Library Guild, Week 2

I walked past the heavily-used manga section this morning, and it looked like one of the shelves threw up on the floor–there were books everywhere. When I had a chance to go back later and fix it, everything looked fine! I think it was my Library Guild at work.

This after-school club started last week. I had 30 students show up for the first meeting, and 34 for the second! I’ve given out over 110 permission slips so far and collected 48, with more coming in. I think I’m going to have to cap the number of students. What an incredible response! They’ve all been really well-behaved, busily working on book displays and posters for our upcoming book fair.

This summer for my class on Virtual Environments and Games in Education I read Jane McGonigle’s book Reality Is Broken, and it gave me the idea to use Chore Wars so the Guild members can get XP (experience points) for what they do. So far it’s been a fair amount of work to set up, but I think things will be easier as the kids get into a routine. Huzzah for the Library Guild!

Adventures of a solo librarian

Encouraged by fellow middle school librarian Gwyneth Jones, The Daring Librarian, I’m going to take the plunge and share some of the cool things going on in my library.

My middle school (ages 11-14) has around 750 students this year, so I am the only librarian. Three years ago our district eliminated the library assistants’ positions, so I am a solo librarian.

If all I did was book circulation and collection management, it would probably be fine. If I do any teaching, though, it throws a wrench into the works. My goal since arriving here has been to teach a collaborative research project for all three grade levels. Last year I finally was able to do that with 7th and 8th grades, which was awesome! It meant, though, that the library was closed every other week for most of the school year, because I was teaching classes then.

I’ve explored many alternatives to doing everything myself, but for various reasons most have fallen through. More later…