Flannel Organization

When we are busy planning and delivering programs, we sometimes don’t have time to think about the little things that truly help make our jobs a little easier.

One of these things is how our flannel drawers are organized. It certainly was not the first thing I reorganized when I transitioned into my position as a full-time librarian at a new library branch, but it did become a project of mine early on. If the tools that we use are not organized to make it easy for us, as librarians, to access them, then we are not as effective at our jobs.

         

When it comes to organization, this sort of project is subjective. What seems like the perfect way to organize flannels to me might be absurd to another librarian – we all have our quirks. I did not base my flannel organization solely on my personal ideas on how I thought it should be organized. It was partly driven by the existing flannels that had already been created over the nearly ten years that my library branch has been open.

These ten years of many different staff members creating their own flannels for a variety of different themes was much of the reason that some sort of reorganization (and major weeding!) of the flannel collection was necessary. For example, there were five different versions of “Five Green and Speckled Frogs” and oh so many occasions of overlapping flannels located in different folders. There was also an obsessive use of glitter and several times I was glitter-bombed by opening the wrong folder at the wrong time. (I should point out that glitter usage has been deemed ‘illegal’ by my manager before I even moved to this library).

Needless to say, it was not just because I was new and I wanted it to be ‘my way’. Reorganization of our myriad of collections is just part of the daily grind of being a librarian. I also have no problem using flannels that have already been made by others that have come before me. It saves me time and energy, and it also gives me ideas and rhymes I might not have found elsewhere. Just as long as they look professional and don’t throw-up glitter every time I use them, then they get to stay!

So, onward to how I reorganized my flannel drawers. My library has a large filing cabinet that is shared between me and another librarian. Only two of the filing cabinet drawers are designated for flannels. I looked through the flannels that we had. I made decisions on what I felt we might use regularly, consolidated overlapping flannels, and created new folders for flannels that shared folders but were squeezed together and needed their own space.

Any flannel piece that was in good condition but did not have a place in a flannel folder was put in what I affectionately dubbed our “Flannel Orphanage”. Looking at what we had left, I made a decision on how to break up the flannels between two different drawers. Then I made tags for the two drawers so that my staff can see what is in each drawer before they open them.

One drawer is concepts: counting, ABC’s, spelling, colors, etc. Every time I plan for a new theme, there are always dozens of counting rhymes for any given theme. These are all labeled and put in alphabetical order within the drawer.

The second drawer is flannel stories, nursery rhymes, songs, etc. I have also labeled these by the title/theme and placed them in alphabetical order.

And, because flannels kept appearing in whatever drawer someone stuffed them in after looking at what we had (making it difficult for me to find them in the location I knew I had put them back), I put number’s “1” or “2” on each folder so staff would know which drawer the flannel belonged in. I have since created a Word Document for us to keep track of what flannels we do have.

So far it works, but that isn’t to say that there isn’t room for improvement. It works for now and I have little difficulty finding my flannels when I need them – which is the whole purpose of the organization project. If it stops being effective in the future, we can always change it again (but hopefully not for a while!).

To me, being open to change as well as open to suggestions by my Library Assistants and other coworkers’ makes for a fun and dynamic work environment.