Nothing

It seems like I did nothing today, but I did. Worked more repairs. Watched the kids coming in on passes and our release kids. Sent one book off to another school. It was pretty mundane actually.

One Gross

We had that many students sign into the library today during classes. I counted our sign in sheet, so that's how many students come into the library for either work from class or who are on release - about 144 today in 7 periods, so 20 students a period on average. Worked more on repairs today. Checked in and out. Found out the back doors weren't locked, so locked them when I saw some staff just walk in. Had conversation about a student with our Destiny guru - he was replacing books and when I tried to check them in, they were already in, but didn't come off his bill - so I had to monkey around with the program and let our bookkeeper know about it.

At that Point

Felt good today that I got to a point where I could pull out a stack of books and work on repairs! So I started with our American Government and Politics Today books. The ones we have left all need a bit of care, some more than others, but that will make books ready to be checked out next year while I work on ones that really needed some TLC, but the kids needed them more. Checked out three class sets of Physics: Principles and Problems. Sent out a book to be borrowed. Checked in and out various titles, library and textbook today. Excited to hear that we can put one song on a CD and get it to play over the speakers during passing! Mrs. H and I thought Dolly Parton's 9 - 5 would be good! Had an aide count books in the back, asked teachers if they wanted them, sent out an email to other schools to see if any of them want them. Mr. D said he did want to keep all 95 of the gnarly Fundamentals of College Physics books (and we still have 19 very nice copies on the shelf). So, working through stuffs.

Locks and Chains

We have a couple of plexiglass display cases, so I took the one that was empty and put in classic banned books and covered them with these crazy metal clips with chains on them and these tiny little locks we had in the back. I was very happy with how they turned out. Finished covering all the paperback books we had gotten in so all the new books are now out and on display. Processed one magazine. Updated release list. Checked in and out various library and textbooks. Laminated for about an hour in the back, had lots of stuff. I get scared doing the big ones. Today Mrs. K had us do the big huge  map of the school ones. I had to fold them, run them through, then slit up the sides and carefully edge down the sealed edge with the boxknife to unfold them. Tricky, and I know Mrs. M did a fabulous job, but I think I'm getting it down. Got back one of the books we sent out and was excited that it was our first 'completed' loan on the lending library program.

Banned Book Week

I knew Banned Book Week was soon, but not this week! Mrs. H was all over it though and had posted to me on Facebook "Hey, I just met you, this is crazy, someone just banned me, so read me, maybe!" from the popular song going around right now, so we took our stuff off the bulletin board and did that on it with pictures of books that are on our shelves (well, except for Captain Underpants) around it. Then I took our nice shelving unit and crossed over 'new' with 'Banned!' books and a notice of why they were banned and pulled all the titles we currently have on the shelves to display there. Turned out pretty nice all in all! We also have a couple of teachers doing a writing unit, so Mr. S gave us a list of books on writing, and we had about 2/3rds of them, so I pulled them, and then also pulled some books that might be similar calibur that I don't think he knew we had on the shelf. Mrs. H is going to book talk them tomorrow for the class so I had to turn down two students who wanted to check them out! They can after the talk tomorrow! Checked in 39 library books today and various textbooks. Mr. L had classes in and so I had to help a lot of students with their computer log-ins. Had to flip Mr. L's screen so it would project onto the screen at the front of the lab. Helped a student pick out a book for class. Had some great aide help today and my release list of kids keeps getting longer. A good day all in all!

Big Plans I Say

Mrs. H got this cute little kid book, Big Plans and I decided I loved it so much, we put it in with our Junior Library Guild order to send in for processing. Sent out 25 Importance of Being Earnest. Cleaned out our books on hold stack. Checked out five classes of Chemistry books today. Processed one magazine, and got to cover more of our new books - only have about 15 to go!

Seeing the Light

Really worked on getting things cleared up today. Carts all in the back room, only two tables with books on them (well, except for the Chemistry books that will be picked up tomorrow!) Almost everything cleared out of the front, boxes put up and away in the back. The last shipment of books packed and out the door. I even got to contact paper some of the new paperback books today! Deleted all our AVID stuff so Mrs. H could just give it all to the new coordinator for her to use as she wished. Checked in and out a ton of library books today, one transfer, two magazines processed. It was like poking your head up out of the water and going, "Oh, hey, I can see the light!" Exciting to finally be at that point!

Cart-a-Mania

We currently have way too many carts up front! I have at least four of them in various book sets, there were three empty ones and a flat cart! I keep thinking we're getting somewhere, but maybe not! Ms. L came in with her students to get The Adoration of Jenna Fox today and was very apologetic because she had told me they wouldn't be in until tomorrow! Quick run to the back, grab books, check them out. Still checking out various titles. Got in our 30 extra new Realidades 3 books so a lady needed something to do, so I had her start to break in the spines, stamp and barcode them. Got in 115 Chemistry books and I got them all out and ready for Mr. D's classes. We also got in an extra box that was supposed to go to North I think of Culinary textbooks - opps! Put that one back to go out! Boxes all over, checking our release kids. Mrs. H was book talking all day so we had plenty of kids coming in and checking out books. Manga Club had their first meeting today and that was fun to see them all excited about the new year. I think they had the biggest group I've ever seen in there and one of our new teachers, Mr. L likes Manga, so he came and met them all and sat in on the meeting. Another busy day, they go by fast!

Wednesday

All day today I kept thinking it was Wednesday. Not sure why, but it was funny. A group of kids came into the library and one asked "What day is it today?" so I said "Wednesday!" Boxed up the rest of the Biology books to send to McNary. Processed in five magazines. Worked the release list. Checked out two class sets, one of Lord of the Flies and one of Biology and had an aide deliver them. Laminated all the stuff in the back. Mr. P gets the award for the biggest stack of things to laminate! Checked out to a class Lord of the Flies and various other titles today. Though my greatest 'kudo' for the day... we have a student who had two books out to him from last year. He knew where one was, but couldn't remember the other. He brought in Peak today and we cleared it, and the other book was the Coffin Quilt. I asked if he'd taken Mrs. O's class last year, and he said yes. So I went through the books we had used last year, and none of them were his copy. Then I remembered that we had withdrawn a batch and put them in her room, so I sent him down with the barcode and there it was! It had been withdrawn, but not checked in to get it off his record! Ta dahhh!! It still wouldn't check in, but the program allowed me to 'claim a return' on it and now he's all clear and could check out a book. He was happy, I was very, very, very happy we got all that taken care of. Then I also sent an email to our bookkeeper to make sure it gets off his account if it was on there. Happy afternoon!

More Checking Out

Today we had four Biology classes checking out books, four 10th grade lit checking out. Two classes of Beowulf coming in to check out, two class set of Lord of the Flies going out since we got in our extra 100. Three books sent out into the district, checked all the students coming in to make sure they had a pass or were on the release list I made last Friday. Unpacked Spanish for Mastery 3 and let Mr. C know they were here. Packed the first set of 36 Biology books to head over to McNary (but they didn't get picked up today). Firmed up almost all of the newspaper orders so I will order those tomorrow so they start arriving. Doesn't look like much, but I was hopping all day.

Release

So today's focus was on getting my release students all on a list, so I can just go down it when they sign in and tick them off, and I can also easily see who isn't on the list and find out if they have a pass, or are skipping, or whatever! Sent out more book requests, checked out books here and there. Decluttered my inbox. Got my lists of who wants newspapers for this year. Glad I have my release list! I'm sure I'll add to it on Monday, but at least now I have a start!

Cleaning up

Today I came in to find some tables for a meeting had been moved out into one of our walkways, so I had to take some time to put them back where they belong before I turned everything on and then opened up the library for the day. Got some 9th grade literature books ready for Mrs. H to take to her meeting this afternoon and swap. Worked on my Mandatory Training for the year. Didn't get it done, but at least I got through some of it. Dibbied out our dictionaries to the teachers who all wanted some and had an aide deliver them to the classrooms. Checked out more book reads for classes today. They are doing real heavy emphasis on more reading in the classroom, so it's great to have kids come in and have to check out a book, any book! As long as they are reading. Had to ask for some barcodes since the set we got seemed to disappear for our latest first aid books. Cleaned out almost all my emails, putting them in files for reference later. Only have two more book sets to send to other schools - Yeah! Had the whole JV football team in the library this afternoon and they were very well behaved on the whole - nice to have them in there. Laminated today, but it wasn't quite the pile it was on Tuesday. Checked in textbooks from people who had dropped classes and checked them out other books. Checked on a book order for one teacher, it's been ordered, now we're just waiting for it to come in.

Lending Library

Came in today and turned on all the computers, then let the kids come in. Mrs. H really likes our old Lending Library program so we pulled it up and she took on the task of clearing all the old data. The last time it was used was over two years ago! So we entered in all the books we've leant out so far and the two we've requested. We'll see how it goes! Students and people in and out all day, checking in this, out that. Got our 7th period aide to start on the first aid books, unwrapping them, stamping them and putting on the bar codes. Getting students used to signing in when they come in the library is tricky! You really have to keep an eagle eye out for them! I think I'm going to make or see if we can get a list of which kids have actual release so I can keep up with them! Put out the last of the Earth Science books to go over to McNary. I know I did more, but the day just flies by and suddenly it's over. Busy, busy, busy!

Checking Out

Had two classes come in today to check out reading books for class and Mrs. H was at a meeting so I was the lone assistant. It took a bit, and I saw some really cool books I'd love to check out and some I already had read, so that was fun. Packed up 6 more boxes of Earth Science books, so those are all done, but no one picked up the set from yesterday! So the ones I packed today are still on the cart. Got in our stuffs I sent to LMSS so I opened all the audio books and had to make envelopes for the new ones, but the old ones were really crammed, so I measured and found one box that fits our manila envelopes (like the 6X10 ones) and cut it to fit. I'd like to find boxes 7 or 8 inches by 20 inches, so we'll see how we can make that work! Stripped all the rest of the new paperback books and though I got out the contact paper to cover, never made it that far. Processed in five magazines. Answered emails. Yes, we want Geometry books - no we don't. Sent off two books from a request. Mrs. H cleared our old Lending Library program, so we'll work on that to see if we can still make it work for us. Though I like the excel sheet, this program does have some good reports she likes. Turned off all the monitors for the night and headed home. Good night!

Stripping

Totally forgot about putting the tattle strips into the new books last Friday! Argh! I've got to get more into Mrs. M's amazing way of handling books! I think I found most of them to strip. One of our aides went around where we had displayed the new books and pulled out all the ones that didn't have our dot on top (to show they've been stripped) and I think we got most of them! Also turned in an order for The Adoration of Jenna Fox, and didn't know that with Permabound I have to send that through Mrs. H first! Luckily the order hasn't been placed yet, so we caught it in time! What a learning curve! Checked out more books today, but it's slowing down. Boxed up five boxes of Earth Science books and got those sent out to North HS and boxed up six more boxes to send to McNary and I'll send another six boxes to them tomorrow. Then I have 9th grade lit books to send (25) and 75 Biology books to pack up. Ordered in a couple of library books from out and about and worked on my spreadsheet so it will make sense to me when I look at it. Had our aides put away a cart of books we pulled last spring for reading groups and they needed to be put in the back. Checked in Catcher in the Rye we got in from another school. Had a phone call from a lady who wanted to know if we were needing another library assistant? She really wanted to work in a library! I told her we'd just lost our other assistant and were down hours for this year. What a busy day! Checked out our release kids, had them check in and then went through SASI to see if they really did have release. One of our students was hiding in the library this morning, and he got caught by one of the IA's this afternoon, and when I tried to sweet talk him into going to class I got a mouthful of 'F*** the class. I don't learn any F*** thing in there..."  not to mention I "came out of my mother's a**" and so on, so I took him to the office and left him there to settle down and get some help. He was here a couple of years ago, was gone and is now back. I tried to talk at him about how important it was to hang in there, he'd just come back and that showed how much he'd grown, but there was always more work to do. He's one of those kids that you want to help, but he needs to help himself as well and needs some coaching, so hopefully I can help provide that to him. He does not have any release periods so I will be vigilant!

First Week Down & Stats

Finally! The first week of students is over! A little easier today, but still checking out textbooks and a few lines, but not nearly as bad as yesterday and Wednesday! Got the rest of the Baker and Taylor order unboxed today. Turned around one of our reference shelves that had been put in backwards. Worked out a deal with the Earth Science textbooks that everyone should be partially happy with. What a broohaha! But Mrs. H and I finally made a decision since no one else would with all the information we had available. Mr. L showed me how to change the rolls on the laminator machine so hopefully I can do it next time by myself. Had our aide pull all the textbooks back to where my desk used to be and we'll be able to open up the library for lunches starting Monday. Glad the day is over! Trolled through a ton of emails deciding which to go in a file and others to go ahead and delete. In four days we checked out 28 class sets for 1,089 books, and to 93 classes of students for 3,077 books! Life is good! Home to my daughter who is visiting and my granddaughter too!

Turn it in

That's what Mrs. H did for a lot of today! We had classes in and she got to teach. Ms. A took her place at one of the computers and helped me check out books. Another day of lots of things going on, kids in, books checked out, it was great. Though we did have our program shut down for a restart so that it would run faster, it was worth it because it did run much faster after that. I had to turn three classes away at the door :(  We only had a little bit of a notice and I totally thought it was over already, and then oh my! It was just in a few minutes, so I wasn't able to warn the teachers. But it only took about 10 minutes, and we were back up and a big difference! Processed in five teacher magazines and eight for the library. Put in an order for Realidades 3 books, so hopefully that will get approved and off. So much going on, but things should be slowing down tomorrow and getting back to normal. Pulled a TV and DVD player for an event tonight and made sure they were working. They wanted to use the library and I was "ah, we have books all over the tables in here...." so they will use the Commons instead. Getting to know our release kids as well, love to see them come in.

Accomodation

Everyone was back at school today and if we weren't checking out books to students, we were bringing in new ones. Did send a box of texts back to McNary HS. And a box of audio books to LMSS for processing. Responded as appropriate to 49 different emails. We also had a teacher who just had a new baby and his substitute showed up today with classes looking for their books. I quickly told her it was all right and we regeared to make sure his kids got their books as well as the kids we already had scheduled to come in. Crazy lines at the end of 6th and beginning of 7th period as two block classes came in at the same time getting two books each - the line just kept growing as Mrs. H and I checked out books it seemed! Day got done, we have a new aide and he helped put out books for classes tomorrow so we were all set before we left today and got out on time. I'll have some good stats at the end of the week! Stopped all our release kids and made them show me their schedules and then sign in. They weren't real happy about it, they pretty much just came and went last year as they pleased, and others who were not on release as well ~~~ !

New Oly Day

Our first school day is dedicated to our freshmen! It's a great day and time for them to get a handle on the school before all the other students crowd the halls. I like it :)  We had groups come into the library to check it out, but other groups just walked by, so we cheered them on. Had to cart in two boxes of books I picked up on Thursday at the meeting and get them all checked in. Also checked in a class set of ASL resources the teacher doesn't need for this year. Checked out a library book and sent it off to North HS. Got in a book someone tried to rub off all the Sprague stamps and lost the cover to. So I restamped it and put the new barcode and spine label on. Processed in the rest of the AP Chemistry Laboratory manuals and checked them out to Mr. W. Answered a ton of emails from teachers. Helped Mrs. H with our newly configured computer lab. Had to add in computers and got Vision to work on it. After lunch I started pulling books for classes tomorrow. Algebra 2 73; World History 135; Economics 61; Physics 89; Giancolli and the Prep 25; Reading Literature 55; Art for the Ages all 77 of the big ones (took me four trips with the flat cart); American Pageant 78; American Experience 78; Precalculus 78; Practice of Statistics 38; Prentice Hall Platinum 35 and Mrs. H had to help out and put out a couple of hundred America Pathways. Did some more class sets, Mr. C had 40 World Literature and 68 America Pathways; Mr. L got 40 Conceptual Physics. Mr. C got 38 of the Twentieth Century and Mrs. P had to trade in her American Government book for the US Government book (she likes the US Gov book better). Had some freshmen come in and actually check out books today so that was a lot of fun. Had teachers putting stuff back by the laminator and sent out an email saying we would laminate on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm getting quite the pile back there! Moved old AV carts down to the new teacher workroom in the old Oly Lounge. What else? That was a lot, and I'm sure I've forgotten something or two! But that's it for tonight, I'm bushed!