Ben and Andy

Yep! Today was the last Tuesday at work! Busy day, checking in lots of books. Sent out all the notices to the 6th and 7th graders today, mostly during 6th for lost books. Got back a bunch of 8th grade lost books. Tons of textbooks came in. Got two sets of math books all organized (thanks library team! - aides and some of the others that like to help out!) and put back on the shelf. Helped teachers with their books out. Went to watch the awards ceremony this morning. So many talented students! I am so impressed with how these students have already decided to be outstanding citizens. Very cool! Laminated a ton of money today for the DLC. Not in color, and not quite the right size but I did whole baggies of $1's up through $100! Kind of fun except that my laminator rolls ran out and I had to change over to new rolls. Ugh. I just dread doing it! I got one roll on wrong, but noticed before I did anything, so swapped it around, had to feed the other one a different way, so did that. Finally, they all worked out great. Got everything done and won't have to change the rolls anytime soon!! Ended up staying late to finish up, but glad I did. Would rather finish and have it all done than come back in the morning and it's better when the laminator is warm anyways! Last half day of student contact tomorrow! Time to begin inventory too!

Textbooks In

We got in another ton of textbooks today so I was very busy checking all those in. Loved seeing all the 'textbooks still out - 0' notices come up on the accounts! Our Assistant Principal asked about my lost books list out in the hallway and suggested I send out notices, so I did all the 8th graders today during 6th period. Hopefully they'll bring more back tomorrow. We only got in a very few today. Had more sorting of math books out for my aides today. Had them put away science books too, there's still some left for tomorrow! Tried to run 6th and 7th grade notices and tried changing the message on the fine/overdue message and couldn't get it to work. Hummmm. I called LMSS, but I might have to call them again! Did a couple of repair things. Got a TV cart upstairs to a class. Got a projector up and running for a teacher. Heard these crazy bird sounds coming from the library and it wasn't the 8th grade boys there, it was Mrs. K's class and them doing a final run at their Greek mythology unit with a game! Mrs. K had a game on and the students could pick what they would next. It was fun to watch them be totally engaged as they talked about who did what, who should they pick next. Very fun! Enjoyed a lovely band/choir/orchestra concert this morning. Nearly cried as I watched our 8th graders and the special recognition they got. Only a day and a half to go!

Basketball

A basketball player I am not, but still played in the student/staff game today anyways! Had shortened class time to make way for it. I'm a bit sore, I fell over a student, got a bit of skin scrapped off, but for the most part good to go! Staff barely won the game, 43 to 42! So close! A great game! I played about four minutes with the 6th graders and another four with the 7th graders. After that I was glad I did not play the 8th or their dream team! We might not have won if I was in there! Lots of textbooks in today and still more library books though I still have lots out there. I posted the 'lost' books and went out today and wrote on the ones that had come in today in pretty markers 'In!!'. Hopefully students will notice! Asked Mr. M if we could send out an autodialer to remind families to look for library books at home this weekend. Had a new student come into the library today as an alternate place for her to be. She got done a bunch of work after I took her cell phone and locked it in my closet. I was pretty impressed. Got math books sorted, all the history and Spanish books put away. Cleaned off the table just under my office windows. A busy day. 6 more working days to go!

Last Thursday

For students anyways! We had locker clean out this afternoon and I was hoping to get in a few hundred books, we only got in 51. Man, that was so disappointing. We still have nearly 400 books out there, and only three more full student contact days. We did check in a lot of textbooks today, and yes, library books too. We've gotten in about 200 this week. Had to have carts out and ready for the end of the day. I took a walk around the school to check on them just before they released students and some of the students were carrying a cart down the stairs. Really??? So I took it back up on the elevator. Found the cart that needed to be in one hallway, down a different hallway (by those same stairs....) Got all our books put away today. Glad to see some books come in though. There were  quite a few I was like "oh, there you are!" Hopefully we get rid of our last spinner rack tomorrow morning. Had my aides help me move tables around. Not sure if I like them that way, but maybe they'll stay, maybe they won't. Might put them back the way they were. Monitored students. Printed up a lost book report and hung it out in the hallway (without names or phone numbers). Mrs. V suggested we do an auto-dialer for the lost and overdue books. Might help. Tried to see if we could figure out the curriculum map for books for display for next year. Talked to Mr. M about our 'most voracious reader' winner for this year, and I might try to convince him to do just a little bit. I'm feeling like it is important, and to keep our readers and library as a vital part of the school. We'll see if he agrees or not. A very busy day. We are all ready for summer vacation to start!

You Just Might Work in a School Library...

I had to leave at 2 today for a dentist appointment. So a quick day for me! Checked in all of Mr. B's books he had piled on a cart for me last night. I had to do some repairs on the social students books. I had a stack of about ten I had to white out, cover with split and peel paper, erase. What a mess! Got them all done and the cart of books put away. Did more monitoring today. Got in a few more books today, only about 30. Hopefully with locker clean out tomorrow we'll get in a bunch. Sent off an email to my fellow LMA's about the life of a school librarian. If you've ever had to erase certain words or anatomical drawings from multiple copies of textbooks, you might just have worked in a school library! If you've ever had a student swear they had never seen that book much less checked it out and bring it in the next week, you might just have worked in a school library! I could go on! I finally sent it to our boss to see if he'd like to use it for our end of the year meeting. A busy day for a short one, but glad it's over! And a good dental report as well!

800's

Today I got done the inventory on the 800's. No thanks to the inventory computer. The keyboard refused to talk to the hard drive. I tried restarting the computer three times. Tried two other keyboards that work fine. Nothing. I ended up bringing the books over to the main library computer and doing it there. Of course, I put in a tech ring and when he came over, he turned it off and back on (like I'd done three times already) and it worked just fine. Really???? Seriously??? At least I still got that inventory done and the graphic novels today. Put away in order another of the math books. Answered calls from several people (!) when I hardly ever hear it ring. Had lots of students in working on projects so did a lot of monitoring. As I walked the lab one time, one of the students who had been up with our principal told me he had a problem and that I looked like I was intelligent. Really??? I told him wow, no one had ever told me I 'looked' intelligent before. Then I had him just hit the undo button until his page was back where he wanted it. Got back from my lunch walk and there were about four girls just sitting in the library. I told them, did they not notice the library was closed?? They said their teacher had told them to come down. I asked them if they told their teacher the library was closed??? No. I sent them back to class. They returned promptly at 12:06 when I reopened! Did a ton of laminating for the LEAP club this afternoon. Was glad to go home and await the orchestra concert tonight! Can't wait to hear our students play!

700's

No, not the club, but another round of inventory. Only got in 18 books today, rats! But I did get the 100 inventory done. I had to call technology and they sent a tech out because the computer decided today that it didn't trust me. They can't do that remotely, so they had to send someone out. I was able to get all of that done today. Had a question about the books that were relabeled GN, for our graphic novels, but maybe I just didn't fill things in properly. I'll check it again tomorrow. I'm hoping to get their 800's done tomorrow. Had textbooks come back. Had another student pay off fines today! I'm so proud of our students that pay off fines. Did a lot of monitoring today as well, lots of students working on their portfolios. A bit warm in the building, got up 99 degrees both days over the weekend and the HVAC was turned off since there were no students in the building. Ugh. At least it was fairly cool in the library since we're downstairs!

Everybody

I was getting the itch to do inventory and noticed that we were supposed to do our Everybody books this year, so I got the old computer fired up and did that inventory today. 377 books, we were only missing two. Started off missing four, but I found two of them. Maybe the others will show up! Glad to get that piece going. Did more repairs today and got more books back on the shelves. A lot of shifting to make space happened today as well. Got all the math books I had piled up on the back table back on their shelves today too. Only had 12 library books come in today - ugh! 601 to go! A few textbooks came back as well. Still quite a few students in the lab today, though not nearly the amount of yesterday! Cleaned up the lab tonight. Putting away headphones, pushing in chairs, getting everything turned off for the weekend. Gave away my two spinner racks and one of the LMA's came over to pick one up so I helped her out to her car. A hot weekend ahead, up around 100 degrees! Closed the blinds for my windows all the way down!

105

That's how many students came in to individually study in the library today, so I spent quite a bit of time monitoring them and making sure they were on task. Had 60 books I took off the shelves to put in the lit sets in the back. Put lit stickers on them all and redid their spine call numbers. Between those two, it was pretty busy! Got a report that I have out still a ton of books - 613 to be exact worth $7,766.37! Ouch! I did get in a bunch today, but not sure if they came in before that report or after. It all happened about that same time. Laminated today too! After work party for our three retirees and so sad they are leaving, but so glad they are off to fun things! Congratulations J, J and B! 

Lit Flip

Today I finished up moving all the books over to lit sets. If a title had more than two copies, out they came and off to the back room! Took out our two racks we had. One had magazines on it and I gave some to the AVID students for a collage and kept just a year's worth. The other had Goosebumps books on it and I finally decided we had a ton of space in the reference section, so moved a few things and put them over there. Then I put the two racks up for grabs and they have new homes! Also took a look at our Core Connections books. They are so bad looking. I sent a picture and an email to our PA and our curriculum support person. I may get newer looking ones, but we'll see. Checked in more books from Mrs. V who is retiring! She's cleaning out! Did some more repairs. More new book spine numberings. Didn't get very many books in today. Only about 40. Kept eagle eyes on students coming in to study today. Sent a few emails out to teachers. Another great day in the library though I hope we get more books back tomorrow!