Moran: On occasion, a librarian makes a mess

Over the last few weeks, in Moran, I pulled books, books and more books off the shelves to fix their catalog records in Infocentre. Now, it’s worth noting that the library was very neat when I started coming in September – thanks to dedicated staff and parents – and so I really appreciate the staff’s patience while I took their nice, neat library and rearranged everything, moving Dewey sections together, shifting shelves to match organization at other district libraries, piling books in chairs and on the floor and all over the counters, sticking up post-its everywhere, and then leaving for a week at a time to teach at the other schools.

I did it because the catalog needs some work – and if you mess with the catalog you have to mess with the library. If you looked at the piles I made, they mirrored what was happening in the catalog, where many of the books’ electronic records are jumbled. Part of this is a result of an error during the migration to Infocentre, where hundreds (as far as I can tell) of books “fell out” of the catalog/got extra zeros/lost zeros/etc. Their records may be there, somewhere in Infocentre, but their barcodes/copy IDs don’t work, so they can’t circulate. I am trying to hunt these down in the library to get them all entered – hence the piles.

I really have one goal in all my piles, and that’s to make what’s happening in the physical library the same as what is happening in the online catalog. I want the two to match. That way it becomes really easy for students and staff to look up books by subject, author, title, etc, and then locate them on the shelves. It will help them become familiar with a typical catalog search interface and with traditional school/public library organization systems. Then the skills that the students learn while navigating their elementary school library can be easily applied at the Jackson middle school, in town – where the students will eventually go – and also to public libraries, and can make for a more seamless transition into using the different libraries they’ll probably experience in their lifetimes. (LC aside!)

The library organization and interface pieces are also a part of my curriculum. I am responsible for teaching students different library standards in each grade, and the standards all include searches in Infocentre, using the Dewey Decimal Classification system, and other principles of library organization – so it helps my classes to have the library and the catalog in sync.

The good news about the mess is that it’s much better after today! I stayed after school for a few hours and got it into shape so it can be functional until I can dig in some more. Here are the “before” and “after” pictures:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE: (what a mess I made!)

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

AND A BEFORE:

AND AFTER:

Many of those books still have to be dealt with, but now they’re at least ready to go.
The BEFORE:

AND AFTER:

MORE AFTER:

Kelly: Mac attack! (Weeding and shifting)

Using the MUSTIE guidelines two weeks ago, Mac, Jan S. and I went through the reference section at Kelly to determine what was outdated and now inaccurate/not current (lots of reference materials focus on “current events/world leaders/etc) so they can be outdated quickly. We looked at what should be updated with new purchases, what was no longer needed, and which resources were now being used electronically. Mac took the teachers through the section for tightening it up – it is now half its size (which is fantastic) and much more current.

We are weeding older and outdated/no longer accurate materials:

Due to this weeding, we now have a new space for biographies. They were across the room near the fiction section, which is currently over capacity. There has been no more room on the shelves for new fiction books and they have ended up on the shelves above the non-fiction, across the room. Due to the new space in the reference section, we could move the biographies away from the fiction and open up that space for new fiction. Ta-da!

Mac has been shifting the fiction section into this new space to allow us to update the whole section and get those new series the kids are begging for. This is where it is happening:

We ran a weeding report in Infocentre and are looking at what books in fiction and non-fiction may need updating. We found a lot of records but the catalog can be misleading. Many could be old records that were never deleted or have been duplicated – so some of the “weeding” will be removing electronic records that have no print copy attached to them. They are like phantom records. It will be a big process for inventory this year – as I’m sure it is everywhere – but Mac is getting us right where we need to be to take stock of the collection as a whole.

Alta: The transformation

While there are still hundreds of books to process and get on the shelves, the library itself is becoming more functional every day. It has gone from this:

To this:

Alta: hunkering down on the records transfer

There is a matter of 467 partial records imported into Infocentre from the public library to deal with.
Jan S. came down this week and we plugged away at de-processing former public library books – taking off the call numbers we don’t use in a school library, such as “J” for juvenile, since all of our books are Juvenile, for example, and their old barcodes that no longer match our system – and then updating their partial records in Infocentre, printing out new spine labels and attaching new barcodes, and then processing the books for a school library.

These were cataloged and partially processed yesterday. A sizable number! The printed sheets are spine labels that need to be attached to the books during final processing (mylar covers, etc).

We still need to work on:

…and…

…and…

Wilson: Posters, reading dice and JH book hunting

I was happy to get a blog comment from Joan B., the librarian before me. Hopefully she’ll come visit from Alabama soon and do a “guest spot” at Wilson!

For now…

At Wilson, the 3rd grade is studying genre. This month it is historical fiction; last month it was mystery and the month before, realistic fiction. We did partner booktalks today, and here is our (mussed) historical fiction table for the day.

In the 3rd-5th grades we’ll be looking at reference materials throughout the year (print and online), including encyclopedias, atlases, and almanacs. I got a good poster for the “horseshoe” area at www.reallygoodstuff.com – I ordered a few and finally got to unpack them today.

Another poster from reallygoodstuff is this one. I have a “coming” and “going” poster with clear directions and today, with the 2nd graders to start, I appointed a class captain to make sure all six coming/going are taken care of. I will use a new student each week for this – they seemed to really enjoy it today. It helps to give them a stake in state of the library, I think.

In that same order, I got some write-on dice to use with grades K-2 when we do readalouds, and grade 3 for genre. I will read a book or a passage and we’ll roll the dice to see what questions the class will discuss. (Behind that are library jokes, which I pull out from time to time, especially on those days when everyone seems tired. Some are riddles and some are just knock-knock jokes.)

In other Wilson news, thanks to the fabulous Patty Krause, we’ve got our new Follett order out and on the shelves! We have spent the last few weeks on this order, trying to update the many, many series in this library. It’s nice to get a big fat update order in and get the records into the catalog and the books out, as we’ve had kids asking after them every day and putting slips in at the “recommendation station.” Some books are backordered but most came in and Patty is working on the order of A.R. tests from Renaissance Learning.

We are reading the Buckaroo Award books in grades 1 and 2 right now. We have read “Dogku,” “Move Over, Rover” and “The Day Dinosaurs Came with Everything.” The kids get to vote – “dinosaurs” is winning, at the moment.

In less glamorous news, I worked on divvying up my materials into bins for the different schools. I really don’t have a perfect system for this yet, but I’m getting closer. The idea is that instead of keeping everything in my car all the time, I can just keep one laundry basket of stuff with me at a time for each school. Maybe? Maybe. It leaves more room for groceries…or the inevitable books…in my trunk.

Speaking of, after school today, I went to the used book store, Book Trader, to look at books for the four libraries (now that I had all this space, you know!) I kind of hit the jackpot. I found several Eyewitness books for Wilson (high demand), as well as Wyoming animal books for the 4th grade totem animal project (a couple), a few dog books and a Star Wars graphic novel (always wanted/destroyed), Pirateology, some science fiction and fairy books, Caldecott Award books and some excellent fiction, including Lemony Snicket and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, for Alta. The other day I got some books at the Browser, including one of the Buckaroo award books I need for Alta for $1! It was great. Even though these books don’t come pre-processed and will take more time than if we got them through a library vendor, it’s nice to find some that don’t break the bank that I know the students will really love.

Myself, I’m looking forward to reading “Love, Stargirl” by Jerry Spinelli (which I promised a Wilson student I would read if they read the original Stargirl, and we could swap stories) and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” – to see what everyone’s talking about.

Moran: new organization, re-orientation

Getting used to the new/updated sections:

Looking for the Wyoming Buckaroo and Indian Paintbrush award books:

Checking out what’s new:

Kelly: “Searching is fun”

Today our classes focused on searching in Infocentre using keyword, subject, author and title. We practiced the 1-2-3 method to get to our catalog online, from the school website, then found the most relevant and least relevant results we could in each of the 4 basic search options. We’re focusing on what it means to be an “information critic,” and the difference between finding the most results and the best results, which is a skill they will build on for the rest of their lives.

When we reviewed what we did after our “freeword” searching, one student summed up what we learned today as: “We learned that searching is fun.” That’s a success, and the right place to start. I don’t want students to be intimidated by the process, and I want them to have fun with it while learning to be critical consumers of information, from our catalog to the internet.

We used the computer lab and the smartboard to do this, but I also wrote on a good ol’ fashioned whiteboard, as well, and then put it in the library.

Then, during checkout time after the keyword lesson, students filled in book recommendations in the “recommendation station.”

Mac and I went over some Buckaroo book award nominees for the 2/3 grade lesson.

Then, a few minutes of reading, and off they went…

And I got in my “library mobile” to head to Moran library for the afternoon.

Kelly: An introduction

Kelly Elementary School is the 4th library I manage and teach classes at, half a day a week (the morning of the same day I go to Moran). It is in the closest to me as it is essentially in my backyard.

Kelly is an unincorporated township/village/whathaveyou bordered by Grand Teton National Park, north of Jackson. The population is about 200 and the school has about 40 students, in combined grades, on a 2-year curriculum cycle.

I took these pictures yesterday, when I had an inservice day and was able to spend the afternoon with Mac, the library para, and Jan, the district library supervisor, doing an overhaul of some of the older library materials and the things that have piled up. There is no more room on the shelves for new books, so some things will have to go if we want to update the collection to make it more accurate, current, and accessible. We made a lot of progress yesterday, even if we made a mess.

The library is down a set of stairs. (It does not always have those piles on the table, those were special for the work day!)

The library space is used for library, as well as some math classes, reading classes, a weather station…many things.

Like some of the other libraries, it has unique sections – like an easy reader AND a picture book section, which means the cataloging is different for each of the libraries (and so are the call numbers). Right now, at Kelly, the Easy Readers can be identified by yellow stickers on the call number which is a single letter. Picture books have a white sticker with a single letter, vs. E ABC or P ABC, etc. This is why if a book is withdrawn from Kelly because it’s a duplicate, for example, and taken to another library, it will need reprocessing for a new call number (as well as barcode) and, of course, recataloged. This is the E section:

Here is the “book drop,” where students return their books (the laundry basket). Behind it is the P section.

In front of the non-fiction section, you can see our new book cart! Lori Clark-Erikson from the high school was kind enough to give it to us – it makes a huge difference in library operations, actually, in storing and shelving. We didn’t have one there before and shelved from the tables.

Mac and Jan, training on cataloging and ZMARC in Infocentre on our inservice afternoon, after weeding the reference collection and cleaning out one of the closets, running weeding reports, etc.

Some of the piles we attacked:

And finally, here are the doves that are at the top of the stairs. They coo while I teach. I like them. Ruth V., the combined K/1 teacher and original library-starter, is amazing with animals.

Wilson: Big 6 projects and classy catalogues

We keep the old card catalog as a display in the hall because it’s so fun to look in:

Below are the binders the 3-5th graders will fill in during library class during their Big 6 research projects. Wilson is the only school where I teach single grades – the other schools have combined grades, so they work on 2- and 3-year cycles, and require unique curricula. So the lessons at each school are very different every week.

Above is the shelf at Wilson where I keep everything I’ll use to teach during that particular day. Today, I taught 5 classes, grades 1, 2 and 4.

This is the main setting for the lecture/intro parts of lessons: the Smartboard (an electronic whiteboard), book box, storytime chair (for the younger grades), my Mac for PowerPoints and Smartboards to display, and for technology, catalog and database demonstrations. Each library class at Wilson is 40-50 minutes long, with each class coming once a week.

Each of the 12 classes at Wilson has named the pink clock on the wall. It is a classroom management tool that I use every single day. It doesn’t operate, but I set it to a “choosing time” for end of class. If I have to wait a minute for the class to settle, then they have to wait a minute for me to finish up…it’s based on Love and Logic.

Wilson: Hub for cataloging and processing

A typical Wilson pile: pages from encyclopedia for student’s Big 6 research project, receipts to record in the various school budgets, books on hold, catalogs to go through and orders to phone in. It’s a paperwork blitz!

Gumdrop books, ready for cataloging…

Books from Alta, cataloged there and ready to be processed and brought back (no processing supplies there yet, so it happens at Wilson):

Follett books to process and catalog:

Wilson: At the end of the day…

The circ desk, where the check-out magic happens, and much of the processing, cataloging, and other administrative work.

One of the computers the students use for classes and labs, and then our non-fiction section.

Displays (and the goose) still in tact…

But some lesson planning to be done in “the horseshoe!” (Where the kids sit during presentations and where I work when PEAK is using the room after school):

The Wilson library: home base

While my time is divided amongst the four libraries, I spend the most at Wilson Elementary School, in Wilson, Wyoming, which has about 200 students. I teach grades K-5, two sections of each, and teaching is mainly what I do. I have a fabulous para there, Patty, who works there on the days I am gone. The collection itself does not need the same TLC as the collections at the other libraries – it’s in pretty good shape – but since I do 12 classes there, it is mostly that and the lesson planning, grading, and prep. At the other schools, I do 2-4 classes each. At Wilson, I try to work on the cataloging, ordering, and budgets for as many of the schools as I can get to.

Moran: Moving on, to fiction

The fiction collection here has a lot of paperback books and very long shelves, which means the books get out of order easily and they fall, or even explode off of the shelves when students are using the bookends – if there are bookends. I am hoping to get more soon.

But, for now, on the same inservice day I went through the fiction collection and began labeling the shelves (the labeling was outdated) and putting books in order as much as possible. There are some unique sections that I would like to integrate into the collection instead of keep in corners of the library where students may not know where to look if they are using the online catalog to find a location.

I am the post-it labeling queen:

This is how the fiction looked right before, so it’s going to be a lot easier to navigate now.

I have also shelf-read all the Dewey sections, but those are more complicated and it will probably take another “dig in day” to get those sections integrated and in more typical library order. About 1 in 3 of those books will also need additional cataloging or processing…but that seems a long way off. A few more piles:

Still…progress! This library is really fun.

Moran: The school at the junction

I get to spend about 3-4 hours a week (an afternoon) working at the Moran school library, which is up north, right near Yellowstone National Park, at the Moran Junction. It is about 40 minutes drive each way, depending on road closures. There are two teachers and a dog, and sometimes in the playground, you’ll find a bear (hopefully not during recess). There are 14 students, and they are divided into an upper class and a lower class by grade level. I teach classes most of the time I am there each week, all but 45 minutes or so, and don’t get a chance to “dig in” too much, unless I take an inservice day. I had a chance twice this year, so far, to spend a day at Moran to shelve, catalog, and work on the library. Cataloging is a big issue there because about 1 in 4 books do not show up when you scan them into the system, and many were never processed or cataloged at all. I just now got the new books on the shelves because they needed processed and A.R. tests and I could only get through a few each week. There is almost as much to do with this collection as there is at Alta, because fixing records often takes longer than starting new, from scratch, and there is a good amount of fixing to do because so many records fell out of the system the last time they switched automation systems. But either way, it’s a wonderful space, and I am proud of how it looks right now, after the chance to spend a day there Tuesday:

I started with the “easy reader” section. First, I pulled out the books that did not belong in that section (non-fiction and fiction), and then I shelf-read, putting books in order and pulling the books with no call numbers or spine labels – this makes up about 1/3 of the collection – for processing (at a later date). Then, I moved all of the books onto shelves to be in correct library order, reading with the shelves going down, not across. I want the kids to be able to use the middle school library in town when they graduate to it, and the public library, so it’s best to put things in an order they will recognize where ever they go. It’s also a part of the standards I need to meet as a teacher-librarian. I also began to label the shelves – with post-its, for now.

If the book is on the floor, there is something wrong with it and it needs to be either re-cataloged or re-processed. I have a pile of a few hundred of these at the moment, in book carts and sitting in an easy chair! But the Easy Reader section is looking great, and it’s a great place to start.

And of course, making piles while listening to CNN radio after school on election day. This is the basket for books to check in and the rest are books that need new records or spine labels.

And some books that “fell out” of the system, on the counter ready to be entered back in:

Alta: A circulation desk arrives; the library begins to function

Hooray for furniture! We got our Smartboard, too, for the library and computer lessons. And CHAIRS! And, on the floor, you can see the storytime rug. It is finally coming together, furniture-wise.

Of course, what is the point of a desk if you don’t fill it with piles of books to process and catalog, and your library supplies?

Processing in a brand new library is a big job. That’s an understatement.

The behind-the-scenes work is necessary, but the real gratification comes from seeing the room in use. We may not have all the books we need, and we may have 500 books in boxes to work through, one at a time, but just having books circulating and in the space is more than I expected to see two months into the school year, with all our furniture delays. There is tons left to do, but this is certain progress.