New Book Displays

So, after FINALLY getting all the new books, cataloged and shelf-ready, I got them up in a less-than-fancy display (but new books don't stick around for long, so I wasn't TOO worried.) I also set up my display for Halloween, which is work in progress, but here's what it looked like before it was picked through. :) That's all for now! 

New Books  (that's student work behind it on the other bookshelf.)

More new books

Halloween

Buried Under Books...

I feel as though I've been trying to dig my way out from under a huge pile of books the past few weeks. One of the many duties as a librarian is re-shelving, and without an aide (grownup, not student) I've been feeling a little bit behind. As of today I have 5 carts worth of books that need shelving--I've had 2 classes per period for the past 2 days and it leaves very little time for re-shelving. Mostly the kids have just been pulling the books back off the carts and checking them out (which is okay by me because it means less shelving to do later!)

Things are going well despite the lack of re-shelving. I'm learning more each day about how to do things, how to balance my time, and how to serve the needs of the staff and students. I've been grouchy from time to time, but not because I don't like my job (more from a lack of sleep since my 2 year old figured out how to open the door to his room.) In many ways I feel as though I need a tutorial on 'how to do stuff in the library.' I'm constantly re-evaluating systems and making things function in a way that work for me. For example--I got the labels to 'genre-ize' the fiction books. Its going to be a long, drawn-out process that will probably take me the better part of the year to get organized but I'm excited for the kids to see it once its done! My main hangup right now is the organization of the library--my fiction being in 2 separate places is driving me absolutely batty! Once I am finished 'weeding' the non-fiction I'm going to seriously start looking at moving some things around. (Yes, I still have more weeding to do---ask me when I'll have time? :)

I have FINALLY finished cataloging the new books that were on the cart from the beginning of the year, as well as the books that I bought at the book fair. I have about 30 books that I still need to put a protective covering on and stick on the shelf but luckily that isn't a challenging task (just a time consuming one!)

Its hard to be a new librarian without much help. I feel guilty when I have to close the library because I need to go to the chiropractor or eat lunch because it means someone can't come up and use the resources for a little while. I know I'm human and I know I have principal permission to do so, but I am in a service position now, more than I ever was before.

Tonight this newbie librarian just needs some sleep so that she can dig her way out of the pile tomorrow.

Juggling...

This past week, while not as hectic as Book Fair week, still had its fair share of busy. I'm still learning how to balance the work I need to get done on the days that classes come in all day. We lost our 1/2 time aide position this year due to budget cuts, so I'm relying on student aides to help me reshelve books. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday were full all day--classes in and out so we got really behind on our re-shelving. Several times this week I've been thankful for substitutes in the building who have been available for help--they are great at alphabetizing and shelving books (for which I am VERY thankful.) I discovered (simply by looking) that my student aides have not quite grasped the concept of how books should be reshelved---I found a tutorial online this week to help them understand how the Dewey Decimal system works and I'm going to make it part of their 6 weeks grade :). 


My fantastic library director came in on Friday to help me 'weed' my collection. She did an analysis on my collection and we found that there were a lot of old and out-of-date books. Some of them were weeded on the fact that they hadn't been checked out in 5 or more years (mostly fiction.) We are only about 75% done but I already have a lot of boxes of books to pack up and ship off to the warehouse!


I am still very convinced that this is the perfect job for me. I still LOVE going to work everyday and learning new things! 

Photos from the Book Fair and other stuff...

I have officially 'survived' my first Scholastic Book Fair! Man what a beating! The outcome was great--we made a nice chunk of change to buy books with, but it is a lot harder to be on the 'cashier' end of things! Not only that, but I still had kids coming in to return and check out books in between all the sales! Thank you God for wonderful co-workers who volunteered their eyes and hands to me this past week! Here are just a few pictures that I've taken since September started. I cataloged my first rack of books so I created a 'new' book display. The Lonestar List book display did not get photos taken of it (I forgot...sorry) but you can still sort of see some of the display (or whats left of it.) I also did a tribute to 9/11 which included a video that was displayed on a digital photo frame. (It didn't make the photos either.) I was worn out this weekend--I LOVE being a librarian and I have new-found respect for those of you in the retail industry. Book fair made me REALLY happy that I only have to do that fundraiser twice a year and not everyday! Amy Here's some photos for ya: (its a movie slideshow so you'll need to click on the image to see it.)

From Book Fair, Fall 2011

Survival Mode

The last two weeks have been SO busy that I've hardly had time to breathe. Not that I'm complaining--I am LOVING my job as the new librarian! When people ask me how things are going and if I like my job, I just tell them its like working at Disneyland! (But without the cotton candy and costumed characters...most days anyway!) The 2nd week of school was by far the craziest one so far. I had orientation almost every day that week-all of 6th grade ELA and 7th grade ELA came to visit and check out books. I'm down to one circulation computer at this time because my other one has a work order put in on it (the virus that knocked it out last Spring is apparently still wreaking havoc.) I have some great student aides though, and they have been awesome at helping with checkouts and such. I connected the keypad and scanner to my laptop so that I could have a secondary circ computer up and running and during the times where there were 30+ children in line, my aides were able to jump in and scan out books to students. We had a pep rally schedule last Friday which made orientation even more exciting since we had less time for students to find a book and get checked out. At one point I had 5 7th grade classes in the library at a time so it was a 'leetle beet' crazy! The nice thing is that the hours fly by on days like that--it seems like 4 hours just faded away and I hadn't even noticed!

This past week was a bit calmer, but because we were out Monday for Labor Day, we had to pack the same amount of activity into a shorter week. I've been making a 9/11 Memorial Photostory to put on a digital photo frame in the library along with my display. I don't think I got any pictures of the Memorial display before books were taken from it (I love that kids are checking those books out) but I found a variety of books on 9/11 for it. I ran into some trouble when I tried to save the Photostory so I had to have a friend of mine do the final touches but eventually I was able to put everything together and get it to work.

I've only ever been on the "purchasing" end of a book fair, so I never really knew what all was involved in setting one up. Scholastic delivered my Book Fair materials on Wednesday and I spent almost all day on Thursday arranging and setting up for it (a much bigger undertaking than I had expected.) Because we lost our half-time aide position I have had to call upon the staff to help me with the fair this year. I'm anxious about making sure I have enough 'eyes' to watch and help keep things sane while students browse. I will need to man the register most times so I have been very lucky that so many people have offered their own time to come up and help me. I actually had a nightmare the other night that I had left the library for a few minutes to run to the bathroom, only to find that a bunch of stuff had been stolen while I was gone. I was nearly in tears when I woke up and felt really nervous about it--I'm sure its mostly just 'newbie' fears but I want to make sure that everything goes well. I'll post some pics of the setup in a separate post. Right now I think it looks really great!! With the help of some of my friends we've developed a plan for students coming to the library for the Book Fair in regards to logistics--which door to enter, where they will put their backpacks, where the checkout line should curve, etc. I hope it runs as smoothly as I hope--I guess my next report will update everyone on how it is going!

I am TRULY loving my job! I went to a new librarian meeting this past week and just sitting there in the presence of other librarians made me realize that I've made the right choice in becoming a school librarian. So much of what I do during the day is to help and benefit others and it is very fulfilling. I am learning so much each day and my grad school classes are more applicable now that I'm doing what I'm learning about. As I delve into this unknown realm of Book Fairs, please pray for me!

PS. Here is a little comic created by one of my professors. I found it amusing and was pleased that it fits with our "Hero" theme this year:

By jmoreillon | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Week One...Done!

Well, I have officially survived my first week as a new librarian. I had a great week, and I can't wait to go back for more!

Everyday was different but seemed to get easier as the week progressed. I have 5 wonderful student aides who have been great at doing tasks that I needed to delegate (such as cutting out and delivering laminated items, making office runs to get stuff from my box, sorting out flyers for the book fair, etc.) I've spent much of this week cataloging new (or donated) books which is a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be--there are quite a lot of steps! I got 48 done this week though so I'm hoping to have them shelved by the end of next week.

I got to experience "picture day" procedures for the first time. It was a crazy busy day, and I got next to nothing done that day because I ended up facilitating most of the classes through. The photographers were there when I got there and were packing up when I left at the end of the day--it was a looooonnnnnnggggg day for all of us!

Starting Tuesday I will start having classes come up for library orientation. I haven't quite finished it yet, but I've been working on a video that introduces most of the information in a more fun and interesting way than me just chatting about the process. I've had to think through how I'd like things to run now that it is my library, but I've also been in contact with the former librarian quite a bit to find out how she used to do things. We have a new policy in our district that allows students to bring their own technology to use at school. This is beneficial for me because I have been putting QR codes on the back of some of the books so that students can find book trailers about the stories they want to read. Its a slow process but its coming together a little at a time.

I assembled a display of the Texas Lonestar List books that we have and I hope to have pictures of that posted soon. I am wanting to sit down and plan a theme for each month so that I'll be more prepared and can put together a more concrete library marketing plan. It is important to me that the students WANT to come to the library so I'm trying to come up with fun and interesting ways to draw them in.

I'll admit I've been a little bit lonely at times this past week. The solitude is nice for a while but I'd be lying if I said I didn't look forward to my student aides coming in so I'll have someone to talk to. Our first week is Gimme 5 week which means the schedule is wonky and most everybody is confused about where they need to be each day. This week starts our first "official" week of school so hopefully the dust will start to settle a bit.

At any rate, the library is starting to feel more like my own space and less foreign. Some of my former students stopped in to see me (and some gave me a tongue-lashing for changing careers on them) but it seems that everyone was happy to see me whether it was as the librarian or not. :)

My next big adventure is the Scholastic Book Fair that starts the 12th of September. I could have chosen to change the date to a later time, but really I'm fine with just jumping in and going for it. I've never run a book fair myself before so I hope that things run smoothly and that its not too overwhelming. I visited with the director of library services for the district this past week and she told me she was surprised I was going ahead and doing it this early in the year and that some new librarians decided to change their dates. I just feel like I need to jump in with both feet and not fear it, so I will keep on keeping on!

I am LOVING my job! I have a smile on my face when I drive to work and I don't feel the stress that I was feeling when I was teaching. I start Grad School classes again on Monday so I'm sure the stress will come, but for now I just look forward to the next adventure.

The Sunday Before...

I really didn't have plans for being at work on the Sunday before the school year starts, but after the shenanigans with the laminator on Friday I was feeling a little un-prepared so I trekked up this afternoon.

My "to do" list has a plethora of things to do on it, most of which I need to prioritize. No this blog is not one of the things on the list but I really do want to document my journey into librarianship and so I've made it an important goal.

#1 thing on the list today?? Create a display in the glass case outside the library that has something to do with heroes (our theme this year is Be Your Own Hero) and as I am the librarian, I thought I'd try to work something in having to do with literary heroes. There are a few things I'm short on right now: 1) Time. 2) Resources. 3) Sleep. 4) Creativity. (Okay, maybe not the fourth one-I have LOTS of ideas just running low on time and resources right now and I'm tired so its making me feel less creative.)

Here's the case BEFORE the makeover:

I found a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that I liked that really worked. I blew it up and made a banner out of it on Publisher (you can't see the cute caped man that is on either end from this pic, but there is a graphic.)


I had polled my Facebook friends for people who they considered literary 'heroes' and used some of their suggestions. I found a stack of frames in the back room and used them to create the display. I not only show a picture of the book cover, but I found photos of the characters themselves.

Its simple, not flashy in any way, but its a start. Its definitely better than a blank, ugly display case, right?