What I've Been Reading

Here in the library, we are standing on the precipice of automating our collection. That is, moving from a manual card system to a fully digital, barcode-scanning future! While that plan slowly ticks towards being ready to begin (arranging the details with our IT admin at the moment), I've been continuing with weeding our collection. We have removed about 400 books from the shelves yet, as a student pointed out to me this week, the shelves still look full! The obsolete/damaged books will be featuring in a book sale, with the left over books being donated to the local Friends of the Library, who know better than I do who would find the books most useful.

While that continues, I've begun the process of, shall we say, strongly encouraging the students to return all of their library books. When I arrived, we did not have a process of library fines. Perhaps when the system is digital, we can calculate such things better. At the moment though, if there is a late book, all that can really happen is a grumpy librarian (me). If a book is decided as missing, though, we will be sending a letter home with a request that the book is found or the appropriate amount is paid. I finished the template for that letter yesterday, but I'm hoping that most of our students will return any misplaced books. The majority of the kids are quite bashful about any missing books, and serious about the idea of returning them - at least, so far!

While all of this administration has been happening, I've been reading:

Every Day by David Leviathan

I'm always poking my nose into new YA fiction to see what's popular. I liked the premise of this, a sort of Quantum Leap for teenagers. I didn't really dig the protagonist's obsession with his love interest, I saw it more as creepy than romantic. She put it well in the latter half of the book: he didn't have the right to use those lives to basically stalk her. Apparently there's a sequel on the way, perhaps A will grow up a little bit then. I did finish it, but kept hoping it would get better. 3/5 stars.

Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian

I never did this book in school, but it came highly recommended by a friend. I read another of her books, Back Home, earlier in the year, and really enjoyed it- so I decided to pick this one up and have a go. Honestly, I thought it was really great. The lives of the people in the book were so very interesting, and the section where Willie has to go back to visit his mother was truly stomach-churning. I don't often have such an emotional reaction to books! Great read, and am already plotting ways to encourage my students to read it. 5/5 stars.

The Armourer's House by Rosemary Sutcliff

We have a substantial collection of  Sutcliff's novels in the library, perhaps they were very popular at a previous point in the library's timeline? The language of her books seems, sadly, to be a bit out of reach for the majority of our students but I will continue to persevere. I'd attempted to get stuck into The Eagle of the Ninth before, and will probably try again, but this is the first time I've read any of her novels the whole way through. As a massive Tamora Pierce fan, this book struck me as a Tamora Pierce book where the was no magic! I sort of was waiting for the fantastical element to happen, or for Tamsyn to disguise herself as a boy and steal away on a ship. Despite that, though, it was a very detailed look into life during the time period- which was something I found fascinating through reading. 3/5 stars.

Batty About Books

 Reporting in to show off our first ever Halloween display!

Halloween is not really a big holiday here in South Africa. The kids hear of it mostly through US television channels, like Disney. The younger kids I chatted to had been trick-or-treating to each other's houses and knew all about dressing up and costumes. The older ones were less clear on the holiday. Regardless, all ages were very happy to colour in 30+ bats to help me decorate the library.

Batty About Books!

The black fabric is felt, it was considerably expensive but will last forever. The Library Elves and I had to cut it to get to fit to the board- normally, if a piece of fabric is too long we just fold it up behind, but the felt was too thick. Due to this, we also have some back-up felt for future projects. Up close, the felt is very pitch dark and has a great texture. 

I saved up a bunch of our spooky/mystery books and displayed them below the display. I've also kept some books in reserve, to stock the display up when it runs low. I'm pleased to say that the first day that I had students come into the library, about 6 books have already been taken out: books that otherwise would have probably never gone off the shelves. In this way, I'd already consider the display a success.

Some of our happy bats hanging from the rafters.

In terms of Halloween activities, the colouring in of bats has absorbed much of their time. I also found a themed word-search online that was hugely popular, I must find more brainteasers for them to do. This term is jam-packed, prizegiving and exams are looming! If there is time, though, I'd like to run a spooky stories afternoon in the library. 

The refurbishing of the displays has brought in some great, often hilarious, comments from the students on how much they like the library 'now'. Many girls instantly notice and remark on the decor, while others walk on past and take a bit of time to actually 'discover' what has changed.

Spring Has Sprung!

For some of my readers, this post title might confuse you. Surely it's autumn, you cry? Not here in the Southern Hemisphere, it isn't! Having our seasons opposite to the majority of the teaching-blogging world makes it somewhat interesting to search for appropriate themes and resources: Christmas is slap-bang in the middle of our summer, for example, so snowmen and winter scarf templates aren't that useful! In any case, it's currently spring here and I got myself in gear to put up a new display in the junior section.

Step 0: Wrestle pretty new green fabric onto full brown/grey display board. There is no picture for this, my Library Elves and I were far too busy wresting with the fabric.

Step 1: Locate willing Grade R class (Kindergarten). Get them to give you hand-prints on A4 paper in some bright colours. Attempt not to get covered in paint while helping them do this.

As you can see, I partially achieved Step 1.

Step 2: Locate willing Library Elves to cut strips of coloured paper for the stems and to arrange the hand-prints into beautiful spring flowers. Persuade Library Elves to cut out lettering for the display, also from coloured paper.

Working away in the library this afternoon.

 Step 3: Take photos of the students' hard work. Marvel at their creativity and drive.

Junior Display: Let Your Imagination BLOOM

I'm really so proud of them, they really took on this task with massive enthusiasm and seemed to enjoy it. The majority of the students were working on it were Grade 6s, so I'm eyeing them up for Library Monitor duty next year! This will brighten up the junior side an incredible amount. While this display was being constructed, we were also working on our snazzy new Halloween display for the other side of the library. At the same time, we were also making lists of the books that we are planning on withdrawing. Things are certainly busy at this time of the year!

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!

Senior Primary Display: A Blast from the Past

Now that I've taken this display down in preparation for our next one, I've finally found time to put the pictures up here! This theme was Blast from the Past, a broad sweep through history and a good chance for me to see what find of historical fiction (and non-fiction) we have. As always, click on the pictures for a big version.

As you can see, we have dinosaurs, pyramids, music records and a variety of people from the ages. The music records are a very old part of our collection, I guess that we have about 20 of them. I have no idea of they still work, as there is no access to a record player to test them out. For now, they are decor. 

A closer view of the plastic toy dinosaurs, kindly loaned to me by a friendly grade 1 teacher. 

A close-up of my amazing hand-drawn dinosaurs. The design was taken from a fabulous teacher online somewhere, but I'm impressed that I was managed to reproduce it to such cute effect. These have been laminated and kept for another day. 

I have a feeling that this display, theme-wise, wasn't as big a hit as the animal theme. The students just seemed less interested in the variety of historical fiction (what do you mean, you don't want to read about the London Blitz?!). I've heard that historical fiction can be a hard sell to students of this age group, so I'm not too worried.

My next display will probably be one for Halloween, I've been working on the components. It isn't a big holiday here in South Africa, so my students are amused by the novelty of it and have been helping me out by creating art for decorating purposes.

Prizegiving is coming up at our school, wrapping up the year before final exams start. I've been given the job of arranging the printing of all the certificates, for both junior and senior primary (400+ students). Hopefully I can do it in good time and without it becoming a big stress. 

Prettying Up the Place with Pom-Poms!

I'm writing today to bring you another update to the library decor. Unlike most of my ideas, this one was conceptualised, planned and carried out within the space of a week! In the library, there are a lot of support beams high up on the ceiling, not to mention an awful lot of plain ceiling space. I've been brainstorming how to jazz up this space to make the library more jolly and attractive. When I came across this idea this week, I felt that I had found something that might work.

Using Cicelie's excellent tutorial that I found on Chintzy Couture (via Pinterest), I decided that it couldn't be too difficult, even for a non-crafty person like me. I cut up a small cardboard box into two circular templates and set about wrapping up my tulle, similar to how you would make traditional woolen pom-poms. I have a very faint memory of attempting a woolen pom-pom when I was about 5 or 6 years old in a Rainbow group, which was only brought back when I started this craft!

This is a shot of about half of the tulle pom-poms finished. I was absent minded and didn't think to take photos of my creation process. If you want a guide, though, the tutorial I linked above has really great information (and additional discussion in the comments). I read through it in the morning and spent the day making pom-poms.

The finished result:

I got enough material for 15 tulle pom-poms in total: 5 blue, 5 white and 5 pink. I spent most of my Friday balancing on library tables and stringing them up. I'm quite pleased with the result.

The Suggestion Monster

This post is to show off one of the new additions to the library this year: a suggestion box! I wanted it to be something the students wanted to use, that was eye-catching and would encourage them to provide suggestions about the library. In July, inspiration struck me. I looked around on Pinterest and Google for some monster crafts, and came up with this cute little thing (click the pictures to make them larger):

This is the Suggestion Monster! This afternoon, I had just finished emptying him of suggestions, he was totally full. I covered him in felt for body and spots, then I just glued some egg-carton eyes (with googly eyes) onto the top of him. Originally, he was a shoe box, which is why he has the 'hand' flap. I glued a roll of cardboard to the hand flap to let him hold his own pencil, which the students love. I cut off the other flap, and cut the front flap into the jagged teeth. The box mouth lifts up so the suggestion notes can be put inside. He took about 2 days to finish, in between regular library work. 

He sits on the computer table, underneath a page which gives the students some guidelines about what to suggest. Since July, students have regularly used the suggestion box. Usually, they suggest authors or books they would like, but occasionally they have even given me suggestions for events the library should run and the library layout. I'm happy that he continues to be such a popular feature of the library. 

We have started training up a group of student library monitors, who are doing an excellent job in assisting me with re-shelving the book returns and tidying the shelves. Each monitor has chosen a shelf to be in charge of, and I have started awarding a Shelf of the Week label. This idea has come from multiple librarian blogs, thank you all so much for continuing to share your creations!

It's hard to believe I've only been working at this school as a librarian for only 3 months.