Book Fair

Our book fair was a huge success! Thanks to all who bought books and other items that were available. We raised a little over $500 to be used to purchase books and other items for our library. The book fair in May will be a buy one get one free. :)

New School Year

The new school year has begun. The library has been closed for the first two days of school, but students still cut through the library on their way to classes. Comments have ranged from "Wow, it's so open, it looks great!" To "Wow, it's so open, I don't like it." Either way, I love the open space, the fact that we now have a recreational and a reference side to the library and that the computers are all in one space - much easier to teach students :) Mrs. Brookens and I are working hard to get the new books ready to be circulated starting Monday. Barcodes, spine labels, MARC records, oh my!

Getting Ready for School

Well, it's almost that time of year again :) School starts for faculty on Monday and the cherubs arrive on Thursday. New items to look forward to:
1. the new layout of the library (see photo)
2. new lessons to be learned about web evaluation and citation
3. more interactive whiteboards!
4. the Pa. Young Reader's Choice Awards program - students read at least 3 books from the list and then vote on their favorite book - the book with the highest votes statewide wins and that author is invited to the annual PSLA awards breakfast - some classes get to meet the author and present the award!
The new view from the circ desk:

Who knows what else the year will bring, but it's sure to be exciting :)

Chaos Reigns!

Chaos reigns at the library! Books are unshelved, tables everywhere, things still boxed up - yep, three weeks until school starts and that's where we are. Starting next week I'll be at school getting books back on the shelves and things looking neater. I'm looking for any decent used comfy chairs anyone may have to make a cozy area to read in. The pod chairs from last year didn't hold up, so they need to be replaced. Let the work begin! :)

RSS Feeds

A class that I'm taking this summer, WEB EDU, had a lesson on RSS Feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it's a quick way to keep up with sites or blogs that are updated often. Using Google Reader, I have created a way to keep up with some sites that I follow which will allow me to send out information to teachers who may use the sites mentioned. The more I use it, the better I like RSS. I've subscribed to Cool Cat Teacher's Blog, TED Video, iLibrarian and some others - do any of you have any suggestions?

New Carpet and layout at the Panther Den

New carpet was installed in the Panther Den in the middle of June and the shelves were also rearranged. The stacks that stood out in the middle of the room have been mounted to the walls and the computers have been moved to one location at the back of the room on the whiteboard side. The result: a very open floor plan :) I'm excited to start the new school year with the library feeling much larger. I still have to move the rest of the fiction collection and reshelve the nonfiction books but it will be worth the effort.

My goal is to halve the library - the side where you enter will be for recreational reading and lounging and the far side will be for reference and research teaching. I may even try some theater style seating for the 9th grade Library Media Skills when it's in session. Here is an early photo of the carpet, let me know what you think!  I'll try to remember to take some of the shelving up the next time I go to school.

Use of Technology to become "Literate"

In the blog In Touch there is an article that suggests that students become fluent in reading only because they are required to read outside of school assignments throughout their lifetimes. The author of In Touch suggests that students also be required to use technology to become technology literate as well since we live in a digital age.

I have to say I agree - students (and teachers!) should be using technology in schools. At NEB we have Promethean Boards, which is a great start. Some teachers have used Photostory, MovieMaker, and Audacity (to name a few) to help students create projects. This is wonderful :) We live in a globally digital age - people from all over the world, with a multitude of backgrounds, are free to share their opinions.  Those of us in schools should take advantage of that fact and prepare our students to be a part of this world.

The mission of most schools is to prepare students to be a productive member of society. To me, this is preparing students to effectively use social and productive technologies, become discerning and critical of information presented (not just taking it at face value), crediting sources, and collaborating with others to expand our students' understanding of culture. 

What do you think?