Covering

I spent a lot of time today working on covering the new paperbacks. We've already checked out a lot of the new hardbacks I put out, now time to get those paperbacks out there to fill in the spots! Had my aides work in the back with the math textbooks. I am reorganizing back there. Had them check in old ones and then delete them since we have new ones and can't go back to the old ones. Put out poetry books today to be ready for April Poetry month, but not sure quite what to do with my window bulletin board. Hummm. Want to put out some books in verse as well. Finished up the scholastic financial statement and sent off the credit slips from the last book fair since I forgot! I organized the book fair stuff and came across them realizing that I hadn't sent them in like I just did with the last fair! Heard some great rain just pounding on the shed roof over the back part of the library today. Pretty quiet, as it is testing, though no one came in today. I did find out the teacher that is testing this week has A lunch, so I let some kids come down during that time. Also did a bit of laminating after school was out.

We're Back!

Had a lovely spring break over in Kauai! But today we were back to work! Scholastic came and picked up the stuff from the book fair, so I was glad to get the tables back in their accustomed space. The library lab is now booked for OAKS testing, so it's imperitive that the kids are quiet in here. So library traffic was much reduced. Our office manager made a great set of signs for the doors. They are huge, fill the window space and are bright pinkish! If that doesn't stop people from coming in, nothing will! Except me :)  I did kick out a couple of kids today who were not behaving properly. Shelved some of the 920 and 921's. Made a 'New Books' sign. Looked for a lost book. Asked another LMA if a student could work to pay off his fine and she said that he would have pay. She had her reasons so I will let him know! Mr. M came in looking for another document camera and I didn't really have one available. I felt bad. One of those tasks I have just sluffed off, checking them all and seeing if they can be reset or not. He said that he'd like to know when we get down to one, then do this instead of waiting until we don't have any, and he's right. I got four of them set for surplus today along with a projector, so hopefully M made it over from technology to pick them up in the office. Sent in the count from a Language Arts teacher who sent in her Statewide materials to be barcoded. I had to check first and make sure all the materials were in the boxes, then send that list of everything to LMSS. Another teacher asked if we could check out to her class on Wednesday, so I told her that since we are testing, maybe we could try what Mrs. K does. She sends me the list of students with their ID#'s and we check the books out to the students and write the number of the book alongside the name, then just take the cart up rather than having the kids come down. She liked that idea so my aides got that all completed today and took the cart of books up to her. Then Mrs. H came in lastly and needed the new graphing calculators checked out to her. So I gave her 42 (the answer to life, the universe, and everything!) and the batteries. She will have her aides put batteries in the calculators tomorrow! Lovely day out the windows today and got to watch some of our students out working the garden! Nice!

Done Deal

Last long day before Spring Break! Did 11.5 hours. Finished up the Book Fair with about $1600 in sales, so a great deal! Worked on inventory for our Language Arts textbooks and went from 43% done to 76% done! Huzzah! Rearranged a lot of them that made sense to me. See you back here on March 30th!

12.5 Hours

Long day! Started at 7am and done at 8pm (with lunch in there, somewhere...) Had a regular day of school to start with, wrangling all my aides and sales from the book fair and getting ready with the online slips for tonight and tomorrow. Got all the old math books withdrawn. Got a lot of books back! A lot of kids coming in to check on books, check out books for the break too! (some for reading, others for homework!) Got all the books shelved tonight that came in, nearly a whole cart full after my aides were all gone. Cleaned up all the shelves so the books were all fronted and books all displayed nicely on the shelves. I love when my library is its best for visitors! Balanced prefectly again tonight! Only need to do 11.5 hours tomorrow!

$1K

That's how much our Scholastic Book Fair has sold already! Yeah! So I'm hoping with conferences starting tomorrow night, we'll be way ahead of our last fair! Had my aides work on the math books. Some of them worked on redoing the shelves in the back, others made sure all the books we are deleting are checked in, and then deleting them. Deleted old emails, just because I really needed to! Laminated tonight and we were so close to the end of the roll I was really hoping that we'd have enough film to make it through and we just barely made it! If I'd had to laminate another row or two, I would have had to change it! Whew! I will change it tomorrow on my long day. Working 7am - 8pm tomorrow for conferences. Put out book fair signs in the morning and put them in my car on my way home tonight. Made up notices to put on our book fair flyers that people can also purchase online up through March 26th, so I'm hoping to get more sales in that way. Had one of my kids work on that who is paying off a book fine. Let a few kids in after school to finish some things up since conferences start tomorrow. One of the kids is in the library all the time, so I asked him "you are in here all the time? what's up?" and he showed me his report card, 4.0! Good going! I was very impressed! Checked in and out a few books here and there. Did some shelving myself this afternoon. Balanced the book fair receipts (they came out perfectly!).

Hum Drum

Today was pretty hum drum. Nothing spectacular happened, but lots of little stuffs. Got in and set up the book fair signs. Took money up to our bookkeeper for her to put in her safe. Came out perfect this afternoon on my little bit of sales! Had another LMA send an email that a student had claimed he turned in a book, but the bill was still on, so I poked around his account and let our bookkeeper know that he no longer had the book, but still had the bill, so she will delete it. Sent in $$ for going away gift for our LMSS people who are leaving, only to find out one of them isn't leaving! Oh well! Had a mom call about three books her son had three years ago and never paid. I looked for them, and we didn't have them, so I gave her a couple of options to make the $$ good. Two of them were old and dated, so she will work out something. Sorted through our carts to get the new hardback books all stripped and ready to go out on the shelves after break and the paperbacks ready to get stripped and covered. My awesome parent volunteer stripped all the new hardbacks and started to cover the paperbacks. Got in some science fair books that one of our teachers had donated and they had catalogued them for our professional section, but, I want them out where students can see them, so I edited their call number and they will be out in the main library. Opened up the boxes of long pointers a teacher had ordered and she bought me one (So could use that some days!!) and she will pick out others for some of her special cohorts. Had a bit of a staff meeting and a student waited very patiently for his mom to arrive after school to buy his picks from the book fair. The projector cart we keep in here wouldn't show the doc camera, so I looked and noticed the doc camera port was in the wrong connector. Voila! 

Last Sale

Today we had more book sales. Checked out three classes of books and had two classes in to check out the book fair. Had classes in the lab for four periods today and our various and assorted crew of science kids, study hall kids and others. Got in almost all my backlog of books I've sent over to LMSS since last November!! So excited to get them, but with the book fair, I won't put them out until after the book fair, too distracting!! Had to check them all in, and I had about 7 different sets of lists of books I've sent in. So I finally found all the books but about 6 of them. Some of them (about 6) were from the previous librarian (yes, she was a certified teacher/librarian!) from last May! I asked if we could get the book fair on the school website and Mr. M said sure! So hopefully we'll get more sales off the online book fair. At the end of the day I had just closed up the terminal for the book fair and a couple came in with their daughter to buy. I turned them away, but Mrs. V brought them back and said they could at least pick out some things and keep them until Monday. I ended up going ahead and restarting the terminal so I could sell to them and they could have their stuff for the weekend. The girl Mrs. V said has a hard time reading at all, so anything to get her to read was to be encouraged. They even helped out unhelpful me by making sure they paid in correct change so I didn't have to do anything but put the money in the bag for today. That was terribly gracious to ungracious me. Then best part of the day was having my daughter and granddaughters stop by to see where I work. We checked out books for the girls and went outside and the girls helped me take down the book fair signs and picking the daisies in the grass. 

DEATH be not proud

Today I got in and took the book fair signs out to the fence and along the school driveway to put up. I had a couple of students come to help me. Offered them a Lion's Share, but they didn't want it. I was grateful for their help! Sold a ton today. Had both my volunteers in to help work today so we got a lot done. Books all put away, some stripping done. CCSS labels put on. I had a lot of fun selling the books. At the end of the day a mom called and said her son didn't get his $4 in change from a book sale, so I counted out the money and was actually 50 cents short. I called her back and we talked, so I will make good on that if he comes in tomorrow to claim it. Last thing I did was put all the signs from outside in the back of my car so I can just put them up when I come in in the morning. I just don't trust leaving them up all night.

And now for an announcement from DEATH: I SAW SIR TERRY PRATCHETT LEAVING YOUR WORLD TODAY. A TRUE SHAME. WE RODE MANY TRAILS TOGETHER. HIS LIKE WILL NOT BE SEEN AGAIN.      :( One of my all time favorite authors. I belly laughed reading his books more than anyone else. So sad.

Forecasting Book Fair

Not only our first good rain in awhile but the library lab was closed all day so the 8th graders could do their forecasting for their first year of high school. So we had in classes all day and when they got done, they would come and browse the book fair! Yes, it's all set up and great! I even had sales today! Nearly $50 which almost paid me back the $60 I personally took out of my checking account last night so I'd have change today! I was only 7 cents off when I balanced tonight, so far, so good! Had other students in using the library today and had to use the other computer for my email since I had my Scholastic terminal hooked up to my office computer for online payments. It worked well though, so I was surprised I could use the other computers so well. Paper for the copier, fixing jamming problems. Checked in calculators for Mr. G and we had an awesome conversation! 

Book Fair

Today all our Scholastic Book Fair stuffs arrived, we got it in a day earlier than last time, so hopefully we'll have a bit better of a turn out. I kept the big boxes all buttoned up today, and I decided that all the little stuffs I'd keep in the back textbook room. That way I'll have a bit more control over what disappears from there. I had some peg board in the back, so I put them out and taped the little stuff onto construction paper with the price for those items (like tan, $4.99 and all the things for that price taped on there). So that turned out nice. There was a bit of the little stuff still on the book cases, so I took all that out and put it in the back too, and filled the pockets with books. So we really have no little things out there. I'm sure we'll still lose some things, but not the free for all it was last time. I used a table in the back, then put stuff in boxes and put empty boxes underneath to raise them up! It worked well! We also got in a ton of spanish titles as well since I asked for them and some of our parents will be pleased. There was quite a bit of lower level books, and I didn't put them out. Maybe I will for conferences, but not now. I also remembered, oh no! I need change!! So I had to run to the bank and get change on my way home. Sent out an email today on the generic sign in for the computers at school, so those will be the only ones students can use it on. Worked with one of our technicians today on getting the lab ready tomorrow for the 8th grade forecasting. A teacher asked for some books and I looked to see we had the amount she wanted, but they were all scattered across the district, so she decided not to do that. Another teacher wanted to see if she could get the hand pointers at a discount if she bought 50 of them! That would be awesome! We'll see what we hear back. 

Busy Day

Yes, it was! I turned around every few minutes and another hour had flown by. Checked out science books today, cleaned up my office, fished through 30 emails (probably!). Had to reset all the Insignia links for the update they did Friday. Had four other classes in checking out books. Redid our book displays to highlight strong women since March is Woman's month. Had a substitute come in looking for work so she helped check out and shelved all our Newbery books I had out. I also weeded through the auto/biographies and had her shelve the ones I decided to keep. Had to call the office and get more copy paper! I had ordered some, but when I put the last two reams in the copier I called up to ask, and our normal secretary wasn't up there, but there were my six boxes of paper! So I asked her to call the custodian and he brought them all down, thank goodness! Withdrew all the auto/biographies I decided to weed. Had to talk to a couple of my aides about behaviors. Now on to tomorrow!

Half Day

Today was a half day for me. The district has a half day of Professional Developement and then a half day of grading. Since I don't grade, I only work half. Went to West Salem and Walker Middle School for our PLC for two hours and we talked Destiny stuffs for our textbooks. When we got done, I went back to my school and the pallets of books were all gone! Yeah!! I fired up our computer we use for inventory and started doing inventory on our Language Arts textbooks since we had just gone over all that. I got done all our Prentice Hall books and that was exciting because it let me know some were lost, and two were even still checked out to a teacher. I had to learn to run those books twice. Once for the notice, then again for the inventory. After work I went over to Escape Fiction and talked with the owner and he is great with schools and all local as well! Our Leslie community can take old books to them and I will get half the price to spend there on books for our library! Awesome!! Not to mention used books I can get half off with a 15% discount! Nice! I will look forward to working with them in the fall!

Palletizing

Today I think my first and second period aides loved getting outside and helping me put boxes on the three pallets that were delivered. We got all the boxes on the pallets! I had called early this morning to let them know I'd be doing this. So when we were done, I called and left a message that they were out there and we had finished. But when I left after 4 today, I drove around back and noticed they were still there. So I went back in the library and called and left another message. I hope they come and pick them up! I think I'll also send an email to Garten to let them know at that end that the boxes are there and ready for them. Busy day! Again, kids all over the place, trying to finish up work. Science fair kids trying to finish up their projects since the Fair is Saturday down in Eugene. Mr. C, the head of our Library Media Services came by this afternoon and I was so multitasking I barely had time to spend with him! He got to talk with students though and I think he really enjoyed that. Cleared off the rest of the textbooks we were sending off. Lots of emails. Lots of students needing help! Had my volunteer work on weeding out the auto/biographies. Helped Ms. V, our instructional coach move tables around in the library for her meeting tomorrow and cleaned the tables for her too! Wanted the library very pretty and all perfect for the teachers coming in tomorrow for that. Showing off! Shelved books today as well. Put out more of the Newbery's on our rack. Turned off everything for the long weekend. Only half a day tomorrow and I will be over at Walker for our Middle School Library Media Assistant's PLC.

Permission Granted

To surplus the old books! Yeah! I have 60 boxes, so tomorrow we will load the pallets and call Garten to come and pick them up! I'll be glad they are gone and that is the last of the huge sets of books. After this it will be a bit easier.  Seemed like a constant trail of students this morning all with issues that needed to be addressed by me. We had several classes in to exchange their books. Had to look for some books and found one at least! Had our science fair kids in and they had taken all the search computers so other kids couldn't access the Accelerated Reader program because the new computers don't have it installed. Sent in a tech support life ring to get that done. Asked the science fair kids if they could give up one so we could have it for students to do the AR test and they graciously said 'of course!' Also sent an email to the AR people to see what it might cost to get the new online version which should also give us more and current titles for students to use. I now have admin rights to our print program! Huzzah! Now when they can't print I can look up to see if they have any money in their accounts and see if that's a reason. Another tech support life ring to make sure all the new computers have access to the main library printer. Another email out to our principal to see if we want to restrict our generic login to just our computers at the school and what that would entail. Every computer in the school? Just the labs? Just one lab? The high school is noticing some students use our generic login instead of their own personal login, not a good policy! Had a girl I had to switch from one class in the AR testing to another. Watched over a couple of kids after school. One who had her brother in after school detention and couldn't leave until he did. Another trying to get a paper written before tomorrow since grades hit the books Friday. Finally today I took our surplussed books and deleted almost all of them that were still on from our system so they are well and truly gone. 

Whistle Blower

That's right. At one point the library was so loud during 2nd period, I went to a drawer and pulled out an old steel whistle and blew it. It was really loud. Hurt my ears. Cut the noise down though! We had one class in looking for reading books. Another getting the new math books. A class in the computer lab and one of our science fair projects in there and it was crazy! Got the rest of classes checked out today, five for the math, one for books. Computer lab filled all day. Got the rest of the withdrawn books all marked and withdrawn and desensitized. Glad the day was done and had the library to myself. Put books up on shelves and straightened here and there.  Went to Mrs. K's room and she had decorated her door with signs the kids made on 'The Places We'll Go'. It was so fabulous! They all picked at least high school and a few picked colleges as well. She asked me to come by and I'm glad I did :)

Drop Everything And Read

D.E.A.R. day to celebrate Dr. Seuss! I had a lot of teachers that read in their rooms today and in the library, every period I had everyone in there just Drop Everything And Read. It was a lot of fun! One boy even asked if we could do it again tomorrow! I had Dr. Seuss books all out on the tables so they were encouraged to pick one up to read. We had a great selection! Had four classes come in today and check out new math books. Had one of my aides (who did our lovely Lorax for my poster) let me know it was her last day and her family was moving to Portland. So sad! She is definitely one of my favorites! Did more withdraws today, set up the table with books we had withdrawn so students could help themselves to them. Got two more Kudos from the staff meeting this afternoon. A lovely day all around!