Half Life

Just a half day today. Went in and checked out four classes of math books Kercheski Method (and for Mrs. K!). Checked out a cart of personal narrative books for Ms. S. Stripped and covered and put due date slips in my new books. Put away most of the non-fiction still left over from yesterday. Pulled up the collection age reports and not as bad as I thought. Our fiction is at about 2005 and our non-fiction about 2001. Came across this PR code and went into the workroom to look at this stuff, and finally found it in a drawer, it's old poster sets. Contemporary Asians - from 1986. Some of this stuff was really old! I looked through most of it and have to make that decision of what to keep and what to just delete off and get rid of. No one has used any of it in the two years I've been there, so I'll probably end up getting rid of most of it. There was a collection of Civil War pictures I liked, but they can get that on the internet now and project it up on the screen, so what makes sense to keep? Fun to find those and pull them out and look at the collections! See you Monday!

Long Meet

Today was another great day in the library. I gave out books to a couple of students who came to work with mom today! They were so cute! One took the Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia Force Awakens and the other took some Garfield. It was cool to see the little guys here! Lots of books came back this week, but only about $400 worth. We still have out about $4,500 worth of lost books. Checked in and out, about 4 classes worth today. Had half my aides gone with their folks for take your child to work day. Glad I had a few here at least! Took a TV up to a room for a class today. When I went to pick it up, the office had sent a message that I had a box waiting, so I wheeled the TV up and they were like "it's just a box of books!" And I laughed and said I had to pick up the TV anyways so thought I'd use that rack to pick up the books since I was up there anyways! So yeah! My Scholastic books all came back! Can't wait to put them out! Some of the newest ones that are out there! Got quite a few repaired books back out on the shelves, laminated some covers since our IC had to turn on the laminator. Fixed the paper cutter, again. If you put too much paper through it, the cutter bumps off the track and I have to unscrew everything and put it on the track and put it back together. The screws are nearly stripped, so it's a bit tough. Left at 3pm for our last middle school meeting of the school year over in West Salem. A very good meeting that we left very late! I won another book! Huzzah!! Mrs. S from Salem Public Library came by to talk about the summer reading program. Mr. E from technology came and talked to us about how some things work together, and sometimes not! We talked changes, a new position that might happen, what we are going to be looking at for book buying next year with set up lists that we can pull from. New books that should be waiting for us when we get back from the summer. Filling in the non-fiction we weeded. All sorts of fun stuff! I think that's why we went so long! Only a half day for me tomorrow! I love my job!

Two Periods

We did not have any testing for two whole periods today!! I was so happy!! The day was pretty quiet over all, so not much exciting happened. Just a pretty normal day. I sent out an email about getting students excited about the National Parks Centennial this year and to go out and adventure this summer! So I have my new idea for my window board! The parks! I'll put out some of my old topo maps and some gear along with our national park books. Told my PA that nowhere in the district did we have any copies of the Ken Burns' National Parks books and he said well, we had to justify any book purchase to curriculum, so I sent him the links to the educator resources for the documentary! Then I tied it into our Oregon School Library Standards! I think he should now buy me one, just for that! Sent out another email reminding teachers to send students to the library only if they have work that the library environment will help. I've had too many lately coming down and just using it for conversation (personal) and disrupting the students who are working! Sent back to class a few students today just because they were in that category. Ah, and so went the day!

Details

Every once in awhile I keep a running record of most of what went on in the library, so here is what happened to me today! Got the search computers up and running. Went over to the 100's and unstuck a Carmel apple sucker someone had stuck back there. It actually came off easier than I thought, but some had slid down the space between the shelf and the back so I got a cart, off loaded all the books, pulled the shelf, chipped off the caramel and then put it all back. Put away the computer cart from the class last night. Took the broom to sweep a spider web I saw in the light this morning. Got out the chess and checkers for a student. Talked to a student about her fine, she said her mom paid. I emailed our bookkeeper and she said yes, everything was paid. The student was very happy about that. Made a suggestion for our meeting Thursday to talk about book displays. Checked out library books to four classes today. They didn't do a lot really. Checked in and resensitized returned books. Parrish asked for some lit sets of books so I got them, checked them out to the LMA there and boxed them up, created a label and had my aide take it up to be picked up. Had my aides pull all the On My Honor books for a teacher, check them out and take them up to her. Got in two boxes of books, but rather disappointed that they weren't library books and were for the Read 180 program. Have over $600 in my Scholastic account and went through my book buying list to see what they had and found about $125 worth of books I can take off my purchase list and use Scholastic $$ to pay for them. Had a teacher come in and request Diary of Anne Frank and Forgotten Fire, so I hunted down copies and sent out emails to get them (ten DoAF from McKay and seven other emails for FF since schools only had one or two copies each). Spent a little time this afternoon going over shelves, displaying books. Found some work for a substitute in the back room. Laminated some stuff for teachers. Did two covers for the library, got The Red Pencil recovered and have to do a bit more on Thirteen Reasons Why before I put it out. Sent another book request to Parrish. Went up to see what was in the staff room from the Books Are Fun people. They often donate books to the library if enough things are bought. There were a couple I might get. Even a set of coloring books for students to work on when things are slow perhaps! Sent an email to another LMA on my take for the end of the year since she asked all of us to pitch in since she's never closed down the library before. A good day! Off to walking class!

Paperwork

I've been looking at the pile of paperwork sitting on the old magazine card catalogue in my office and decided today was the day to go through that four inch high or so pile of papers and get them put away in the notebook I have. Newsletters from the year, meeting handouts and notes, budget paperwork, and other assorted stuffs. Took all the old newsletters from last year and only kept the page with the library stuff on it. Put in all this school year's ones. Put all my meeting stuff together and tabbed the dates of them. Updated my substitute notes. The pile was almost gone! Found a set of copied off pages from a book that someone had rubbed out I had requested ages ago. All sorts of notes and blank papers. So glad I got to that finally! Checked in and out today. Helped an aide pack up a bunch of Greek mythology books we have for her classroom for the next week. Sent off almost all the rest of the Breaking Through books we had borrowed. Still a few floating around though. And the biggest, best news of all!! No testing today 6th period!! I was so happy! During testing today I had to send three students back into the testing lab to be with their teacher. One set was a boy picking up a girl so she could see into the garden. The other was a girl who kicked up at a boy and nearly got him in the you-know-where. On purpose. One of our students came in with some others and they were all talking and not doing what they were supposed to, so when the other students left, he just crunched down and got some good work done, so I told him I was super impressed that he made that choice. It was a good one. And I got a lovely snickerdoodle cookie brought to me 6th period by Mr. S. So much good going on today! Did a bit of repairs this afternoon and more book hunting for my fall order. Had a student looking for good reads so I ended up printing up my reads on the side of my blog here for her. She was very appreciative! I love my job!

2 Weeks

Two weeks and testing should be over and I will rejoice!! Did more hunting for lost books today. Took my report and hunted up the call numbers for all the non-fiction we needed to find and did find a couple right off the bat! Sent out a call to all teachers to send in books and be on the lookout. The last report I did today says that we have $4,900+ worth of books out just from this school year. That's a lot. I found a few today, so did a couple of my hunters. Did a few repairs, looked for old social studies books. A basically quiet day, not really much out of the ordinary to report. Shut down all the computers tonight and left as students were getting ready for the dance. Time for the weekend.

The Lost

Ran a report today for all the lost library books from this year and my aides have found two! I was happy! Two less students telling me they did turn in their books and finding them on the shelves and saying yes they did. I also ran a textbook report on lost textbooks and we will hunt for those tomorrow. Did some repairs. Lots of checking in/out library books. Deleted off old social study books we got rid of last year. (A lot! A few hundred or so.) Came in a bit early so I could leave to help out at the track meet this afternoon. So great to see our students compete. They did a great job! I did long jump again, so I'm getting the hang of it! Sent off some teacher materials back to LMSS. Sent off some books to another school. Had some science boys working, I thought, not very productively so I pulled up a chair and a book and sat and read by them while there was testing in the lab. I hope we only have two more weeks or testing or less!! I'll be so glad when that is done! Had to send a note to our security person about a wandering boy. Had to send another email to a teacher to find out what was happening with a boy. Another IA and I tried to get him to check out a book. We offered up about 20 titles, all different kinds and he finally picked one, then turned it in ten minutes later when the period ended. The teacher was grateful I let her know. Gives her some insight from another angle. I can not wait until testing is over!! 

Referral

I really do hate to give a referral, or even complain about the kids, but this one just pushed me over the edge. The total 'I'm going to go ahead and do what I want and don't care what you say' from a student already in the pass room. I just agonized about it the rest of the day. We were very busy all day. Testing all day. Students coming in from other testing areas. Students just coming down to work. Cleaned off the back table today. Checked out 'Kercheski Method' two sets of classes. Did a bit of repair. I will be very glad when testing is done and we are back to normal! Had a bunch of students come in and borrow headphones for the Chromebooks up in a classroom. I just hope they come back. Checked in/out a ton of books. Went to the last Counselor Advisory meeting for the school year and love being part of that team. Seeing the big picture helps me decide what books might help out students. Had a new student in today looking for a funny book, so I went around to show him some of our boy related funny stuff and he picked a Patterson Middle School book. So glad he came in again! I usually get to see them right away, because they come in for books, but great to see him later in the day. Sent off two books to another school. Covered the last of the new paperbacks we got in. One of those days I felt so busy, but not sure of what all I did! Shhhhuushshshsh!!! We're still testing!!

Informer

I really don't like to write up students, so I often just go ahead and let their teachers know what they've been up to in the library. Had to do that a few times today. Got ready three sets of math books using the 'Kercheski Method'. Checked in and out a lot of books today. Did some laminating. Did a bit of repair work. Put away nearly all of the non-fiction. Covered some more of the new books. Looked for some books I had ordered and asked LMSS what had happened to those and they let me know that the order was finished and those were over the 'Do Not Go Over' price we had stipulated. OK. Learn something new every day. She told me how to look at the invoices and see where all that was! I didn't know! Had all my aides in. They took the math books over to the teacher. Took over call slips for books we were holding for students. Took district mail up for me to be sent to other schools. Checked out 40 Greek Mythology books to a teacher. Went over personal narrative books for another after school for her reading groups. A warm day in the library, sun pouring in, but we were much cooler than upstairs. Put out the coloring bookmarks and colored pencils, markers and crayons for the kids today who were finished with testing. When I brought them out the kids were like "Oh wow!!" A good call. Off to walking class tonight, warm and sunny!

Book Title Poetry

Had three classes in to check out library books today. Four math classes we did in the 'Kercheski Method'. Had no testing during one period today! I was so happy! The rest of the day I 'shuushhed' and asked students to whisper, and was less successful than I had hoped to be. Took down my Beverly Cleary books and worked on my 'Poetry by Title' display and had a lot of fun with that! Got in a box of books I had collected from the last Scholastic Book Fair and they were all ready to put out. So I spent the afternoon stripping them and covering the paperbacks and putting in date due slips. Happy sigh! I'm excited because a student has been waiting for I Am Malala and I told him that I was getting in the young reader's edition. He had a girl recommend it to him and has been waiting for it to arrive, so he'll be very glad tomorrow when he comes in! Set up the computer cart and made sure everything worked before I left today!

Squash

Great day today! Got all books put away. Had a sub in that was a librarian so I put her talents to use by repairing books! Am glad she was here and loved to do that! Got all the rest of the Language Arts textbooks respelled. Checked in and out a lot today, probably because it was Friday. Testing again all day today in the lab. Wrote an article for the May newsletter. Took the projectors and found one that wasn't having issues being turned on, so hooked that up and decided to fire up the computer and make sure everyone was talking to each other and what??? Had to send in a request because the computer 'didn't trust me'. What?? It's an admin thing, so Ms. T came out and got it all working again. Had some boys come in to take a science test and they started talking about vegetables, and if this had anything to do with a squash, so I picked a new book off the rack in my office and just went over to their table and sat and read. They finished their test in like, three minutes! Amazing! I didn't get much read though ;) Sent off some more books, sent off another request for a book. Finished up the books I had repaired yesterday and they all turned out nicely, so checked them all in and put them out. One was for L who kept asking, and I told him I was repairing it so he came by today and was very glad it was ready for him to pick up! Got my office pretty well picked up today and things put away so it looks tolerably neat. Cleared out my email. Really enjoyed the day, my walk during lunch and all things Leslie Library! I love my job!!

Bookmarks to Color!

Had three classes come in today to check out books. Computer lab ran for testing all six periods. Worked on shifting books in the back. Had my 3rd period aides move the Prentice Hall lit books. Then another aide moved some of the Language Network books and I did all the rest of them after school was out. Did some laminating. Got in new books from Scholastic and stamped them, sent the list for approval from my high school supervising librarian so I can send them off to LMSS. Sent 19 Breaking Through books back to South HS. Sent off another couple of books to other schools. Did some repairs, filled up the book press and did some larger books next to it. I'll probably do a batch once a week, rather than waiting for a day to do them all. Makes more sense. Democratic is now selling colorable bookmarks!! Mrs. H sent a link and I think I'll have to get some for next year! So exciting! Shelved all the SE - Z books today and the graphic novels. I love it when my new books fly off the shelves! All my Star Wars books are all checked out! Yeah! 

SWAG and Baseball

Our amazing librarian, the wonderful Mrs. H gave me a bag of goodies in honor of National Library Workers Day. She is so kind and thoughtful, always. I am so blessed to have been hired by her and now a long term friendship. She truly is everything a great librarian should be! Today I took down my geography window and put up baseball! We have a ton of great baseball books and I decided to go ahead and put together a tribute to the game. Go Mariners! Got all the non-fiction put away today and some shelf straightening. Got back half of the Breaking Through books we had borrowed and got those packaged and ready for the mail to send back tomorrow. Had the boys pull all the books off the shelves in the back so we could reset all the Language Arts books and started on that this afternoon. Had one class in to check out books today. Sent off the list of books I got from the webinar to the other middle school librarians. Did some cleaning up in my office. Had a projector with an inverted picture, so I looked that up and flipped it back the right way. Have I mentioned lately I love my job?

Webinar

Today I attended my first ever Webinar! It was promoted by Booklist and Mrs. H one of our librarians sent out the link, so I signed up and so glad I did! I got an hour (well, a little less since I couldn't figure out how to get on right away. I thought the ten minute allotted time I had would be fine, but so didn't happen! I did get in only 6 minutes late!) Loved hearing these reps talk about books and what they liked and seeing the books. Just wonderful! I closed the library down so I wouldn't be interrupted and that worked out well! Got a lot of great new titles, some I already have on my list so it was good to get those choices confirmed! Covered all the paperbacks today that came in with my order. Checked in/out four classes for new reading books. Did some laminating. Worked in the back room this afternoon getting shelving set up for a book shift, put away a lot of dictionaries. All in all, a good day. Love my job!!

A Very Happy Place

Because we got in NEW BOOKS! I knew they were coming and they came in first thing this morning! Happy, happy Squeee!! I got them all stripped (74), date due slips in, and some had to be stamped. Ah, a great day to put things together, get series together that had been missing things, numbering. Peeking through the new books I don't know about that our Librarians ordered! Got my new projector off a technology grant today, another great thing! Not even the four students that got written up dampened my day! Books! New Books! They'll head out onto the floor in the morning!! Huzzah!

Friday

Another long day of testing. All day long again today. We had five classes of science students come in and get new textbooks today. My aides helped when they were here and put away the ones the students turned in. I have this touch of OCDness in the science books...they must all be put away the proper way. All the ends facing out. Not the tops of the books, but the bottoms so they all look the same. I actually spent some time turning around the ones that were facing the wrong way. Yeah, it's just the way I roll...>D  One of our high school librarians sent me a link to a middle school webinar on great new middle school books, so I signed up and am very excited to watch that on Tuesday. I also sent the link to the other middle schools so they can watch too if they want. Did a few minor repairs. Checked in and out library books today. Monitored some of the students that were done with their tests while their teacher was with those that weren't done yet. A great day. I love my job!

Dark is the Library

Today for testing I kept all the library lights off hoping it would be more calming in there when students were done with testing. Most of the time it worked, but one group was really pushing the limits. Had another quiet day. Finished numbering the cats. Put together a tiny order from Perma-bound to finish out my budget. Wanted to get that done before someone said "too late, your money has been put back into the budget" so yeah! I got three new playaways and three replacement books. Now my budget is down to $3. Not bad. Got some of our 900 books put away back in the computer lab. Don't want to do it while they are testing, so I collected for a few days and put those all away tonight after school. Lots of little checking in and out. Had two classes of 'Kercheski method' of math books to do this afternoon. Some laminating as well. Spent a lot of time herding the students and trying to keep them quiet. Another great day in the library. Tapping my foot hoping my 74 new books arrive soon! They're on the search engine, so any day!

Numbering Cats

The Erin Hunter cats that is! We have so many, I decided that my cheat sheet wasn't good enough, and went and started tagging the series. The original I just left numbered, but the rest are numbered with their set initials. Like Warriors: New Prophecy is NP1, NP2 and so on. As I did that, there were book issues so I started to work on them as well. Relaminating covers, checking out the issues I need to fix. They will all be purring happily when I am done! Decided how I was going to figure out on the Chris Lynch books which are which (Vietnam or WWII) you have to do an advanced search and that sorts them out. Sent out another Scholastic order today and was able to use my Scholastic money to buy some books that I had on my purchase slip for the summer, so glad to take those off. Another pretty quiet day of just students trickling in and out. Though we did take in a ton of books and check out, it seemed pretty quiet. Another great walk outside today during my lunch! Loving the freedom! Added more to the summer order. I'm sure a few other things happened, but oh well! It's late and time to unload the dishwasher before I go to bed!

Summer Order

I started to work more on the order I will place this summer while we are off so we will have new books when we get back from summer vacation. I'm pretty excited about it. Did that a lot of this afternoon. Day was again, pretty slow, just the occasional check in/out. Computer lab taken all day with testing so the students that were done would wait in the library. Crowd control! Since the students in the lab across the hall were coming in too! Had a lady come in who is getting a student on track and giving us book share resources for him. Did another little piece on Beverly Cleary for the week. Finished up all the math books numbering those tops! Another day to enjoy the walk outside as well!

Unbeasted

Yes, the Beast Mode award passed on today. I sent it to the two ladies who are running our testing for this year. They have to do all the testing stuff along with their regular jobs and they are there before me and usually after me every day and still have a month to go. They are pretty amazing and beasts in their own right! Testing went on in the lab all day today. No classes came to check in or out anything, so just the few students here and there. Brought back my one New Book cart and took the rest of the books off and put them on the rack to be put away. I went through the math books and worked on numbering the tops of the books. The bottoms were done, but not the tops and when we flip them (on the shelf we put ten front to the back of the shelf, the next ten are front to the front of the shelf) and it's hard to look for a lost book! I think I have just one set to go. Had a few moments today where I had this book, Drowned City and looked at it with two students. One is pretty engaged here at school, the other really wants to run his own show. They were both very into looking at the book and seeing the graphic novel depiction of how New Orleans fared during and after Katrina. That was a great moment for the one student. Enjoyed some cake with the baby shower we had today. Three little girls are on their way to two teachers! I gave them books of course!

Verse-a-tyle

Put up all the novels in verse and made a little sign today. It looks pretty good! Then went through some books and put on some new books in verse for next year. Had five classes in to pick up new books. Had five classes in to pick up new math books. On some of our math books, the bottom got numbered, but not the top, so I worked on those today. There's only about 4 sets. Got two of them done today. Got everything all shelved today except the books behind the computer tables and a few books that came in at the last of the day. A very busy day, computer lab full of testing all day again. I did get in a lovely walk during my lunch. It was warm in the library today! Maybe all that sunshine pouring in through the windows all morning! Or bodies and computers! Took home a bunch of stuff since granddaughters are coming tonight!