The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Crowbarring

Had the last two finals today for periods 7 & 8. Checked in a lot of books today, but still not as many as I hoped we'd get. Pulled down the old calendar and put up the February one. Got books ready to be picked up on Tuesday (we are off Monday for grading day). Had to put more paper in the copier for a teacher. Got in a small box of books so I covered them. We have a very old sign up over the main library doors that says 'Library & Technology Center' and the 'c' in Technology has been missing the top loop for forever, so we crowbarred off the 'Technology Center' letters before Mrs. H had to leave today and she'll get the 'Library &' off on Monday. We're hoping to paint over it all, put on the new torch logo and new 'Library' lettering over the door. We'll have to do something now!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Finals 4,5,6

Today we got in two boxes of some paperbacks of Hunger Games, so I processed them in, stamped, made up barcodes and worked on covering them with contact paper. Mrs. M helped covering them. Took in quite a few books, made contact with the Evergreen Curling Club up in Portland who are willing to let me borrow a curling stone for my bulletin board next month! So, I will probably go up to Portland on Sunday to pick it up! What a find! I also helped Mrs. H do some measuring for the computer labs for their new set up if we get the approval to change then into a safer and ADA compliant place.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Finals 1,2,3

I went in early today to help getting books in. We did get in quite a few, but not as many as I hoped for. Mrs. H asked me to help her look through catalogues for new shelving systems if we get approval to revamp the computer labs, we will also move some of the books that are in those spaces out into the library proper and they will need shelving. I did some repairs, and had to bill a student on a brand new book that both covers had been completely bent in half.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

8 Period Day

Today was the last day before finals and they had the students go to all 8 classes. I made a sign for outside the textbook window for them to please turn in the books they are done with. Sent in a life ring (our tech icon for help) on a monitor in the computer lab. Turned out it just wasn't plugged in, but the plug in was not where we thought it was. Talked to Mrs. H and got her up to speed from yesterday. Processed in a People and New Yorker magazine. Put money in print accounts, monitored students in the computer lab. Checked in books and started to form ideas for the February calendar. I think we might go Olympian! (Get it? We're the Sprague Olympians and the Olympics are next month?:) Finals start tomorrow so I will go in early. Students are out by 1:10 pm so there's no reason for me to stay until 3:15 pm. I'd rather be in early to help check in books and Mrs. H wants me in early too.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Book Review

With our new book display, we have a bulletin board on the top level and I thought it would be great if we all did reviews on books we're reading from our library. Since I just finished Hood by Stephen Lawhead, I did a display for mine using some of the wallpaper in our closet and a "Mrs. Willer just finished:" sign with my review of Hood and then a 'Currently reading: Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett' since I got that from our library as well. I helped a student with his box project, checked in a passel of students turning in their books, monitored the computer lab. We didn't have anyone scheduled in all day except one class, so the labs were for students studying or finishing up homework or assignments since finals start Wednesday. The Ebsco rep called and said he knew that Mrs. H was gone for the day, but he'd still like to stop by and talk with us. So, when he came in, Mrs. M and I sat with him and we discussed the services Ebsco provides. I wrote up his main points and sent an e-mail to Mrs. H when we were all done and put his brochures on her desk. Processed in three teacher magazines and Time and Smithsonian for us. Did a few repairs, printed up the 8 period schedule for tomorrow to post on the side of the textbook window and one for me for reference when kids ask "Now when is this period over?"

Friday, January 22, 2010

Monitor Inventory

Found a barcode for BMX magazine on my keyboard this morning so I went over to check it out and three of the BMX Plus magazines, the October, November and December of 2009 issues had all had their spine tape pulled off, the barcodes ripped off or just the place where they were torn off. I took them all into the back and put them with the back stock of them. They won't go out again if the students are going to treat them that way. Got ready for Advisory and since Mrs. H had fixed my screen to display properly, I was able to put all the instruction up on the InFocus machine and then just walk up and down monitoring the kids and answering questions. It worked out perfect! Sent an answer to a teacher on when a certain text will be available for her to use. We got in our new display rack today and two boxes of new books! I covered the hardbacks and Mrs. M and I did the paperbacks. Yeah! New books! Processed six teacher magazines and Hot Rod and Sports Illustrated for us. Did the second count on money for Mrs. H so she could turn in all our print money today. Spent the last bit of the day inventorying the monitors that will be going to surplus. I had 32 I had to write down make, model, serial number and our own code number. Some of them were hard to find, others were just hard to read, but they are all catalogued now and ready to be picked up!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Penny for your Thoughts

Yep, it was glued to one of the tables sometime today. We couldn't get it off, glued down fast. Kids. Processed in 9 magazines this morning, Asimov's, People, PC World, Shape, New Yorker, Popular Photography, Time and Newsweek. I also pulled the older issues off the spinner rack and took them into the back to make room, then I had to shift some of those to make room as well! Students needed boxes for a project and we found them some. Made a new barcode/spine label for Bridge over the River Kwai. I also laminated the cover and did some lamination for a teacher while I had it running. Worked on more repairs. Channel One did not record last night, so I reset the incoming box and hopefully it will be fine tomorrow. I sent out an email so teachers would know it did not record. Had a student come in and bring in about 8 books, some textbooks, one a library book, and two she had borrowed off Mr. L's cart. She had been gone, but is now back, so with the books she brought back and the ones she is going to be using I worked with our bookkeeper and we were able to clear her of all charges. That was good! Ms. P's class came to turn in their old Algebra Connections V.1 and pick up V.2. Can I mention it's a great day since I'm off to see Gaelic Storm tonight at the Elsinore? They are one of my favorite bands! Huzzah!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Cybrarian

Mrs. H sent me a story today about Cybrarians and how they will still be the information keepers of the new technology! I love saying it, 'cybrarian'. Worked on more repairs today, checked in and out books, monitored the kids in the computer lab, worked on the Business teacher materials to see what we really have. Withdrew the Possibilities books and boxed them up. Got in a bunch of magazines and was able to process in the teacher copies and put them in their box before I left for the day.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Covered

Checked in a box of First Aid books that were in a box on my desk when I got in, finished up covering the new books that came in and placed them on the rack and cart we have for 'new' stuff. Checked in a cart full of World of Fashion Merchandising and then had to remark the shelves for them and the new edition of Working with Young Children since I had to move them around. I got a request for switching a class to Algebra Connections V.2 on Thursday and pulled those getting them on a cart so they're handy. Put money in print accounts and finished up the day getting through more repairs.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Coyote

Had a coyote run across the road in front of my car on my way in this morning! Never had that happen before! We had an assembly today, so we had the library available to the students that did not want to attend. We pack in around 125 so I walked among them and talked with several. Then I went into our workroom and found two new boxes waiting, our books from our trip back in November! They are all ready to be covered and put out for kids to check out! All the hardbacks got covered and I almost finished my set of half the paperbacks covered as well. Had to help a student resize her picture on paint, checked out the rest of our dictionaries to Ms. P. We also had cleaned out old maps, you know, the old ones that hung in classrooms and the teachers would pull down for illustrating something? Ms. O started going through them, and we decided to send out an email for anybody that wanted one to come and get them. We were just planning on throwing them away. So the rest of the afternoon teachers came in and went through them, taking one here, two there. Much better than just throwing them out! Three day Weekend ahead!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Wild Things




Our art teacher brought in pictures her students did as they illustrated Where the Wild Things Are and they did an amazing job! I spent most of the day in repairs. Checked in and out books here and there, did some monitoring on Vision. Found all our spanish books had all been catalogued in the 468 section, even though when I did a search, they were all over the place! Crazy. When we looked them up later, they were coming up as in the 468's, frustrating! We found some lost books and I also pulled old book stickers off the shelves in the back because those books were sent off to surplus.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Powerless

I don't often reserve books, so I messed one up today. It actually checked it out to a student rather than reserving it. Drats! I couldn't remember who had it before, so I found a report on book activity for the day and there was the name of the student who 'checked it in.' So I checked it back out to her, and then properly reserved the book for the student who wants to read it. I also checked out 20 dictionaries for Ms. R and took some time to put new tape on a few books that it had broken on. Then I began to process the four teacher magazines, and got those into their mailboxes and when I went to start processing our four, the power went out. We had a brief surge, and then it was gone! We kept the kids that were in the library there, and had another class come in because we have four frosted skylights in there and we had some light at least! We kept the kids in and took several to the bathrooms. We took turns guarding the door so they wouldn't roam the halls. After about an hour and ten minutes, all the lights came back on, just in time for lunch. I finished up the magazines and lost Transworld Skateboarding. I couldn't find it anywhere I'd been. Finally, I found a student had taken it off my desk. Tsk! Our custodian had to come over and help me reset the roll down gate I have on the textbook window. In an emergency, it'll pop the spring and the gate slides down, so he came by and with both of us we got it reset. An exchange student came in and was looking for some books in Spanish to read while she's here in Salem, so we found her three of them (and later I found another), so Mrs. H set her up with a temporary account so she could check them out. I then looked through our Spanish search and had our sub try to find them. She only found three out of the twelve on the list. I managed to get a few repairs done in the rest of the time I had left for my shift.

Noticed

January 12th: Finished up the overdue notices today and Mrs. M got them all delivered to the teachers for them to pass out to students. I spent most of the day repairing The American Experience. I had fun with one that had a bent cover, like trying to break in half. I was able to remove the endpaper and the cover paper, remove the bent and breaking down cardboard inners. Then I went to our cover box (where we keep old covers for our book projects in the spring) and found a nice hard one, cut it to size and began with gluing it onto the front cover. I'm very happy with it. I did an inventory on books on hand and we are missing two of them, so I have listed them as 'lost.' I also worked in the back and found some books, Possibilities, that no one has checked out since 2003. Ten of them weren't even on the computer and their codes came up that they were Writer's Inc. books! I've sent out an e-mail to see if anyone wants/or will use them.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Overdue

Started out today putting money in print accounts for students, then pulled out the repairs I had started on Friday and began working on them. Did Vision monitoring and had to tell quite a few students today to go back to class since they were just playing and not doing their work. Big kudos to Mrs. H and Mrs. M. A student had a seizure this morning up in the front part of the library and they both assisted keeping the student from any further injuries. Our security team called 911 and it seemed that within moments, EMT's arrived treating and transporting the student. All of them really deserve a pat on the back. Checked in a bunch of Freedom's Children from Ms. O. Since the end of the semester is near, Mrs. H printed out something like 409 overdue book slips and Mrs. M and I spent the rest of the day checking our schedule program to tag the slips to Language Arts teachers for the teachers to hand out to their students. I think by the time I come in tomorrow, Mrs. M should be all done with them since we did most of them today. I also volunteer at the Salem Public Library on Monday afternoons and one of our students accidentally returned some of our books to them! So on my way in, I stopped by circulation and they very nicely handed over his books for me to take back tomorrow :)

Friday, January 8, 2010

InFocus


The Bulletin Board Mrs. M did! She's having kids tell their own 'dreams' along with Martin Luther King and you can see the slips on the side. Today we had advisory and I had another freshman group. I was all set to have all the instructions up on the screen using the teacher computer and the InFocus machine, and it didn't work. Drats! Mrs. H came over and showed me how to set it up for the next class, so I will try it next week. Did more repairs. We also talked new bookshelves and having them ADA accessible. Right now, they are not and we do have a couple of kids in wheelchairs. I helped a few students clear their accounts out since they are leaving us, checked out an updated edition of Working with Young Children to other students. Worked on repairs. We some straightening up and moved our books in repair to the back since we have a large group coming in to use the school over the weekend, including the library. Backed up all our files and we'll be back Monday!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Hungry?


That's the title of my bulletin board out of the workroom. I took books from our shelves and took a cover image with a brief synopsis of the book. It turned out rather well. Though we are befuddled as to where our Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book went. It says it's in, but it's not :( Worked on a requistion for some Richard III for Mr. S. Looked up different avenues and prices and went to talk with him about which he'd like better. I wrote it up and handed it into Mrs. H. I also came across an order we might have done in September, but I've never seen the books, so we are looking into that. Got in the new Buen Viaje Writing Manuals and let the teachers and the bookkeeper know they were in since they've been on back order for quite some time. The bookkeeper also needed a copy of the invoice so I made one and put it in her box. Processed two teacher magazines and two for us and spent the rest of the day on repairs.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Giggles from the Workroom

Today Mrs. H put out a notice that the magazines were ready for anyone that needed them and lots of teachers came by and took from our stack. I heard giggling back there as some of them thumbed through the issues. Most of the day I worked on repairs of The American Experience books. I had started gluing them before we left for break and now they were ready for their next step. I also set up a shelf of new books to repair and will start those tomorrow. Checked out books and put money into print accounts. I also worked a bit on the bulletin board outside the library workroom door and looked into books we have that have things to do with eating. So I found Feeding Frenzy, Penn and Teller's How to Play With Your Food, Sugar Busters and a few others to print up. I'm writing a brief synopsis of each book and its call number so kids can come in and find it! I think it may get some kids in to see what else we have!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Magazine Deletions

More magazines were sitting on my desk this morning, so I processed in four more for teachers and seven more for the library. As I shelved in our back room some extra magazines, I decided to withdraw all the old 2006 and 2007 issues we had. Last year Mrs. H and I had thought we'd only keep two years of issues, so I checked with her and cleaned them out. I also went through our Insignia data base and cleared them all out of there as well and deleted out the issues and even some magazine titles that we no longer carry. I also sent out an e-mail through Mrs. H to let teachers know they were free to come and take the magazines we had deleted for their classes and any that were left over we'd put in boxes for kids to use when they needed to cut out pictures for projects. Put some finishing touches on the bulletin board and took pictures. Put some other cooking books in our display cases. Did some repairs on the books I had glued and set out to dry over break. Made a new laminated cover for our From Julia Child's Kitchen book and rebarcoded and did a new spine call tag for it as well.

Monday, January 4, 2010

New Year


Processed in all the magazines that had piled up in the two weeks we were gone. Seven for the teachers and 14 for us. Checked out two students today, found a copy of a book for another. Checked in and out books and worked on the awesome cooking calendar. I think it turned out nicely. It was good to be back.