others your use eg: family sages, Romance, Sci fi??). National Library for the Blind: It does seem a rather confusing system you have there. I worked for a while in a library that used colour coding to denote the genres, which worked reasonably well, but unfortunately, the colours used were not consistent across the authority! Do you keep your genres together, or spread them through one large alphabetical sequence? The whole issue of genres I find difficult though. Should we be consigning authors to a genre ghetto, or should we be encouraging more adventurousness from our readers? What do people think? Stuart Vaughan National Library for the Blind [log in to unmask] Campbeltown Grammer RE: Spine labelsI have inherited a library will a multitude of coloured stickers accompanied by a wide variety of picture spine labels. I have yet to discern a pattern to the colours! I have resortd to printing my own spine labels for Senior fiction and Staff library. All the rest of the fiction are "junior" but not labelled as such. I think the picture labels look a bit dated and am reluctant to use them. In a previous library I created my own using Clipart and a colour printer. Unfortunately I don't have a colour printer in Campbeltown so will have to make do with B/W. I didn't use sticky labels but created them on sheets of A4 and, as a result, I can photocopy them. After all I use sticky tape to attach them and two lots of "sticky" seem overkill. Personally I prefer not to go too mad with genre stickers but to use genre bookmarks (donated by a very helpful librarian from this link). Judi Campbeltown Grammar Powys I've posted you some examples along with the catalogue pages from the LFC catalogue. I've written in the telephone number for the customer services department who should be able to send you a catalogue. We use coloured picture ones which are nice and I've seen black and white ones though they may not be available now. How did they come up with the lettering system? Anyway, good luck with all the labelling! Vicky Fraser Reading At Reading we use coloured spots. In the central library all the genres have their own sections, but in our smaller branches we have the basic crime and sci fi etc seperately, but the others are interfiled with the general fiction,with the coloured spots on the spines. We have about 12 genres identified in this way. We don't put spots on general fiction. We have bookmarks listing the genres with a brief description of each. It seems to work well and on the whole customers seem to like browsing genre sections. Karen Walker Reading Borough Libraries