Holiday Favorites

The following is a list of my 6 favorite holiday picture books, which I own and hope to share with any grandchildren I may have in the future:

Christmas Tree! by Wendell and Florence Minor - Christmas trees come in all shapes and sizes and can be found in almost any setting, but there is only one "best" Christmas tree.

Christmas Tree Memories by Aliki - Family members admire the ornaments on their Christmas tree and share their memories of previous holidays as evoked by the ornaments.

Good King Wenceslas, illustrated by Jamichael Henterly - An illustrated version of the English Christmas carol about the generous king.

Little Tree by e.e. cummings - The poet/individualist's ode to a small tree decorated for Christmas and proud to receive admiring attention.

Mouse's First Christmas by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Buket Erdogen - While exploring the house on Christmas Eve, a little mouse discovers the tree, a candy cane, a stocking, a jingle bell, and Santa Claus.

Santa Mouse by Michael Brown, illustrated by Elfrieda DeWitt - Santa gives a nameless mouse a special gift for Christmas.

Holistic Filing?

At the risk of being considered unprofessional, I'd like to touch on the idea of "holistic filing." Because I shelve lots of easy fiction (picture books) at my library, and because I have always been on the public service side of things rather than the tech or administrative ends, this concept recently surfaced (while shelving, of course) and represents, perhaps, a practical, albeit novel approach to filing/shelving. Here goes: Why not lump all common author surnames (Andersons, Browns, McDonalds, Smiths, Williams, etc.) together on the easy fiction shelves and file the books alphabetically by their titles? Wouldn't the shelving take less time, the customers find the titles they are looking for faster, and the clerical staff locate the books requested by customers at other libraries more quickly? Rather than all of these folks having to take the time to figure out what the first name of the author is (Is it Marc, Margaret, or Ruth Brown?), and then figure out where, alphabetically, the author's works fall among the other, like-surnamed authors (a real challenge for much of the general public), then locate the title they want, why not streamline the process and provide better customer service? At least in the easy fiction/picture book sections, where the spines are thin and the quantities are often huge? Is it because it might stress out the catalogers (are there any left?) or offend library administrators (who have more time to philosophize)? Or is it because I am under-complicating the issue?