The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

End of May

What a great end to the month! Pouring over the books Sprague deleted then sent to me to see what I wanted/needed and it was so much fun! Some I took, some I had, but looked at the condition of the one I had on the shelf to see if the one from Sprague was better or worse and if the one from Sprague was better, I had a 'swap' out pile. I would take my book that was worse, make a new barcode, then put that barcode over the nicer Sprague withdrawn barcode. I had a great time! Going through those four boxes of books took well into the afternoon. I had to do two book talks today. Have been getting in lots of lost books which makes me really happy. Talked with our PA about what to do with the Leslie Library after they computer lab is gone. He liked my idea and told me to go ahead and pitch it to my principal, so I did that. Then I also contacted one of our technology people to see if they would support the Span Wall if that was something we would seriously think of doing. So, the ball is rolling and we'll see where it stops! Hopefully with a new library set up!!

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Bits Here and There

Really kind of a quiet day filled with lots of little things going on here and there. Worked on a new set of library lunch passes since the ones I just made are quickly disappearing. Helped out teachers with items. Worked a bit on the PowerPoint I made and got a response from our PA that it looked good to him and we need to talk about it and fitting that in with some of the other things they have going on with technology and STEAM for the district. Had an interesting time with some students that looked like they had refunds coming. Emailed our Destiny guru and she asked some questions, we responded (our bookkeeper and I) and there is definitely some issues going on with the communication between our accounting and the textbook program! We are glad that will be looked into! Did some laminating. Put a barcode on a replacement book. Made some more book reviews for our folder. Accepted an appointment for my yearly review. Lots of little things going on today!

Friday, May 26, 2017

Dream Big

Today I only worked a little bit on my books because I got swept up in other things. The school district made a decision to let go of all book and textbook fines for the students that are going on to 9th grade. That's a ton of money at a time when we are looking at a reduced budget for the next two years. So the middle schools all got together and created a spreadsheet of how many library books would be waived and then how many textbooks would be waived and the cost of all that, just for the middle schools. Mine alone came to about $6K and we have eleven middle schools. That's a ton of money. Then I started to work on getting a PowerPoint together of getting in a Span Wall in the library. I need to get the picture off this web page here (!) for a slide. Then did a drawing of the library and how it's arranged now with my Envisioned Library! We are all losing our computer labs over the summer, so they are looking at what to do with that space, so I drew it all out (I am no architect draftsperson!!) and gave a timeline for things to do, and how to go about my idea! Then I wrote down some great reasons why, statistics on library use - we only used the table area of the library about 30% of the time this year. If we had the Span Wall??? I bet it would be in use all the time!! I am really excited about it! Though I doubt it will happen, I can still ask and show the benefits! Three day weekend!

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Fondling

I spent a lot of time with my new books today. They were so cute! I sat up at the front desk and put strips in, put in their due date slips with the 'New - 5/2017' 'Diversity Grant' and Leslie Due Date. Then I went into their records and recorded in the copy notes that they were "Diversity Grant Spring 2017". Then I took scrap paper (8.5x11 cut in 4th's) with what their diversity was on it. Then Mrs. H from Sprague came with 4 boxes of books she cleaned out of her library and were appropriate for middle school, so I got in 4 more boxes of books! Most in excellent shape!! Can't wait to fondle them tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Overdue/Lost Notices

That's what I spent all my time on today. Printing them up, then seeing when and with who the students had their Language Arts classes. There were about 400+ so yeah, that took up most of my day. Sorted them into teacher piles, then sorted those by periods. Delivered them up to the teacher boxes for handing out tomorrow and sent an email to the teachers to let them know that's why they had piles of papers in their mailboxes! But the best part of the day was when I was nearly finished, the last of my grant books arrived!!! 33 of them!!! So after I finished up the notices, I checked in all the books, checked them against my grant list and fondled them for the last 20 minutes or so of my day. Pure bliss!!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Lost Books

So I have a grand total today of 345 lost books. That's after I sorted through the list, took out teacher and just concentrated on student books. So, not too bad. And the grand total of found books was 18! That's more than I thought I'd find. So, some kids will be very happy! I also found two Avatar books that had swapped barcodes. When I looked for two of them lost, one number came up, but for a different title. I pulled them all and went through until I found the other one with the swapped barcode and just printed new barcodes and put them on the right book! Took down my last two displays and put up a new ALA poster,  Greek Out - Read! Since our classes are doing their mythology unit. I also printed up some book covers to put around it. Put up the 'Reading Makes you Smile' on the Rene Telgemeier 'Smile' book and put up some inflatable happy face flowers around it. Did some laminating as well today. Cleaned up some shelving while I was looking around for lost books. A very good day! 4 weeks to go!

Monday, May 22, 2017

Some Lost are Found

Today I took up my handy lost books list at 500 strong and got to around #320 or so today. I think I found about 6 lost books, so not very many. Had two classes in to check out math books today and two classes in to check in/out library books. Checked in some country books for a teacher then checked her out others. Lots of walking from shelf to shelf looking for those books. Will hopefully finish tomorrow. Had three computer classes in using the library tables today too. 

Friday, May 19, 2017

Quiet

Was a pretty quiet day in the library. I did make some commemorative  bookmarks for my BOB students.  I was upset when I had put in an announcement fir them and it didn't get read. I called the office right away!! Those kids deserved it!! Now they have to wait until Monday.  Admittedly the office was swamped with teachers out today, but I was still angry that my announcement got missed. Three rest of the day was light, a few students in here and there. I actually did some reading! Got all the bits of math books put away. Also all the lit books.  Everything looked good,  computers all off, shades down, looked really nice. Off for the weekend, supposed to be nice!

Thursday, May 18, 2017

2nd Place Team Tacocat!!

I am so excited our district Battle of the Books team took 2nd place this afternoon over at Houck Middle School! I left school about 3:10 this afternoon and met them over at Houck. The battle started at 4pm and ended around 4:50! Everyone knew that the FBI team would win and I was thinking Tacocat had a good chance at 2nd or 3rd, but was so happy when they got 2nd!! They beat out the third place team by only 1 point! I am so proud of them! We had our final meeting during A lunch today and I had to do a bit of finagling for one of our students. His mom doesn't have a car, so she was going to come by the school using the bus, pull him out of class early, then they had to ride the bus all the way into downtown, then take another bus back out to Houck. A good couple of hours. Luckily, one of the other boys called and asked his dad if the other boy could ride over with them, and he said yes. What wonderful parents we have at our school! That was amazing on a nearly last minute notice! We battled ten other teams from around Salem, so I am very proud of their 2nd place finish! Had two classes in to check in/out books today. Did another math book set, I think we are getting about done. Did some laminating before I left today. A fairly quiet day in the library! Needed that! I even got to shush (!) students today while Ms. V had prospective students in today for an AVID presentation! I love my job!!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Breakage

Got back all our Mostly True Adventues of Homer P. Figgs books in this morning. There were about 25 of them all from different schools, so I had to check them all in, then out to the school they came from, then put each one into an in district mailer. That took time!! I had a whole copy paper box filled with envelopes. Glad for the lending though and pout a note on each book back that we were very grateful for the loan.  I get so excited when a box of books comes in! Huzzah! My order from Scholastic from the Book Fair arrived today and first things first, check them against the invoice. Then I took them and the other books that have come in that were donated and others, and prepped them all, stamping them with the Leslie stamp in three places each and writing up the books for a list to put in the carton with them. Did a bunch of deletions out of my emails today, the whole gone and dead. I had over 4,700 deleted emails, so I took time today to totally destroy some of those. Did two book talks today and checked in/out a classroom after one of them. Got another set of math books done and back on the shelf. At the end of 6th period today I hear this big thump and the students by our copier machine had slammed the door shut and it had knocked off the two all school pictures and they had dropped and broke the glass on both the pictures. What a mess. So I called the custodian to come and get that glass up. Luckily the glass was just by the wall and since we have carpet, it didn't go anywhere else. I think I'll just take the pictures and take them up to the office to see what they want to do with them.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The Rest

Went around today to the science rooms and poked and prodded around to try and find a bit of the 51 still missing books and no luck. Worked on cleaning up magazines from the library program this morning and got those all deleted, then had a few titles that asked if I wanted to delete them too. So I said yes. Ah, oh. That also deletes the MARC record and after a few emails our LMSS office guru called and I let her know that it was only about 6 magazine titles that no one else in the district had, and no, I didn't do that to any books! The copier went down and the tech called and asked me to try some things, but even though I got some of it reset, it still needed a technician. The rest of the day was pretty normal. I let students and staff know on announcements that they will have until June 5th to check out books and a few kids came to say they were happy with that. Checked in and out here and there. Had a lot of students in again today studying and getting work caught up. Let my textbook aides have the day off, they could just sit and read since they did fabulous with the inventory! Love my job! Took the surplus books and sent a box to LMSS.

Monday, May 15, 2017

99.1%

That's where we are with the textbook inventory. My aides have done an amazing job of getting that done! Over 5,600 books they ran through inventory! I went and picked up about 60 teacher resources that were in the back room after school was over today. There's only 51 books left to find! Now I just need to go around the school in the science rooms and see what I can find in them. Did another set of math books today. We are getting a new Follett for the library side for next year, so I did some checking that out from the information our PA sent out. The basics are just like our textbook side, so checking in and out should be about the same, just a bit different on how to search. The library was busy today, lots of people in and out, though no classes! 

Friday, May 12, 2017

Friday!

A great week! Got another couple of math books all in order and put away. Put strips in the new books I got and started to cover the paperbacks. Put away all the repairs I made and got those back out. Had two people bring me donated books. Put markers on the new books as to their diversity. Thinking about leaving them in the back until next fall so they'll be new for the students. 

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Numbers in Order

Today we got going on getting the math books back in numerical order. I started in the 6th grade books, put together my layout grid on the big workroom table (long horizontal rows for 100's - short vertical for the 10's) - there's usually around 300 books for each title. So I helped out 1st period since one of the aides was gone, then had 2nd period start the next title, then 3rd period got new math books ready for Ms. D for 3 periods doing the Kercheski method. Had two other classes come in and pick up their math books. Had 5th period do some more, then 6th period got started on another one, so we got through all the 6th grade books today! I had a student need to work off a lost book, so he started the 7th grade books. Laminated a few things today. Got in my first set of diversity books! So excited! Got in 22, 37 to go! It was a busy and very productive day! Huzzah!

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Repairs

I spent most of today working on the repairs I have on my shelf. Laminated some covers and the other things I had in my pile. Did some more book searching. Got some books ready for tomorrow. Sent off books back to their school that a teacher had. Repairs kept me pretty busy, helped out students here and there. Had a fire drill today, but that went pretty quickly. Did some more laminating.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Granddaughter Cuteness

I took in a picture of my granddaughters today and decided I really needed to clean up my 'pile of stuffs' I had in the corner of my desk. So I tossed some of them, put others away, repurposed some of the paper and then had a nice spot to put their picture! Did do a little bit of reading today, also did some book repair. Watched a webinar on new YA for summer 2017, then I started looking at grade levels of the books, realized that most of them were 9th grade and above, so I can't have them. Since I laminated yesterday, I didn't today. 

Monday, May 8, 2017

Student Reviews

Worked on getting my student aide reviews all printed up today and into our binder. Got in our two lit sets of The Outsiders to get to our teachers. Put up a new display of blue covers of books with a "Mrs. Willer, it had a blue cover..." and there were a lot. Found about 6 books I don't have in my side bar of reads! I knew there were a few, but not that many! Our custodian picked up all the VHS withdrawn stuff and took it out today. Put paper in the copier. Helped some kids make copies for teachers. Cut up some book marks off old book posters. Had two classes in to check out books. A good day. If I remember more, I'll add!

Friday, May 5, 2017

Power of Perception

Yesterday at our school all the students were required to watch a power point on diversity and what that means, so Ms. S asked me if I could do a talk on perceptions, so I did five books, Terrible Typhoid Mary,  Stella by Starlight, Positive, Please Stop Laughing at Me and Malala. I read selected pieces from each of the books and I think the students really appreciated it.

Mythology

This is actually Thursday - Got to give two book talks today on our mythology books. No Percy Jackson, but there are so many more books that are based off mythology. My favorite had to be Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. I actually took the time to read that book today, since it was a pretty short novella. Loved it! I also did a quick 'May the 4th Be With You' display with our Star Wars books. I also took over to LMSS 7 boxes of surplus books since that was the only way to get rid of them.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

VHS Gone

Today I worked on getting rid of all the VHS tapes I withdrew. I recycled the paper from the containers and cut the tapes so they couldn't be used again. I have four boxes of tapes and holders and a garbage bag full as well. Took a box from a VHS of a country and it had cards in it, with a little statue and a flag - went over to Ms. V and she loved them! So we had about five of those sets and I got all the pieces to her to use. She was pretty excited about them and couldn't wait to use them in a classroom. Glad I thought to show them to her! Did two book talks for a class and had to check in/out for one of them myself since I don't have aides that period. Finished reading Iqbal, very good story for the book talks. Sunny and warm, too warm! When I left today, 81 degrees by the car temp gauge! Wow! Maybe summer is on its way!

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Pass Out

I got an email from our assistant principal that I needed to make new lunch passes for the library. At the beginning of the year we had 40, and now we're down to 10! We usually get in more students than that because we all know who comes down and who doesn't, so I spent a good part of the afternoon making 23 new passes to go along with the 10 we still had. They didn't turn out too bad, but I didn't want to take anymore time with them. Had three classes in today to check out new math books. Took the science books up to the staff room for the rest of the teachers to take for their rooms. Found a better YA list to go with the books I have for my display. Worked on the books for my three very different presentations for the rest of the week. I nearly fell asleep reading over one of them! That can't be a good sign! A pretty quiet day none the less.

Monday, May 1, 2017

Jump Right In

Came in today and had a teacher ask for 4 sets of books! So I had my one aide help out and together we got 148 books all checked out and off to the teacher. Then I had my aide take the books up to the room. Had a ton of emails to troll through. Then we had a bit of a gnashing of teeth about our Outsiders books. I had four teachers all looking for class sets. I looked through the district books and found two kits for them to have as well. So I have three teachers covered, with almost another whole set, so I asked a teacher to get some back, so hopefully we'll be good. I did a display on our YA novels, since The Outsiders was considered to be the first YA novel, and it's 50 years this year! So that was interesting!