The View from the Leslie Library Windows: August 2012

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.

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.