School Library Week, Paperbacks, & Webinars

March 18th and 19th (School Library)

I'm in spring cleaning mode!  I'm shifting a few things around and creating new displays not only to celebrate National Poetry Month (I love the ideas provided at http://teacher.scholastic.com/poetry/) but also National Library Week and hopefully draw attention to books that students might not be aware of in the collection.  There are no new funds available this year to purchase new fiction titles for the collection.  In addition, the school has decided again this year to pass on organizing/hosting a Scholastic Book Fair.  That being said, the students are still asking when the library will acquire new titles ("Divergent" is a popular request!!).  My frequent readers have quickly exhausted the stack of titles that were acquired in 2010/2011.  I feel for them and am trying to come up with some alternatives.

One solution has been to create a new shelf just for paperback titles alone.   I like the approach that public libraries like Belle Cooledge Community Library have taken in attracting teen/young adult readers with their paperback readers.  So I've decided to model this approach.  By rotating the paperbacks out of the normal hardback collection and into their own separate space I'm hoping this will keep the frequent readers satisfied :).

The district's tech services this year updated their call numbering system for paperbacks, adding a "PBK" before FIC and the first three letters of the authors last name.  This creates a disconnect in the call numbering for paperbacks in our school's collection.  For example, in the Hunger Games series - we have paperbacks labeled  FIC COL vs. PBK FIC COL.  This disconnect might exist for a while until I have the opportunity to update the labels and change the records accordingly in the Destiny system (which I probably won't be able to do during this internship because Library Techs/Assistants do not have permission to update or correct catalog records in the system).  I'm essentially sacrificing strict adherence to the Dewey Decimal shelving systems to get the kids excited about visiting their school library again.  I would argue it's working so far.

In addition I've decided recently to take full advantage of all the free webinars and advice that the American Library Association offers for school libraries and librarians.  Through Booklist Online (see http://www.booklistonline.com/Default.aspx) I've signed up for several webinars (complete current list at http://www.booklistonline.com/webinars).  I'm particularly interested in the ones on weeding and literacy solutions for struggling readers.  The fiction and non-fiction collection at our middle school's library is in desperate need of weeding - I can only make recommendations based on the advice and tips I'm reading from School Library Journal, the American Library Association, and elsewhere.  Ultimately, however, the school's teacher librarian needs to make the final call on what is culled from the collection.