He Always Shall be Our Friend

Leonard Nimoy passed away today at the age of 83.  He will forever be known as Spock, but this librarian wanted to pause and remember his many contributions to libraries around the world.

Nimoy was:

a reader

an author of memoirs

(Talk about using writing to figure out who you are!)

a poet

an audio book performer

Click HERE to listen!

a photographer

 Click HERE for a link to buy The Full Body Project.

and a heckuva interesting interview

 Click HERE for a transcript of the interview!

Most importantly, though, he was just a cool, awesome, beautiful human.  This planet, and this librarian, will miss him.

More New Book Fun

Here is one of my favorite New Book rows yet.  I call this Spirals, Bows, & Arrows.

If you want to learn more about one of these awesome titles, here are some links that will help you decide if you want to check them out from your library:

Ghosts of Heaven
Heir of Fire
Mortal Heart
The Universe Versus Alex Woods

What pairing fun have you been having in your library???

I Had No Idea: National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Eating disorders are not something to be ignored.  In order to shed light on them and help those that might be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help in a one-on-one manner, we have planned a couple of things to raise awareness of eating disorders.

Amy has been working with the school social worker to sponsor a Uni Period talk about eating disorders, and a registered dietician will be in attendance to lead the talk/discussion.  This year's NEDA focus is I Had No Idea. 

 Signage on our library doors for our Uni Period talk on eating disorders that Amy created.

I also did my best to create a display with information and fiction texts on eating disorders.  One student said that she is concerned with fiction texts that focus on eating disorders, because she fears that they give students who are in the throes of one ideas.  This is a valid point, and after this I was hesitant to put any fiction texts up.  However, after thinking about it for a bit, I felt that these fiction texts could help those recovering to know that authors are aware of eating disorders, and that if needed, they can find themselves reflected in some texts.

I sourced some titles from a Goodreads list on YA Eating Disorders, but this list was filled with books that would do more harm than good (giving "ideas," as the one student who raised concerns stated).  I tried to find some fiction titles in our collection and other collections from around the university that would give a more realistic picture of what eating disorders entail.  The signage posted here was downloaded and printed from the NEDA website.  

Eating disorders are easy to ignore, can be easy to hide, and easy to push to the side in order to worry about other diseases.  They are still life threatening and affect many more than one may realize.  This week, we hope to offer guidance, help, and hope to one, two, or many who may be grappling with an eating disorder. 

SIGNAGE Website--FREE Signage Website!

I loved making signs and posters for my old classroom.  I would deck my walls and the area outside of my classroom door for anything and everything.  I also love making signs for Uni's library: student talks, library programming, displays, I can make a sign for anything.  Today while working on an assignment for my School Media Center class I found a website that allows me to make the coolest, sweetest, awesomest signage for FREE.

Here are the logistics: You can register with Facebook, or you can register with your email.  I think it would be a great tool for teachers, instructors, etc.  Older students could have fun with it, too, but they would need to be focused: there are so many possibilities on the website, that some younger students would just want to play around without concentrating on their work.  There is content that can be purchased, but you really don't need to worry about the lack of options: the free content is abundant and awesome, and I found plenty of content and options for my signs without needing to be sad about not being able to get the money content. 

Not only can I make signs, I could also make Facebook cover photos and posts, Instagram posts, posts for this blog, and...wait for it...I can even insert INFOGRAPHICS to the signs and presentations!  Um...yeah.  I'm in geek heaven.

I created several other signs today, in addition to the two above.  I had fun creating First Line Posters.

 Ohmygosh.  Don't you just LOVE this first line!?  Oy!

I want to make more of these and post them around the library...OR...OH, IDEA!...OR, I can put the posters up and put the book right underneath it.  Yes.  YES!  Best idea ever!

Thanks, Canva, you're my NEW FAVORITE!

Oscars Fun in the Library

Oscars time is upon us, and that means lots of opportunities for fun in the library!  And, if you know me, just a liiiiitle bit, you'll know that I can't let the Oscars go by without a little glitz and glitter.  We already have two book displays going inside of the library, but I managed to put up a new bulletin board and get a fun little Oscars ballot going (to encourage students to become as obsessed with the Oscars as I am?).

Our bulletin board focuses on books being made into movies over the next year.  The idea is to encourage students to read the books before they can see the books.  There were several different books-to-movies lists* I found while looking around on Pinterest, and believe it or not several popped up in my Facebook feed a couple of weeks ago.  (It's like they know me or something.)  I looked through two different lists, and I found as many titles as I could that we hold in our collection.  I didn't have any Oscars decorations to go on the board, but I think the red carpet background and the glittery gold border make the bulletin board POP.

Inside the library we have a contest going to see who can guess the Best Adapted Screenplay winner.

I sent out an email encouraging students and staff to come participate.  All they have to do is fill out a ballot, circle who they think will win Best Adapted Screenplay, and on Monday, AFTER the Oscars, we will pick one winner from those who guessed correctly.  There will be one staff and one student winner.  The prize will be chocolate wrapped in gold...of course. 

One student wanted to know why we were doing Best Adapted Screenplay, instead of Best Film.  I told him it's because we're a library...we have books...screenplays are usually adapted from BOOKS**.  It took him a second, but he got it eventually.  My money's on Whiplash this year, but I can't enter.  It would be just too sketchy if I won.

These are just two simple, easy ways to encourage movie watching and book reading in your library.  I know I have a lot more in mind for next year.  If you ever want to peruse some ideas, Pinterest has many, MANY different displays and boards for you to consider.  Have fun watching the Oscars this Sunday, February 22!  



*100 Books to Read Before They're Movies and  Books Becoming Movies in 2015.
**Except for the nominee Whiplash, by Damien Chazelle.  Chazelle based his full-length screenplay on his original short film screenplay.

Greensleeves

There's a science project goin' on in these here parts, and it's a science free read.  The Subbie group can read any non-fiction science book they want, so that gave Amy and me lots of room to pull cool books for book talks, displays, and a book cart. 

The students can find books in one of three ways: look on the shelves, look on a designated cart in the main room of the library, or seek help from Amy, Paul, or myself for a reference interview.  Amy requested a lot of texts from other libraries on campus, and then she asked me to go into our own collection and seek out interesting titles to face out on the shelves.  This was more fun than I thought it would be.  Here's me being totally honest: I didn't know how many interesting science books there are!*

Three of my favorite science books I pulled, covering three of my favorite topics: Harry Potter, time travel, and Buffy.

Amy started the collection for the Subbies to peruse, Paul processed all of the books and created "temporary" statuses for them, so they're properly acknowledged in the online catalog, and I, well, I had the GREENSLEEVES FACE OUT idea. 

We've put greensleeves on each of the books for the Subbies, and then for each shelf in our collection, I picked one or two texts to cover with a sleeve and do a face out.  We cannot cover each and every non-fiction science text in our collection, but I pulled several I thought were super interesting to do as face outs.  These sleeves draw the students' eyes, and if they like the subject/topic, but not that specific book, they can look down the shelf to find a book with a similar topic.  I will admit that I was proud of my idea, and it has worked.  Students were much more confident looking on the shelves knowing that there would be suggested face outs.  In fact, it worked so well that Amy, Paul, and I only did a few reference interviews. 

This is just another example of collaboration, and how a simple thing like a colored piece of paper can make all the difference in the world for a student to gain confidence in the library.




*CONFESSION TIME...I am not a great scientist: Science is my worst subject on Trivia Crack, and I wanted to enroll our daughter into a STEM school, so she would be sure to have a lot of science instruction in elementary school.  (When I was in elementary school, science was always THE LAST subject my teachers made room to teach.) 

Fancy a February Display?

Oh, I have to admit...I kind of REALLY loved putting together our two February displays.

Our Author Spotlight is on THREE authors this month.  I knew I wanted to have a female author.  I was super stoked when I found three awesome YA female authors with birthdays in February: Meg Cabot, Donna Jo Napoli, and Jane Yolen.  I love the varied styles and themes of these authors' works, but they all have one thing in common: they champion female characters and give girls something amazing to read.

I didn't want to do a humdrum Valentine's Day display.  I'm not anti-Valentine's Day: it's all about the LOVE, people!  But, at the same time, I didn't want to do drippy, sappy romances, or anti-romances, or anything like that.  Then, I finally hit on it: BOOKS WE LOVE.  Since Valentine's IS all about love (as I previously stated), I wanted students and staff to celebrate the books they love.  I sent out a couple of emails asking for titles.  All that was needed was a simple reply: no summary, no huge effort, just the title.  I think this helped drum up initial support.  

I think the display looks great.  I wanted to give props to all the books that I was sent, even if they aren't in the Uni collection.  I took old magazine boxes, attached construction paper to dress them up a bit, and made little book bouquets for the ones we don't have in our onsite collection.  I think these book bouquets add an extra fun element to the display, and if someone is interested in those books, we can still get them from another library.

"Book Bouquets" on the top shelf.

 We put our three picks on the bottom shelf, so the students could see their peers' selections easier.

The coolest part about Books We Love?  As more and more students notice it, they want to add their own favorites to the display.  I love this participation!  Yippee!!!

Treasures from the Uni High Library

Well, you just never know what you're going to find in the Uni High library.  So far this year I've found some treasures: a vintage copy of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, cool old covers of class literature by Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and the awesome Uni in-house archives are just a few of the cool things I've found.  A few weeks ago, I found two other treasures. 

The first one was this:

I think what I like best about this find is the fact that it was a face out.  Magic Johnson's seminal account about AIDS avoidance, acquired in 1993 and last checked out from the Uni library in 1996 (see below) is a FACE OUT.  I don't know who made this a face out; probably a student who thought it would be funny.  I don't mind a time machine book, so I haven't changed its face out status since I found it.  If any student checks it out, I WILL take their picture holding the tome, and I WILL ask if I can post the photo. (I would also want to know why/how they plan on using the text.)

Acquisition date in red; mail-away form to order the audioCASSETTE

The last due date for this seminal text?  November 25, 1996--I was a junior in high school at the time.

I probably should read this book to find out exactly how I can avoid AIDS.  I would love to read the 1993 ways in which I can avoid it. 

Another find is this miraculous art tome:

 

I'll make a confession: on Saturday and Sunday afternoons I used to tune in to PBS programming toward the end of the half hour (like 1:25 or 1:55) to see if they'd squish in a Sister Wendy art informational before the next program started.  My dad got me hip to her.  I'm still sad she isn't on PBS anymore (just like I still grieve the lack of Bob Ross).  But, when would these students have ever heard of or seen her?  I mean, I'm glad the book hasn't been weeded, but I don't know how much authority it would hold with the student population of Uni.  I actually made this a face out when a student came in asking me for an art book with brief blurbs about different types of art.  I didn't get her to check this one out, but I encouraged her to search for Sister Wendy shorts on YouTube.  Here's a link to one Sister Wendy program.

Those are the treasures for now.  I hope I can find some more soon!

Display Fun

I think the best part about working in a library is finding new books to skim, marvel at, and dream about.  It is also fun fitting these into our New Books Displays.

We still have our New Book Overflow section, so that makes two new book spaces in the Uni High Library.  It's my job to place them on the displays after I've posted them to the new book blog.

This week I've had fun grouping...

new memoirs:

kick ass girls:

"romances":

Oh how I long to read Eat Brains Love and The Impossible Knife of Memory!

U.S struggles, controversies, and identity:

And, all together now:

What a great week to be a Uni High Library grad assistant!  

Revamp & Revise

We loved our Question Board.  It was, and IS, a great idea.  Supervisor Amy felt it needed a bit of a revamp, and boy oh boy was she right.  Our new effort is even better than our original:

This was an awesome collaborative effort with input coming from all three library workers.  Amy wanted to focus on our library mascot, the Dragon which hangs from our ceiling, and now the students have a specific "thing" to talk to.  Paul thought it would be cool to ask the Dragon about its umbrella wings.  I thought it would be awesome to add our completed questions to the new library blog, the Digital Dragon.

The first question...or QUESTIONS...posted were created by us.  Paul brainstormed the wing question, and somehow, I don't even remember how, Amy and I eventually landed on a question about everyone's favorite gonzo food Rocky Mountain Oysters.

I admit, I am very proud of our collaboration and the Dragon's Response (which I helped it write).  The new, revised board is already getting noticed, too:

 Is it a caped crusader?  Nope.  Just an interested Sophomore during Spirit Week reading about Rocky Mountain Oysters.  (Sophs had to wear RED.)

Don't ever stick with an idea if it's not working.  Don't be that silly and stubborn.  Everything we do is an effort, a try, and sometimes after thinking on it, we can revamp, revise, and make something even more fabulous.