Metis Classification Scheme for Children's Libraries

About the Metis Classification Project

More than ten years ago, in 2011, four of us in the library at the Ethical Culture School in New York City began working on a classification system for our PreK-5 library. We had a number of goals: first and foremost, we wanted to create a system that was flexible, intuitive, child-friendly and age-appropriate. We argued that in all other aspects of our school and library we created curriculum, classroom organization, and daily routines that were appropriate for the particular age of the children. Only in one aspect, the classification of library books, did we deviate from our educational philosophy. Our goal was to bring our library classification system into line with our educational principles and practice. In doing so, we hoped to empower our students. If they understood and could clearly see the logic of the organizational system, we argued, they would be likely to have many successful experiences of independent searching and logic-based browsing from the earliest ages.

During the process of creating our new system, we sought input from our students at every stage, and at every level from kindergarten through 4^th grade. We discussed the main categories and their sequencing. We asked students how they would classify particular books or groups of books, in order to help us understand the way that they were thinking. This led to some sub-categories that were surprising to us. For example, the Aquatic Animals section came into being because multiple groups of students across grades chose to include that category. After checking with the science teachers, we went ahead and included it in our system.

Over the past ten years, many school librarians in the US and internationally have expressed interest in Metis, and a number of schools have adopted some version of the system. We have also been included in a number of presentations and articles about post-Dewey classification, and two textbooks on classification.

Although we haven’t carried out any formal evaluation, our anecdotal observations have shown students, parents and teachers to have been empowered by our adoption of Metis. Even our youngest students are quickly able to see the logic of the system: those who are not yet reading can use the spine labels to find their way, and those read are able to use their reading and alphabetization skills to find what they’re looking for. Teachers looking for a particular book on a topic to read aloud, whether fiction or nonfiction, have been alerted to other books on the topic. Parents have been able to navigate the library independently when looking for books for their children.

We have made a number of changes to Metis in our library over the years: we have thought better of some of our earlier decisions, tweaked some areas, added to some areas, and completely reworked others. These changes can be found in the revised edition (2020) of our schedules, which can be downloaded in PDF format.

While we were engaged in the project, we kept a blog, on which we shared some of our dilemmas and arguments. The most recent post is from 2014, and the blog is now at rest. You can find it at http://eye-fours.blogspot.com.

Email us at iwantmetis at gmail.com.