The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Bye 2012!

Today was our last day until January 9th! Wow! Three weeks off! Watched snow on and off through the outside doors today, played Christmas music off a free holiday feed on the computer, processed in three magazines, covered the corners of a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird books and did the usuals. Ate Christmas cookies, wished people a good break, packed up 25 The Century for Young People books to go over to North - took them to the office because a teacher was coming to pick them up after we'd be gone for the day. Mrs. H treated me to lunch at Amadeus since it was our last working day - Potato Torta... yummmm.. a good day! Merry Christmas to all!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Charmer

Today a student needed a computer unlocked so he could work on a project during lunch. Mrs. H told him he'd have to sweet talk me to unlock it (not really, but she knew him) so he really laid it on. "Mrs. Willer, how lovely you look today. And your sweater, it really pulls the blue from your eyes. I was just wondering, if you weren't too busy and if it might be convenient for you to unlock this computer so I could finish up my project?" He was quite the charmer - made me laugh, and of course, I unlocked his computer. Mostly worked on the To Kill a Mockingbird books today doing the renumbering and going ahead and putting book tape corners on the corners of the front and back covers where the original covers had worn through to the boards. Did the usuals as well. One more day until break!

Friday, December 14, 2012

Everything

Did lots of stuffs today, the usuals mostly as well as the renumbering. It was busy with kids all with needing this or that all day long. Mrs. M was gone and Mrs. H was in and out so that left me to handle a lot of the days usual stuffs that go on up front. Moved up to the front desk twice today! Processed in two magazines as well. Two more days to go until break!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Overdue

Finished up the weeding along my wall today and then worked on renumbering To Kill a Mockingbird books. Checked books out and in for both library and textbooks. Checked in a class set of Friday Night Lights and transferred them back to West HS. Mrs. H printed up overdue notices today and Mrs. M asked me to finish the stack when she left for the day, so I moved up to the front desk and did that up there since Mrs. H was in a classroom for the end of the day.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Weeded

Today I worked on the rest of my wall space to weed out the old books. That takes a long time to sort through them! Most of them had never been checked out, ever - and some of them had been there when the school opened! They are outdated and pages are yellowing, so it's time to move them along! Processed in two magazines for the library. Checked in and out lots of books. Packed up some of the books we've withdrawn already. Put money in print accounts and had a lot of fun trolling through the old books.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Caroling

We had our annual Rotary luncheon here today and one of the treats from that is our fabulous 'Frameworks' acappella choir sings. That was heavenly! Renumbered books today and came in half an hour late so I could attend our computer conference that ran half an hour past my usual quitting time. Never did get the headset working but Mr. R gave me a plug in microphone and I had my speakers, and it worked just fine. Processed in one magazine for the library and two for teachers. "One small child in a land of a thousand..." gave me chills up my arms.

Headset

I'm supposed to conference tomorrow (well, it is tomorrow, but pretend this is Monday the 10th) and so Mr. R gave me a headset on Friday and our techies tried to get it to work today, and we coudn't :(   Worked on renumbering books and cleaning the shelves in the back. Processed in three magazines and two for teachers. Did a lot of checking in and out, putting money in print accounts more than usual since Mrs. H wasn't here.

Friday, December 7, 2012

After That Kiss

A note dropped out of a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest book today about a girl who fell in love with a guy. It was well written, and beautifully poignant. Mrs. H and I both read it and it really touched us. One of our students has been working on some chain mail rings and came in today with a chain mail vest! Way to go! Awesome job! Did repairs, processed in two magazines for us and two for teachers. We got in some Developing Child books and they were all checked out to a student, so I changed them to a teacher and she said they are now all in, but I still show four out. We adjusted our 000's shelving and took out one shelf to make the others bigger since all our kids books are there and it came out very nice. The door bar that got kicked off yesterday, the head custodian brought back out to try and the kids had even bent the door handle it attaches to. I made sure I let them know that I was a bit frightened when it was broken off and the kid that was taking off with it was one that should not have a heavy bar in his hand. Did more renumbering and cleaned up for the weekend. Seven working days until break!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Photo

Today we had a photo op for a picture in the new Oly Torch paper in support of NaNoWriMo. Mrs. H, me and two of our kids were in it. Worked on renumbering books and cleaning shelves. During lunch the kids kicked at the door push bar until it broke off and I had to climb up on my window to motion to the kid that grabbed the bar and then started to take it down the hall. Ah, no. Total weapon in my eyes. Worked a few repairs and did the usuals for the day.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Seven Boxes

Today I packed up seven boxes of surplus books from the weeding Mr. L did last week so they will be ready for the pick up next week. Glad to have that ready! Did some repairs, processed in two magazines for us and one for a teacher. Newsweek is going digital only! No more print! So, it will be sad to see that one go. We already get it digital on Ebsco, so we don't need another digital edition of it so we'll request our subscription money back. Packed up a box of teacher materials we're not using right now, but they don't have barcodes, so I'm sending them to LMSS. Checked in and out a few things here and there through out the day. Closed down the computers in the library during lunch since the kids have gotten really squirrelly with changing resolutions, pulling the keys up and rearranging them on the keyboards, eating and leaving the remains behind, replugging stuff around the different hard drives. So, only the kids actually working on work can use the computers during lunch for the moment.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Covered

Books that is. I worked on covering the paperbacks today in between checking things in and out for kids. Processed in three magazines for the library and one for staff. Processed in a replacement textbook for a student - it's been a long journey, but yeah! should be over now! Got nearly all the new books out with Mrs. M. We both love to get new books out! Haven't come to fisticuffs over it yet, but they are just so much fun!

Monday, December 3, 2012

220

New books that we got in! Finished off checking in the boxes from Friday. Processed in five magazines for the library and one for a teacher. Started to strip and cover the paperback books. Redid my outside the door bulletin board - snowman wrapping paper with '220 New books just in time for winter break check outs!'. Took down all the Nanowrimo stuff and packed the posters away. Put a new poster up by the front. Had to check out three kids who were withdrawing all at the end of the day. Had a student come to check out a psychology book. She didn't have a card, so I said no. But she only needs it for one period and she'll bring it right back. I say no. Then she comes with a 'friend' who has a card and wants to check out the book, I say no. There's too many problems with that. She argues that 'how do I know that this other girl doesn't want the book?' - I wanted to say 'do I look stupid? but instead I tell her to just go back to class and tell the teacher she can't check out a book since she didn't bring her ID today. She and the other girl leave (I was in the back eating lunch) so I ask Mrs. M later, did you check out a psych book? Why yes she did, just last period to a girl with a card. *sigh* Oh well.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Half Day

For us it is just a half day today, so I started with packing up all the withdrawn books and then found out I could go up to LMSS and pick up our seven boxes from the Baker and Taylor order, so I drove up and unpacked all the boxes and got all the hardbacks checked off the shipping list. Ah, bliss! New books, ummmm, new books....

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Flisket, Awagabu & Verdles

I was repairing a Lit book today and on one of the pages was a poem called Adam's Task and it was him naming the animals and the author thought up these, too cute! I looked through the other three carts of books that Mr. L pulled the other day. I kept about 5 books a cart. Got 35 Century for Young People pulled and checked out to Ms. O. And basicially did repairs the rest of the day.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Blechhhhh...

Tuesday the 27th - the entire day I was so foggy. Stuffed up, cranky, kept to myself and worked the back room, checked out First Aid books and did repairs. Talked to a mom about a lost book for the third time. Achooo...

Much Better

After looking like total yuck yesterday, I feel much better today. Did a lot of repairs, looked through a cart of books that Mr. L pulled as he weeded yesterday. Checked out more First Aid books. Mrs. H was back and she looks better too!

Turkey Spam

Monday - the 26th - After five days off it was a busy day, and I'm catching a cold from my granddaughter - well worth the cold to hold her in my arms on Thanksgiving Day though! Opened up my email to a questionable spam, saw it was from some university some where and decided to open it, OH MY! An email from someone in Turkey (yes, the country) looking for women who want a 'great experience', got my 'email from some website' and wanted to know if I'd like to get together with her, remembering she's from Turkey, by the way! Oh my! Delete! Did a lot of repairs. Had an exchange student mom bring in a bunch of books from her student who ended up going back home. He said he'd returned everything, but apparently not! (He still has one book out still!) Another student is leaving and turned in her stuff. Got First Aid books ready to check out tomorrow. Got them all noted and numbered in the Destiny system.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Thanksgiving

Only had conferences today, so I spent a lot of time in the back with cleaning up those shelves. Got all the way through the M's! Processed in eight magazines, helped students that needed to do some work turn off the spell check (their teacher wanted them to write and use a dictionary), had a mom bring in lost books. Got in five boxes of paper for the copier so I opened the boxes and stashed all the reams in the back cupboard. I am ready for Thanksgiving - I have a lot to be thankful for, and one of the things I am thankful for is this job! :)

Monday, November 19, 2012

9 Hours

Yep! Getting ready for the Thanksgiving break we work two, day and a half days so we can have off for Wednesday as well. Worked on my back shelves, still cleaning and getting the books renumbered. Almost done with the first aisle now. Back for another stint tomorrow.

Friday, November 16, 2012

there lived a hobbit.

I love my new bulletin board. I may keep it up forever :) We do have more Tolkien books, but for the pic I only wanted up what he wrote. All our Fellowship, Towers and Return books are all checked out though! Worked repairs today and processed in two magazines. Helped Mrs. H count up our print money to turn in. Had a book shelf fail, the holders were old and gave way and the students felt very bad all the books fell onto the floor. I got new holders and put the shelf back up with the books. Checked out a lot of library books this afternoon after Mrs. M left and Mrs. H was over at a meeting. I do love it when I get to do that! Helped some kids with books for their Arthur project. Put in my hours for the month to the office. a great day for a Friday.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

In a Hole...

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. That's my new bulletin board! I was so excited to get it up today (so much better than last month's!). I needed to unwarp Bilbo's door a bit, so I have books on it for the afternoon and all night :) Worked on renumbering Journal of Finn Reardon. Processed in two magazines. Helped various students today and just had a great time! Hopefully pics of bulletin board up tomorrow!

Family Leave

Wednesday - 11-14-12 - Ended up spending the day dealing with my mom's issues with her health.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Returns

Had a mom today bring in a whole pack full of books from both her sons. They all checked out, though one son still has a couple of other books still out, one was now all clear. Worked on the second set of shelving today, cleaning in off, dusting off the books and renumbering the books that we use all the time. Processed in three magazines, helped a bunch more students today. Took off of the old bulletin board and started working on my new one. We have student who has decided he doesn't need to check out a book, and just goes into our back room, takes the books he wants (AP Physics and Calculus) then just stashes them around the library. We've found them a bunch of times in various places, so today I took the AP books (since there's only two of them) and locked them up in our cupboard and left our young Robin Hood a note. I'm hoping he laughs at it, then decides to check them out like everyone else does. We'll see. I wish we had a camera back there!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Three Tables

Mrs. H didn't win any of the awards last night, but she looked awesome walking the red carpet at the Elsinore Theater and we all had a great time:) A lot of amazing teachers won and it was staggering how much time, effort and money they all spend to make things happen for their students and schools, I was so impressed! During the bond work last summer, they busted up three of our tables, so we got in the new tables and Mrs. H and I worked on putting them all together today. It took a good part of the day to lay out all the parts (screws, comlocks, hinges, etc.) and get the directions in the right order and then go for it! We got all three done and we were only missing one part. I worked in the back on cleaning up the shelving back there from the bond work. Even though they tarped the shelves, still a bunch of junk got inside and all over the shelves (top ones are the worst) down to the bottom. I take off all the books, wipe down the shelves and put the books back. If they are books we use a lot, I'll go ahead and put their book number in notes on the Destiny program. A pain, but I feel better knowing that the mess back there is getting cleaned up.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Crystal Apple

So excited for Mrs. H tonight. Mrs. M nominated her for a Crystal Apple award that is given to some of the best teachers in the district. I helped just a little, but Mrs. M really wanted to let the district know what an incredible teacher librarian Mrs. H is! I was so excited for her! Worked today on renumbering books and decided to go ahead and pull books off of shelves and scan them and number them that way. Also not to red flag the notes, if we need the number it'll be easy to find as long as it gets in the notes. A great day and I'm looking forward to the CA's tonight!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Back to Normal

With the election done, our library was back to normal today. I cleaned out some cupboards looking for an oil can. We have this big paper slicer for stacks of paper. Mr. J showed me how to work it, then also told me to put a drop of oil in it when it gets used. We had the can - it was very cool and looked like something out of The Wizard of Oz for the Tin Man, but I can't find it. Mr. H needed to use the slicer, so I showed him how it operated and then decided I needed to look for the can. I got the cupboard all rearranged and it looks better, but no can. Finished off the renumbering for the Prentice Hall Literature Gold books today, so that's 3 humungous sets of books all done now. Mrs. M had started to actually renumber the books. I had told to start, then said 'no!' because we decided to just put the note on the computer, luckily, she didn't do very many, but I ferreted them all out and renumbered them back to their original number. Served lots of kids today in our various ways. I started to work on my hobbit bulletin board. Found a great font and figured out how to get it in my font list and began to cut templates out for it. My 'truth' calendar is so lame, notice I didn't even take a picture of it! Another great day in the Sprague library.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Vacumn

Fabulous day with all the social studies classes and the Election Fair in the library today! It was packed all day and the energy was amazing! So much fun! Helped kids all day, and worked on renumbering the notes for the Prentice Hall Literature Gold books. At the end of the day, the kids all left, but the floor was a mess (can we say there was bribery involoved?) so Mrs. H got a vacumn and at the end of the day, we moved tables and I did most of the vacumning in the library. The social studies teachers came back with some kids and put all the tables and chairs back together for us and that was a huge help. Processed in four magazines for us as well. They voted, so we'll see who Sprague voted for tomorrow!

Monday, November 5, 2012

Campaigning

Today was the campaigning in the library where our social studies classes set up shop with voting! Tomorrow they will too, but I spent most of the day working on converting the book numbers into the notes section of the new Destiny program. Did that most of last Thursday and last Friday as well. So, it's been pretty boring, but a lot of work is getting done :)

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Traces

A very cool book I looked through today while Mrs. H and I were having lunch. The story of a family on the Oregon Trail and along with it, true stories from people who did it. Lavishly illustrated with photos, paintings, drawings. So many good books to read right now! Did some more working with the new Destiny program and found that I could check out the billed books to someone (I tried it on me) and then declare them 'lost' and it would put the note into the book and to the person responsible. I'm now checking to see if I can do this, and if the program won't add another charge into our billing system. I don't think that that piece is on line yet, but if it is, I'll have to find another way around it. Still worked on numbering the America Pathways. Went in early since Mrs. M didn't come in and with a Manga Club meeting right after school, I can leave early - Huzzah! Dressed up piratey for the day and had good fun with the kids. Got to help some kids with books and did some checking in and out of library books! Yeah! Mrs. H got us in the peel off back return date slips to put in the books, so we are doing that and nice to have that so the kids know when their books are due.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Crunch

Really just sat and crunched numbers today for the America Pathways books getting their book number entered into the notes of the new program. Got to close up the library after Mrs. M and Mrs. H left today, checking in and out library books! Yeah!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Little Oly's Bookmarks

Today Mrs. H had a sick kiddo at home and when we got an email from the Little Oly's preschool for trick or treats tomorrow, I of course responded yes! To make sure we had something to give away, I made some special Little Oly's bookmarks, printed them up and had them laminated for tomorrow. They turned out really nice. I did more notes in the America Pathways books and also added in the billing and paid notices. Had a student find a book that he paid for on Friday to get homecoming tickets. Had another book come in as well from last year that was billed so I got that cleared up. Dealt with a lot more students than I normally do since Mrs. H wasn't there after Mrs. M left. Processed in six magazines for the library and one for a teacher. Sent a book back to another school - we had sent them to ECHS and a lady there sent it to us to find out who it belonged to, but since it was transferred, I don't have that information, so I sent a note and sent it back.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Music

Today I worked on Mr. S and his Music Appreciation class. We have no books for this particular class, and the only other option in the district they use them all year. I found two texts and got a message to the rep and they are sending some sample copies to us already! What service! Worked on putting notes into the America Pathways books so we don't have to renumber the 900+ books we have or renumber the shelves. If we put in a note, it will come up with the old book number whenever we look at that book. So I started working on that, and checking to see how that would work and if it was worth the effort, so I think we'll go ahead with that option. Had a lot of students trying to get their book fines taken care of so they could buy homecoming dance tickets. Homecoming game tonight and dance tomorrow! And, yes, the back of my head is still sore from Monday.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Numbers

Decided to work on renumbering our most used books today, so I renumbered Journal of Finn Reardon and Glencoe Health books and started to do the Fit and Well's. A pretty normal day, checking in and out as well.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

15 Additional

Got to work and had Mrs. H going 'look in your in box!' So I finally got my computer up and there was a notice from our office asking if I'd like 15 additional minutes added to my day which makes me full time and full benefits - I said a resounding 'YES!!' The library has literally been begging for years for my position to have 6 hours and now we have it! I'm so excited! Worked on Nanowrimo notices today and asked Ms. A if she'd like to be on a notice for contact and she was said yes. Worked on getting a jam out of the copier and a teacher came by after I had pulled everything apart 3 times and found the bit of paper stuck in a little space I hadn't noticed - at least that got it working! Did some repairs, talked to our textbook guy about the Chemistry teacher resources and he had done part of the job, but had forgotten about putting them back together, so glad I was able to remind him. Processed in a magazine. Got in a box of preview books, and they were all jumbled in the box, so I put them on a cart and sorted them out for Mrs. H to go through. It'll be easier for her if they are all ready to scan and decide yes or no. Put the Dime books back in our back room. The teacher isn't quite sure if they will maybe use them again or not, so for now we will keep them. It was 'Tea Party Day' for our Alice in Wonderland homecoming theme so I wore a pretty black hat and stuck tea packets in it and got a lot of compliments from kids. (Though Ms. S looked stunning in her 'mad hatter' outfit - no way I competed with that!) Checked in and out books. The usuals for the day.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Boring...

After all the excitement yesterday, today was rather boring. I turned in all my paperwork from yesterday. Did repair work today and checked out some books. Got in our 23 Spanish Mastery 3 books for Mr. C, so I took him a couple. He will have his class come in tomorrow morning and pick them up. Had a lot of concerned people ask me if I was all right today. That was nice. Talked to Mr. A our custodial lead about all the dust that is still in the back because of the bond work - he will see if he can get us a good vacumn to get all that up. I started to pull off our Abraham Lincoln's DNA books to wipe them down, and really, that would be just too dusty to do everything that way and get stuff all in the air, so a vacumn would be good.

Monday, October 22, 2012

A Dangerous Place

Was going about my day, repairing books, checking books out and it came to lunch. One gal had her lunch out and I scolded her and she left. Then a couple of students came in chewing, so I went over and they were just finishing their last bites as I gave them, we've already talked about this, and they got up and left, saying 'f****** B****' many times in the course of their exiting. One of them left her phone and so I took it, knowing they'd be back and I was planning on taking it to the office, pretty sure of who it was. I got Mrs. H to look her up and got her full name and student number and was getting ready to head to the office. The student came in and I asked for her name, she wouldn't give it to me, so I said we needed to go to the office and talk with Mrs. W (one of the admins). I just headed for the office and she followed. When we got there, Mrs. W's door was shut, so I asked our security fellow who was around, and he said Mr. S had just gone into his office, so I knocked and asked if he could help. He said yes, so I told him about the student and our interaction. He called her in and she came in, asked for her phone. He asked her name, she wouldn't give it and asked for her phone again. He asked for her name and she told him what it was and asked for her phone again. He said that they would have to have a conversation later and she took her arm, swept a bunch of stuff off his desk (computer monitor, phone, some papers) and then went to run out of the office, and there I was standing and she slammed me up against the door and ran out. wow. So I have a bump on the back my head, a little bit of a bruise under my eye. I have oodles of paperwork to fill out, had to go see a doctor for some documentation...ugh. My head's a little sore, but I'll be back at work tomorrow. I know she has to be accountable, but a teacher came and filled me in on some of her backstory, so I can see where it came from. Still not o.k. to do it, but still, I feel so bad for her.

Friday, October 19, 2012

DECA

Today was the last day of the week and we had the DECA group come in after school, so I came in a bit earlier so I could leave early since the library really is virtually closed. Did a lot of repairs today and checking in and out books here and there. Just a normal day :)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Apple Monkeys

Today Mrs. H got to read to our Little Olys group of preschoolers! It was so cute! They read 'Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree..' and it was so cute to hear the kids mimic Mrs. H and you could hear them 'SNAP' the alligator jaws shut! So cute! I barcoded 125 of our Foundations of Algebra books. Put up some Nanowrimo stickers I got in the mail. Was so excited that Lisa got her nomination for the Crystal Apple approved! What an honor! Jill was on the spot with getting all the paperwork in order and I'm so glad she did! What incredible people I get to work with! Took back the Globe Theatre to Ms. S. Processed in two magazines and did the regular check in and check outs for the day and some more repairs as well.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Junior Library Guild

Did mostly repairs today and then at the end we got in our Library Guild box! So Mrs. H and I carefully opened it and ohhh, ahhhed over all the tasty offerings! She took two books home to read and I took one! Had to kick the kids out of the lab again at lunch today cause someone was eating in there again!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

No Mercy

Got most of the rest of my quotes up for the bulletin board, even had a kid by my desk today reading them, super! Checked in a ton of books today, processed in 10 magazines for the library and 4 for teachers. Shut down the computer lab because I caught a kid in there eating a lunch. No mercy!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

What?

Not sure what went on today, but I took down the old bulletin board and started my new one on 'Truth'. It's a lot simpler, but I think it should be good. Worked on getting some 'truth' quotes for around the 'how do you define truth?' that I put up. Packed up 70 algebra books for Judson. She will come in on Monday to pick them up. Mrs. M and I won't be in (using vacation time) since it's just half a day. Checked in and out books, did a bit of repair. Looked for a book for a student and another book for a different student. It was a busy crazy afternoon handling the library all by myself after Mrs. H left for another school. Furlough day tomorrow and off Monday, so see you on Tuesday!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Visions

I went and worked on the Vision program today just because at the end of the day yesterday, I found two lunch plates shoved on the floor in the computer lab in between two of the desks that hold the computers. So I worked with Vision, remembering, oh yeah, I can lock all the computers, and make a jpeg picture with what I want on it - cool! So at lunch today there was a big backdrop on each computer saying "computer lab closed today due to eating issues in the lab" Not one kid tried to talk me out of it :) They knew. Did more repairs today, worked the front desk after Mrs. M left at 1 since Mrs. H was still out on her other library visits. It's amazing how much you get to interact with students when you're up there, I rather enjoyed it! Also had to supervise four Spanish students take a test, so I cleared off four tables for them, so they each had a table to themselves. The teacher had sent an aide to watch them as well! I hope they studied, I don't think they could have cheated.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Gone

Mrs. H was gone out on her rounds all day checking in with all the middle and elementary school library assistants since we longer have teacher librarians out there. So Mrs. M and I covered the library all day. I worked on repairs and then went to our classified staff meeting. Came back and shared the information with Mrs. M. Then I went back to repairing my pile. When Mrs. M left at 1:30, I moved up to the front. At one time I had all the web addresses etc, that I needed up there, but I think the bond work this summer and pulling all our equipment messed that up, so I had to reestablish all the links I need to run programs from up at the front desk. Got to work up front and have more time with the kids today, so that was nice! Mrs. H will be gone a lot of tomorrow, but then she should be back home. I closed up the library and went home!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Textbook Guy

Today Mr. C came over and spent about an hour with me and we talked all about textbooks. He'd never worked with textbooks before so he said he learned quite a few things by just coming over and me showing him around. Checked in a class set of Old Man and the Sea and checked out two class sets of Of Mice and Men. Worked on repairs today. Sent an email to Mr. C on the textbook titles (17) we need deleted. He has admin rights to do that but I don't!

Friday, October 5, 2012

Oldies

When we came back from summer break and I was reloading all our teacher materials back on their shelf, I had pulled a whole cart of items I wasn't quite sure about. I didn't know and didn't want to take the time to decide if they needed to go or to stay, so I did that today. A few I did put back, but I did get rid of two pages worth of old products that no one had used in the five years I've been here and were anywhere from eight to twelve years old. It was good to go through all of them, and I have the sheets of what titles need to be deleted to send to our textbook guy since we don't have the power to delete a title on our own.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Head Librarian!

Mrs. H did some basic 'this is how the library works' speeches today to some classes and one fellow held up his hand and told Mrs. H that 'that older lady in the back had to be the Head Librarian because she looked older and ...' So, I guess for a moment, I was the Head Librarian at Sprague in someone's eyes! Worked on my repair pile today, most of which was from checkouts where a book was in bad condition so I set it aside. At the end of the day we had our 180 Read class come in and the kids had to fill out a form. Mrs. H had made it up and one of the questions was: "one of the assistant librarian's is in the back and is Mrs. Willer, go up to her and introduce yourself and have her sign your sheet." So I took the opportunity to walk among the class and chat with the students and ask them about the books they read and found a few of them play golf! So that was very cool! Got through almost three whole stacks of books in various stages of repair and got some back on the shelf already. A good day!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Chemistry

Finished up getting the barcodes together for the teacher resources that ended up in the student text list. Sent those on so that they can be properly attributed and logged in. Had to go to three of the science teachers to look at their stuff to get titles and ISBN's, but it was so worth it. Sent those in. Got together the names and ISBN's of the additional Realidades 2 teacher resources that got sent with the last shipment of books. Checked in and out books all day, got a couple of books finished with repairs and got them back on the shelf.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Keeping it Real

Realidades 2 that is! Got in our barcodes today for Realidades 2 and got them all checked out to students! That was the best part of the day. I was so excited to tell the teachers that we were finally ready for all of that. We were one barcode short, so I asked for one more and our lovely Mr. C textbook guy sent me one on a PDF file and asked me to print to see if that would work and by crackie, it did! Checked out three classes of Realidades 2. Worked some more on the Chemistry teacher resources that got mixed up with the books, finished up the repairs to the American Government books. Did some more repairs. Checked out other books as well today, even some library books! Sent emails to Mr. C on some other issues relating to our textbook barcodes. Checked for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for a teacher. Another school is using it, so she will go with Of Mice and Men instead. Found a student who loves to do Nanowrimo and sent him to Ms. A for an article she's doing on that event. Sent an email to staff about our park next door that there is a trail work party on Saturday. Since it uses part of our parking, I thought some might be interested in helping out. Had a former student who came yesterday with a visitor badge and today he came and was hanging around and helping out and when I noticed he didn't have a badge, I sent him to the office and they said no, he couldn't stay. Glad I noticed and that he now has 'official' word on that. 

Monday, October 1, 2012

I Speak for the Pages...

Worked on the last of the repairs to the American Government books and just have two to go that need some extra tweaking. Worked on repairing The Lorax, a page got ripped out. Checked in and out a lot of books today again. Worked on the Chemistry items that didn't transfer over correctly. Found a teacher resource CD for a teacher who was very excited I found it.

Friday, September 28, 2012

More....

Worked on more repairs today but also did a ton of check outs for students. Mostly America Pathways and Chemistry books. Unboxed the new Realidades 2 books but don't have the barcodes so just had an aide break them in and stamp them. That's about it! Weekend here, Huzzah!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Again

More repairs again today on the American Government books. Yep.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Repairs

Yes, all day long! We had to get out the American Government and Politics Today books we had gotten in, so the teacher brought in his class set and Mrs. H and Mrs. M checked that out to students, and another class came in. I checked out two more class sets and worked on the poor sad old books so they'd be at least up to being checked out! All the students got a book today and I finished up repairing six more for tomorrow (students that didn't have cards today, absent students, etc.) and about 18 more on the cart to work on tomorrow! It does feel good to hand a student a book that's been repaired vs. a book that needs it. Did a few more check in/outs for the day, but yes, mostly repairs!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Everything, almost

I tried to keep a log today of what I did completely, so here it is, almost completely - I'm sure I missed a few things here and there! Checked out 40 Friday Night Lights to Mrs. P. Checked out ten dictionaries to Mr. M. Went to check out teacher resources to Mr. C and found some of them were already checked out to students - what? So I emailed our Mr. C and asked and he had no answers. So I checked them back in and out to spanish Mr. C. A student came looking for ASL books and we didn't have them anywhere. We combed the entire library and back rooms, nothing. They wanted them all put into binders, but the other ASL teacher that has that did it on her own. Talked American Pageant books with Mr. N and had two students come in and trade their old ones for new. Processed in two teacher magazines and three for the library. Got in our desparately needed teacher edition Biology books so I went to hand them to our very patient teachers. Took back a class set of Chemistry books and checked them back in so we can check them out to students. The class sets teachers use have tape running from the top corner of the first book, down to the bottom corner of the last book so they can see instantly if any are missing - a very cool trick! But I had to peel all that off the Chemistry books, but it came off very easily. Put paper in the workroom copier for a teacher (we keep it locked up!). Had a fire drill. Checked in Journal of Finn Reardon books from a teacher and began the task of renumbering them from their barcode. We use them a lot, so might as well get started on the new numbering system. Looked up some library books for a student and requested them from another school. Processed in two replacement textbooks. Got all the books that need repairs into one pile and all marked in the system. Had a desparate student ask if I could repair his composition book and I tried to reglue it for him. I rubberbanded it together and told him not to mess with it for a day. We'll see what happens. Cleaned out my email 'in' box. Checked in and out various books during the day. Put money into accounts. Got all the Realidades 3 teacher resources where they belong on the shelves. Had a call from the office on some 2012 voting pamphlets if they belonged down in the library or not, I told her I think they belong to speech Mr. C. Cleaned out our belongings closet, there were still some books and things in there from the summer bond work. I think that's about it. Mostly.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Up Periscope

Today I actually took a breath, and looked around and said "oh, I could start some projects now!" Finished processing in the American Pageant books, Realidades 3 teacher resources and the American Government books as well. Cleared out the stack of papers I had on my desk in my "I'll get to it later" pile. Figured out some book moves for the extra books we've gotten in. Begged two more teacher edition Biology books from another school. (No one was answering my emails - so I called) Checked out a class set of Prentice Hall Literature Gold books. Had a teacher that hadn't been in our system finally got added so I got his books checked out to him. Queried another teacher on the Friday Night Lights so she knew they were here and if she wanted a class set or her students to check them out. Pulled some of our old American Government books that I could do a quick fix on for checking out - they are just using a class set at the moment so now they can get their own. Had our aides unpack the last of our boxes, the oversize library books and start to put them away. Then the day was over! Shwoosh!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Check

Finished up the inventory of AV equipment at Sprague today - writing down all our notes and getting it in the excel worksheet and had it done and checked and sent by noon! Huzzah! Then went and wrote the numbers on the end of the Conceptual Physics books and started checking them out to teachers - got two class sets done and into the classroom for Monday. Had various other interruptions, but those were the major two things today! Hello weekend!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

AV

Mrs. H tried to get us out of canvassing the entire school to do inventory on all the AV equipment in the schools, but no luck! So Mrs. M did an amazing job covering the upper floors and I did all the bottom floors of the school and then I started to work on putting it all down on the inventory sheet so we can send that in tomorrow. I have more input to do, but shouldn't be a problem getting it all done. Spent most of the day doing that! Did just a bit of check out/in. But I did have great fun walking all over the school and especially watching the teachers in action in their classrooms. We have such a great dedicated staff!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Bulletin Board Day

I love my bulletin boards and so I finally started my Shakespeare "All the school's a stage" one today and by the end of the day it was awesome! Ms. S came by and said "Oh, I have a Globe theatre set, would you like to use it?" Ah, yeah!!! So she brought it by and it is PERFECT!! I'll just have to remind myself to work and not play with it! Got in our new, new Conceptual Physics books so I let the teachers know and had some of our aides work on them today so when the barcodes get here, we'll be all ready to slap them on and get them to the class rooms. Took the last six boxes of the new/old Conceptual Physics down to the office to ship over to North HS.  Got some extra textbooks for a girl who can't carry things back and forth whose mom came in to arrange that. Took care of some lost books. Checked out a class set of Friday Night Lights to Mr. G. All in all an exciting and busy day!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

New Homes

Spent most of today finishing up the processing and boxing up the Conceptual Physics books. Half of them are on their way to their new home and as soon as they are gone (space issues!) I'll put the other half there to await their carriage to their new home. I have them all boxed up and waiting! Started to work on my bulletin board today. Checked in and out books all day. Had a mom calling about a book that her daughter lost. Turns out that it is just a spiral notebook and she can just go get a new one and catch up on the teacher's web page. Put barcodes on the teacher editions of the Conceptual Physics books that we will keep. Sent emails to our textbook guy and the two schools getting the books so they'd know who wanted them and to get the books permanently transferred to the other schools. A good busy day.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Book Kudos!

Mr. Y called late this afternoon to say he had two schools that want our Conceptual Physics books! I am so excited! What a weight off my mind after staring at them for the last two weeks! Thank you Mr. Y! Cleaned up more in the back and got the worktable all freed up today. Checked in and out books. Did a lot of emails on various topics - book transfers - numbering of books - who needed books - did our Realidades 2 get ordered - did our magazines get ordered - we were all over the place. A mom brought in books from her daughter and I had to charge her for some book damages so I left the papers and all with Mrs. S for her to take all the books off the bill but add a damage charge. I turned in my attendance form we now have to do, watched the library a little bit this afternoon while Mrs. H went to a meeting. Processed in one teacher magazine and two for the library. Got in some more ASL books so I sent in copies of the title page and backside of the title page (I'm sure it has a name, but I don't know what that is!) off to our textbook guy to generate barcodes for those. I love our students and it's great to reconnect with them!

Oktoberfest!

Friday the 14th - Had to get home and off to Oktoberfest so I didn't do this! Got in to a whirl of activity, Mr. S had driven over to get some American Pageant from another school for Mr. N so we were able to check those out. Figured out why we had 91 extra Chemistry books on our list, they were actually teacher resources so now I'm getting all the ISBN's and information so they can have their own place and not with our student editions. The library is pretty cleaned up now, just some more books on carts. Mr. D came by and got some books we had extra of for his school. Mrs. H went home early so I had the library basically to myself for the afternoon after Mrs. M left for the day, so I was busy with lots of student help! Yeah! Then home and off to Oktoberfest with our granddaughter's first Oktoberfest at Mt. Angel! Can we say Chicken Dance? :)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Alone

Mrs. M left today at her regular time and Mrs. H had to go to a meeting, so I closed up the library by myself tonight for the first time this year. I'm sure it won't be the last! Got in the Dime Pasaporte for Mr. C. Finished up all the magazines! WooHoo! Checked out lots of books. Had to rewrite up a purchase order for American Pageant books. Got some books ready for Mr. D to come and pick up tomorrow for McKay HS, and he's bringing Bien dit! 2's for Mrs. H to bring back from her meeting. Boxed up and sent Journal of Finn Reardon's for West HS.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Chunkin'

Today I got through another whole set of magazines and still not done. Hopefully I'll get all done tomorrow! Got in the new barcodes for the Realidades 3 so they are now all ready to go. Checked in and out books all day. Set up my contacts list, turned in my employee check list. Worked with our textbook coordinator about the transfer process, and he's also sending me the barcodes they have for our Chemistry books since Destiny says we have 91 more than what we do! I will check them all out. Got in our extra Chemistry books so I was glad that kids were coming and getting them. Got in the new Geometry Supplement books so I'll start on them tomorrow or the next day. Had to send an email out for book requests since quite a few teachers have not yet been in for books and other schools are 'you have some available! We want them!' So we should have still more checkouts, though we did get all the books off the tables in the library today and just on carts for now. It's always a big relief when the tables get clear. Helped a student learn our library search engine and he was able to find the book he wanted and I put in a request for it. Happy day!

Magazines

Actually, this post is for yesterday, Tuesday 9-11. I'll never forget that I was working in the cafeteria as the manager at Sprague on that morning and had to continue on with the day. Our custodian kept me informed as to what was going on since I didn't have time to sit and watch, thank you Mr. B. Finally got around to start entering in the magazines from the summer. I enter them all in Insignia and then tape the spines, sharpie on name and date, print up the labels (I do 30 at once!) tape over the labels, put the current issue in the holder then put them in the display and the extras in our magazine rack. More check outs today, put in an order for more Realidades 2's, we'll see if it goes through or not. The languages admin said 'no!' but our principal said 'yes!'. Asked for some more Bien dit! 2's as well, but that was from another school so hopefully we can borrow. Got in barcodes for the Realidades 3 and noticed they were coded for the wrong school, so I called and they said not to use them, so I lined them out. They called back 5 minutes later and said 'go ahead' explaining that they were our code in the computer, but had to print them out under another. Man, I am just too quick this year! They printed up some more and I should get the new ones in the mail today. Sent out emails and went to the Classified Staff meeting. Had to get my sheet and almost have that ready to turn in. I'm missing some 'classified staff memo' that I'm supposed to have and have read. So I've requested it. Sent another email to our office manager to order our magazines for the year - she usually does that in July, but with the bond work she hasn't done it yet and our subscriptions are starting to run out, so I gently hinted at it and she said she was working on it!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Getting There

Getting down to the last few classes coming in for check out. Asked for some more chemistry books today and noticed that the report in the new system says we have 421 books while we really only have 330! Something isn't right there...so I emailed our textbook person and Mr. C and they will check it out in the morning. Checked in and out books, did my mandatory training and got 100% on the test, so I sent that in to my supervisor. Got out all the teacher magazine subscriptions that came in over the summer and started to work on the library copies. Transferred off 10 Anatomy and Physiology books to Early College HS. Also got a call from our head of curriculum and he may have some takers for the Conceptual Physics books! Huzzah!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Huzzah!

Wore in my rennaisance faire outfit today since I'll be off to The Shrewsbury Faire this weekend and had fun telling the kids about it! But, still checked out books. Caught a few teachers before we ran out of books and had them check out class sets so they'd have enough for the rest of their classes - glad to be on top of that rather than the 'oh, we're all out'. So now the kids will have the books in class at least and most also have them online as well. Got my desk almost all cleared off and the back room is nearly totally unpacked and things back where they belong. Did repairs on five AP English books so we can get them checked out on Monday since kids have been added to classes. Had the books, but they were falling apart and I wanted to be careful with them. Tried to start the Mandatory Training but never got around to it, so I will have to do it Monday, or at least next week sometime. Still have classes coming in on Monday so we got all set up for that. Figured out how to put books into repair catagory. Checked out some library books and helped a student who needed two sets of books, one here and one for at home. Had our art teacher try to sand off the stamping on the physics books and he did a great job, but you can still see the marks from sanding - drats! Have an idea for my bulletin board since I haven't done that yet either! But things are falling into place and school goes on!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Catching Up

Today was a bit better, got a lot caught up - all the classroom sets got out which was good until a teacher came at the last minute today and asked for two sets. Lost my Thursday check out sheet, but that wasn't until late in the day, so we got through it all right! Most of it was out anyways! Processed in the Financial Algebra books so they'll be ready first thing in the morning for Mrs. K. Went in early and prepared the order for the correct Conceptual Physics books. Went to Mr. S and he said he knew all about it, go ahead and order, so I had the paperwork with me, he signed it and I handed it to our office manager to order. Got approval to add a few more books onto the American Pageant order. Checked out books all day. All in all, a good day, the program seems to be running fine, found out that we are better off just calling a school for the books we need rather than the LMSS office, I think our liason is a bit overwhelmed at the moment, and needs some time to catch up himself.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Workout

Got in some new information today on the Conceptual Physics books - turns out the NASTA edition is just a college edition that's been bound  to stand up to high school use. So, I learned something new today. Looks like we can only sell the $80 books back for $21 a piece since I stamped them, wow. I'm still just sick about it. So, I'm seeing if someone else in the district could use them rather than take a $60 loss per book (we have 120). The rest of the day I just cranked out books, showing our aides how to get books to put out for kids to check out, filling the class set orders, putting more books on tables and getting set up for tomorrow. *sigh* I hope something works out with these.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Host of Misunderstandings

Yes, I now have 120 stamped books that the science department wants sent back and to get a new set that is the previous printing. *Sigh* It would figure that I'd already stamped them so it will be pulling teeth to get them sent back. Made some calls, sent some emails. Took down some old signage on the bulletin boards, but don't have time to put up anything else at the moment. Got all the schedules set for tomorrow and have the first few periods all set out and ready to be picked up. Started to check out some class sets and the new Destiny program is running great. Getting ready for the long haul tomorrow!

Friday, August 31, 2012

Yesterday...

Totally blitzed off doing this yesterday! So this is August 30th - Thursday! Worked with our tech who solved our barcode '0' problem and it looks as if we'll be ready for the kids to check out next week! That was a big load off my mind. Thank you Eric! Had four boxes of books brought in over the summer and made sure they were all cleared in Trac-it (thank you Eric again for letting us have that back for a few weeks to clear books like that) and then checked them into the new Destiny program. There were some 'billed' books in there, so I printed off the books and the students and took those to our bookkeeper so she can clear their bill. Also had parents and students bringing in books as well throughout the day. Took a bunch of stuff over to LMSS for them to barcode and picked up four very important barcodes for our Spanish teachers to have for prep work over the weekend and they were very happy to have those brand new books to take home. Started to stamp and barcode the new Conceptual Physics books and got most of the rest of the boxes out of the way so we don't trip over anything. Mrs. M helped me with the laminator to move it and put it on a new rolling cabinet in the back by my desk since we don't have the teacher workroom anymore. I moved the Channel One TV, DVD player and cable box over onto another table. Busy day and we're now ready for Tuesday!  Actually for today, I did send out a staff email for textbook checkout times for next week and already have over 30 responses - I'll open them on Tuesday ;)

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Teacher Materials, Done!

Got all the teacher materials all loaded onto the shelving today so I felt very good about that! Had a meeting over at Broadway Commons for our Job-A-Like day and got some good information about the new system and what they are doing to help us out. Sent over on a fax some title pages and the page behind them so they can get barcoded. Even though I did them right before we left in June, they didn't transfer over, so they need new barcodes and the teachers need them tomorrow! So hopefully, I can go over and pick them up and get them to the teachers before we leave on the four day break before school starts. Helped Mrs. H in her new office (Mr. B's old tech office) and broke down a lot of boxes, helped redesign the back room and right as we were getting ready to leave, a whole stack of books shows up!! More stuff to do tomorrow!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Home Sweet Home!

Back home at Sprague today! Huzzah for the Olys! But our library with its beautiful blue and green walls was painted over all white - Arrgghhh! We will paint again! I spent the day unpacking our teacher resources and got through Business, English, Math and most of Science. I promised that I'd have everything ready for check out tomorrow by 1pm and we have a meeting from 9-11am! Our new textbook program was giving me a bit of a problem, so hopefully we'll get it settled down and ready for check out for teachers tomorrow and get some books barcoded. I helped a lot of our new teachers today and Mrs. H and Mrs. M did some redesigning of the furniture and it looks good! New carpet, and a new tile walkway into the 'green' computer lab. Eight hours in, fifteen to go for this week. Good to be home :)

Friday, August 24, 2012

Reading

So today we read shelves all day. It just takes time and I got from 110's through the 541.48's before I was done with my seven hours for the day to finish off my hours for the week. Mrs. M got all the Everybody picture books done and finished off the Fiction. Our two lovely LMSS helpers worked with me on the non-fiction, but there's still a lot to do for the assistant who will be there starting Monday, but we got a lot done. Off for the weekend and back to Sprague on Tuesday! Huzzah!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Cesar Chavez

12,000 books were unloaded and put on shelves today at the new Cesar Chavez school in northeast Salem - Whew! We had some incredible help from volunteers, and though we didn't get everything read like at Battle Creek on Tuesday, we will get that all done hopefully tomorrow! Another eight hours down, seven to go for this week.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Battle Creek

Today we met at the new elementary school just two blocks from my house and worked a hard eight hours to get all the books set into their library. We had at least 4 pallets of boxes and got them all unloaded, sorted, put on the shelves and even had time to 'read' the shelves to make sure that they were all in order. We had some fabulous help and got done more than we thought we would! A great day and an amazing new library!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Follett

Yeah! I really am excited to be back at work and today we had a training for the new Follett textbook program that was purchased. It was a good day and we all had a lot of questions and got some answers to the most pressing question - how do I check in/out and what do I do if the internet goes down??? Our trainer was a very nice lady and I'll be ready when we get back into Sprague next week.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Reading List 2011-2012 School Year

  • Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King - What a great tale woven through the story of Filippo Brunelleschi and how the great cathedral in Florence built it's massive dome, unheard of for that time. I was walking by the TV one day while my husband was watching the DIY network and a guy walked by wearing a shirt that said 'Brunelleschi Construction' and when he turned around, there was a picture of the dome on the front! Turns out they have a connection with Florence, Italy and do restoration work on the east coast as well as other things! Who knew?!
  • Mastiff by Tamora Pierce - So sad that Beka is done with, at least for now. I devoured all three of these and was so brought up short by the betrayal in this last book. In this concluding story, Beka and Achoo are on the trail of a kidnapped prince. Well done.
  • Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce - Couldn't wait to read the second Beka Cooper book and it was amazing. Just as good as the first! On to the third!
  • Fledgling Days by Emma Ford - I almost got into falconry once and picked this up. Emma knew from an early age that she wanted to live with a hawk on her fist and out in the country. She made her dream a reality and this book encompasses that first love up to meeting her husband and establishing the British School of Falconry in 1982. Today she and Steve run the school at Gleneagles in Scotland.
  • The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver - Nice take on the demon trapping trade. Riley's dad was a demon trapper and his daughter wants to follow in his footsteps. Holy Water, good looking guys and a world government crumbling around her, Riley learns there's more to trapping than a good cup of hot cocoa.
  • The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell - nice retelling of the Arthurian legend by one of his followers who is now a monk and relates how he sees the coming of Arthur. Very enjoyable.
  • Terrier by Tamora Pierce. Fabulous! Beka Cooper is one Puppy that just won't let things go. She hears the whispers of the dead who ride the city's pigeons and the wind devils that pick up the tidbits of conversation of the passerby's. These lead her to two great wrongs happening in the city. With her two Dogs she goes hunting for answers and retribution.
  • Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg. The tiny island of Saint Kilda sits as a last outpost on the far Outer Hebrides of Scotland. A small group of people made a life there for many centuries. This is from a missionary journal in the 1800's about the people and life there - a historical fiction. I've been happening onto books about the Hebrides and this one was a real insight into how they managed to live in such starkness.
  • The Naming by Alison Croggon - Very nice fantasy that for me was a bit too reminescent of Lord of the Rings (Pellinor is a quadrilogy), but still a good read. Maerad is rescued from a tiny cot by a Bard.
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - this was a fabulous book for anyone who loves good nonfiction. Science, family, ethics and an entire culture (ha!) about how one woman's cells opened up the whole modern era of cell research. Read it!
  • Lament by Maggie Stiefvater - Young harpist Dierdre meets with a flutist, Luke who can not help drawing her into the world of faerie since he loves her and will risk losing his soul for her.
  • Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay - Wow. Romeo killed Juliet to become immortal and she became immortal as well. Now they've spent centuries battling each other, her to help those in true love, him to get their lives. Oh my, what a ride!
  • The Falconer's Knot by Mary Hoffman - fun little book after Galileo and I enjoyed it!
  • Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel - this got to be quite the slog towards the end for me, but having it based on the letters written to him by his daughter who was in a convent was a different take on his life. Daily happenings along with all the hoopla of his life. Back to fantasy!
  • Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip - I really love her writing! This was a modern tale not quite the fantasy she usually writes, but still had some beautiful pieces in there. A live and learn story.
  • Shackleton's Stowaway by Victoria McKernan - What a fabulous book! I truly had my eyes opened to the story of Antartic expeditions and the tale of the men from the Endurance. Well told with diary entries interspersed with the story of their survival. Highly recommended!
  • Airborn by Kenneth Oppel - Seemed to start a little slow for me, but things picked up and I was captivated by the Cloud Cats.
  • The Captain's Dog by Roland Smith - the journey of Lewis and Clark through the eyes of Lewis' Newfoundland dog who accompanied them. A nice slice of history.
  • Incarceron by Catherine Fisher - I've wanted to read this for a long time and really enjoyed it. Finn is certain that the closed prison of Incarceron is not where he started from and Claudia's father is the warden. Once they meet using a mysterious key, they must find a way to come together. Really well done.
  • Seasons on Harris by David Yeadon - I want to move to Harris! This was extremely well done and I actually also looked up some of the artists and fell in love with James Hawkins' art. Wish I could afford a piece or two!
  • The Scorpio Races - by Maggie Stiefvater - what a ride - I absolutely fell in love with this book - horses, fabulous characters, that time clock ticking that so many threads of this story are tied to - I actually cried when I got to the end because that's what happens when you've fallen in love with a book and all the words and the endings all happen in the perfect way and then it's over and you want to go on. Absolutely lovely.
  • No Vulgar Hotel by Judith Martin - Another book on Venice and I've discovered I'm a Venetophile.
  • The Venetian Empire by Jan Morris - quite the romp around the Mediterranean finding the bits and pieces of Venetian history - I like learning my history this way!
  • Firehorse by Diane Lee Wilson - Interesting tale of a horse that worked the old horse drawn water trucks in early Boston. Well researched and partly pulled from a diary of a young 14 year old girl from that era and place.
  • Divine Sex by Philos Thelos - all right, so if God didn't forbid it, it's all good. Mind numbing and I wish if the author was so certain of his theology he'd fess up to who he is...
  • The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint - Grace died and wonders why she's like a captive in her neighborhood - along with others who have died in that same area. A tale of love after death and still making a difference on the way to faith. Another fabulous urban fantasy by the master!
  • Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton - Great personal memoir of Ryan going slowly blind. He is synically hysterical and though I'm pretty empathic, I learned quite a bit from this. It gave me a greater understanding. Thank you Ryan.
  • Forest of Secrets by Erin Hunter - the third of the Warrior series and Fireheart really takes his place in Thunderclan. These 3 were a present from my kids for Christmas and I was glad to get them all done!
  • The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip - I love the way Patricia weaves a story with rich words and intertwining phrases. Phelan Cle finds the future and the past in the Circle of Days and the discovery of the unforgiven bard.
  • Fire and Ice by Erin Hunter - the continuing saga of Fireheart and his life among Thunderclan.
  • Into the Wild by Erin Hunter - The first tale of Fireheart, the kittypet that decides to join a clan of feral cats.
  • The Last Season by Eric Blehm - Randy Morgenson was a back country ranger for 28 years in Sequoia Kings Canyon National Parks. Well told tale of his life unfolds as searchers try to find out what happened to Randy one summer. Made me appreciate our park rangers even more than I already do.
  • Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox - One of Mrs. H's favorite books. The stories of Lynne as she uses her long distance swimming skills to bring people together. A wonderful lady.
  • The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs - I enjoyed this immensely! He did a great job of balancing religion with the real world and quite a few hysterical laughs as well! I'd recommend it!


Friday, June 22, 2012

So Long!

All my hours are in and I even finished up that cart of books! See you in late August!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

One Cart

So yesterday I took the massive 400 (all those tiny 1/8 inch thick kids paperbacks) or so books on a cart to get ready for the new school and, ah, didn't quite get it all done today. Had to peel off massive amounts of labels that someone had stuck on and that took a bit of time. Just 3 hours left and I'm done for the summer :)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Battle Creek

Finished off three schools of books today and did all the laminating for them, boxed them up as well! Then we finally got to work on the piles of carts for the new school :D These books are repurposed, from other schools for one reason or another (like had two, only need one, etc...) and will go to the new school, so I ended the day working on a cart making sure the new labels were on the spines that needed new ones and placing the new 'Battle Creek' barcode labels on the back of the books! So exciting!!

Titanicat

Tuesday - 19th - Got to play with new books today as we needed to rush out an order of 20 copies of Titanicat to a school and their summer program. Who knew that Titanic had a cat? I was amazed! Finished up the encyclopedia's for the new schools and kept processing in books for other schools.

Monday, June 18, 2012

LMSS

Worked 8 hours today putting spine labels and barcodes on books over at LMSS. I figure I should have all my hours in by Friday at noon and be done for the summer! Got to put some of the spine labels and barcodes on the encyclopedias for the new school just two blocks from my house, so that's pretty cool!

Friday, June 15, 2012

1....and Done

School is closed as of 3pm today! Went into work early and by the time we left for the LMSS end of year meeting, we wouldn't have to go back to the school. Mr. R applauded us for the way we got all the clean out done and that he was moving on to Klamath Falls to be principal there. We also had a few others leaving and good-byes were said. The LMSS meeting was nice (though I got lost on the way there and turned around on the way home!) and a good way to end the year since no one lost their job this year. I have about 34.5 hours to go and I'm done for this school year, so off to LMSS on Monday to get that done! Good-bye Sprague! See you all pretty and dudded up in August!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

2...

My fabulous helpers today got through all the billed reports I ran and though we didn't find much, we did find a few things. Packed up my desk, all but a few things I will take home for the summer and will need immediately when we get back. Opened up the new Realidades 3 and barcoded the teacher text along with a few other items. Helped Mrs. H work on cleaning up our missing books list from the library and found just about all the items on my page - we had connection problems at times and I think the computer just dropped them when she was doing them, so they are now in. Stuffed things in cubby holes around and about trying to fit everything in, got our last set of surplus books taken away today (thank you Garten!!!) and cleaned out the last of our old shelving that was just laying around in various nooks and crannies (some teachers came and took a bunch - yeah!). Mr. C came by to remind us about the lunch tomorrow so we will head up for that and hopefully, the building will be cleared and we won't have to come back that afternoon. The gates are up on the road, boxes are being carted off to storage, computers dismantled, what an effort, but needed and it'll be like a new school when we return.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

3...

Set up people to go through our 'still out' list of books and we found a lot that had been out and some students and parents came in with books as well, so I feel good about turning over lists to Kim when we leave for billing. Then I had my crew work on the 'already billed' books, just to see if we could pick up a few that had gotten missed. All around, a great day. We had packers show up today and work on packing up what we hadn't done yet, so lots got done! Almost got our magazine orders ready for the summer and will turn those in tomorrow. Two more days in Sprague, then out of there until August 29th! The days go turning by!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

4...

More books in today, but not near enough. Usually I am deluged by the tsunami of books that rush to shore at the last moment, and today, just a ripple or two of no account. One student still had eight books at home! I asked if she realized today was her last day of school. Yep.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Countdown 5...

Five days and we are out of Sprague! Still have 3600 textbooks or so to collect as of last count today. Way too many for tomorrow being the last day of school. Basically worked on textbooks all day. Checking in, clearing the ones that had been billed. Billing others that have damage. Did process in five magazines, but they will just go into boxes for now and be available for check out when we come back.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Graduation

Graduation is tonight and I'm looking forward to seeing all our seniors graduate! Hopefully the weather will cooperate because we are out on the football field, rain or shine. I hear 50% chance of rain and perhaps thunder showers, so it may get interesting! Just slogged through books today, we're down below 5K at this point and had a couple of seniors come in and really work hard on putting stuff away for us this afternoon. We are very grateful to them!!! I also got a hero moment. One of our teachers unexpectedly left and had borrowed something from a different teacher we didn't know about. While they cleaned out his room, they did find the book and I put it into surplus. It was old, withdrawn and from another school. Turns out the teacher still here needed to return it, so I checked boxes packed for surplus and there it was. She was very grateful :)

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Rewarding

Came in early so I could get some things done before the Senior Awards Ceremony. It was very nice! One of our favorite kids gave a speech, and we saw a lot of students get awards of some kind or another. It was very wonderful! More books in all day, but the good news is that all the carts were clear when I left tonight. Tomorrow finals start, so I will be in early!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Filling

Yep. We are filling up the shelves! Seniors had their last day today, but come back tomorrow for awards and Friday for graduation, so they turned in a lot of books today! So, checked in books and put books away - all the ones turned in today are on their shelves peacefully sleeping until August 29th. Still lots to go, but today made a good dent.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Conceptual

Been working with Mr. D on getting some Conceptual Physics books, so I did a lot of research, number crunching, checking our different suppliers on the specific items he wants to use for that. Took in a lot of books today, put away a lot of books, found miss shelved books again. 
June 4th - Worked in the back mostly getting things ready for the big push - seniors are done Wednesday so we must be ready. Checked in a lot of books and shelved. 
June 1st - I finished boxing things up in the back. Boxed up all but two shelves in the back so I could turn the other books - I have 91 boxes now! 

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Rows

Lots more packing today, I nearly have another whole row. All the metal shelves are now packed (except for a few stragglers) and started to take a row from the world languages/math shelves so I could turn the other rows so they don't project over the end of the shelf. Getting things about done back there, only about 11 working days to go until we're out of there.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

More books...

Starting to see cart loads come in from teachers, had three cartfuls come in I checked in and put away. A box of surplus books came in from a teacher's room she had culled them from. Packed up more books. Had a student bring in a replacement book and he had purchased a paperback edition of just the first half of the book! So we went through his list and I gave him all the correct ISBN numbers so he'll be sure to get the right books to replace the ones that got stolen. He also wants to donate his novels to replace the two novels he owes us, so we'll see what Mrs. H says. I worked on our book list in Trac-it. We have several catagories of subjects that deal with World Languages, so I had to retag them all to World Languages and it looks a whole lot better. Processed in three magazines for us and two for teachers.

Come on Down

Tuesday the 29th - More books coming back today - processed in 4 magazines for the library. Packed up more teacher resources and got almost done with the first set of shelves. Put away books as well.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Visitors!

A cheery "Mrs. Willer, you have visitors!" rings out from Mrs. H and yes! My son and daughter-in-law and two adorable granddaughters come across the library! I'm so glad they came to visit :D I went around to a couple of places with them and showed my oldest granddaughter how many books we had in the back! We had fun! Other than that, I packed up 24 boxes of teacher materials today and processed in a magazine, checked in and out some books and am ready for Memorial Day weekend!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Evacuated

Today after the assembly, we had a small explosion in one of the trash cans on campus. To be sure there were no others, our principal decided to go ahead and close school for the rest of the day while they swept the building and grounds. We spent quite a bit of time out at the football stadium while they made decisions. After the students were gone, they told staff that they were reasonably certain that we would be safe here, but anyone that felt they needed to could go and work at home. I stayed and packed up our teacher materials. 16 boxes are all packed and I cleared off two sections of shelving on the metal movable shelves they are on. 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Like a Squirrel

I hoarded today. All the books on top of our depository are now all safely bedded down for the summer. Didn't have to give any away though I still shifted some shelves today. I have snuck those books into cubbies and crannies and they may have to come out next fall, but for today, I'm rather pleased with my squirrelyness! I hope I can hunt them down in the fall and they won't go to seed! (Since some of them are horticulture books, it may just happen!) Cleaned off the top of the shelves so that all the empty boxes are on one shelftop now and just a few Baker and Taylor boxes on another. Got all the Life magazines down and a bunch of magazine holders out for teachers to take if they choose (though I did keep some for us). Processed in six magazines for us and two for teachers this morning too! Called a mom to say that no, the book they had paid for is still missing, but if it shows up they will get a refund. Got all the yearbooks put away and bedded down for the summer as well (except for four that I'm plundering to get two good ones out of the four cut up ones.).

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Shift

Sometimes you just know you shouldn't ask! I asked the math head if she still wanted to keep 249 Analysis books and she said 'sure!' so now I have to find room for them all! So I spent the day shifting over the FuncStatTrig books, then all the Foundations of Algebra books and relabeling shelves - which they all needed anyway, so hopefully tomorrow I'll shift the Calculus then have room for the Analysis. I already made room for the spanish version of the Foundations books. I had some of them on top of the shelves and everything on top needs to go for the bond projects this summer. Got some boxes to start packing up teacher resources too!

Monday, May 21, 2012

999

Well, or at least very close to that. Mrs. H decided to get rid of all the old 2010 and 2011 magazines so we don't have to pack them for the summer, so I withdrew 999 (+/-) magazines out of Insignia today! Whew! Got done at the very last of the day and sent an email to teachers to come and pick them up, or they will get recycled in a week. This will give them a chance to get magazines for their rooms. We will still keep the 2012 issues and rebuild!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Inventory

Today I pretty much finished up working on the inventory we did during the AP testing. I checked over the sheets. Found a few errors like, a Prentice Hall Literature Gold was actually tagged as a Platinum edition! Straightened up the stacks and had to label some stacks that I'd never done before and reconfigured some others since we had new books added to some sets. A good day and a piece of cake from leftovers from the meeting the night before!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Cleaning Up

Spent most of today cleaning up the back from the stuff we had back there during AP testing. Lots of notes laying around that got taken care of. We had another school request Brave New World a month ago, so I asked the teacher to return copies. None have really come in, so I looked at his schedule and saw that the class that was using it was just about done for the day, so I raced down there and knocked on the door and pleaded for five more copies so the school could get them in, and voila! I walked away with five copies! I called immediately and the textbook librarian over there actually drove over to pick them up. I was so happy that we finally got that together for them. It had been crazy with AP testing going on. Had one of our aides look for all the shelving we have scattered all over the back and he piled them up for us. Processed in a bunch of magazines and got them out. Checked in three class sets of books today so I hope our 'books out' numbers are going to start heading down! Worked on the inventory sheets that Mrs. M worked on and listed books that were supposed to be in as 'lost.' Still have a lot to do. Mrs. H also decided to get the old magazines out the door instead of keeping them since they will all have to be packed, so with the table now all clean, I can start withdrawing all the 2010 and 2011 copies and put them out for teachers to use in their classes. We hardly ever use the old copies, so it is a good call.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Proctoring

Today Mrs. H called and asked if I could come in a little later and finish up proctoring an AP test since she had to leave early, so I did. Worked in the library for a little bit since we were open. I checked our Professional Library from the books we pulled on Monday and cleared that whole subject out of Trac-it. Checked in books and had to reorganize a shelf since a teacher that usually keeps her class set turned them in! But I finally made them all get in the space since there was no where to go forward or back. Pulled the yearbooks that were good for the archive set in the back. Got a lot of them and then looked at the ones I had doubles of to see if one that had a bad page, maybe the other had a good page and I could flip the page over to make a whole good one. Processed in about four teacher magazines and four for us. Boxed up more surplus books. I had about 15 minutes of proctoring I got to do when Mrs. H left. I got to tell them they had 10 minutes left and then collect the tests and turn them in. It went really well. I've never done it before and the importance of the tests and what it means to the students made it amazing to be there.

Personal Day

Today was a day off. My son, his lovely wife and two granddaughters arrived from Italy. He's been stationed in the army there for three years. We hadn't yet held our newest granddaughter, 7 months old and hadn't seen older sister for over a year. Seeing them walk down the corridor from customs was the best sight I've seen in ages. No question where I had to be today, with family.

Early

Monday the 14th - We were closed all day again today. We did a lot more cleaning out. Mrs. H and I cleaned out the Professional Library. No one really uses them, so it was time to clean them out. I also gleaned out some old paperwork. I kept some of the more recent things, but all the rest went into the recycled paper bin. Packed up more books for suplus.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Sequestered

Today the library was fully used by the AP Testing, so we were all in the back working. Mrs. M did an amazing job knocking off the inventory of books in. I worked with Mrs. H on cleaning stuff out. Took in batteries so I could test remotes for equipment we have and found quite a few! The rest are in the 'free' pile. Cleaned out boxes stacked in places, took cardboard to the recycler bin, filled a whole pushcart bin with stuff to throw away and leafed through most of the old yearbooks to see which ones were all in one piece and which were cut up. So funny to start running into teachers who started here in 1983 and how they looked then! Mrs. H also found an original copy (we think) of the land deed to Sprague from 1934! It looked pretty authentic to Mrs. H and I! She took it to Mr. S, our principal and he is going to take it to the district legal/archive/important things people to make sure it's all good!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Purge!

Got one of the back rooms all cleaned out today and after the tech crew went through the boxes of cords and techie what nots, we tossed it in the purge dumpster. Got stuff up on shelves in the back. The last of the Principles of Technology Unit 1 and the new Algebra Connections Supplements all found a home on the shelves. I also went through all our yearbooks and organized them by years. Some only have one for a year, others had up to five copies! When we got back into the library I ran the rest of the inventory reports and checked the barcodes on the remotes. Checked out the list of books to a teacher that Mrs. M had just hand written them out to him before I got in. Went to my Thursday morning meeting and those are now over for now. The tech guys just need to do some tweaking on the program, but otherwise it's just about ready to go. We had a former student/library aide stop by today who joined the Navy and it was so good to see him! Mrs. M and I both gave him a big hug, he looks so much more mature since December - they have done him well!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

ER

Had to leave early today because my hubby had to go to the ER! His boss called and asked if I'd come and get him and by the time I got over there, he had called the ambulance and they were just taking him away - he is fine, and the office staff were wonderful, shooing me off to be there for my hubby. Worked in the back all morning, getting stuff pulled from the back room, recycling, taking things to the techies to see what they want to keep and putting other things up for grabs. Turned in the order to get new Realidades 3 books.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

AP Testing

Well, only for the second part of the day. We had to close the library at 11am so they could get set up for the AP Art History test. I ran reports all morning to do inventory in the back, and put a bunch of stuff back there to work on once we had to depart the library. Mrs. M and I brought in treats for the classified staff meeting and it was her turn to attend, so I let her and helped Mrs. H get things ready. After the kids came in, we retreated to the back and started to clear out all the cabinets in the back workroom that will be converted over to the Oly store in the fall. We recycled and took some stuff to put in the 'purge' dumpster, only to not find it! They had taken it to dump Friday and not brought the new one in yet! So, at least we got out of the building and enjoyed a brief moment in the sun. I found a bunch of remotes and some that had barcodes on them so I will check them to see if they are still valid or not and if they work on any of our current machines. Got in the pricing on Realidades 3 books and need to find the class counts to decide on how many we will puchase. Got another publisher to send us some trial resources for Conceptual Physics that a couple of teachers want to use next year. Packed up three more boxes of magazine holders for another school and got them out to be picked up and sent over. A great day, a lot done, going home well satisfied.

Forgotten

Monday the 7th - Totally forgot to post yesterday, just too busy after a great weekend out camping in our new trailer! But I did manage to get to work :) Went in early since there was a staff meeting in the afternoon and the library would be closed. Worked on clearing out my shelves of books at my desk to be loaded onto shelves in the depository - and can I get a big 'Halleluah?' *cups hand to ear* 'Ah, thought so!' Yes, all my repair pile is gone, put away and there are no more books waiting on the shelf and the record of who's waiting for repairs is all empty! That is the most exciting news! There were books on there I just didn't want to tackle, that are now tackled and done with! Checked in and out books and redid my bulletin board of books out and how much they cost. Another early day tomorrow!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Came in to find some teachers had left materials in the back that they were cleaning out, so I went through them and checked in, withdrew (old old books), and cleaned out notebooks recycling them and setting out the empty notebooks for any that needed some and some were taken last I looked! I feel good reusing things like the blank sheets between transparencies - the kids can use that for scratch paper instead of the new computer printer paper, all the paper out of the notebooks went into recycling, cardboard and some heavy paper I will keep for book repair - a good haul all in all :) Processed in six magazines for the library and checked in and out books all day, did a few little repair jobs here and there.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

A Day

Today we learned that our student with pancreatic cancer passed away last night - a beautiful girl, just 17 who loved the life she had. We had counselors in the library for the first half of the day for anyone that needed it. My meeting this morning was cancelled and since I was at home, I drove all the way downtown (15 min.) to find out I just needed to turn around and go to school. Did some repairs today, checked out books. Cleaned off my desk from all the repairs - I think I only have about 5 books to go! Packed up another box of magazine holders for an elementary school and packed up more surplus books. Sent out my response for the inventory to our inventory team and Mr. C thought I did a good job of answering the questions raised. Getting ready for AP testing for next week when we won't have access to the library and need to just work in the back so we think we'll pack up surplus equipment and inventory our books.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

9 Boxes

That's right, shipped out 9 boxes of magazine holders to other schools today and we still have a hundred or so that we can send out. I hope more ask tomorrow! Worked on the Conceptual Physics books - the rep sent me a link to the high school version, so that's good! Just need to see if the lab manual works with that too, or if there's a high school lab manual we need to get instead. Didn't hear from the Realidades people, so hopefully tomorrow we will. Mrs. H and Mrs. M finally realized I had snuck my birthday past them and today I came in to some presents and a hat that said "Yes, we forgot your birthday!" then they both put on hats that said "Sorry!" on them, it was funny! Then they treated me to a Subway sandwich for lunch :) Checked in and out books here and there, cleared off a billed book. Worked with Mrs. H on some electronic books and sent out some answers to the inventory program I've been helping with to one of our tech crew here in the building.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Lost

Worked on some repairs today, processed in six magazines for the library and one for teachers. Checked out Of Mice and Men. Packed up West's Fahrenheit 451 they had lent since we won't be using them after all and a few other books of theirs that we had as well. Worked some more on the Conceptual Physics books and contacted the publisher to see if they had a high school version. Contacted another rep to see about ordering the Realidades 3 books to go with our 1 and 2 books. Mrs. H had to leave at 2 for an appointment so I kept the library open until my time and was very busy. My sad part of the day was declaring 'lost' the books that were still checked out to two students, one who has already left this world and one that is holding on by the slimmest threads. We didn't feel comfortable asking the families at this time to return books, so by declaring them lost, they are still in the system, but the families won't be billed for anything inadvertently. We talked with our bookkeeper and will ask the counselors to advise us on what to do.