The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Ship of Fools

On my desk this morning is a book called The Ship of Fools that Mrs. H got for me at the Portland Library conference last week. It made me laugh. She also picked me up some new book repair brochures, so I looked through those to see if they had any new ideas. We looked through all the old textbook purchase copies from last year and I made up an email for any new orders for this coming year. We made a list for the grant books we got in and Mrs. H sent off an email for teachers to come and pick them up and about half had gone by the time we left this afternoon. I processed in some more Colored People and checked out a class set. Also checked out a class set of Ricochet River. Did the usual text check in and out. Pulled down the old calendar and put up most of the new one.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

T.P. Fashion Show

Mrs. H brought me in a ton more magazines this morning, so 7 more for the teachers and 7 more for us. The rest of La dama del alba arrived yesterday so I processed all of those in. At noon, we were invited to be judges for a T.P. costume contest in Mrs. G's class. They are reading Hunger Games and had to think up costumes like in the parade at the beginning, but they could only use t.p. We decided District 1 had the best followed by District 7. I think it was the 'dazzle' on the headpiece (colored t.p. rosettes) that decided us all! Checked out a class set of Colored People, more Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and got ready Ricochet River for tomorrow. Worked on some more repairs and helped a mom at the last minute. Her son lost his book and she wanted to check one last time to see if it had been turned in, so I gave her the ISBN number and told her about Bookbyte here in town. Had a book come in that is unusable, and I had already talked to the student about it, the top half had gotten wet and had all bloated and molded, so I had to bill her for a replacement copy.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Epic Fail

Back from break and I was so busy I was glad to get back to work, though I probably would've been glad in any case! Checked out two class sets Of Mice and Men, one class set of First Aid and CPR, and another of Night. Processed in 47 copies of Colored People and with Mrs. M's help, we got them all covered to check out tomorrow. I e-mailed Ms. F and she was so excited they were ready. Mrs. M is a great co-worker! I picked up some more of our bookmarks. I set them out when classes come in for class sets and I was getting low. Put in money for print accounts, checked in and out books today. Sent in a tech request for a student who was having trouble accessing an employment application. We have a sub in for the week for our SK Online room and he wanted to check out a book and I said 'sure!' I got him all set up and he took Hunger Games. I processed in three Classroom Instruction that Works for Mr. S our principal. Processed in 7 teacher magazines and 7 for us from all last week while we were off. A parent called that her daughter had been charged for a book and didn't have that class this year, so I changed the billing. Since I managed to get into the Main Frame, I also checked out the billing for a couple of students on some DVD's. We actually got a better price on them, so I reduced the billing charge to the correct amount. I did some lab monitoring today and found a student playing a game, so I ended the game, then he went on to scroll through the Epic Fail website so I went over and asked what he was doing. He admitted he had finished his work and I sent him back to class. Thanks to Ms. A for pointing him out to me in the first place. Also processed in four more German Dictionaries for Mr. J. Mr. M got in more La dama del alba and I will process those in tomorrow morning.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Packing up for Spring Break

Yep! All day! Mrs. H and I finished up weeding out the reference section, then all of us worked on withdrawing the books and then we had to cross out all the info, stamps and barcodes and then stamp them 'withdrawn' with the date. A couple of teachers did come and take a lot of stuff for their classrooms, so I feel good we let them know that they were able to come and do that. So they will get good use! The ones left behind are all boxed up, labeled and ready to be picked up over spring break while we're gone. A beautiful busy day and a lovely spring day to enjoy for the rest of the afternoon! Have a great week everyone!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Langenscheidt

You're welcome! We got in some more Langenscheidt German Pocket Dictionaries today, so I processed them and got them to Mr. J. Also four more La dama del alba for Mr. M. Processed a new Sports Illustrated for us and Coach H. The front row of computers in my lab was all pushed forward and had wires all over and since they've decided to go and put in new labs, I went over and taped up all the wires today and retaped the floor holders that hold the wires across the aisle. I had a student help me unwind the neon green 6 inch tape and he was surprised at how sticky it was and hard to pull. I told him it was cross training for his sport! Checked in lots of Hunger Games and checked out more The Great Gatsby's, math books, other novels and assorted other texts. I did a lot of computer lab monitoring to keep the kids on track since they only have one more day before spring break. Worked on repairs, more of the American Experience got put back on the shelf today and Mrs. H and I counted out the print money and verified it and she took it up to the bookkeeper. Mr. S came and pulled me aside for a moment to let me know that he had worked out the hours for the library and I would come back in the fall to my current hours. That was a huge relief! I can leave for spring break with a great weight off my shoulders! I appreciate him so much for taking the time and talking to me face to face. Do I work at a great school or what?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Quilting in the Library

Processed in our very own copies of La dama del alba! We have been borrowing from South HS for years, and the department decided we just needed our own copies! A very exciting decision! I sent out a notice to get back the damaged Physical Science with Earth Science book so the parent from yesterday can see the damage. I had packed a lot of boxes and they were pretty large, so I weighed one today to make sure they would be under the 50 pound limit, they were, just! Checked in and out all day, students from Ms. M's class needed The Great Gatsby and came in one by two by threes and fives. I would bring out a stack of them, and have to go back and get another stack. I checked for a lost textbook, put money into print accounts, put the collected monies from Mrs. M and I into our little lock box, worked on repairs, tried to find our Salvatore that has the first three books on the legend of Drizzt for a student. It appears to be missing. Today, some of the ladies on staff here have been working on a quilt for a student and brought it into the library to get it tied together. This student has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and it was truly an honor to get to help on this project for just a bit today. The back side is all micro-fleece and the front is made from Sprague t-shirts and signed by staff and student squares. A beautiful gift for a beautiful girl.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

9 Hours

Did a lot of checking in and out today. Mrs. M's students coming down on their own to check out The Great Gatsby. Mr. M's sub came and picked up The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty and Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Mrs. S had an aide come by and get Witness. Worked on the withdrawn books, lining out the 'Sprague' stamps and stamping them 'withdrawn' with the date. Had students in to study doing the Free Rice program, so I told them to study or go back to class. Had another student leave out the emergency doors. I slid over the counter and got her attention and asked her why she went out those doors when they are clearly marked emergency exit only. I told her there was a reason for that and she said all right. Packed up books for the spring surplus pick up. Processed 2 teacher magazines and 5 for the library. Got in two boxes of french items and told Ms. B about them and she came and picked them up. Processed in a German/English dictionary for Mr. J. Got another cart of reference pulled for Mrs. H to look over. All the rest got packed up and ready to go! A parent called about getting billed for damages to a Physical Science with Earth Science book for her daughter and was very upset. Her daughter claimed that she hadn't done anything to the book and she wanted to see the damage before she would pay the $5 charge and claimed we were 'blind' charging without any proof. She asked if we could get the book to look at, and I said another student had it. She wants us to ask the student for the book back so she can see it. I tried to explain that we couldn't keep the book, and needed to check it out since a student needed it, but she insisted on viewing the damage for herself even after I read off the comment I had made on the book. So, I will send for the student tomorrow and swap out books with her so this parent can see the damage. Mr. S, our principal, came and met with us this afternoon and wanted to let us know that the district has decided to cut Library Media position hours. At Sprague we currently have 12.75 hours a day between Mrs. M and I, and it needs to be down to 9 hours a day when we come back in September. We were all very saddened by the news. I love my job as a library media assistant. Even just at 5.75 hours a day. I wanted to just come home and cry. It's been such a joy to love coming to work here and being around books and serving our students.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Asimov's Shakespeare

Mr. L left some books on my desk this morning for me to check in. Mrs. S was in with a class and needed a set of Witness, so I got a set together and checked them out for her. I found three copies that were bent and noted that in the Trac-it comment section for each book and printed up a notice for each and taped them inside. Mr. M also asked for some Where Have All The Flowers Gone? and The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty books and I rounded up enough copies between textbooks and the library copies so his class should have enough. I checked them out to him so they will be ready to go in the morning. We had Advisory again this morning and I helped more seniors work on their resumes. Part way through the class, a couple of kids came in and started to hook up with their computers, so I asked what were they doing. They said they had some work to do, and I told them no, everyone but seniors were supposed to be in the gym. Really??? I sent them off! Had three magazines to process for the library. An emancipated student (over 18 and legally responsible for himself) needed a second textbook for a class, so I had him sign our '2 textbooks out' slip and then told him hopefully the old book would come back in before the end of the year. If it didn't, I could give him the ISBN # and he could go down to Bookbyte and get a copy cheaper than paying us here. One of the other librarians asked for help on some pages coming out of a book, she thought she could just tape them in :0 So, I told her how I do page tipping and gave her a link to an excellent resource on book repair. She was very appreciative. Mrs. H went through all the carts I pulled Friday and I withdrew all the books except for a few she wants to keep. We'll have aides cross out the stamps and use our big 'withdrawn' stamp on them so I can box them up for the surplus haul over spring break. One of them was a second copy of Asimov's Shakespeare - scifi and the bard! What a combination!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Half Day

Today was an inservice/grading day so I had to work half of my shift. I painted over the main library doors and now it looks like the rest of the walls in the hall! No more faded imprints of the old library letters or patches from the wallboard repair! The rest of my time was spent in weeding out our reference section. I ended up with 4 entire carts of books for Mrs. H to look at getting rid of. With the new computer labs going in, the idea is that all the shelving and books we currently have residing in those two areas will need to go, so we need to look at our reference and non-fiction to see what we can surplus, or send to Library Media Services (LMSS) for them to keep in their historical collection.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Manga Club

Today I did a lot of repairs, checked in and out lots of individual students. Checked in a class set of Hunger Games and out Nineteen Minutes. We got in a shipment of books. I was curious and opened a box to see, then noticed one of the books Go Ask Alice and I remembered that the school was getting in lit sets of books. Seven sets of books for 9th and 10th grade classrooms, two boxes for each of the ninth, three boxes for each of the 10th. We are not to use them, or do anything to them, so all I did was stack them in order for the classes to be able to come by and pick them up easier. Mrs. H let our principal know they were here and ready to go out. We had another advisory today and I again had to help the few seniors in that set that still needed to do a resume, so I put up the instructions from before and helped walk them through the program for Resume Wizard. I also got to watch over the Manga Club for just a bit tonight before I left. Mrs. H had a meeting to go to and Mrs. D was to come in after she got her classroom all locked up, so I got to watch this very energetic and boisterous group. They are great kids and I felt a bit sad to leave them.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

My Lobotomy - Buy 1, Get 1 Half Off!

Today was a real repair day, lots of things done to books and some back on shelves and others in various states of repair. Lots of more individual check ins and outs. Magazines, one for a teacher and two for the library and our insignia was back up, so that was good! Pulled a cart of Nineteen Minutes for check out tomorrow. I had one repair where someone had stuck a delivery tag on it, covered a quarter of the front cover. So with a little WD 40, and my trusty putty knife, I got it all off. A bit of rubbing alcohol to clean it and it's a lot better! Had a cover coming off the end boards and someone had just tried to tape it, so I split off the tape and began the gluing process. My corner fix on Glencoe Health turned out sweet and is ready to check out. Sometimes during our lunch time, we'll grab a magazine or a book. Mrs. H was reading the current Newsweek, and I grabbed a book from Mr. L's cart and just cracked up - My Lobotomy and up in the corner was a Borders sticker 'Buy One - Get One Half Price' absolutely cracked me up! A second lobotomy at half price, what a deal!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Jenna Fox Topics

Checked out two class sets of Witness today and a Catcher in the Rye. I had a mom call about her son not having his ID wanting her to leave work and come get him a book. I let her know that they had their books last week and he'd had plenty of time to go and get a new ID before today. We also had a talk with one of our aides on some inappropriate behavior he has participated in. Mrs. H and Mrs. M and I all chipped in our 2 cents worth. Processed 1 teacher magazine and 4 for the library. We also had some trouble with the insignia update last night and had to access it from the internet rather than our usual icon. I made it for part of our classified meeting this morning, and added in a new Five Language Dictionary and took it to Mr. J. I also had a teacher who heard that I had read The Adoration of Jenna Fox and wanted some research topics for a study she wants to do on it and I added about 6 topics to her list.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Running Crop Circles Around the Competition

I still had five students that had not turned in their Street Law books, so today I went up to the office and handed in their names to get lunch detention unless they brought them in. Guess what? Three came in today! I now think I have enough for the rest of the kids waiting for them. We had a big stack of teacher tool curriculum magazines come in, so I sorted them and put them into a lot of teacher boxes. Also processed one teacher magazine and three for the library. One of the magazines had a separate ad for a product, a game about aliens and it said "Run crop circles around the competition" which really cracked me up! I did a lot of repairs today. We are short of the Glencoe Health books so I sent out reminder notices today and also pulled the two out of our repair stack to fix. They both had dog chewed corners, so I made the 'particle board' repair set and have them drying for tomorrow. Checked out class sets of Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Witness and Foundations of Algebra Year 2 Volume 2 and got ready Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird for first thing in the morning. Had a student come and ask if I would take a book off her bill, she's pretty sure she never checked it out. She had lost her ID and thinks someone may have checked it out on her lost card. We will leave it until the end of the year and see if it comes in. Caught a couple of kids going out the emergency door at my end of the library, one stopped and went around, but the other one got away. Drats! I yelled "NO!!!" so loud everyone in the library looked at me. I think I may have even scared two students at the computer lab. They kept looking back at me. If I had a blushing smiley, I'd use it here.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Fantasy Reviews


I made up a pouch today to hold the old reviews and also did some other reviews of the books that I've read this year. We have a lot of good fantasy books that kids don't know about, so I worked on that today. Checked in and out about 4 class sets of books and lots of individual students came in and out. I got the books ready for Monday morning and took them up to Mrs. M.

Ebsco

Thursday, March 4th - Today I worked on the Ebsco order for next year. They are one of our magazine suppliers. Our renewal form came in the mail today and so I took some time to go through the 2009 catalogue and look over other magazines. We definitely have some that no one ever picks up, so it's time to get rid of them and try some others. I made a list of what I thought might be good, and handed it over to Mrs. M to see what she might find. Checked in and out class sets of books today as well as bunches of individual books in & out. Put together a list of what the EGC students and staff have out. Processed 5 teacher magazines and 2 for the library. Boxed up Brave New World to send off to another school on request. Sent out another notice for Street Law texts and this time the ones who hold on to them will get a lunch detention on Monday. We need them badly.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Help

Today I got some help in working on the calendar. I needed to cut out Oregon shapes and some leadership kids asked for something to do and I handed them the little maps and they cut them all out. I'm not completely happy with it, but that's enough time on that! Checked in and out 2 class sets of math books and got ready The Catcher in the Rye for early tomorrow. Did a lot of checking in and out individual books, did some repair. Checked on a set of books that another school wants to use. Mrs. H had to make the decision to not let kids eat in the library anymore and I stopped the kids from exiting out the library workroom door.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Sleep Book


Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss! Mrs. M had put out our Dr. Seuss books on the tables for the kids to read today. When I walked by The Sleep Book after first lunch, it had been bent in half - I was so upset. The students had even set it up again on the table. We had just gotten that book last spring and this morning it was fine.
So sad some people
decide to destroy
a book that's put out
for them to enjoy
:(

I checked out 3 class sets of Algebra Connections Volume 2 and took in 3 class sets of Algebra Connections Volume 1. Did some repairs, checked out a class set of World History to Mr. C. I pulled the books for tomorrow, checked in and out individual students, processed 8 teacher magazines and 8 for the library. Caught that one of our aides had just taken the books to be put away and shoved them on the shelves in no order whatsoever. Processed 8 teacher magazines and 8 for us. Straightened out a bit of the back room, had to restock the copy machine with paper for a teacher. I had to clean up some sticky Algebra Connection Volume 2 books. Withdrew some books and set up some books for tomorrow. Also worked on some repairs.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Personal Day



I had to take a personal day today, so I'm hoping all went well! Mrs. M did a technology bulletin board up by the main doors and mine is on Oregon Authors for Read Across America month.

Resume Wizard

Friday the 26th: Took off the old calendar today and put up the numbers for the new one. Checked out several class of books. Got the books ready for Monday so Mrs. M can just pull them out. We also had an advisory today and I had the seniors in the lab to work on their resumes if they still needed to. I had up the directions to the Resume Wizard and showed Mr. S the notes I had written up since he wasn't sure what they were to be doing.