The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Luau!

Friday May 29th: It's Oly Luau day! I talked with a fellow staff member about our Trac-It system. She works with it for our Read 180 program and they have their own set up. She wanted to do inventory and I ran through a few things she can try. An inventory summary report and a report of all textbooks. They need to separate the 'Lab A' and 'Lab B' boooks, so we figured out how to break up the reports by subject since they put 'Lab A' and 'Lab B' in the subject line. I took off the May Calender and put up the June Calendar with all the information for finals and senior stuff. We checked in books all day. Lots of carts of books and good help with putting them all away. Since we can only sell 19 of the On Common Ground to Bookbyte I called our Follett rep to see if they wanted any of the 73 others. They aren't looking for those at the moment, but they may come up in the future so he will keep that on file. I had a student return books for him and his brother and one of the Human Anatomy and Physiology books had been damaged, front and end boards water damaged, mold starting to grow. I was very sorry, but we have to bill him for that. I gave him the ISBN number and told him to try Bookbyte rather than pay our $95 a copy we charge since the books are 5 years old, they should be able to get a cheaper copy.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Cleaning Up

We ran teacher reports on textbooks out today and came across a set of people we or the office have no idea who they are. So I checked in their books and then withdrew the books and the people. All but one who refuses to delete for some reason. I've checked the manual even and can't figure out why. Mrs. H called Bookbyte and they said they'd buy out our professional library copies of On Common Ground. So I withdrew the 90 or so copies we had, then we had to mark through the barcode, then stamp them discard. Then Mrs. H called to say they were all ready and they said they would only take 5 copies at the most! Arghh! So we will call Follett tomorrow to see if they'll take the rest. Got in lots of books and we're just under 11,000 today! Huzzah! I worked repairs in between getting books in. Scooped up the books that need work and piled them on a separate cart. We have two carts in the back to get shelved in the morning. Started working on June's bulletin board with all the senior and finals info while a meeting was going on in the library. 12 days of school left!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Frau Willer German Trading Card!



I was so excited! One of the German kids came and said he had my card! So we traded and I now have my own personal German Trading Card! That is so cool! Checked in books all day and worked on repairs. I pulled back a cart from up at Mrs. J's desk and had a couple of aides start to put books away and grabbed one just to check, and they hadn't been checked in yet! They had just come and Mrs. J hadn't even had a chance to check them in before I whisked them off! So, they did get checked in and a lot of other books besides. The Manga Club met after school for their last 'cosplay' so I was surrounded by crazy kids watching manga movies, dressed up as their favorite characters, it was fun. Processed two teacher magazines, and two for us. E-mailed a teacher on some magazine prices. Happy to see books getting repaired and on the shelves!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Incentives

With so many books still out, Mrs. H decided to try Mrs. B's suggestion to try for some incentives. Mrs. B said she'd find the money to purchase items, so today we made up slips for kids to fill out whenever they bring a book in. So I made up a sheet of slips and my aide worked on cutting them apart after we made copies. I did a lot of repairs today, with about 4 stacks of books I worked on gluing, and checked in a lot of books. Mrs. H had to leave early to take a unit back to LMSS and when Mrs. J left, I went up to the front desk and worked on checking in the books there, did some shelving of odd items and worked on finishing up the incentive slips. I helped a student make two transparencies and put money in accounts. I also purchased a set of German trading cards and didn't get mine, drats!

Friday, May 22, 2009

11,353

That's the amount of books we have checked out to students and staff as of today! Checked in World Literature books as well as lots of others. We had a student come in today and turn in a bunch of books. Five of them she's had since last year and been billed for them. So, I told her we'd be sure to get them off her bill, but she still had two more library books out. Mrs. J printed out her bill and there were 13 books on it. Six had already been turned in, but hadn't been taken off the bill. So I hunted all the copies down, and we got every book off her bill but the two she still has. Checked out more Animal Farm. Worked on repairs. Torn pages, taping edges. Mr. N came by and wanted to know the price of a text for a student that wanted to check one out for the summer. We do let students check out texts for the summer after they've paid the price of the text. When they bring it back in the fall, they get their money refunded. Processed one teacher magazine, and four of ours, Sports Illustrated, Spin, BMX Plus and Smithsonian. Got back an e-mail on Thrasher magazine that they are no longer on the Ebsco list and would have to be ordered direct. Got a price from the Trappist Bookbindery on rebounding our lit books - $25 each or $19 if we sent in 100 or more! I certainly could send them over 100! And we are off for Memorial Day Weekend! Thank you Veterans!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

26 E-Mails

Opened up to 26 e-mails this morning - wow. So I replied to the ones that were applicable to me. Checked in lots of texts today. Talked to a teacher about how to return texts during finals. He wanted to have a list, check off the books to each kid, bring them down, but Mrs. H wants each kid to bring them down, so I told him that they needed to come in and do it that way. Got in some Out of the Dust and some of them were from North HS, so I checked them in, withdrew them from our database, packed them up and shipped them back. Helped finish the library book due slips for the Advisory teachers to hand out tomorrow. Checked through the American Experience texts that were turned in to see if they need repairs before they get put on the shelf for the summer. I taught one of the ladies from the Read 180 about repairing a paperback that broken out of its spine. Worked on other repairs of easy things I could just turn out and get on the shelf. I e-mailed a person who knows repairs for some of our badly spine damaged texts and he suggested we contact a bindery to see if we could get a good deal from one of them. So I contacted three local places that may be able to work a volume deal. I also found a great repair resource that has everything. It was like finding a chocolate Sundae with mint topping and chocolate curls!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

"I'm a Doctor, JIm, Not a Miracle Worker"

Two classes came in today with American Experience books and one had the cover totally ripped off and a student went to her locker and found it. (Shakes head while pulling on the rubber gloves) Pitiful. I did do some repairing today. Checked in a box of Witness books and let Ms. S know she still has one floating about. Got our aides working on moving books, but it was sad. Tried to print senior texts that are still out, but the report only contained two names, so we looked up name we knew was a senior, and there was the answer, graduating class of '09, not 2009. Put money in accounts, checked in books. Even checked out some texts today. Got back in The Lively Art of Writing from Mr. H and he didn't have 30, only 24, so he's going to check around to see if anyone else has any. After we printed up the senior textbook notices out I helped Mrs. H pull the three bills per page apart and then spent the rest of the day looking up on SASI the advisors for the seniors so they can be handed out during advisory on Friday. We have over $5,300 in textbooks out and billed just from seniors that are no longer at Sprague, from either graduating early, or have left. That's a lot of bookla. I pulled carts up to the front. Mrs. J hurt her arm and she kept walking back with her other arm trying to hold books (and doing a great job of it!) so I brought out a flat cart for her to just lay her books on instead of carrying them. We found when we started doing classes for seniors to deliver notices, that we had different classes. So I went to office and found we needed to put 'No Rotation' into the bottom filter. Then Mrs. H said for us to just break them into their Advisory Teachers. This is the first time I got to seriously look at a lot of teachers and their students. I am amazed by these incredible people that work so hard and make our community such a wonderful place to work. They deserve so much more that what they get.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Still Checking Out

Mr. H said that he'd bring in the Lively Art of Writing. Processed Time and Teen Vogue magazines and two teacher magazines. A student had a log-in question and I helped her with that. Repaired a Night novel, and checked in some Night's that Ms. M brought in so her two classes today would have enough copies to check out and we had plenty. Lot's of To Kill a Mockingbird's came back in patches today. A student needed to take care of an American Experience textbook from last year so she could get her cap and gown, so I directed her to Bookbyte and instead of paying the $53.47 we charged, she got a good copy for $1.95 and was very happy! She brought the book and her cap and gown to show me. Very cool, glad I could help her. A teacher came by and asked for a price on American Scientific magazine for a subscription for next year. So, I had one price at $39.95 and another at $34.95. I checked in some returned items for a teacher. I emailed the workbook inventory to Mrs. HJ for her meeting tomorrow. Checked some books that came in and set them in repair piles before they go on the shelf for the year. Did some corner gluing to set for tomorrow, got some books ready to go back on the shelf. Ms. C came by and asked for some Earth Science books, so I got them ready and took them down to her class since school was already over and she needs them for tomorrow.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Goodbye Mrs. T (waves)

Processed People and Hot Rod magazine for the library and one for a teacher. Another teacher asked if we could get some Animal Farm for her class so I contacted another school. Ms. S's class brought some back and I loaded up all the rest of the copies we had and that got us through Ms. M's and Mr. C's class, 2 class sets checked out. When the other school called back this afternoon, I told her that we didn't need them after all. Finished up the workbook data for Mrs. HJ and just need a bit of additional that I sent emails to on prices for next year. Added in four French 2 CD's that showed up. Checked in books all day from individual students. Had a teacher ask for a book, and I looked first in the regular library, but we supposedly have a class set in textbooks - there's nothing on the shelves, not even a spot for it, but there it is on the list! Mrs. H tracked it down and Mr. H has them, so we will work out tomorrow how to deal with that. Also worked on some Prentice Hall Literature Platinum that I had glued a few weeks ago and finished some of those up to put back on the shelf. We had a going away party for Mrs. T today. She's been here for 6 years, her kids go here, and the tech department decided to make some drastic changes to implement some of their goals, and one of them was to have Mrs. T work in the downtown department. She will be amazing there, but we will really miss her here. So the library was closed this afternoon while we said goodbye over goodies.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Workbooks

Questions about how many Animal Farms do we have? Is your print account connection working? Can I check in this book? May I check out this? Can I have 28 Buen Viaje's and 33 of the other Buen Viaje's? May I request this magazine, but not that one? Can you just cancel that order? Why has the price of this magazine gone down? I worked on the workbooks inventory today, moving boxes and copies, and checking how many we have for students to check out. I also started to check on the prices for this year and formatting a spreadsheet. Helped Mrs. H checking the money she counted and signing off on it. Lots of books in and out today.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Requests

Ms. S came in and had a list of book repair items, so we talked about them! Looked up a textbook number for a student, installed printers on computers. I emailed an OASL member who has done training in book repair what he would consider for spine replacement. One of our teachers emailed to ask about magazine orders for next year. I got together with Mrs. H and we discussed getting the list together, and then just having it available for if/when the budget would approve magazine subscriptions next year. We also discussed getting the workbook order ready as well. I pulled the magazine information from last year, formulated a list for this year, and transferred the new prices into the spreadsheet. Mrs. HJ came by and let us know that at this point, there would be no newspaper orders for next year as things currently stand, but to go ahead and work on the magazine order with the understanding that subscriptions may not be approved for next year. I made a form and we sent it out to all staff with a cautionary statement and that all purchases needed Instructional Leader approval. Then I started working on the workbook form and Mrs. HJ asked that I get a current inventory, prices for next year for their meeting next Wednesday, so I will work on that tomorrow. Checked out Animal Farm to a class. Called Ebsco for a magazine price (for some reason their catalogue had no price for that item) and left call back information. Put money into print accounts, checked in and out individual texts. Created a request form for the workbooks and sent that out as well.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Incredible Orchestra

A whole class set of Prentice Hall Literature Gold came in today, and I ended up taking the whole set and checking them out for repairs they are in such bad shape. I really want to bust out the spine, reset the spine/signatures and then put it all back together. Mrs. H and I tried to find the spine backs and came up with two possible options. She also found the name of an OASL member who does repair and might know a what it is and what it's called. Put money into print accounts, I had a student bring me in money and repaid for some printing I did the other day for her. We had the Sprague Orchestra come into the library and play today. They needed to play for an audience and Ms. I had emailed Mrs. H to see if she wanted to come listen, and Mrs. H said to just have the orchestra come down and play in the library. So we invited everyone to come and these kids are incredible. Their dedication, their spirit and love of music just rolled around the library. Incredible. I had a student listening at the window asking 'Isn't this breaking the library quiet thing?' I let him know we love to be the heart of the Sprague community and having the orchestra come and play was a part of that he nodded and said it was great. I also had two students on the computers just yakking away and had to tell them to quiet up and be respectful. They didn't, and I had to go over again and then they did settle down. They played for about 20 minutes and it was superb! Checked out The Old Man and the Sea, some more math texts. Repaired some The Stage and the School, and checked in various books. Processed Time and Discover magazine and 2 teacher magazines. An eclectic mix of disciplines today.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Just a Tuesday

Finished up putting the covers on books this morning, and later in the day covered the paperbacks that needed them (some were already done) and put them on the 'new' rack. May 29th is the due date for all library books, so I had one of the aides make a notice for the workroom bulletin board out in the hall. Tomorrow I'll have the aides do another one for the other bulletin board near the copy machine. Checked in and out books here and there all day. We had a teacher bring in a class today to check out A Separate Peace, but he'd brought in a class yesterday and we only had one class set. So we did check out the 8 copies we had left and the rest of the students have to read it out of their regular literature book. Checked the textbook status report and we have 11,582 books out currently. Checked in a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird. We were sent an electronic file of the Senior Scoop, so I read it to keep in mind some of the events and to inform any students that ask questions. I have The Old Man and The Sea ready for students to check out (many have already come in). I sent three students back to class because they were on games, and I shut the games down, then they went on them again. Books of note: 1491, City of Ashes, Jellicoe Road, Otherwise, beautiful boy and Devil in the Details.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Whirlwind

Came in this morning to 32 emails! Responded as appropriate. A lot of them from Friday when we had no access to the computers. Checked out 2 class sets of Algebra 2 Volume 2 and checked in some of the Volume 1 that the students were done with. I packed and shipped a Street Law book and four of the old defective Economics books were sent back to Curriculum. I also found a Night book that belongs to Parrish, so I sent it back to them. I also looked at the books we have out from other schools and will talk to Mrs. H about how she wants them handled. I found several and have them on my shelf to be shipped back. Processed Dirt Rag and People magazine. Reset student Log-Ins, got Algebra 2 Volume 2 books ready for tomorrow morning. I walked by a table of students and they invited me to sit and join them, so I sat with them for a few minutes while we looked through Teen Vogue and People. It was fun to sit with them all. I cleaned out some of the paperback math books I had on the shelf behind me to repair. Then I put new covers on the new books that came in on Friday. Yummy new books! Mrs. H sent out a notice that all library books are due on May 29th, and all senior textbooks are due so we can get them in, checked off and the bills run. You can graduate, but you can't get your grades until the bills are paid!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Senioritis

The library was closed all day for AP testing, so we stayed in the back. I worked on repairing Foundations of Algebra Year 2 Volume 1 books again, got aides to help repair our Chemcom books, finish cleaning up the shelves and to begin pulling out our Life magazine collection and dusting them off with their shelves. At the end of the day we got in five boxes! Two were textbooks being returned from other schools but three were some new books! Yeah! So I got those unpacked and started cutting out the covers from the laminator roll and prepping them. The fun part of the day was going to the school Recognition Assembly. Usually we have students invading the library so I'm there to help patrol them, but since the library was closed, I got to go. Students volunteered to get a pie in the face from teachers, we got to see our Oly pageant contestants do their opening dance, various recognitions for music, speech, and math students and a hilarious look at senioritis from two 'blues brothers' types trying to find the source of the dreaded senioritis! The only cure seems to be graduation! They even came into the library for 'research'.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Morning Test

This morning we are in testing mode again, so I work back in the workroom. Mr. G needed 35 First Aid books, so I handwrote everything down and had our aide take them down to him. I entered them in the computer later in the day when the test kids were done. Mr. W came with some papers he needed laminated, so Mrs. H turned on the laminator and I did the lamination and had an aid take them to him. I worked on getting our aides to straighten up the textbook stacks, getting them in numerical order and getting them straight so there won't be damage to spines and such. I worked on taping Foundations of Algebra Year 2 Volume 1 and straightening out corners so they can press flat for the summer. I found we had some of those that belong to North HS, so I withdrew them from our database and sent them back to their home. When we got back into the library I cleared out 17 emails, processed two teacher magazines and Sports Illustrated, Bicycling and PC World for in the library. We had a class come in to get 'American' novels (they had to be written by an American) and I helped a few kids get some titles, a student took my recommendation on The Andromeda Strain from Michael Crichton. I checked in and out various books. I had a grandma call about a bill she received for her granddaughter on a text book. I can't pull up the billing menu, but I looked and saw our book was in. I got her number and went to check with the bookkeeper, and she found the student ID number for the ex-student and we found the book had come from another school. I got the phone number then called back the grandma and let her know to call the other school. Tomorrow we will be out of the library all day.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Back to Normal

No testing today, so the library was back to normal. I cleared out the emails from yesterday and this morning and scheduled book pick ups for the Math department. Checked out assorted titles, helped a student get her power point on a flash drive, checked in books for a student going into the Bridges program - she still has one book out from the library and one from textbooks. Another student is moving to Stayton and she has all her books in and is cleared. Talked with Mrs. H about getting announcements put in for seniors to turn in their texts as soon as they are done with them, also on the last day we will check out books, May 15th. Hopefully all library books will be in by the 29th. Right now the bookkeeper says we have about 3 pages of billing but when we get ready for graduation the seniors will be billed for their texts still out and will not get their grades, and won't be able to pick up their cap and gown until the practice if they have books out, so it's very important for us to get them back accurately. Worked on repairing Prentice Hall Literature Platinum books and Foundations of Algebra Year 2 Volume 1. Put away all the book making stuff from the classes we did. Gave a number for a job shadow to a student that wants to see what a writer/editor does all day. Mrs. P thanked me for helping with that other student the other day, nice of her to thank me personally!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Bookies - the Sequel





The library was open this morning so I checked emails and processed one teacher magazine and Shojo Beat, Time and Skipping Stones for the library. Scheduled text pick-ups around the AP testing schedule, checked out a class set of Foundations of Algebra Year 2 Vol. 2. Then we had our monthly classified meeting. There will be changes with the budget, but no one is saying yet what those changes may be. I worked on repairs until we headed back to Mrs. P's class to put books together and it was a whole lot of fun. The kids made some awesome books! Mrs. H and I came back to the library and did some cleaning up and a bit of repairing then we went home with the AP students still working away at their tests. Tomorrow will be a regular day for us.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Bookies




There was AP testing in the library this morning so I started with lots of repairing. I grabbed a bunch of Prentice Hall Platinum books and started gluing. At 12:30 I helped Mrs. H down in Mrs. P's class make their books for their stories. I helped out getting supplies out, helping the students with the instructions. I helped one student that Mrs. P told Mrs. H she wanted to do something special for me since that student hadn't done much for the whole semester and was so happy he actually worked on his book. We got back in the library and had to run an update for the Insignia program as well as answer a ton of emails. Some of the classes that need to pick up texts will have to wait until next week. I also have a student that needed a job shadow and I got him a writer/editor who is a former teacher for Salem/Keizer School District. I'm so glad that I could get that contact for him. We got some action with checking in and out to individual students, had to make a new account for another school and check them out books. Finished the calendar, though I'm not completely happy with it. We had a staff meeting after school, so I worked in the back and organized the Chemcom books and took one to work on some repairs - they are pretty beat up, the edges and corners are in bad shape, so we may also work on those.

Friday, May 1, 2009

May Day!


I guess they did the earthquake drill this morning and I missed it - oh well! I helped the Juniors today work on their CIS Plan and got them looking at schools, what they offer and the scholarships that may be available to them. It was a good session. Worked on the calendar today. Checked out another class set of Ricochet River, and a class set of Foundations of Algebra Year 2 Vol. 2. Checked in and out various books, put money into print accounts. The techs have found a way to block the computer shut down command, so we can be a bit more lax on watching the Vision. Processed National Geographic Traveler, Sports Illustrated regular plus a special golf issue, and a couple of teacher issues. Collected the money from print accounts and locked it up for the weekend. We had to be out of Insignia by 3:15 for an update, and we were!