Series fiction, novels with continuing characters, are among the most in demand books at the Nichols Library in Center Harbor.   They also sometimes pose a problem—if you are new to a series, how do you find out where it begins where it begins?  And what if an author publishes more than one series, each featuring a different lead characters? Or stand-alones, in which the leads characters only occur in that one story?

To help our readers navigate the wonderful world of series fiction, the Nichols Library is updating the spine labels on these books to show that information.  Each fiction spine label begins with the tag FIC and the cutter (the first three letters of the author’s last name).  For series fiction, the staff is adding the series character and number in the series. So, for the Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connolly, the spine label reads FIC CON M. Haller#1.  A stand-alone story will just have the FIC tag and the author cutter.

This mapping of the fiction collection is a work in progress.  Work began in April with working out the design.  Our first test case was author Iris Johansen, who has three series characters and several stand-alones.  The library staff will continue working on these through the summer.  Hopefully, this will help readers more easily find the books they are looking for.