The View from the Leslie Library Windows

Friday, March 22, 2013

Spring Break!

Last day before our Spring Break (and it also happens to be Holy Week as well! I remember when break was always Holy Week). Worked mostly on the Unused titles list today and got through most of the A's, B's and C titles. It was a little more complicated than I thought with print dates, last used dates, publisher, how many copies at our school and how many, if any, at other schools, condition, so quite the decision process. Checked out a lot today as students got ready for spring break, some to just enjoy reading and others to get caught up on homework! Ta-da! We'll be back on April 2nd!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Buccaneer Bunnies

Today I got the wonderful opportunity to read to our Little Oly's kiddos! Mrs. H had to be somewhere else and she asked me to read so I picked Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies. One of our aides and Mrs. M helped me made newspaper pirate hats for all the kids (17!) and I had one as well and I had a fabulous time! I hope the kids did too! Deleted off 46 titles and had our amazing Mr. C get them off the database. Checked in what was left of Homeless Bird for Ms. J. She had been very ill and students helped themselves, so she still has 13 of them checked out to her. Checked out our new US Constitution the graphic adaptation to Mr. T. Checked out all the ASL things out to Ms. H. Started to work on the unused titles list. Took down both the bulletin boards by me. Not sure what I'll do yet, but have an empty slate! Arrrggghhh!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

656 Titles - 12,495 Barcodes

Huge immense project is done! I had to look through 656 different titles and fixed 12,495 barcodes! Huzzah! Now I'm just doing clean up and sundry items on our catalogue list. Hopefully now we can have our filter come off and that will speed up checkouts a bit plus help out LMSS when we get textbooks in so they can batch add instead of just one at a time! Checked out lots of Great Gatsby's today as well. Feeling good about leaving for spring break with that out of the way! Another Huzzah!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

61 Titles

I am almost at the end of the barcode list (Huzzah!) and went through all our old deleted titles today and there were 61 'wd' titles I trolled through. Most of these books I've never seen, were deleted years ago and yet there were still copies in the system, so I took all of them out and deleted them so now we can clear up space and delete these old titles. Checked in and out books today. Worked through a billing report from Insignia so our bookkeeper could check and see which books went through on the billing yesterday from Mrs. H's update on the program. Books will be declared automatically 'lost' and will be billed after 30 days of being overdue. Mrs. S said that the data I gave her seemed that all was in order and we are good to go!

Monday, March 18, 2013

?

Was busy like crazy all day but what I did, I'm not sure to cause all that! Did more barcodes and communicated with teachers on who had what. Like all our Good Foods and Introduction to Culinary Arts books were still all counted here, even though our old teacher took them with her when they sent her off to another school. We still have woodworking books even though they were all given away when we lost our woods classes. So I am hunting down where they went. Processed in four magazines and one for a teacher. Checked in and out various individuals all day. Love my job, even when I can't pin all I do down for the day!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Half Day

Great opportunity to crunch more barcodes, so I went in and did a bunch. Did withdraw two students who came in but did 1045 barcodes in my three hours!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Marley Brothers

When I see some of these old old books that we still have on, I just want to sing the "We're Marley and Marley" song from Muppets Christmas Carol. Did lots more barcodes today and packed up more boxes of surplus books. Cleaned out old barcodes and titles. Checked in and out books for various students.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

1499

My official barcode count this afternoon, though I'm sure I was a little more with all the other things I did like deleting horridly old books that have been wandering the depths of the database for centuries. Processed in five magazines for us, and two for teachers. Also ran the front desk this afternoon after Mrs. M left since Mrs. H was at a meeting. Found out my last official day of work is June 21st!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Much Better

Felt much better today! Cranked through more barcodes and am down to four pages left! Huzzah! Processed in one magazine and loaded more boxes with surplused books.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Collywobbles

My stomach was on its grind thing today, and I made it through work, but barely. Canceled my afternoon activities even. Came in to one of those huge tupperware boxes on my desk filled with books from the new baseball couch cleaning out his office. Got them all packed up except for one anatomy book that looked fascinating, so I handed it off to our anatomy teacher who was pleased to see it.Processed in one magazine, helped a teacher find a remote (I wonder if it worked?) and did more of my '0' barcodes today. Glad that day is over!

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.