Spotlight On...The Loft

One of the coolest things that has happened here at the MSJH Library during my short tenure so far is the creation of the Loft.

View of the Loft from the bottom library space.

This reading space for the students used to be a small meeting room, that was enclosed by flimsy, particle board walls.  This space was used for some mentoring meetings, team meetings, and a lot of storage.  When I was first hired the principal told me she wanted to convert it to a reading loft.  She wondered if I'd be OK with that?  Um...OF COURSE I was!  When I first saw the space I thought it would be awesome to tear down the walls, but I didn't know if the administration would be cool that, but apparently we were all on the same page.

The Loft from its entrance.  This used to be a totally enclosed space.

Some teachers were worried and hesitant about this at first.  I can understand that: it's been converted into a comfy space, and when students get comfy, they can get lazy and not want to follow expectations.  It is true that the students do like to talk up there, but so far, with the appropriate and timely reminders of what they are to do in the READING loft, it has been quite manageable.  I think the students love it so much that they don't want to ever lose it.

Oh, the couch...THE.  COUCH.  Already a student favorite.

During the summer, I moved some popular reads up to the Loft.  The couch is flanked by the graphic novel collection and the short stories/nominees collections.

The Graphic Novel collection, with the comfy rocking chair next to it.

Students here are crazy about reading the Rebecca Caudill nominees, and there is also an in-school group called RAMS (Read Across Mahomet-Seymour) that reads nominated books and then picks one for the whole community to read.  

Students also love, love, LOVE short story collections...especially those of the horror ilk.   

There is also a Little Free Library within the library that is housed in the Loft.  Many of the returning 7th and 8th graders had no idea that there was a Little Free Library, so I've been trying to pump up the LFL, so students can enjoy and appreciate it.  So far a lot of books have been taken from the LFL!  (Now, we just need to have a few more given, but we can work on that as time goes by.)

The Library's Little Free Library!  I LOVE it!  After doing a research paper on LFL's last fall, it was a dream come true to find a LFL in a dusty corner of the library.  I dusted it off, of course, and put it in a highly visible place in the Loft.

I also put several lamps in the area, and all of the furniture is brand new from IKEA.  This is also thanks to the generosity from the administration team wanting to make the library a Destination Location for the MSJH student body.  Thanks to the Loft, the library is definitely quickly becoming a place where students want to be, and we are quite busy during study halls.  This, my friends, is WONDERFUL news!

The view of the library from the Loft.

Book Fair Came to Town

The Scholastic Book Fair was at the MSJH Library for just over one week.  Even though I loved walking into the library everyday and smelling the scent of fresh books, it was a lot of hard work.  I think it was worth it???  The reason I'm still debating the merits of the Book Fair is that even though it was fun pretending to be a book store cashier again (like those bygone days at Pages for All Ages), the students mostly bought cheap, little trinkets.  I mean, I know they're in middle school, and that's what they like, but I wanted to sell more books.

The library was turned into a bookstore for eight days!  It smelled REALLY good.

With a Scholastic Book Fair, the library could take 35% cash or 50% Scholastic Dollars after it was over.  With the Scholastic Dollars I can order books from their online store immediately.  With the cash, I would have to wait for a check, cash it, and then wait for it to be added to the library fund.  It made sense to me to go with the Scholastic Bucks to help with immediate collection development needs.  The selection definitely isn't as big as Amazon, but I think it was the right decision in the end.

 

You have to sell the Scholastic posters.  Who doesn't want a poster of a fast car, kitty cat in space, or sport team in their room???

 

With the display cases, table sets, poster boxes, and trinket store, it "only" took two people 3 1/2 hours to set up! 

The Scholastic cash wrap, where I spent most of my time selling cheap pens and pencils to students.  I need parent help next time, and I need to consider selling only books.  However, approximately $400 of our sales came from trinkets.

Have a look at some of my favorite finds at the Book Fair, and the next time one rolls into your town/library, go check it out.  The books you buy (although not discounted like online stores), helps your school library get funds to buy even more books!

 

The Scholastic Representative who came to help set up the fair said they'd be trying to sell the Twilight movie book until they ran out.  There are still hundreds in Scholastic warehouses across the country.  And, who wouldn't want a book of Superstar Crushes!?  (No one here.)

My favorite book on offer by far.  I wanted to get it for my brother--who HATES mayonnaise and thinks it should be outlawed everywhere--as a joke, but at $5.00 it was still too expensive.

More Display Talk: A Later Post

For the first time since starting this crazy librarian stuff (that would be since August 2014 at Uni High in Urbana when I was grad assistant), I forgot to take a photo of a display as soon as I was done with it.  This was a big display, too.  The biggest one I had ever compiled, since my space at Uni tended to be so limited.  Why is this so bad?  Because students actually came and checked out books before I could document it!  (Darn kids.  Wantin' to read and stuff.)

My display is entitled Back to School.  All of the books have to do with starting middle school, starting a new school, school drama/problems, bullies in school, schools of magic and princesses, etc.  It was a lot of fun going through the collection to find books like this.  Because our collection is pretty small, I was worried I wouldn't find enough, but I shouldn't have worried so much.  I found plenty--enough to fill up three big shelves.

Here are a few photos of the display, its space, and the different organizations I've done to keep the display looking good as books are checked out:

Here it is after one period of students had been through.  Several holes already!  Good library problem.  The first display day was Monday, August 24, 2015. 

  
So many of the books had been checked out after one day that I re-organized all of the books onto the middle shelf, and left the two side shelves empty. 

  
A few of the books had been read and returned by Tuesday, September 1, so I was able to spread them out a bit.  This is a week after I put up the display.

And, of course I made some signage for the collection.  Because the display area is so big, though, the sign gets kind of lost.  I'll have to work on that in the future.  

Did you really think I WOULDN'T use this Billy Madison quote for my Back to School display?  If you did, you haven't been reading my blog for very long.

I've learned a few things from this first big display of the year:
1)  Students actually check out books here, because they want to, have time to read, or are forced to.  ;)
2)  If I want a photo of a display, I better take one QUICKLY...before the kids come and ransack it!
3)  Once again, gathering books for a display is the best way to learn about your collection.  I can also learn what I need to add to the collection. 

Meet Your New Librarian!

I have been trying to figure out a way to introduce myself to the students.  I wanted to make it part of their orientation powerpoint during their first visit to the library, but I was adding too many slides (and the cable we have for the screen is incompatible with my laptop anyway, so I couldn't do the powerpoint).  Then I thought well, I could put some trinkets up, but the library doesn't have a lot of space for my things yet, since I'm STILL cleaning things out.  Finally...like a bolt of lightening it hit me: DO A DISPLAY [you idiot]!!!  Why I didn't think of that at first, I have no idea.  Even if the students don't get an idea for my pop culture obsessions yet, at least they'll know what books I love.  I hope they can start to get to know more about me through the ones displayed.

Both the fiction and non-fiction collections here are rather dated, but I still did pretty well with what I have to work with.  I have six sections to my display, and they all contain some of my favorites from our humble collection.  The six sections include: picture books, junior novels, classics, young adult novels, graphic novels, and informational texts.  Next to each section I also put a sign, with a picture of some of my other favorites.  Finally, I put a quick blurb about how the students can follow me on Goodreads or Shelfari.

Students have already started taking books from the display, and I've been filling in holes with others I love as they are checked out (to keep it looking pretty).  My choice of Raina Telgemeier graphic novels get checked out quite quickly.  (I've already loved seeing both girls and boys checking out Raina's work.  Before getting a job in a library, I wondered if boys would be checking out her mostly female-centered works.)