Monday, September 3, 2007

My First Week in the Library

It's been an interesting first week . I found that while I have big ideas, for the role I want the library to have within the school, which I have talked about and planned for. I completely forgot to think about some of the day to day items of working in a library, like deciding how many books students can take out or putting out the date due stamp for students to stamp their books. My answer to students' questions about these matters, is to ask, "What did you do last year?"

I am pleased with the few changes I have made to the library, it feels more open and I hope with the addition of the couch and love seat that it has a welcoming feel for students. I plan to change some of the shelving in the library and hope to find shelving in the school division.

I have begun a process with some staff and a parent of weeding through our nonfiction. I had not considered that we would not all share the same beliefs about what books to keep and which to get rid of. Certainly using the guideline of looking at materials more than ten years old is a good one. However in our library, if we weeded out any materials older than ten years, it would mean we would have little left. In the beginning we discussed each book and looked at it's age, content, and format. You certainly learn a lot about the collection and each other as you work through this process. Interestingly enough, I was able to sell three of the books that I had pulled from the collection. Some of the books pulled from the shelf where published in 1946!

The section which took the most serious weeding was the biography section. Many of the people highlighted were no longer well known or part of the curriculum. It was easy to see how "Googling" the person would be more useful and provide more up-to-date information.

This week I will be working at setting up student blogs. I look forward to seeing how students respond to this tool and what unforeseen elements will arise!

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