Weeding the Collection

After some discussion with my administration, we have agreed that our collection (+/- 5000 books) needs to be weeded. Our shelves are mostly full but, honestly, that isn't always the best idea. It will make my life a lot easier during the upcoming stock-taking if the obsolete books are already withdrawn. Library Girl recently posted a great flyer which has been my inspiration during the weeding process, take a look at it on her blog.

Just some of the books that we are planning on withdrawing!

I must admit that it's a difficult process. The outgoing librarian told me that she didn't like to remove many books, because then the shelves would look empty. Now that we've spent a few days making piles of books to remove, I can see those empty spaces. They are daunting. Some of the books we are withdrawing are hardback books, and are in better condition than the newer books in the library, so it sometimes feels like a shame to remove them. If I am honest, they are in such 'good' condition because they have been checked out so rarely. A few of the books are classic tales, but unfortunately the language or content is generally far beyond what our students want to read. At the same time, though, I have new books waiting in my office, eager to be covered in plastic (a battle, and blog post, for another day...) and get onto those shelves. 

That first sentence is part of the reason this collection is badly in need of weeding!

I hope that we are able to find a place to donate or sell these books to. Despite this being a university town, many of the local schools are not well resourced. Maybe some of the high schools will receive these books better than our students have.

Besides the weeding, I have two big projects on the go: moving the collection from manual cataloging to digital (!) and sorting the fiction by genre. The latter is not really worth doing unless the former is also going to happen. I've been deep into parts of the internet I knew nothing about, namely, integrated library systems. It seems that all of the free options are based on Linux (I have zero experience with Linux), while the Windows solutions cost an arm and a leg. Trying to find a compromise between these two extremes is proving difficult. I would be fine with advising purchase of a software as long as the cost was reasonable, but I've yet to find something suitable. The software that can automate the cataloging is very important to me, because up until now our whole collection has been on a manual card system. My ideal software will let me scan the book's ISBN and pull all the data that is required, without me having to type out 5000+ entries by hand. It will also cater for a school system, such as grouping patrons by grade/class and student/staff. This software would be clear and modern, without the Windows 95/98 look I see plaguing the Windows options (I love the look of Koha's layout). 

If anyone has any suggestions on library software, please feel free to comment and let me know!

We Have Lift-off!

I can now finally announce my good news: I've just started working as a teacher-librarian! I'm extremely excited to have this opportunity. For last two weeks, I've been focusing on learning my new responsibilities and tasks from the outgoing librarian. In fact, I'm so grateful that she is still around to show me the ropes! This week has been my first 'official' week on my own.

Literacy is a huge passion of mine, and I've already started to draw together some ideas that I'd like to slowly integrate into the library. Being a South African public/government school, we simply do not have the budget for drastic technological advances - just like most public schools globally - instead, I'm trying to gather ways of modernising the library with an incredibly limited tech scope. In my next few posts, I hope to formulate my ideas about 21st century libraries that are on a budget, and what can be done as a new educator to provide fresh ideas without having to splash out on.

Being brand new to this, I have a million ideas whizzing around in my head. I'm looking at finding a way of easily sorting my ideas into digital 'folders' and then expanding them into proper notes/plans/documents at a later stage. Tiddlywiki looked like a great solution, but I was having errors getting it to sync properly between my netbook and desktop. 

My ideal life-organiser:

• I could jot down text notes, fully searchable and sortable. I like branching menus and folders.
• Fully usable on my Windows 7 desktop and Windows XP netbook, with ability to sync (I also have and love Dropbox). Would be handy to store/access content on the web, but not necessarily essential due to Dropbox.
• Ability to read/view content (bonus points for adding simple notes, even to an ear-marked folder) on my android phone.
• Good timetable/scheduling abilities, though I'll take that as a separate app. Anything that lets you plan for a two-week (A/B) school timetable?
• Ideally free.

For my normal life stuff, I currently use Catch Notes on my phone for lists and memos, and Google Calendar on my phone (via 3rd party widget) and desktop for calendar tasks. For my teaching/library sphere, however, I feel that I'm going to have to have something more sophisticated. This weekend I've been browsing alternatives, but nothing has really jumped out at me. I'm giving Evernote a go, though I fear that it's reliance on syncing and assumption that you have internet 24/7 is going to be it's downfall. 

If anyone has any suggestions for contemporary, Windows/Android, free life-organisers, please let me know. 

I'm working on little changes to the library, I'm going to take some pictures and get them uploaded to show you all. Thanks to my new Twitter PLN for all the encouraging advice!