Spring – yipee!

It is hard to believe that it is spring time. Looking back – the year has been a blur. Overall the goal for this year was to get the library organzied and accessible to our users. I think we are very close to having that happen. The final job for the end of the year is to do an inventory. The inventory will help bring our database up-to-date.

I have made some progress in collaborating with classroom teachers. Next year the focus will shift to the AASL standards and applying them to the library program. Also seeing how I can go out of the library and into the computer labs to collaborate with research. Making sure our library collection has material for all grade levels will be an ongoing goal.

What have I been doing?

I can’t beleive my last entry was in November. After the holidays things have picked up in the library. We are still working on organization within the collection but now classes are starting to use the library as an extension of their classrooms. I am thrilled!!! I have been asked to collaborate with a 3rd grade ocean project. My role will be instructing students when they come to the library. Dicussion will be about evaluating, finding, and using information. The students will come to the library several times. The students will be introduced to the card catalog online, worldbook database, and keyword strategies.

Also the 5th and 6th grade classes have been using the library frequently as a site for researching and creating.

7th & 8th grade have a decades project that I have been involved with; selecting resources, book talks, and putting links on the website.

The library is slowly becoming part of the school. Teachers are using the space differently since we have added 11 laptops and a data projector. The next tech addition is a smart board.

Overall things are progressing and hopefully bringing the library into the 21st century.

Organization is still needed

We are gradually getting things organized but there are still some things that will have to wait until the end of the year. Students are starting to us the online card catalog and are finding many incorrect records. The database does not reflect the shelves. This is because of the large amount of weeding and also the years of not doing an inventory. Our year end task will be to do a thorough inventory. Until then the students will have to remember that the database is not correct. So far we have scanned the majority of books in the primary section to find books that are not online. The progress of getting things organized has been lengthy, but we have definitely made progress.

This week my door got fixed and we got ceiling lights replaced. Now we are watching the traffic pattern of our students to see how we want the library remodeled. Currently we have two rooms divided by a wall. Our thought right now is to put windows in the wall so visually we can see both rooms, but yet have the capability of closing a door to divide the space. Many times there are seperate group instruction be conducting in the library.

We are still waiting for the laptops and digital projector. Currently the six computers are printing and have excellent connectivity.