The Ladies I Cannot Live Without

I have been very fortunate that in all of my library jobs thus far, there has always been a library clerk (secretary, assistant, or support staff). They all have different titles depending on the district but the job is the same, and that job is so important! I have had three amazing library workers in my six years and four schools as a librarian. They were not amazing just because they do their job well, it was the extra stuff they did, the stuff that cannot be put on a job description that made the difference.

They LOVE students

     It is the way they welcome everyone in the library space whether it is students or teachers, “Hi sweetie!” “Your book just came in”, “Are you done with that book already?” Students (and teachers) feel cared about, they feel welcome.  They developed positive relationships with everyone that came to the library. That does not mean they were afraid to call students out when they needed to change their behavior, or to follow up on students who had missing books. I have learned so much about how to interact with others from these ladies.

They are my mom’s age

      They have been working for a while and know how to deal with people. I find that even some of our toughest students would still be respectful to the library staff. In my current library, we have a student that calls the library secretary “Grandma”. They are fun yet calming, they are young at heart, yet wise. 

   They are my partners 

      In each setting, I was the new person coming in and I had a lot to learn. They were great teachers and they were supportive. When I had no one to sit with during meetings, they were there. When I had no idea how to answer the million questions we get at the desk, they were there. When I wanted to try some crazy idea, they would listen and let me try something new. They were my collaborators. The library can be a very isolating place but they were there and I could not have survived without them.  

   They all like to garden

    I have no idea how this translates into library work but all three of them like to garden. 

     

       And, yeah, they all like books too.  

Thank you Christine Hackney, Karen Parjani and Jackie Witt. I love you ladies! Thank you so much for supporting me, for being at the circulation desk when I was running around to classes. Most of all, thank you for making our libraries a welcoming place. I still have a lot to learn, but I definitely want to be like you three, when I grow up. 

Blind Date, Take Two

Last year I tried Blind Date with a Book. It was a huge success! Books were flying off the shelves and were gone within two days. I was in a different library last year and the set up was a bit different. I had display shelves that spanned the "entrance" into the library. This is a library that had half walls and no door so students walked by all the time during passing times and would usually glance at the library. When they saw shelves with brown bags, it made them notice, it made them stop and many of them just had to know what books were in the bag.

This year, I am in a different school. I do have heavy traffic flow into my library due to study halls every period and students that have a free period but there are numerous students that I never see. I am hoping there will be some interest and that I will see some new faces pop into the library and check it out.

Here are the final four winners in our book bracket! This was a fun program that I hope to repeat next year.

We are ready for round two in March Book Madness Event. We are in the Sweet Sixteen Round and there are some tough choices: The Hunger Games Trilogy or Divergent? I am Malala or Unbroken? Round three starts Monday, March 16th!

March Madness Book Bracket

Here are some of the books from Round One of our March Madness Book Bracket. There are four regions: Dystopia/Fantasy, Mystery/Thriller, Realistic Fiction and Nonfiction. Voting starts on Monday, March 2!

Fun, Frivolous & Serious: The Many Faces of February

When planning for book displays for this month to inspire students to read I found myself jumping back and forth between the fun, the frivolous and the serious. February is Black History Month and I am pleased that our library has many important books that cover multiple historical eras, tell the stories of important and prominent people throughout history and fiction books ranging from historical to realistic fiction. It was hard to decide what books to display for Black History Month this year. The national theme for Black History month for 2015 is "A Century of Black Life, History & Culture". Starting with the Harlem Renaissance and moving to present day there were numerous titles to display. A couple of the fiction titles that are receiving awards lately I cannot wait to read next. Jaqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming, a verse novel memoir about growing up in the 1960s and 70s and Kekela Magoon's How It Went Down, a fictional story that has startling similarities to events recently in the news.

Whether it is close to Valentine's Day or not, we get frequent requests for romance books. It is a popular genre among teens in our school. We created multiple genre lists recently to help students when requesting books and they have been very popular. Since Valentine's Day is approaching we created a mini display of romance books that are fun to read.

I, however, loathed Valentine's Day in high school. Part of it was because I never had a boyfriend in high school and the other part was because I am not a mushy, romantic person in general. Last year, I created an Anti-Valentine's Day display and saw that some other libraries have been doing this as well. I think it is awesome! One of my signs was so convincing, I had a teacher take the sign down and inform me that a student ruined my sign. When I I told him I created the sign he was in utter disbelief. "Love stinks?" "Yes, Mr. A, in high school, love does stink."
I could not resist, frivolous as it is, to create a similar display this year too. It will probably be an annual tradition. Let me know if you have some favorite non-romance books or sad books and I might add them next year!