It's Monday! What are you reading?

I'm going to try to blog more this year, as a journaling exercise if nothing else.  So I'm going to join into the librarian meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  I love to read what other people are reading, so here's my go at it.  I'm hoping it will inspire to read more books and fewer articles!

I already blogged about the books I read for storytime here (libraries and books theme).  I can't wait to read the books about books I've picked out for older students - Biblioburro and Ron's Big Mission and That Book Woman.  Two of my favorites.  (An aside:  Have you ever noticed how many books are out there about traveling librarians?  But it's always geography-specific.  I wish there was a category for traveling librarians, not only traveling librarians from Columbia or Appalachia!

Anyway, here are other books I'm currently reading:

 

 

Tomatoland is an interesting and sad book, too.  It will definitely make you go out and start a garden!  I'll want to discuss this with the Ag teacher when I'm done.

 

 

This book was given to me by a great friend who is a children's librarian in the Nashville Public Library system.  It even has a personalized inscription for me from the author!  It's very suspenseful and I am trying to rush through it to get to the end, without rushing through it and missing all the great details of life in Music City.  (We lived there for twelve years, moving back to the Midwest eight years ago.)

 

 

And the greatest, Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers.  I love all the press that Dav Pilkey has gotten lately.  One of my favorite things to do when I was substitute teaching was when I'd see a student - inevitably a boy - who had a Captain Underpants book in his hands.  I'd say, "What are you reading?" in a somewhat grumpy teacher voice - and then when they sheepishly admitted to having a Captain Underpants book, I'd exclaim, "Oh my gosh!  I love Captain Underpants!"  Sadly, you could tell for a lot of them, this was not the reaction they usually got.  One of my prized possessions is my Captain Underpants blow-up doll.

 

The next book I'm going to start is:

 

 

 



There are students at my elementary school who didn't like reading until we introduced graphic novels in the library last year.  It's so great to get to introduce them to some great books, and I love to tell them about the research that shows graphic novels can make you smarter.

Libraries and books storytime

Preschool storytime started again at MNW today.  What a great way to start the week!

We started with "The More We Get Together" by Cedarmont Kids.  I think I should try to find a new song, but it's so easy for the kids to learn it and if I forget my iPhone, it's easy enough for me to sing a capella. 

I introduced myself and explained that later in the year, they'll come down and visit the library.  I'm going to do storytime every Monday for the four-year-olds (a morning and an afternoon class) and the Friday three-year-olds. 

I first read Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk:

I ended up winging it halfway through - it's pretty long in parts for new preschoolers - but what a fun book!  I see there's others with this character; I'll have to check them out.  I wish I had brought little blank paper booklets like Sam the Mouse used to create his books.  I don't think I'm ready for crafts in storytime, though . . .

Next I read Baby Bear's Books by Jane Yolen:

Then we did a fingerplay from this RIF site, "Open Shut Them" (I reworked it a bit so it was about books). 

Then I read Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss.  I love this book - and it's fun to show the students the first word in the title, and then have them read the title themselves. 

Then we sang a song, also from the RIF site, "Ten Little Children" (reading a book).  I think I worried the preschool teacher that I was going to sing the original song that has this tune . . .

Then I showed the book, Librarians by Dee Ready and talked about what librarians do:

 

Then I read The Wonderful Book by Leonid Gore.  The kids did a great job remembering what it was that the rabbit, bear, mice, fox, and worm thought the book was (a house, a hat, a table, a bed, and a snack, respectively).  What good listeners!

 



Then we sang "The More We Get Together."  I did this rundown again for the TK class and will use it again during the week.  I also have Biblioburro by Jeanette Winters, A Book by Mordicai Gerstein, That Book Woman by Heather Henson, and Ron's Big Mission by Rose Blue and Corinne Naden to share with older students.

I'm looking into a program for preschoolers, 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, that I read about when I got caught up on my RSS this weekend.  If you're like me and have innumerable posts to read, just keep at it - don't delete!  You might miss something great like I would have, had I deleted them.  Of course, they are piling up again, and I found some new blogs to follow, too . . .

Finally ready for business!

Well, that is if you ignore that I still need to:

• inventory holiday books that are in the cupboard
• get new books from the summer on the shelf
• place the big fall order for books
• get bulletin board put up
• place ebook page on website
• write newsletter piece (by next week)
• do the 2011-2012 year-end report (as an infographic?)

Well, I intend to ignore all the things I haven't done yet.  Not forever, but for now, I won't let that dissuade me from writing this blog post, celebrating the fact that I finally (mostly) have the elementary library in the state I wanted it to be for the first day of school. 

In case you're new here, the elementary library received a generous donation from a former librarian who passed away.  I thought for a long time about what to do, what I would want done if I gave money to a library.  I wouldn't want it to go for books - I see what happens to books and the school should be buying them anyway. I wanted to do something substantial, something that would let the family say, "Look what we did."  Read here and here and here and here for other posts about the progress.
 
It's not entirely my fault., taking this long to get it in opening day condition.  The shelves didn't get put in until the day before school started (everyone was super busy this summer), and we (being my husband and adult daughter - how is that "we"?) still had to put a polyurethene stain on them (or more like five coats, with sanding in-between). 
 
I had to weed them still, and put any that I thought appropriate into our beginning reader section (Hop on Pop type of books).  I decided to create another section for the reader that has mastered those but aren't quite ready for juvenile fiction books.  So this is the Henry and Mudge type of book, but I don't yet know what I'll call this section, or if I need to buy yet another sticker to differentiate those from everything else.  Those books tend to be all the same size, but I suppose a special sticker is the way to go.  Perhaps I can just get gold stars from the teacher supply store?
 
Anyway, here are pictures!  I can see that I should improve my picture-taking habits.  Not skills so much - I mean, I'd like to do that, but to do that, I need to first improve my habits.  I don't have any pictures of Josh Anderson painting the sun or the well, of the shelves without any books, or me moving books and books and books.
 
Here's my first layout of the library. This time, I used a tape measure instead of a ruler:

 

 

After conferencing with me, one of Kandice Roethler's Virtual Reality students made this 3D model of the stage. I tweaked it a bit, but I really appreciated his work because I was able to really visualize the possiblities:

 

 

After struggling with graph paper and pencil, I made this layout of the stage on Microsoft Publisher:

 

 

 

This is my rendering of the bookshelves (again, in Publisher) after Brian Nelson, shop teacher and all-around handy guy, got done with them:

 

 

 Here's Brian starting the stage:

 

Here's Donna Ulrich, Library Associate and painting master, contorting herself to make sure all nooks and crannies get her special treatment:

 

 

Here's my husband, Robin, and daughter, Rebekah, sanding the shelves. Well, one of them is sanding, and one is making a face at me:

 

 

 Here's the picture book shelf. It looks as great as I imagined it would months ago when I first designed it:

 

 

I can't wait to see how quickly the books we feature will check out:

  

 

Like that one, and that one, and that one:

 

 

 

Oh and definitely that one. (And yes, I do need some photo skillz, too!):

 

 

Here's the view from the top:

 

 

 

And yet, here's my to do list, still unfinished after a full Saturday at work:

 

 

 

 Oh well.  I can now cross off #20, and the others can wait until Monday.

 



Flatter Iowa

No, not fatter Iowa.  This is not a post about the new nutrition guidelines at state schools!  (Which I think are fantastic, by the way.)  You know, The World is Flat and all that . . . 

I was named to Governor Brandstad's STEM Advisory Council for the North Central Region.  I applied on a whim, really.  I'd gotten an email from the IASL encouraging school librarians to apply, so I did.  I said that as a K-12 teacher librarian, I have the opportunity to work with all students and staff in a district.  I talked about the grant that I helped spearhead with which we are this year studying the Manson Impact Crater using GIS technology.  (Helped is the operative word.  I was in wayyyyy over my head!)  But most importantly, I said that I'm a mother of five children, from 8th grade to a senior in college, and I know the importance of challenging our children academically in school.

The part I didn't say was that I thought I had something to add because I'm not a scientist.  I barely based Advanced Biology in high school, I shouldn't have passed Astronomy in college.  (I dropped it because I was getting 50% on the tests and still passing with a C - the Bell Curve - and I said to myself, "That ain't right." Not an English major either!)  I took Astronomy again years later with one of my children who needed challenge.  The dean had to approve her taking it since she was in 8th grade, and she told me, "Now, you know, your daughter has to do her own work."  HA HA HA.  As if B. was the one she needed to worry about!!!  (Okay, okay.  I did my own work, but got some liberal tutoring from my 13 year old daughter.)

I have a degree in Elementary Education, and one of my endorsements is in TAG.  In my ed classes, I often heard this sentiment:  "I'll have the gifted kids help those who struggle in the subject."  At first, I tried to be nice, but eventually, all my classmates hated me for saying over and over again:  It's not their job to teach.  What are you doing to challenge the gifted kids???  

Which brings me back to STEM.  What are we doing to challenge our brightest kids in science, in technology, in engineering, in math - especially in our rural schools?  I don't think we're doing enough.  We do have to encourage all students in STEM, but I believe, most importantly, appropriate challenge for our best and brightest.  

So at our meeting today, we heard about some great opportunities that our regional council will be funding.  There was a bit of confusion (deadlines for applications is Friday - as in the day after tomorrow), but even so, this is a great opportunity for Iowa students.  One fellow council member questioned how are we going to help all students - I mean, this is great, she said, but we're still not helping very many students.  She's right.  But I do think it's a great start.

What are you doing to challenge our rural students in STEM? you may ask.  Well, I did help with our successful grant as I said before.  I am the site coordinator for two students taking AP Chemistry, a first for our school.  And at the elementary, I'm starting a Technology Club, with our first meeting on Friday.  I don't know yet what we'll do, but I know where to turn for some ideas!

Weeding Pains (or Not)

In my first Library Science class, I was told that the first year as a school librarian, I shouldn't do any weeding.  Instead, I should be patient, get a grip on the collection, the community, etc.  Now the last part sounds like a fine idea, but when you have titles like the following, how could I possibly not weed my first year?

And just in case you don't stick with me to the end of this long post - I weeded too many titles to count (not all were in the new LIS, so I can't just look at statistics).  But my efforts have paid off - with weeding and purchasing of new books, we're up a net 500 books at the elementary, and have increased the average age of the collection three years.  (With the number I got rid of, that means we've added a LOT.  We have more than 1,000 new books at the elementary, considering our label usage.)  At the high school, we're up a net 200 books, and up four years.  We still have a ways to go - the average age at the elementary is still too old (1993), but at the high school, we're at an acceptable 15 years old average (without adding the new books yet).

But please read on!  This is going to be fun.

This was actually a little hard to weed.  I mean, look at that super cute squirrel on the front, eating his little acorn!  But c'mon.  1973.  The pages are yellowed, we have a ton of animal books to replace it.  I don't know when it was last checked out what with changes in the LIS and no years on the stamped card, but I'm guessing a good ten years.  (I tell myself I could make some super cute art from my childhood using Modge Podge, but it'll probably just be added to my fabulous retro book collection.)

It's "Remember the Seventies Day" at the library, I guess.  I remember my mom reading this, but it definitely does not belong in a high school library!  (Did it in 1978?)

Here's one that's actually not bad, but just not good for my library.  Too text-heavy - for either the elementary OR the high school.  I'm going to give it to a fifth grader who is a Revolutionary War buff.

From 1972, Afro-Am Publishing Company's Great Negros Past and Present:

The thing is, I'm sure this book has a lot of good information.  But I'm also sure if I read closer, it would be chock-full of racist language.  For instance:

"Mary McLeod Bethune:  Cotton picker, educator, White House adviser."  Cotton picker?  I mean, I know that is true.  But the others in the book are listed by their ultimate role in society.  I've worked in the last ten years as a school librarian, a substitute teacher, a public library employee, a nursing home cook, a cleaning lady, etc.  Kids, don't put "detassler" or "[substandard] waitress at Happy Chef" on my tombstone, okay?

Oh, here's a fun one:  Walker, J.  The Rhyming Dictionary of the English Language in which the whole language is arranged according to its terminations.  1936:  E. P. Dutton and Co.

Do you like that official title?  Now, a rhyming dictionary might sound like a good idea for a poetry unit.  Perhaps it would, but only if it included words that people actually knew!  I did well on the vocabulary section of the GRE, but I've never heard of a firkin, let alone needed to rhyme it. (Oh of course!  It's 56 pounds of butter!  How could I forget?)

There's the book, Science experiments that people can eat, in very good cover condition as it's from 1972.  But the pages are all yellowed, which is wholly unappetizing considering the title.  Ha ha.

There's the standard one to throw away, the sequel where we don't have the original.  Add that to a quiet dated book (1992), yellowed pages, and the fact that it's a well-known author can't even save it.

There's the encyclopedias.  The set from 1988 wasn't hard.  But Childcraft!  I have a hard time getting rid of this.  When I was a girl, a friend of mine had a Childcraft set at her house, and boy was I envious.  And yet, I know I honestly can't keep this in the library (stained and all):

There's the fabulous cover images, like this one from 1984 that could have been my husband back then:

 Here's another that we picked up at last year's literacy night.  But the art teacher tells me his daughter would read it.  (I think I'll just give it to her.)

 Here's a great one.  Don't you want your kids carving pumpkins to look like Groucho Marx, with a cigar and everything?


Here's an inside page of the book.  This is supposed to be a space monster.  I'm just not feeling it.  To me, it looks like Dad says, "Hey kids!  Let's just glue some garbage on it and call it good!"  Martha Stewart would be appalled.

Here's the only title I got rid of from the book room (several copies of the same book for Guided Reading).  It's only from 2000, but this is definitely not today's internet:

My husband and I actually met in an online chat forum - in 1989.  I don't think the interwebs looked like this even then:

Do you read the Awful Library Books blog?  You should.  I'm going to paraphrase here, but they say, "For god's sake, people.  Go do a search in your LIS for books with the word "retarded" and get rid of them!"  This is the second book like this I've found.

And finally, for those who have stuck with me, here is the ultimate in fabulously awful library books:

Wondering what custom windows to choose for your take-me-back van?  This is just for you, my friend:

"A statue and some potted palms are used to decorate the living room area."  A statue?  Potted plants? 

Is that a decoration?  A radio?  A telephone?  A television?  Something to take you back to the future, from where you obviously traveled?

"Why is there a bed in the back of the van, Mommy?"  (Anyone remember the scene from The Facts of Life, with a young George Clooney stealing the school van or something?  I've always been suspicious of men with vans since then.)

I said this was fabulously awful, or is it awfully fabulous?

So I haven't decided what to do with that one.  But I do know everyone should have as much fun at work as I do!

Rethinking Dewey

This is actually what I wanted to talk about with that last post!

At the 2011 ALA conference in Minneapolis, I went to a session about ditching the Dewey Decimal Classification System, in favor of a bookstore model. There are a lot of articles in the literature (and blogosphere) about this, and, judging by the attendance, it was a popular session. With that said, though, I don't think I was the only one who walked away disappointed. The librarian in question was setting up a new school library, with all new books. These were done via the bookstore model by Mackin. What good did that do those of us with an average collection age of 1989?

"The card catalog is no longer the necessary first stop in a visit to the library" by dfulmer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/annarbor/4350627292/sizes/l/ Used under Creative Commons license.

In my practicum, I had put my toe into the bookstore model, by doing a "featured collections" section which was hugely popular with the students (593% increase in circulation for the military books!) and have done that here, too. Doing that makes it easy for young students to find the books they really want - dinosaurs! princesses! football! kittens! - and keep them from messing up the nonfiction stacks. It was only for a few categories, though, with a small percentage of the nonfiction titles.

We've done a lot of physical changes here at the elementary library this summer - see these posts for pictures - but I think the biggest change will be some things we've done to the collections. We had already physically separated higher level fiction from lower level, but that was just by eyeballing it when we put them on the shelves. This summer, we've set up three collections for that - Fiction (Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) is against the north wall, Juvenile Fiction (Junie B. Jones and the Stupid, Smelly Bus, Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets) is against the south wall, and a new section, "Early Reader" is near the south wall, parallel. This section includes very early books, whether they be picture books, nonfiction, or fiction. This is your Hop on Pop type of books. Last year, students would come in to find "good fit books" for Daily 5 literacy instruction, and for those very beginning readers, it was hard to find appropriate books. Going to picture books was hit and miss, when you have books that really could be used with junior or senior high students. And the itty-bitty nonfiction books, appropriate for this level, simply don't get checked out if shelved in nonfiction. So this will help, I'm sure. (We got stickers from Demco for the JF and ER collections. It's a beautiful thing.)

But back to nonfiction. One argument I see in favor of changing to a bookstore model is that it's easier for students to find books. Frankly, I find it very hard to find books in Barnes and Noble.  But then again, I know the DDCS, so navigating even the New York City Public Library wouldn't be too hard for me.
 
The reason I want to transition to something a little different is this: the inconsistency of spine labels. I don't know about you, but I hate doing spine labels. (I know, I know, I could get processing done, but half of my books come from Amazon.)  But let's say you have a book on grizzly bears - 599.784. But I don't like to put three digits to the right of the decimal, so I'll round that to 599.78. But perhaps a past librarian would do the whole number, or round to 599.7, or god forbid, 599. So then, if you - or your Junior Librarians - have faith in your spine labels, your books might be: grizzly bear, polar bear, grizzly bear, panda bear, gazelle, grizzly bear, hyena. Chaos, I tell you! Chaos!

What I'm doing this year, then, is using fiberboard dividers that stick out a bit from the books, with the category name and Dewey number included. So we'll have "Fairy Tales" and "Bears" and "World War II." We'll get more specific with the category when there are at least ten books on a topic. We'll still mostly adhere to the Dewey order, though we'll use our judgment - we'll put all of the Titanic books together (910, Ti-tan-tic history - just like in the Dewey Decimal Rap). NASCAR is going out of the 796s and into 388s, sorry (cars, not sports).  This if course will require me to make more spine labels . . .

The fact is, I rarely have anyone come in looking for a particular nonfiction book. Someone will want a book on the Vietnam War or a fairy tale that isn't too long or a print encyclopedia (ha ha, just kidding on that one). This will make it easier to find books on a topic, for my Junior Librarians to shelve books, and I think it will encourage browsing by students who thought they didn't like nonfiction.

Shedding

The elementary library is coming along very nicely.  Today the carpets are getting cleaned, so I'm staying in my office for awhile.  Oh, here's a picture of my office! 

I suppose it looks a little cave-like and a little messy.  The cords and such above the desk aren't my fault, though!  They are for the network and wireless and such.  I just decided that it was a waste of a good space to just put crap in there.  I have another office, but I don't like to work in there because then I can't talk to Donna!  This is closed off enough (so yes, it is cave-like) that I can get some work done, but open enough that I can bother talk to Donna all day.  I know she's glad!  ;)

The stage is all but done.  The only thing left is Brian will come and put in the shelves.  But the carpet layers came yesterday and it looks fabulous:

Doesn't it, though?  Student registration was on Monday and Tuesday, so we had a few students come in and inspect - and approve - of the space.  I do see hopping down is going to be a problem, though!  We were preparing for the carpets to be cleaned, so the tables are out and the library is very open, which did encourage such behavior.  We initially were going to have some seats built to the sides of the stage, but that got postponed.  We're not really sure we want them anymore - we'll see how this works.  You can't see it in that picture up there, but that red is a step up from the floor.  Here, look at this one:

We're going to have carpet squares made from those rolls of carpet, and some students and I were discussing pillows yesterday so we got out some of Donna's stuffed animals.  :)

Oh finally, for the name of this blog post.  I've done some shedding of my own - eight pounds since July 1.  I'm doing the Shangri-La Diet and am having a lot of success.  I hope to be down 15 pounds by the beginning of school, 30 by the end of 2012, and 50 by the end of the school year.  We'll see.  I would have been down 10 today but the kids and I went to eat at Chen Garden yesterday and the four miles I walked after wasn't quite enough!

So here I am, with two of my bestest buds, Brandie and Kristen.  We did UNI's 2 + 2 Elementary Education program and we were the Sioux City cohort.  (I've since graduated from the University of Missouri for my library degree - hence my shirt!)