The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Vision Ethics

Processed Transworld Skateboarding and Shape magazines. Checked out Ricochet River to two of Mr. V's classes. Mrs. H and I talked about ethics with the Vision program. Do we tell a teacher on a boy who IM's a friend saying he cheated on a test? What about some of the other things we see on the screens? I can go tell a student that email and chat are not allowed, and the screen does say that any computer can be monitored at any time. I put lots of money into print accounts, covered the rest of the paperbacks, updated the World of Fashion Merchandising textbooks, showed Mrs. B how Vision works on the teacher computer. I also helped Mrs. P's students print out their books this afternoon. Checked in a lot of books today and quite a few out. Oh my, it's the end of the month, time to work on the May calendar, so I took down April's calendar and began to put up May's.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Gotcha!

I brought back the rest of The Hobbit books and the Brave New Worlds that were turned in. Worked on finishing up repairs on The American Experience that were on the 'glue drying' pile. I monitored the labs and found two students trying to command prompt to shut down other computers. I print screened the one who was trying out what the other one was telling the first student to do. I got Mr. A and Mr. R and they took the students to the tech room and talked to them, disabling the one account for the rest of the day. I got the cart ready to hand out Ricochet River for tomorrow. Two of our students had their home burn down and working with counseling staff we got the O.K. to go ahead and check them out a second set of books. I cleaned up the back workroom of all the covers that were made with the shaving cream. The smell back there was getting very noticable and I wasn't sure if it was from those papers in a small space or not, so I moved them all out and put them under a box in the main library to press flat. The students making the books needed to print stories today, so I helped feed in the special paper with the right sides as they printed one page at a time. Tedious, but the ones we did turned out great! I also covered a few of the new paperbacks we got in a couple of days ago. Took money for print accounts, checked in and out books to individuals, had my aide work in the back putting away and organizing the books by descending numbers on the shelves to help get ready for inventory at the end of the year.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Make Mine a Hobbit

Mr. H asked for a class set of The Hobbit for early tomorrow, so I got all those ready and pushed them up to Mrs. J's desk. A student brought in a note from a teacher that they needed to drop off their Foundations of Algebra Year 2 Vol. 1 and pick up the Vol. 2 for that period and the next period. A student finished the First Aid covers and said she was good, I had to give her a bit of instruction and I redid a few pieces of them, so they are now all done. A student came in asking for a biography and couldn't find it, Mrs. H looked and couldn't find the five copies we supposedly had, so I looked around and finally found them right where they should have been! I did find a bunch of items misshelved as I looked for them! Had two classes come in for Catcher in the Rye that surprised me. They also turned in Snow Falling on Cedars. Processed two teacher magazines and Time, Mad, PC Gamer and Smithsonian for the library. We had students testing in the lab and I chased away other students. Mrs. H said she thought we could use the other computers in my area. Oh well! I went back to repairing Prentice Hall Literature The American Experience.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Marbleous 2!


Checked in some Prentice Hall Literature Gold for Mr. M today. Checked books to see who their real owner is, they often get mixed up! We had a real issue with the kids and their controling computers recently, and today we were required to have our Vision on all day and really keep an eye on the users. Mrs. H brought me a manual on Vision and I worked on that. I had one of my aides go on the computer and we messed around with the commands. I wanted to make sure that I could look and capture a screen without them noticing, but still get the screen with their name for identification and I think we got it worked out. I spent a lot of time monitoring the students, caught several doing things they shouldn't (IMing someone else saying they were bored for one!) Checked out lots of Catcher in the Rye and handed out the Created Equal bookmarks. 8th period we had Mrs. P's class come in to do more book covers and they did a great job!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

2 hours, 52.5 minutes

Friday - April 24th: Since today was an inservice/grading day I only work half a shift. I worked on finishing up the First Aid covers the students didn't do quite right and got them all done. Then I started to cover the last few books that haven't been covered yet, they are so much easier to do the first time! Since the library was being used for a presentation, I just worked in the back workroom. I also got in magazines, but just recorded the teacher copies and put them in their mailboxes. I also talked with our bookkeeper about a book that had been brought back while I was up by the office, a student had brought in a book that belonged to someone else, so I must see if she has a 2 Textbooks out slip on her.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Marbleous!


Worked on First Aid covers again today. Then Mrs. P's class came in to do their covers for the books they will put together for the stories they are writing. I had the tables set up and Mrs. H brought out all our supplies. We put the shaving cream and bubbles in the back workroom, and had the string drop and the chalk set up out in the library. It was fun to see the kids so excited about making their covers for their story books and now the library has covers all over getting set and dried for the next step in book making. They turned out marbleous! Checked out a lot of Catcher in the Rye today and checked in various books and ended the day with working on the First Aid covers. We also helped out Mrs. H-J locate two extra surge strips for presentations this afternoon.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Shaving Cream on Earth Day

I decided to walk to and from work today to celebrate Earth Day (8 miles round trip!) I worked today on the First Aid books that didn't get finished up yesterday. Then we discovered that some of them hadn't been properly covered, so I had to peel off covers, reseam the spines, bone out the bubbles and I worked on that most of the day. Got to play with shaving cream as an art project for our book making session that we will have tomorrow. Mrs. H had a recipe for dipping construction paper in shaving cream mixed with food coloring and it turned out pretty nicely. We tested a couple of different batches, and how it would clean up in the back. So, we are all set for tomorrow. Checked out Catcher in the Rye, taught a student how to use our library search computers. He was looking for a fiction book on World War 2. I also caught a student on myspace trying to download computer control files. Not good. Mrs. T went over and talked to her about it. It was also Professional Office Staff Appreciation and we were treated to a wonderful Oly Catering lunch, I got an Italian Ice (raspberry) from the Oly Lounge, and a limerick with a pansy and a candle. It was nice to be treated!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

First Aid

I came in early today since Mrs. J had a dental appointment for a cracked tooth - ouch! So, I opened up the library, lights on, computers on, door opened and got to work on finishing up the new hardbacks and got them all covered today. We also got in our requested Out of the Dust copies from North, so I entered them in the system and checked them out to Ms. C and had one of our aides take them over to her. Two of Mrs. A's classes came in and turned in lots of Prentice Hall Literature Platinum and some Writers Inc. books. Then one class chose to check out Treasure Island and the other Homeless Bird for their next reading book. I checked in assorted books from the book drop. Helped Ms. S check over suitable books for their Read 180 class. Got an email from Mrs. S asking if we could bring down 15 Western Garden to her by 11:30. Luckily I checked my email at 11:20, got them, checked them out and had an aide take them to her. Began to process the new First Aid books, set them up and printed off new barcodes, and began stamping, numbering and covering them. I also got in a class set of First Aid and notified the teacher that she still has three checked out to her. Mr. G had two classes today that needed to print things for a project and we put money into their accounts if they needed it, so I did a lot of that today as well. Books of note: All We Know of Heaven - two girls are in an accident and one lives and the other dies - the real heartache comes when they realize they've mixed up the names of who lived, and who died. Ink Exchange - a girl picks a new tattoo with eyes and wings and delves into the faerie world. Big Fat Manifesto - don't feel sorry for fat girl, she's fine and doing well. How to Ditch Your Fairy - One girl has a shopping fairy, but Charlie has a parking fairy and smells slightly of gasoline - why her?

Monday, April 20, 2009

More books!

Got finished with covering all the paperbacks today and got them on the new book rack up front. Mrs. H went and picked up some new First Aid books that were ordered but never picked up until today! I will process those in as soon as we are done with the new books, since we got in two new boxes again today. I worked on the hardback covers. Checked out Algebra 2 units 7-13 to Mr. H's class. Checked in more books today, and a few went out. Had to locate the correct borrower record for a staff member. Books of notice: We now also have several Phillip K. Dick, Guy Gavriel Kay, the House of Night books and some Orson Scott Card.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Roses and Cupcakes



Friday - April 17th - Came in to see a big Happy Birthday banner stretched across my desk, and lovely cards for me to read. I worked with freshmen again on the CIS lab. This was their first time, so I led them through the personal information, Self-Knowledge, Research and Goals, and My Course Planner portions of the website. I got a call to the office when that was done and headed off to pick up a gorgeous bouquet of long stemmed roses from my hubby. Then I worked the main desk for a bit, so was up there when my mom came in with cupcakes and to wish me Happy Birthday! She started to sing when she came in. We took the massive fancy mini-cake cupcakes into the back and after we library staff took ours, I set the rest out for our aides to each have a half of one. I checked in and out books all day, but mostly worked on covering the paperbacks. Got lots of 'Happy Birthday' from students and staff. Book notes: We now have R.A. Salvatore books. We had a student that had asked in our wish box for some, so now we should have plenty!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Paperbacks

Worked on covering the paperbacks most of the day, and got in two new boxes of books to add to that. Had a few hardcovers to do, so I popped them out. One of our new hardcovers is damaged, the hinge is torn, so Mrs. H called to see if we could get a replacement copy. We have lots of our new books on the rack and I like it! Processed Spin magazine, got a call to get ready some Ricochet River books, the edited version only please! - So I let Ms. Swan know that the author had come in last year and traded out the unedited version for all edited ones. She was happy about that. Mr. H brought his class by to turn in The Great Gatsby. Had to check a book out to a student in detention. Security brought in a textbook from a locker search and then found a missing book from the library in there as well - yeah! Had a call while Mrs. H was away from her desk on 'The Decades' a 26 DVD set he wanted to send for approval, and I told him to call back and ask for Mrs. H, but then she came by and talked with him and said yes, we'd like to do the preview for it. Checked in and out a lot of books. Helped two students learn about our search computers to locate some books. Helped a student find a book on the shelf. Some interesting new books: The Secret of Sarah Revere - Paul's daughter. Briar Rose - a tale of Sleeping Beauty during the Holocaust. The Faery Reels - new short stories by Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, yum! The Burn Journals - a memoir from a 14 year old boy who set himself on fire.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Done!

Today I finished covering the new hardback books so next will be the paperbacks. Since we had a group of leadership kids in today that were good at it, we let them get started on those. I got to help some students log in to the computers, checked out The Bean Trees to Mr. H's second period class. Stocked the cart with To Kill a Mockingbird for Ms. M's class and students trickled over all fourth period checking one out. Several also checked in their Prentice Hall Literature Gold books as well. Checked in Witness from Ms. C's class and got the rest of our Out of the Dust for her next read. We only had 24 and she needed 36, so I contacted the other teacher who is using those to see if she has twelve ready to come back for us, or I may borrow some from another school. Books of note I covered today: T4 - a deaf girl in 1939 Germany hides from T4, responsible for killing off disabled Germans. The author is deaf herself and wrote it in exquisite prose verse. Everything Is Fine - a teen thinks that if she keeps saying that, it might be. Margaret Chase Smith - A Woman for President - back in 1964 this woman announced her candidacy for President on a major ticket. She was quite a remarkable woman! The Boy Who Dared - based on the true story of a Hitler youth. Fearless - a boy works with Henry Winstanley on the Eddystone Light on a dangerous reef on the English Cornwall coast.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Econ, Fashion and Science in a Bean Tree

When we sent back our defective Economics books last year, we were short 13 books in the final accounting that they sent to us this morning, so Mrs. H came and asked me where we are with those. Last year one of the other textbook librarians gave me a good way to keep track of old texts by editing their name with a 'wd' for withdrawn at the front. So, with the defective books, I did that and was able to print up a report for the missing books. About ten of them were billed to students, we did get four returned today and traded them in for the new printing. So, we are actually in good shape with our accounting. The only problem we have is that nine of those students have graduated or withdrawn, and chances are, we will never see those books or get reimbursed for them (students can graduate with books out, but will not receive their final report card). That's about $660 worth of books. Ms. C gave me an update on the World of Fashion Merchandising texts. She had checked them all out to her at the beginning of the term and kept a checkout sheet in her room, so every once in awhile she'll go over who has what and I check out the books to their current student. Lots of students put money into their print accounts today. Had a new student we loaded up with texts. I helped write up a recommendation for a student for governing board (I think it was that one!). Processed magazines, two to Mr. O' and Time and People for the library. Ms. K came back with the 8th edition of Introductory to Physical Science and said that it would work for her classes next fall, so I contacted the school and let them know that yes, we would like to borrow 40 for fall term - so I will need to contact her next fall to remind her. I then sent back the one copy they had loaned us. A student told me she loved my calendars:) I finished the old books, covering them and putting on new labels and got the aides to start shelving them and went back to covering the new books. Got done with another set of laminated covers getting them on the books and started the last set of covers. Ms. S finally came with her class and picked up Night. Mr. H came and asked for The Bean Trees for tomorrow, two class sets worth. Since he's coming in first period, I took a set up to the main desk so they can pick them up from there as I won't be in yet and let Mrs. J know he'd be in for them. It was National Library Workers Day today and to celebrate Mrs. H bought us lunch from Luv-Luv Teriyaki. She is so good to us - I love working for her!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Our New Principal

Processed Popular Photography, Sports Illlustrated and Discover magazines, then headed over to the other side of the library. A staff member wanted to check out a book and I saw she had a pile of magazines checked out, and she said that she hadn't ever checked out a magazine. There was a pile on my desk, so I went over and got them, and sure enough, they were the magazines. I think an aide thought he was checking them in. One of our aides was in detention, so our other aide wanted to get him out. Mrs. H told him no. He got another student to go by the detention room and request the boy to come because we needed him in the library! What was he thinking? He got a good talking to by Mrs. H and a referral. I helped cover the cart of books that we had decided to keep and laminate the covers to perk them up a bit. I finally got down to one cart and pulled it back to my desk. Did that all day and only have less than a cart shelf to go from four shelves! We got to meet our new principal today and before he came I ran around cleaning up, pushed in chairs, picked up trash, straightened magazines, put more new books on the rack so it would look nice and full. I was glad we had gotten the old books cleaned up and the remnants back by my desk, his first look at Sprague was in the library and I think it looked great!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Library is Buzzing

Had an assembly day today and the kids that choose to may stay in the library. So with 160 students we were packed and buzzing! Lots of talking, card playing and even some students working on homework with the extra time. Checked out two class sets of To Kill a Mockingbird and one set of Algebra 2 Units 7-13. Had quite a few individual students checking in books today and a few that checked out. Got the new books on the rack, Mrs. H made a new sign for the rack and put it nearer the front where the kids can see them easily. An aide putting books away had the shelf supports give way! They are old plastic and I brought him over some of the newer metal supports to replace them with. The Buzz on the new books today: Impossible - the Scarborough women have a curse laid on them to finish three impossible tasks or to go mad when their first child is born, I can hear the song now! Graceling - a people born with 'grace' skills, and Katsa's is gifted with the 'grace' of killing; Confessions of a Serial Kisser - nuff said! War Is... soldiers, survivors and storytellers talk about war; I'll Pass for Your Comrade - women soldiers in the Civil War; Dewey - a kitten dumped into the book return bin becomes a wonderful library cat - shelve this kitty at 636.809.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Covering Up

Got an email this morning from Ms. S and gathered together four class sets of To Kill a Mockingbird and two sets of Night for her classes today and tomorrow. Three of her classes came in today, and I circulated from the back of the group. We have 412 copies and if we use 1-300 all the time, then 301-412 are nearly new. So, I've given the front copies a rest for this go round. A student came to me looking for a book on Jack Dempsey and so I showed him where to go on the Sprague site, and how to use our search engine to look stuff up. I only made one mistake! I forgot to have him pick just the Sprague library instead of all of them! I unpacked another two boxes of books today and after I worked on repairing four The American Experience, decided to put on my librarian hat and work on the new books since we have gotten so many in. We have three rolls of covers laminated and I started by getting one roll and cutting out all the covers. Then I helped Mrs. H for a bit relabeling our old books. They are looking very nice! Then I went back to my desk after lunch and covered all the books I had cut out the covers for, and cut out another roll of covers to work on tomorrow. Another email from a teacher that she'd like to bring classes by tomorrow to check out Algebra 2 Units 7-13 tomorrow and Monday, so I pulled those and let Mrs. J know that they'd be in early on Monday since I don't get in until 9. Books that caught my eye: Prince of Stories - all about Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite authors; Owning It - ten stories about teens with disabilities; No Choirboy - about teens that have been sentenced to death row and their stories in there; Looks - how an overweight teen makes an alliance with an underweight teen; Boost - how far will a cheerleader and a girl basketball player go to stay on their teams; A Boy Named Beckoning - about Dr. Carlos Montezuma who was a Yavapai Indian kidnapped in 1866 and sold to a western photographer. He ended up going to college at 14, and after getting his doctor's license, going back to help out his people. Amazing! The Letter Writer - a girl lives with her stepbrother and is finally given a job writing letters for his mother - loved the back cover blurb: "Warning: This is a historical novel. Read at your own risk. The writer feels it necessary to alert you to the fact that you might enjoy it." I was in heaven getting to handle all these new books and excited that tomorrow they'll go out to our school for the students to begin checking out!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Old Barcodes for New

All the old books had been withdrawn and packed up when I got in! So, Mrs. H brought in the cart of old books and we put them through the Insignia program to rebarcode them. We got them all done, and then put the cart out for the aides to pull off the old covers to laminate. I worked repairing The American Experience again. I also printed up the list of books for two students that had their home burn down. We will issue them both a second set and work out how they or insurance will pay for the books! One of our staff wants to learn some French and checked out our French 1 teacher's set. I let Ms. O know that we have more Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty. Checked in and out students. Had some responses back from the other schools on Introductory to Physical Science - we could possibly get an 8th edition (ours is the 7th) so I requested one to be sent over for Ms. K to peruse. Helped Mrs. S with getting together some materials for a tutored student. Processed Shojo Beat, Bicycling and Transworld Skateboarding magazines. Had a parent bring in a load of books to check in for his girls. Got them checked in and put a notice for them to get taken off their billing.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Sorting Giggles

Today was our staff meeting for an hour and we discussed the upcoming accredidation audit along with some other issues. We had two families that their homes burned down and when I got back to my desk, I notified Ms. S that I had a loveseat they could have if needed. I checked out a class set of Out of the Dust and checked in and out students all day. I did some repair, but Mrs. H decided that we needed to sort through the books that her sub pulled from our 'never checked out' list. We had two carts to sort through and decide if we were going to keep certain books, or surplus them out. It was fun in a way to look through these old books and make the decision to keep or not. I must admit I got hysterical giggles over a chapter in a book, "Hold that Reservation St. Peter, I'm not Ready Yet!" all about the 'new' science of transplants. Ms. K asked if we could get in some additional Introductory to Physical Science books so I've sent out a request. We went through two carts worth and weeded out half of them. We also got in five boxes of new books from LMSS and got those set onto a cart. Old books, new books, another great day in our library!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Too Nice to Work!

I was soooo tempted to not come in today because the weather was incredible! Yesterday hitting up to 70 degrees, today going up to 74 - Absolutely the best weather in the world to be out in! But, I still go into work and it's a great day in the library! I come in to a question on an old PO about our First Aid/CPR books, so I look into them and find that no, we never got in the 70 requested, the last time we got any new ones in were in September of 2007, just 20. Ms. S asks about our Night books and can we get anymore, and I remember that we do have library copies to supplement the textbook copies and that should be enough for her and Ms. M's classes. I work on the never ending The American Experience books that sat all weekend to dry their glue and I work on getting them finished up and put back on the shelf. Our aides are getting tested for their shelving and when my aide is done, I check out his twelve shelves and he only has two books that are out of order. Process Imagine, People, Time and another magazine I don't remember right now! Check in and out various texts for students. When the staff meeting starts I finish closing down the computer lab, shut my window, pick up the print money and go into the back and start working on more TAE. Then I'm out to enjoy the sun and warm weather for the rest of the day!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Freshmen CIS

I had freshmen in the computer lab this morning and they worked on their personal information, my plan, and course planner. They had worked with Mrs. A on skills and jobs that go along with those skills and she had given me some posters of that exercise so I hung them up along the back book shelf for the kids to reference while they worked on the 'my plan' career assessment portion, and some of them did go and look. Checked out Geometry Connections Volume 2 and checked in Geometry Connections Volume 1. Lots of kids checking in and out individual texts all day. Checked in some teacher materials for Ms. B, processed Shape magazine. Talked with Mrs. H about the book cart and going through the short stories that were pulled and looking them over to see which ones we will keep and which we will send to surplus - she particularly wants my sci-fi/fantasy advice! Set up lots of The American Experience for glue drying over the weekend and also got a lot of books put back on the shelf, spent most of the day doing that.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

References

Came in early for BJ and set up the library for the day. Turned on computers, lights on, unlocked doors, wrote up the white board for the computer lab schedule for the day. Watched over the Manga Club meeting. Checked out class set of Brave New World. Checked out a class set of Witness to Mrs. S and had our aide take them down to her. Checked in Geometry Connections Volume 1 and then checked out to them Geometry Connections Volume 2. Got more ready for tomorrow. Fixed an Anne Rice book that had a label all mucky and peeling off. I had a student ask for help on citing references for her report on The Great Gatsby. She didn't understand how to cite the notes, so I looked at what her teacher wanted and told her how I thought it should go. I had another student in from Study Hall that kept getting off track and I had to shut him out of games twice. I emailed his teacher and said that the next time he's sent down, if he would call and let me know, I could have the student sit by me and keep him more on track. Processed Asimov's magazine. Most of the day I again worked on The American Experience books. Next year I think we'll hand out from the end first, and cycle these ones out.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Freak Heads South


Got together Freak the Mighty to send off to South High School today - got them checked out, boxed up and labeled and off in the mail. While I was there I grabbed the mail from the mail room, processed Dirt Rag magazine. Had several emails for books so I got ready Witness for Mrs. S, Brave New World for Mr. H, and Geometry Connections Volume 2 for Mr. P. I finished up the April calendar with help from Mrs. K who let me borrow some of the implements from her chemistry class that they weren't using. Got some extra To Kill a Mockingbird for Mr. C and did some cleaning on my desk. The rest of the day I spent repairing more of The American Experience books. Most of these were in better shape than some of the older texts - babies at just 10 years old. All still needed some hinge gluing, and edge/corner/spine taping.