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.

Print is Not Dead

I go through phases with my Kindle.  Sometimes it's all I want to have: clicking from page to page, having free range to dip and dive into several different books, and having so many tomes at my fingertips can be exhilarating.   More often than not, though, I just want to hold a book.

I want to hold a book.  I want to smell it.  I want to be able to turn its pages, write in it, flip through it and hear the pages rustling. 

I do fear, though, that many are not of my opinion.  I fear that many growing up today would rather have an eReader than a book.  But then the internet gives me something like this:

Readers on the NY Subway

Reiner Gerritsen spent over three years collecting these images of readers reading on the NYC Subway.  This was beautiful, marvelous, everything I needed.  I would have loved to be the artist clicking photos of others reading.  I love looking at these photos, and studying the intensity on the readers' faces: the joy, wonder, bewilderment.  I love trying to imagine why they need that book at that very moment.  I'm not trying to be weird or nosy, but I will think about the book I see you holding...just a warning...and this will be the look I get when someone catches me wondering:

WHAT CHU LOOKIN AT, WILLIS???

An eReader might give you and your book choices some privacy, but I also love to shout out to the world what I'm reading.  I like it when a stranger will strike up a conversation with me about the book I'm reading.  That's always lovely, because one of the things I enjoy most is talking about what I'm reading.  (Just ask the students here at Uni: I GUSH about books...I think I overwhelm the students sometimes.  I know cause they look at me funny when I stop for a breath.)

My Kindle is fun, no doubt.  It's good for travel, since I can take a lot of books with me without being weighed down, but it will never win.  Stephen Fry agrees with me, too:

NEW BOOKS!!!!!

Oh, Mama Mia!  Look at all of those new books we got this week!  It's always exciting to get new books, but when we get this many at one time, my head reels.  Not because it's a lot of work to process them, wrap them, put them on our blog, etc.  Oh, no, not because of that.  Because I want to read them all!!!  (Mo' Librarian Problems, yo.)

Whenever we get new fiction in for our collection, I enter the title, author, call number, and publisher synopsis into Uni's What Should I Read Next? blog.  It's good fun, but it usually ends up in at least ten new books added to my Want to Read List.  Here are the top two on my list after this acquisition haul:

There's also a new book that shares a name with an awesome song from the 80s, and if you don't know the song, you shouldn't be my friend or be reading this.  The book, however, has NOTHING to do with high school, John Hughes, or breakfast.  It's about a town where every four years a child is released from jail and kills people.  So...yeah.

I also get to enter new graphic novels into our online collection that we keep on LibraryThing.  I am constantly trying to become more knowledgeable about GN's, and I still have no clue about Manga (what's good, what's isn't, etc).  I am making strides in the GN arena, though, and a lot of it is thanks to this task I have.  

We usually get a few good GN's with every new haul, and this time I wasn't disappointed.  I can't wait to check out the new DC offering, Black Canary and Zatanna (love it when the females are let out to play), and Mimi Pond's Over Easy, (about the 70s, greasy spoons, and drugs), looks right up my bleak alley preferences.  

When all of the books are entered, blogged, posted, etc (you know, all that work that makes me feel like I'm a real librarian already), they get to fill the New Book Rack.  This rack, which Amy longs to get rid of, looks pretty nice when it's all filled to the brim with new acquisitions!   

Teen Week Read Out Report!

OK.  I am so excited.  I am so proud.  I am STOKED!

We had eight students come read at the Teen Week Read Out, which almost met my goal of ten!  (Amy and I participated, too, so if you count us, who are teens at heart, we really did meet TEN!)  Besides those eight that read aloud, we had several students in who listened to the readings.  It was just so great!  The students read poetry and book excerpts, and we had everything from Edna St. Vincent Millay to Terry Pratchet. 

It was a nice, laid back event, but I'll have to be more strategic with future Teen Weeks.  I definitely want to keep the Read Out, but I'll have to do even more activities when I get to my own media center and do a lot more publicity for events.  We sent out three emails, put up some flyers around the school, and talked to some students throughout the week, but that was it.

There is always room for improvement, but for my first Teen Read Week efforts, I'm pretty satisfied.   

Teen Read Week!

It's Teen Read Week!  

I promised I'd let you know about the shenanigans I'm trying to get our students to participate in, so here we go:

1.  FLASH US YOUR BOOKS!  I'm collaborating with friend Kristi Danger Murray Costello at Arkansas State University Writing Center for this one, everybody.  Her group had the great idea that everyone should flash their favorite books.

They are meeting at their campus' fountain, by the student union, on October 22 at noon.  Everyone will read aloud the first line of their favorite book.  Sounds awesome, right?  Well, we might not have a fountain to gather round here, but I am hoping students AND staff will come take a picture holding up their favorite book, so I can create an iMovie/slideshow.  So far we don't have any takers, but it would be a great way to participate with A-State's Writing Center, and I'd upload the iMovie to our YouTube channel at noon on 10/22, as the A-State students are reading.

2.  RECORD A BOOK TRAILER!  Supervisor Amy and I are hoping that this week's recorded book trailers are just a jumping off point for a year-long trailer drive.  We want to post these on our YouTube channel.  We ask, however, that the students have a small index card to consult during their reading/recommendation recording, so it's not just a bunch of rambling.  We'd like them to have a bit of structure and to have their book with them.  We want to continue to record these throughout the year.

3.  TEEN READ OUT!  We want to end the week with a read out.  During our Uni Period on Friday, we want students to come in and read their favorite poem, short story, or the first chapter of their favorite book.  We will have snacks to try to lure those teens in....MUHWAHAHAHA!

Didn't like my ideas?  Well, for Teen Read Week Inspiration, visit the official website.  There are programming ideas, products for purchase, and other information for this awesome week of reading.

I'm super excited about all of these activities, and I hope there's a high level of participation.  I'd love to have at least ten students present for the Teen Read Out on Friday.  We'll just have to wait and see!  Read on, Teens!  Read on, EVERYBODY!!!

It's Ally Week! It's Teen Read Week!

Time to double down on 11, folks.  We have TWO big things going on in Library Land this week.  Will I be able to handle both competently?  Will I be able to give both their due?  We'll just have to ride out the week and see.

The first thing we'll focus on is Ally Week.  Ally Week started in 2005 by the Gay Straight Lesbian Education Network (GLSEN).  Franklin Middle School in Champaign, where I used to work, participated in that first Ally Week, thanks to the backing of a few supportive staff members, but mostly due to the fact that students who were allies of LGBTQ friends and family members brought it to our attention.

Here's my method for this awesome display.  I consulted the winners and honorees for the Stonewall Book Award, which was first awarded in 1971.  I also went to your good friend and mine, Goodreads Listopia.  There was a list for Popular YA LGBT Books.  Finally, I consulted our friends at the University of Illinois Center for Children's Books' LGBTQ Teens List.  (If you're a librarian and haven't checked out the plethora of Bibliographies on the CCB Website, you NEED to.  I think that might be a future post!)  I started cross-checking titles from the three lists with what we have at Uni and what developed was my favorite, most well-rounded display yet.

The display includes popular fiction YA reads, a couple of classics (like, Annie on My Mind), contemporary classic LGBTQ authors (David Levithan), short story and essay collections, and non-fiction.  I know we have more books in our collection, but I pulled as many as I could fit in our display area.

It is vitally important to make every student welcome, at home, comfortable in the library.  I hope the students I work with always see me as an ally, and not just because it's Ally Week or because I have a display up for a few weeks with books centered upon them or there needs.  I am excited to share this display and these books with the Uni students.  I will continue my celebration of Ally Week no matter where I might end up, and I also hope to compile a reading list of LGBTQ literature for the Uni Library.

That's all for Ally Week...for now.  Next up, we'll explore Teen Read Week and the shenanigans we have planned.

Banned Books Week is Here!

That's right!  It's finally here: BANNED BOOKS WEEK!!!  It's kind of like Christmas for people who like to, oh I don't know, celebrate free speech and intellectual freedom and that type of stuff.

Let's start this week off in a simple way: Let's throw down some displays.  Like this one:

 BAM!  Read Graphic Novels!  

The focus for this year's Banned Books Week is graphic novels.  So, you know...like go out and read one...or two...or THREE.

Have you NEVER read a graphic novel before?  Well, this week is the perfect week to start.  Don't feel guilty about reading a "comic book."  The art of the comic and the graphic novel have come so far.  They really aren't just for little kids anymore.  The stories hidden within the covers of a graphic novel can be some of the most extraordinary, mind-bending, thought-provoking things you've ever read in your life.  PLEASE do yourself a favor and check one out this week.  Check out this LINK for some graphic novel reading suggestions.

Here's my overly simplistic (/lazy?) method for this display: I just went through the shelves of our awesome graphic novel collection and pulled some fantastic reads. I also consulted a list of banned graphic novels (same as the link above) to make sure I got a few of those on there.

Display #2?  Check her out:

Banned Brown Bags!  BOOM!

The method behind this one, you might ask?  Well, I read over and over AND over several of the Banned Books Lists compiled by the American Library Association.  I then consulted our collection.  I tried to pick out the ones that would be of highest interest to the students, but I also wanted to throw a couple in there that they might have read, but would be compelled to re-read after finding out a favorite was banned.  Like this one:

Can you guess what this one might be?  Here are a couple of hints: It has to do with a boy and a giant peach.  ;)

Oh, and LOOK!

Proof that my displays actually work!  Kiddos checking out the subversive literature under the brown bags.  HUZZAH!

That's all for now, chickadees.  Check back throughout the week for fun Banned Books info and more info on my displays, activities, and ideas for my first Banned Books Week.  Now, go be degenerate and READ BANNED BOOKS!!!

The Art of the Lib Guide

Oh, library guides (or lib guides for short)...I'll never forget my first time.

For those of you not in the know, a lib guide is like a mini-website.  It's usually made by the librarian or library assistant for a particular class in the school.  They are actually kind of fun.  My first lib guide was on The Roosevelts, and it was a team effort.  I received a list of sources from Head Librarian Amy, found some on my own, and also used the lib guide template from a previous project assigned by the same teacher.  (One thing that makes lib guides easy is you get to use previous lib guides as templates/inspiration.) 

It was fun digging up legitimate, viable sources on the Roosevelt family(--TR, FDR, and Eleanor are the focus of the class project).  The teacher of the class met with us, discussed her goals for the project, told us the project was to be going on at the same time as the PBS Ken Burns documentary entitled "The Roosevelts - An Intimate History," and then we got to fly on our own from there.  Amy assisted me in a brief lib guide tutorial, some spacing/layout advice, and then I got to cut/paste/drop the info where it needed to go.  A team effort for sure, and it was an enjoyable one at that.

I loved looking up the resources for the students to use and creating short, concise descriptions of each one for the lib guide.  I hope the students can use the lib guide, and I hope it helps them conduct their research and gain new knowledge into this important and influential American family.

Oh, and if you're really curious (and/or bored), you can check out my first lib guide HERE.  

Drumroll, Please....

Presenting...

After many days of hoping and dreaming and thinking...

My VERY FIRST Library Land Bulletin Board!

Sure, it's simple, basic, and not much to look at, BUT, it's the first one! 

I'm trying to figure out how to balance bulletin board fun with super too-cool-for-school high school students.  That's why I started so simple.  I didn't want something super childish in their faces.  Our (my supervisor and myself) goal was to get the kids thinking about the new books that have been acquired over the summer, and I think it definitely does that.  I tried to balance non-fiction, fiction, and graphic novels (which we have a lot of)  I think bulletin boards always need to be eye-catching, and I hope the extra easy and simple, yet colorful, construction paper borders make the new books pop.

I do want to add more covers, but just as I was finishing up, the circ desk computer crashed, and it has yet to be replaced.  (Hopefully tomorrow!)  I was just too excited to get this first gem up on the blog.