Game Over!

Tomorrow is my last day of work as a school librarian. I’m retiring, finally! I know it seems odd to leave in the middle of the school year, but this is the earliest that I could make it work. I still love my job, but I’m tired of being tied to the school calendar and the school clock (7 am start times! Yikes!) Also, I’m tired of beating my head against the wall between me and effective collaboration with our teachers.

My husband has been retired for 12 years already. He was in law enforcement, so he could retire at an earlier age.  We love camping and being outdoors, especially in Maine. We’re really looking forward to being able to travel in the middle of the week, during the seasons when the weather is really beautiful. Working from home during the pandemic reminded me of how much I like being home–that was a little taste of what retirement might be like. I don’t expect to ever be bored, between camping, reading, and virtual world explorations.

Libraries: If you don’t use it, it will leave

We have a beautiful library with a wonderful book collection and a very capable and tech-savvy instructional partner (if I do say so myself). All of these are vastly underused. I understand many of the reasons for this–the standardized testing atmosphere pervading public schools in the U.S., the lack of time to “cover the material”, the reluctance to let someone else into the classroom–but it does a disservice to our students, who are badly in need of what the library has to offer (information literacy, media literacy, and the love of stories, for starts). I think maybe my personality doesn’t mesh well with some of our teachers, and I hope they will collaborate more with our next librarian.

This goes for books, too. A school library is a living collection, not an archive. We take a hard look at circulation statistics when weeding a collection. If something has not been checked out in several years, out it goes. It’s hard to remove books from a collection that are years old but still in  pristine condition, especially when I purchased them myself, but there isn’t room on the shelves for things that aren’t used by the patrons – they’re just clutter that obscures the valuable things.

Thanks for the memories!

I have many, many wonderful memories of my time in this and other libraries, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity. I’ve worked with a lot of talented, hard-working teachers, enthusiastic, caring students, and the best library colleagues a person could ask for. Like I always say, it’s a good gig, if you can get it!

Remote School Librarianship – 3rd Quarter 2020-2021 (cont’d)

Well, as you can see, my reflections dropped of rapidly once we returned to the building. I’ve been working on a big collection development project; more about that later in 4th Quarter reflections.

Returning to the Building

All staff was required to return to working in the building on February 25th, except for Mondays (asynchronous days). We’ll be continuing this until the end of the school year. I was very nervous about this, on two counts: the risk of COVID-19 infection, and the challenges of being able to understand what people are saying. The latter was the most worrisome to me.

Auditory Challenges

I have had a hearing impairment since I was 5 years old, and have worn hearing aids for most of my life. This resulted (in my non-medical opinion) from a severe reaction to the pertussis vaccine at that age. The result was nerve deafness, which basically means brain damage. There is nothing physically wrong with my ears. I have come to realize that increasing the volume level is only part of the solution to understanding. Auditory processing difficulties are a large part of my hearing impairment. This means that I am constantly gathering clues from a number of sources, including sound, context, and reading lips, to understand meaning. Under normal face-to-face circumstances with a small number of people, I can do this quickly and accurately enough that people don’t realize I have a hearing impairment. COVID-19 has changed this.

As you can imagine, everyone wearing masks has been a nightmare for lip-readers. My audiologist explained that my midrange hearing loss means that I have trouble distinguishing between consonant sounds. Lip-reading replaces that information. Without that, I’m basically hearing only vowel sounds–try that and see how it works for you. If I have context, I can make good guesses about what’s being said, but if someone starts talking to me and I have no idea what they’re talking about, my guesses get pretty random. Sometimes I can’t even tell that someone has started talking to me, leading people to believe that I’m purposefully ignoring them.

Here are some things I’ve tried:

  • Clear plastic masks don’t help. It doesn’t work if I’m the one wearing it–everyone else has to be wearing them for it to work. Also, they steam up, and often press against the wearer’s lips, so I can’t read their lips anyway.
  • Having people stand 6 feet away and pull their mask down is not recommended, but often is the quickest way to understand them.
  • Having paper and pencil so the speaker can write to me is very helpful, but extremely awkward, especially for students. Sometimes that’s the only way I can understand proper nouns, or names.

Fortunately our meetings are still held in Zoom, but sometimes people need to wear masks while they’re attending. Most of the time, to be honest, I stay in my office and avoid talking to people.

Library Lunch Bunch

The bell schedule changed once teachers and students started to come back to the building. Now, instead of 4 blocks with an hour for lunch, we have 8 blocks with 24 minutes for lunch.
The four lunch shifts run from 10:36 to 12:36. I expanded my office hours to run from 10:30 to 12:40, Tuesday through Friday. I rarely have anyone show up, but every now and then Yordy comes in to hear more of my read-aloud of So You Want to Be a Wizard, and sometimes Gaming Club players come in to play Minecraft. At least I’m remaining available.

Gaming Club: Minecraft

Quite a few students have signed up for a Minecraft: Education Edition account. They have to fill out a Google form to join the Gaming Club Canvas course, then they have to fill out a Player Agreement to get a Minecraft account. Our Network Engineer is usually very prompt about creating accounts. Only a few students play on our shared server, which I run during lunch and during Gaming Club, but they’re welcome to play with other Gaming Club friends, too. I’m betting their thinking skills will improve just from playing.

Business as Usual

On Mondays I go out with the Bookmobile. Tuesdays through Fridays I’m available for Library Lunch Bunch. I spend most of Wednesdays in grade level meetings. I submit a weekly newsletter article for publication on Fridays. The rest of the time, I’m either ordering new books (eBooks and print) or cataloging new books.

Library Plan for Hybrid Instruction

Here’s the email that I sent to staff. I don’t know if anyone actually read it.

As of now, this is our plan for hybrid instruction:

  • The library is used for Ms. Bollinger’s classes
  • The Reading Terraces (outside, next to the library) are open for anyone
    • First come, first served
    • Please let us know when you need one unlocked
    • Students must be accompanied by an adult
  • Library stacks (shelves) will be closed except for library staff
  • Students and teachers may continue to put print books on hold (reserve) in the library catalog
    • Reserve books for hybrid students delivered to ELA classrooms upon request
    • Reserve books for remote students placed in front office for pickup
    • Reserve books for all students placed on Bookmobiles on Mondays, weather permitting
  • Instructional collaboration is still strongly encouraged
    • Library instruction will be remote from library office
    • I am happy to pull print books and/or recommend online resources for you
  • Library Lunch Bunch continues on Zoom
    • Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm (all lunch blocks)
    • Students are responsible for getting back to class on time

As always, please let us know of any way we can help you. We are here to support your instruction and your students’ learning.

New Books

Most of our books come in fully processed and cataloged, but I still tweak the records, and often the spine labels. One advantage of running my own library is that I get to decide how things are organized. Here are some changes I make:

  • change the copy price to the actual retail price, rounded up to the nearest dollar
  • add Genre tags (655) and Local tags (658)
  • remove subject headings from Library of Congress (the Juvenile fiction sub-tag makes it look like nonfiction in our catalog)
  • change 741.5 classifications to F for fiction, or the Dewey class for nonfiction – the only books that stay in 741.5 are biographies and how-to books
  • series books have Vol.x at the bottom of the spine label, and the series name added to the book title in the catalog record (I wish that for multiple series by the same author, I had used Vol.1a, Vol.1b, etc., so shelvers could keep series together more easily.)
  • if a series is written by multiple authors, I classify the books under the series name
  • sometimes I change the Dewey class if it makes more sense for our collection
  • sometimes the catalog record we receive is wrong, so I fix it

Although the books are fully processed, we still need to stamp our address inside and check the books in before displaying or shelving them. We also put a New Books bookmark in each one. Our Library Assistant takes care of that. Since students aren’t directly using the library, we’re just shelving the new books.

Reflections

I feel vastly under-used this year. I’m not letting myself worry about it, since I know the classroom teachers are overwhelmed from the constantly changing situation. It seems like as soon as we get used to one way of conducting classes, we have to change to something different. I’m grateful that I have plenty to do behind the scenes in the library, both remotely and in person. I’m also very thankful that I have my own office to work in, both for safety and for focus.

Remote School Librarianship – 2nd Quarter 2020-2021

The school year is almost half over! Here’s how things stand presently. We had some students back in the buildings last fall (some special education [SPED] and English language learners [ELL]), but when COVID-19 infection rates went up, we went back to 100% virtual. I am really thankful that our district is looking out for our safety. A very large neighboring district, which shall go unnamed, still has some students and teachers in the buildings. I’m very grateful that I don’t have school-age children of my own, as that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms, as we say around here.

I am still working almost 100% remotely. I go in for the Bookmobile on some Mondays, and when our Library Assistant is out I go in to pull book holds for students when they come up. We don’t have many students who come out to the Bookmobiles, but the number of books on hold is increasing, and the number actually picked up is increasing, too.

I liken my work this year to that old story of the man and the starfish on the beach. Once upon a time, a man saw hundreds of starfish stranded on the beach at low tide. He started picking them up and throwing them back into the ocean so they wouldn’t die. Another man came along and commented that it wouldn’t make any difference —  the other man couldn’t possible throw all of those starfish back in. The first man threw another starfish back in and said, “Yeah, but it made a difference for that one!”

starfish     

I may not be making a difference for everyone, but I am definitely helping the students and teachers that I have worked with.

Minecraft

Also on the plus side, Minecraft! Some of the other teachers formed a Gaming Club, online after school. The principal emailed me and asked if I would be willing to lead a Minecraft component for the club. I said Sure! and got to work. First, I needed to convince district admin to allow an application that had been blocked (for distracting students from classes). This was denied at first, then a few days later I got a request for student names, and accounts were created for them. Apparently the per-student fee is included in our district’s Microsoft 365 license, so we don’t need to pay anything to play Minecraft. Each student who signs up has to have a Microsoft account set up for them, and permission to download and install the Minecraft client on their Chromebook. So far there are over 100 students in the Gaming Club, and over 30 with Minecraft accounts.

I discovered after the first session that the students are able to host sessions in their own worlds. Given some of the disputes which arose in Minecraft in the previous Games Club that I ran, I was skeptical about this. So far, however, students seem to be getting along and helping each other out. Only a small number of the students have actually come to Gaming Club, but the ones who participate seem to be enjoying it. I have them fill out a Google form in which they agree to be kind, respectful, and responsible when playing. Hopefully this sets the tone. A couple of days ago I started running the Minecraft server during the lunch break, and several students have come in to play then. This is yet another way to build student relationships, to help them become more resilient.

Information Literacy

Information literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, and use information to solve problems. We use this for everything  from simple tasks like finding a friend’s phone number, to complex problems like finding a cure for cancer. Especially today, we are swimming in a sea of so much information, much of it wrong, that we could drown in it.

I believe that information literacy is the most essential quality that our students need to have by the time they leave school.

Years ago, at another middle school, I was able to collaboratively teach a 2-3 week research project for each grade level, every year. I’ve been trying to achieve that at my current school, to no avail. Research is now a part of our state Language Arts standards, and every language arts class in our school does a research project, but I am rarely even aware of what they’re working on, let alone helping with it. I don’t know where the disconnect is, and nobody else seems really bothered by this. I do what I can, when I can.

This quarter I sent out information about our eBook resources to the science teachers. A 6th grade science teacher asked if I would show her students how to access these resources. After I scheduled her classes, the other 6th grade science teacher asked if I would come to her classes, too. I happily agreed. This year the science and social studies classes are taught year-long, on alternating A and B days, for full block classes. I came to each class’s Zoom session for 35 minutes, during which I did a hands-on workshop showing the students how to use the resources, and where they could find more help on the library’s Canvas course. I encouraged student engagement by giving directions both in voice and in text, and asking students to type a Y in chat after they had completed a step. The classroom teachers also monitored student activity with GoGuardian, which lets them see what students are doing on their laptops in real time. They could also use this to help students troubleshoot problems.

Reflections

On a personal level, I know I’m probably in the minority, but I am really enjoying this time. Aside from the worries about the world outside, I love being home. My husband is here with me, and we keep each other company. I’m introverted, so when I’m alone, the solitude feeds my soul. Everything I need is here. I’m getting to the age where I’m thinking about retirement, and this is a nice little taste.

On a professional level, I am very slowly, but steadily, adding to the number of student and teacher connections that I’m making. I feel like I’m making a lot of progress with 6th grade, but I’d like to figure out how to get involved in 7th and 8th grade classes, too. In the meantime, this gives me time to work on basic library operations like ordering and cataloging books.

 

Remote School Librarianship

Me at my remote library office

Me at my remote library office

Due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, our school buildings, along with most of the rest of the world, have been closed for almost two months now, and will be closed for the rest of the school year. We have been teaching and learning completely online since Friday, March 13, 2020 (Friday the 13th, after the start of Daylight Savings Time and a full moon).

It’s a challenge being a librarian from a distance, but we can curate online resources as well as physical ones. The challenge, as with physical resources, is getting people to use them. I really enjoy being able to attend staff and content area meetings online, and I’m able to meet with the other district librarians weekly instead of annually, which is wonderful! I’ve been able to communicate with a few students through Canvas (the Canvas LMS, or Learning Management System, https://www.instructure.com/canvas/), and I’m using some Canvas features more. It’s really unfortunate that we had to spend the rest of our budgets before the schools closed, because now we don’t have the funds to provide the online resources that our students are asking for.

I have to tell you, I am so proud of our teachers and administrators for the way this teaching-from-home is working for our school district. Our administrators had the foresight to begin implementing our 1:1 laptop initiative AND staff training years ago. Our teachers and students were already used to using Canvas and other online tools, which made it much easier (not easy, but easier) to go completely online. In talking with other teachers around the country, it seems like the plan that many districts made was “Let’s hope it doesn’t happen”. Our school had a few meetings before the closing, and then we were pretty much ready to go. We just had to make sure everyone took their laptops and chargers home.

We didn’t think we would be out for longer than a few weeks. It’ll be interesting to see how things play out for the upcoming school year. One thing is for sure–things will never be quite the same again, and that might be a good thing for education.

From Solo Librarian to Virtual World Librarian

For the past five years I have been a solo librarian, working without a library assistant. It’s been like going back in time to the 1960s, when most school librarians just checked books in and out. This year our district reinstated that position, so I can take our library back to the 21st Century! Our library already looks fantastic–it’s straightened up most of the time, the books are all shelved, and I can help the students out while they’re looking for books.

In my quest to maintain professional connections during the past five years, I began using the virtual world of Second Life to network with other educators and librarians. This has evolved to the point that I’m heavily involved in publicizing education events in the virtual worlds of Second Life, Open Simulator, and Minecraft. I’m Beth Ghostraven in all of those worlds.

I’m still a school librarian in the physical world (RL, aka Real Life), and that job is very important to me, but I’m going to start using this blog to explore my experiences using virtual worlds in education. As a solo librarian, my posts were few and far between because my time was stretched so thin. I’m hoping to keep this updated more often.

Library Stories

I’m going through the patron records for our 8th graders who are leaving for high school, and remembered…

The young man who came in every day for manga in 6th grade, until he lost a book and couldn’t check out any more until he paid for it, which he didn’t. This seemed to be part of the worsening of his attitude about school. This year I instituted a new policy: students still had to pay for lost or damaged books, but if they paid me at least $1.00 each time they wanted to check out, I’d let them check out one book each time. This young man started doing that, and after finally paying the book off, came in every day to get more manga. When he brought back his last books this year, he said that he wanted to make sure he returned them so other students could check them out. Eureka! He gets the whole idea of a lending library now! When I told our reading specialist this story, she said that was the first positive thing she’d ever heard about this student.

Almost every name brings a face to mind. I love being able to greet students by name when they come in, and some of them get a big kick out of it. Others are suspicious–“Why do you know my name?!?” I tell them it’s because I’m working on it.

Hello, Summer! Goodbye, Old School Year!

Taking a page from Scott Merrick’s book (http://scottmerrick.blogspot.com/), this will be a reflection on the past year–out of necessity in my case, since I didn’t post anything all year. Here are some highlights:

ALICE Training – This is where I got stuck on this blog process, before school even started. I was so unnerved after we did this simulated active-shooter training that I didn’t know what to say. We had live gunfire (with blanks, of course) and announcements about where the “shooter” had been, and we were to make our own decisions about whether to evacuate, barricade, or fight back. We got hands-on training in the latter two. The training, organized by our local police department, was very effective. As a friend pointed out, our first priority should be to get the  hell out with our students.

Snow Days – We had an amazingly winterish winter! Snow days started in December, including one where it was just too cold for kids to stand at the bus stops. Between snow and the book fair, the library was only open for checkout for 7 days in December.

Library Guild – Once again, I had grand plans that didn’t come to fruition. We didn’t get started until mid-November, and only 7-10 kids showed up for the meetings. They had a snack for the first 20-30 minutes, then they were supposed to straighten the shelves for 15-20 minutes, then play board games for the rest of the time. Because there were so few students, I didn’t assign shelf sections this year. Most of them spent the work time standing around and talking, in spite of anything I said. I’m not going to do a Library Guild next year, as I can see it’s not working the way I had hoped it would. I don’t think I’ll do a club at all; if anything, it would be a Game Club. If I could get another teacher interested, it would be easier to stay enthusiastic.

Recognition – I realized that I’m not likely to ever be named Educator of the Year at my school because I don’t have a team to vote for me. This is a common problem for instructional support teachers; also, the pod architecture in this building encourages the grade levels to act as closed groups. I need to do a better job of publicizing what I do in the library, not just for me, but so the teachers and upper admin know what good it does to have a librarian in this school. Since our district is using Google, I’m planning to share my library calendar with the staff and put on it what I’m working on.

Virtual Worlds – For the past two years, I’ve used Second Life at school to attend meetings of education groups. I thought my administrators were supportive of this, since we’ve discussed how my virtual world activities contribute to the profession as a whole. Apparently they were unaware, and I was told (on my rezday, ironically) that I can no longer access Second Life at school. I accept this, but it’s naturally very disappointing. I’ve noticed that attendance has been down at the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable now that I’m not doing announcements before the meetings. I think our district, like many, doesn’t realize that use of virtual worlds is included in our state Standards of Learning:

Technology Communication Tools
C/T 9-12.15 Communicate effectively with others (e.g., peers, teachers, experts) in
collaborative learning situations.
A. Use technology tools for individual and collaborative writing,
communication, and publishing activities.
• Use various technology resources to develop, revise, and assess written and media-based reports and projects, integrating technologies as appropriate.
• Independently collaborate with others using digital communication tools.
• Use digital communication tools to communicate with specific audiences.
B. Participate in communications among different cultures.
• Contribute during a distance-based communication project that includes
individuals from different cultures by leveraging the differences of those cultures to develop solutions to common issues.
C. Participate in online courses, social and learning networks, and virtual worlds.
• Manage goals for learning in an online course.
• Participate in activities that involve social and learning networks and virtual worlds.

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/computer_technology/2012/stds_comptech_9-12.pdf (Thank you to Bill Schmachtenberg for pointing this out.)

Stats – Circulation was down 21% this year. That’s appallingly different from what I expected at the beginning, since the library wasn’t closed for instruction at all once orientations were done. When I added things up, though, we were actually open for 18 fewer days than we were last year. Also, when I think about it, I heard teachers and students say many times that they were reading on their eReaders instead (phones, tablets, etc.), since we implemented BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) fully this year. The high school librarian and I have talked about buying more eBooks for our libraries, and I think now is the time.

Collection – The collection is in better shape this year than it ever has been. I’m especially proud of our fiction collection, which is full of popular and worthwhile books, and is expanding beyond its space. I just finished moving, weeding, and dusting that whole section so I could fit all of the books in. I’m just starting to work on my official project for this year, renovating the sports section (796). My SMART goals for this year are based on that, since data shows that it’s the most heavily-used nonfiction part of this library.

Student Request Program – Students can request books for the library, and I try to buy those books whenever possible. This year I kept track of fulfilled requests: 101, not counting the books the students selected from the book fair for the library. The best part of this program is the looks on kids’ faces when the get to check out the book that they requested–that makes all of this worthwhile.

Well, that’s a mish-mosh, but those are some of the things I’ve been thinking about. Feel free to leave comments in response!

Goodbye, Summer! Hello, New School Year!

This morning dawned crisp and clear, a harbinger of fall days to come. I went back to work on Monday, and I have this week, before the teachers come back, to get a head start on the new year.

This summer was full of social media and online professional development. In June, although I couldn’t go to San Antonio, I participated in the ISTE 2013 Conference SIGVE Playground. (ISTE = International Society for Technology in Education; SIGVE = Special Interest Group on Virtual Environments:  http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net/SIGVE+Virtual+Environments+Playground+ISTE+2013.) I helped out inworld for the Second Life portion, as Gord Holden did a presentation for the attendees. Later I was asked to take on Gridjumper’s role as Producer for the SIGVE Speaker Series (http://sigve.weebly.com/13-14-speakers.html). I’m looking forward to working with our speakers and guests, some of whom have no virtual world experience.

In addition to my usual round of meetings, and an Internet-free vacation in the North Woods, I managed to attend the beginning and ending sessions of the VWBPE Conference (VWBPE = Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education: http://www.vwbpe.org/) I’m now taking part in the post-conference MOOC (http://vwbpe.kamedia-interactive.com/), which explores some of the virtual worlds in more detail. Next year’s VWBPE Conference is April 9-12, 2014, and I’m hoping to participate more fully.

Now, for library goals for this year. I hesitate to put these in print, for fear of failing, but I think most of us know that without failing there is no learning. So…

This year I want to focus on staff development, rather than direct student instruction. I can do that without closing the library much, since I can work with grade level planning blocks. I’m hoping to collaborate with our ITRT (Instructional Technology Resource Teacher) on monthly tech training, plus do short bits at staff meetings and grade level meetings. I hope to help teachers (and their students) learn about EasyBib, online research databases, the Destiny library catalog (including interactive functions), and Edmodo (or whatever equivalent thing we’re using).

I’m hoping to continue the after-school Library Guild. This year I’m going to start out assigning shelf sections and incorporating badges. We might be able to use Edmodo for this, too. I still haven’t learned to play Minecraft, but I’m looking into the possibility of using this with the Guild, too.

This might be the year that I establish a Library Council of teachers, parents, students, and administrators. I really need to become part of a group, rather than a department of one. If we can meet quarterly, we could at least make a start. I’d like to use the AASL framework that Chris Flench shared a couple of years ago; hopefully I can find my notes!

We have a change in administration, as our former principal was promoted to a district position. I’m feeling positive about this, as our new principal is our former assistant principal, with whom I’ve worked well for years. Our new AP used to be a teacher here, and we’ve collaborated on teaching together. I’m meeting with the principal on Friday to talk about goals, and learn more about how the library program can support our school and district goals.

Now–on to processing the rest of the new books that came in last year! Huzzah for the new year!

 

Reflections on This School Year

Last Friday was the last day of school for the students, and yesterday was the last teacher workday. In my district, the librarians are lucky enough to be paid for 10 extra workdays, so we don’t have to volunteer our time to get necessary library tasks done. My last day is Friday–the light at the end of the tunnel!

At the end of last year, I talked with my administrators about focusing on library circulation rather than teaching research units. Last year the library was closed every other week, for most of the year, so I could do research instruction. This year the library has been open for most of the year. I thought circulation would zoom up, but it was a 10% increase, mostly making up the 8% that it went down last year. Average daily circulation actually fell, by 14%. I’ve felt chained to the desk most of the time, because even when classes aren’t here, students trickle in on passes in a steady stream. The pace has been much more reasonable, though.

Because I’m being evaluated this year (and because I am mostly evaluated as a teacher, not a librarian), I did work with one teacher on part of a research unit. Using our recollections of previous units, we decided that I would focus on two parts: Asking Questions, and Notetaking. We scheduled two days, with one in between. The day before the students came in, the teacher had them write questions about their biography subject, to be used as a baseline assessment to show student progress. The next day, I instructed the students on writing good questions, and they repeated the assignment. Our plan was to have them take notes independently the next day, then I would teach about notetaking the following day. It took the students longer to do the initial notetaking than we had planned on, so when they were ready for instruction, I was already having classes in for checkout and couldn’t do much.

I was surprised when I crunched the numbers for the two assignments’ pre- and post-assessments. Overall, 70% of the students showed at least a 10% improvement on the first assignment, and 92% showed at least a 10% improvement on the second assignment. Possible reasons: 1) the instruction that I did less direct instruction and more coaching on resulted in greater gains, or 2) students didn’t want to re-write their previous questions on the second Question assignment. Next time I’ll try to make sure I assess the first Question assignment and then have them add to it for the second one.

I’m planning to have another book fair next year. My husband helped for the whole thing, and commented that the kids seemed to be really enthusiastic. We have an amazing community of readers, and I want to make it even better. I also hope to have a Library Guild again, with some re-structuring. We had 22 kids here on the last day–amazing!

May Update

I’m starting to feel like a librarian again, and not just a clerk. The help of the sub, although too intermittent to allow for instruction, has helped me get into the office and work on the books. I also have had the help of a grad student who is studying to be a Young Adult librarian; she’s getting some hands-on practice in modifying title and copy records in the catalog.

My friend Jimbo helped me prioritize all of those things that overwhelmed me. Here’s my list:
1. Grade the dang papers
2. Get the professional development hours squared away
3. Get the Library Guild to shelve books
4. Get the book fair books processed and in the hands of students
5. Tweak the cataloging on the new books

It took me a couple of weeks, but I got the papers graded. I need to go back and crunch the data to show student process, but the legwork is done. I need to finish adding up my professional development hours. The shelving has been taken care of by the wonderful sub and my adult volunteers, and the Guild has been straightening the shelves each week. The book fair books are all done, and I’m partway through the first box of the 14 boxes of new books. Because they come fully processed, there’s not much to be done, and I go through those fairly quickly when I have time to concentrate on them. Because I can’t switch back and forth between the Catalog and Circulation tabs without losing my work, I switch back and forth between the circ desk computer and my office computer. Having someone at the circ desk makes it possible to get these books done.

It’s been a month since I unpacked those 14 boxes of books. The end of the school year is fast approaching, and although I’m definitely making progress, I don’t know if I’m going to get them all put out before circulation stops for the year, probably at the end of May. At any rate, I’m on my way to putting good books in the hands of our students.