However, I do think it's important to be able to help students find books by genre, and it can be a bit challenging when all of your genres are mixed into one fiction section. My solution? Genre Jars.
I labeled a set of mason jars with several different genres and had my student aides search the catalog by genre and write the titles and authors of books on popsicle sticks, which we then put into the jar for the appropriate genre. The beauty of this system is that a book can be in more than one jar, because, just like people, books are way too complex to fit into only one category. When students come in asking for a recommendation for a certain genre, they can pull a suggestion out of the jar. This really helps me out, because I can't always come up with the best recommendation on the spot, and sometimes students who won't use the online catalog will take the time to try out the jars, because I have them positioned right next to the fiction shelves.
It's not a completely perfect plan, because the recommendations stay in the jar even when the books are checked out. This usually isn't a big deal, and I either put the book on hold for the student, or they try another suggestion.
It has been interesting for me to see how the students are interacting with the genre jars. A few of them have used the jars at my recommendation, but most of them have found them on their own, and most of the students that have used them have ended up checking something out.
