I know this would sound silly but I would think the biggest issue would be user education in regards to "Why can't I check this book out?" when they try to check out a reference book. I spend most of my day in libraries and even with it separate, I still hear that a couple of times a day. I would think it would increase if they were mixed in. A simple REF on a binder is easy to miss.

And to expand on the encyclopedia, I would be concerned with someone checking that out just to disappear. I know some communities have limits on how much one can charge for a lost book. Hate to see someone get off with checking out the complete set only to wind up paying 30 bucks.

We have moved nearly all of our reference collection into the stacks and allow them to circulate. They certainly are being used more often, which is a plus, although I have to be honest, I worry sometimes about sending away a specialty encyclopedia that cost several hundred dollars. That being said, all/most of our new reference is being purchased online, so it's a problem that will remedy itself.

I have completely weeded my reference section in a 6-8 building. I have some atlases, some almanacs and a few sets of enclyclopedia. However everything else is gone or in the non-fiction section. I did this because all that was there was easily found online. It was extremely out of date and the only things I had really added were general reference. I really kept very fewthings and they were never used by anyone. Given this situation it was an easy move and we haven't had any complaints from teachers or students.

My academic library has done something similar to this. When we were weeding the reference collection any books that were slightly older or not being used as much but were still valid, good resources got shifted to the regular circulating stacks. We did change them to normal circulating books instead of leaving them reference but since your reference books are able to be checked out I don't see why they could just sit be placed in the non-fiction section. I find that rarely do people browse through the reference collection, and when you do show them something in that area they always say "oh I didn't know you had that." This way when they are browsing the section - a lot of our students just want general call numbers and don't do good searches in the catalog - they would find the encyclopedias and use them more.

I'm considering the same thing with my reference books. Last year, I moved all of my biographies out of their separated section and relabeled them with their Dewey number according to their subject (athletes in sports, painters in art, presidents in history, etc.). It really helped to get those items circulating. I've been pleased to see some previously dusty books getting some action.

I moved my entire reference collection into non-fiction and put see through red labels over the spine label. Red = reference and cannot be checked out. It has worked well for my K-5 students, increasing interest and most of them understand why they can't check them out.

We shifted our Reference books a few years ago and it was hard work--- but worth every minute. Our books are now used with some frequency as opposed to never used... I did keep the Reference labels on them as a way to remind us to tell the students that it is an overnight checkout and that the cost of replacement is high so they know what they're getting into when they borrow a Reference book. We have not had any problems with loss.

We did leave our one encyclopedia set, a large dictionary, the Dictionary of Biographies (huge, heavy set) in the old reference section, and some oversized books in the reference area. We were able to convert the rest of the area to fiction only and that has been great!