It creates a dedicated space where the impact of reading promotions is maximised and which offers the opportunity for links between staff and borrowers and between readers themselves to be made. The name unclassified was devised in consultation with library staff who wanted to send a message to borrowers that the library was offering something different in an unpredictable way. Each site is different but they all share a common purpose and approach, enabling library staff to share new developments and ideas within and between authorities. Unfortunately, we are currently fully booked with unclassified installations. New orders will be taken from May 2001.
People still associate libraries with an older reading audience and solid classics.
This may include signs, shelving, seating, lighting, flooring, display bins as well as stock, with a recognisable branding throughout. Our intention was to expand and exploit the returns trolley syndrome. We wanted hot stock, attractively presented in a manageable quantity, with choice facilitated by promotion rather than classification. It is particularly appropriate to use unclassified for fiction stock because traditional library classification has, in fact, failed to come up with appropriate classifications and tends to lump all books of this kind together under the broad headings of General Fiction or Contemporary Fiction. The design we chose emphasised the books on the shelves element as well as the anarchy and variety inherent in the word unclassified .