The View from the Leslie Library Windows

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

HeLa

Today we got in part of our Follett order so we have 40 reconditioned Prentice Hall Literature Gold books. Now I can surplus out some of them that are literally falling apart. Covered books all day. Had a great interaction with a teacher. Mrs. S brought in her class for research on people who have made a contribution to health, so I brought up one of our new books called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She had cells harvested from her body (usually called HeLa cells) without her permission in 1951 and they have been grown ever since and used from finding the vaccine for polio to going up in space for experiments. So I told her about it and she'd never heard of it and was very excited and thought she might use it for her ethics section. Glad to share a new resource for a teacher.

Valentine

2-14-12 - Our meeting got changed from another room to the Oly Forum today, so that was nice since it's right by the library. Pulled copies of Rosencrantz and Guildenstein are Dead for Mrs. M's class. Pulled The Adoration of Jenna Fox for Ms. A. Covered books and processed two teacher magazines and five for us. Mrs. H is my valentine since she brought me a card and some Mint 3 Musketeer minis!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Still

Covering books. I got all the manga titles done on my cart and started working on the fiction titles today. Checked in and out books. Clicked the kids out of facebook and tumblr. Got through one whole roll of contact paper and started the next. Got back in some of the Life magazine books we had lent out so I put them away. Another three day weekend coming up, see you on Tuesday.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Round up the Angry Villagers

Sometimes I am just a geek. Not a techie geek but something a little more bookish. I so love Chi's Sweet Home which is a manga series all about a kitten named Chi - he is soooo cute! Mrs. M had them to cover and I totally took them from her and did them myself today and put them on our manga shelves. Yes, I know. I even showed some of the kids them. *happy sigh* On the other hand, today I processed in two teacher magazines and four for us. Packed up books that belong to West HS that we are done borrowing, withdrew them and sent them back to their home. Checked out a set of books to Mrs. S. Processed in Frankenstein books that came in and sent an email to the two teachers that wanted them. Mr. S wrote back saying he'd round up the angry villagers - I think he meant his students, it made me laugh! Had some parents come in with books to clear their daughter's account and neither of the books were hers. Makes me sad when that happens. Had a lady who will be using the library over the weekend for a group come in and I gave her information on where things were and showed her around a bit just before I left. *sigh, Chi is home*

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Voice Command

So there was this kid in today who had his own little computer and was trying to get it to work on voice commands. I wanted to tell him to just go ahead and type! I don't think he got anything done on the paper at all since he was 'teaching' the computer to recognize his voice. Then he would give a command 'open document' and then wait. 'Control L' and wait again. 'Header' and wait again. Oh my! Checked out two class sets of Foundations of Algebra to Mr. O's class. Checked out a set of Understanding Movies to Mr. S. Processed our four magazines and put them out. Did individual checking out. Had a kid who was leaving and after he brought books in, I just had to go to the office to see if he was still there because his Biology book was in pretty poor shape. I wanted to show it to him and tell him I'd have to bill him, but he'd already left. Spent a good part of the day covering the new paperbacks. Still a lot to go!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Happy Birthday Mr. Dickens

Today I shipped out four boxes of books for other schools to use since we aren't using them. Checked in and out books. Checked out a class set of David Copperfield. Checked in all the rest of the books from our order and started covering the paperbacks. Processed in three teacher magazines and never got around to doing our four!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Baker and Taylor

So excited! Our Baker and Taylor order came in today, 13 big boxes and 2 little ones! These are ones I worked on while I was at LMSS one day. I unpacked for an hour! Three carts of hardbacks and one big three tier cart for the paperbacks! Then I checked in two of the hardbacks as well! I am so excited! I only took four home with me (insert blushing smilie here)! I also put away all the Foundations books, checked in and out a few kids, worked the front desk after Mrs. M left this afternoon since Mrs. H had gone to one of her mentor schools and wasn't back yet. Did a few repairs and did a book rep contact for some more information. It was a great day and can't wait to work on the new books tomorrow!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

A Day Late

Yes, this is actually Friday's report! Made up an order for Follett since we have a nice credit coming from them. We got 30+ reconditioned Prentice Hall Platinum books and then Mrs. H made a nice library book order from the rest. Processed in eight magazines for us and two for teachers. Worked on covering the last of the new paperbacks with Mrs. M. Still checking in and out books, mostly on individual basis at this point. Checked for some online resources for Mr. A with our rep, so we'll see what she comes up with.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Got Ya Covered

Along with checking in and out lots today I worked on covering books from the five boxes I brought back last week. Helped a teacher with some Precalculus materials and another with a publisher rep to try and get some online access.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Shipwreck

Ah matey! The theme of my bulletin board this month is shipwrecks since I just finished reading Shackleton's Stowaway. What a great book! Checked in and out books all day today for the most part and finished up the bulletin board. Processed in two magazines. Requested some Frankenstein books to come in from another school. Helped a teacher with some movies for her class. I love my days in the library :)

What I'm Reading

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris was a great non-fiction read! Love a good non-fiction! Joseph Lister worked hard, studied hard, never gave up on his ideas that something outside was causing untold numbers of people to die after surgery. His quest to find the answer was long overdue and he was the one to craft it and make it a medical standard. Brilliant!
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho was so good. I liked it even better than Stamped. His honest and open look at what is was like for him growing up really brings the issues into focus. Highly recommended!
Verify by Joelle Charbonneau - what if everything went digital which gave the government and people in power a way to change history, past and current. What happened to some words, like the word 'verify' that is no longer in the digital dictionary. Meri has lost her mom and her dad drowns sorrow in liquor. Meri is entranced by her mom's last art pieces and is given a slip of paper (the horror! what about the trees? recycling?) and on it is the word 'verify'. Atlas gives her a dictionary, a paper one and an old history textbook. Meri jumps on the train with him so they can change the world.
Kalahari by Jessica Khoury - what a ride! I even took this home one night to finish! Sarah lives with her dad doing research deep in the Kalahari. A group of students are sent to see if they can qualify for a grant and when her dad goes missing when he heads off after poachers, she is left to take care of them. Her dad doesn't return and the poachers are after them. They come across a white lion stalking them, but wait? It isn't white it's something else. They come across a lab and realize there is a virus, that has been let loose on the Kalahari that could destroy the whole world. So exciting!! Great ending as well!
The Year of the Buttered Cat by Susan Haas with Lexi Haas - Okay. I have to admit that I got this book because of the title. Buttered cats, what an intriguing thought! But the real intrigue is the persistence, the optimism of Lexi. Because of jaundice, she was disabled and this story is about her decision to take a chance on ground breaking surgery to try and get some mobility, speech and live her gifts. She has five she had to find. Read it for Lexi (and maybe to find out about that buttered cat).
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. There are spaces only you can fill, and Darius learns this as his family travels to Iran to see his grandfather who is dying. Along the way he deals with his depression, makes a friend, has innumerable Star Trek references and also learns that it's okay, to not be okay. I must admit, I had to look up some of the places he got to visit. What a rich heritage. I thought Zoroastrians were long gone, but no, they are still practicing today in Iran. Great book, totally okay.
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - perfect book lover tale of a woman captivated by a man and a bookstore and how she made more impact on her fellow book lovers and the man who got her to read than any bomb that fell during the Blitz. Very lovely!
The Girl From the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat - Lovely WW2 story by Jenny who actually grew up on one of the Channel Islands. Hedy fled Austria only to find her island haven invaded by the Germans. And though she is wary, she falls in love with a German officer. The twists and turns of German occupation test them both as each find a way to help the allied forces win.
Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. I loved these short stories that all center around a modern day Native American Powwow. My fave was Rez Dog and they were all a great window into culture that I have rarely seen. I watched some videos on Fancy Dancing because of this and I would love to attend one, but feel a bit like a looky loo if I did. Fun, eye opening and full of information. Loved it!
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Loved this fictionalized tale of the daughter of one of the lexicographers of the first ever Oxford Dictionary. As Esme goes from hiding under the sorting table, to one day being a lexicographer herself, we see her story unfold along with the people attached to the dictionary. It was really wonderful as we glimpsed her life and how the words she found and rescued formed the backbone of this novel. Really well done. It will stay on my shelves.