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.

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.)

Summer Lovin'

OK, OK...maybe not Summer Lovin'...maybe Summer READIN', but after living with Grease my entire life, you can't say "summer" without hearing "lovin'" in your head.  (True story.)

Even though it's not summer yet, and all these poor Uni students still have Finals to get through, the Seniors' last day is THIS FRIDAY, MAY 15.  I've gotten to know a lot of them, and I'll miss them.  I wanted to give them some summer reads before they left.  (And, as of this post, TWO have already been checked out.  Considering the display has only been up since Thursday, that's a good goin'-rate around here.)

The theme of this display is Summer Reads.  There are a lot of summer love stories out there, but I didn't want to just focus on those.  I also chose some island books: classic (The Mysterious Island, Robinson Crusoe), survival (Lord of the Flies), and futuristic (Nil).  I put our big Woodstock book on display, hoping some music-loving students would want to flip through its pages to learn more about the Summer of Love.  And, there are also some books that take place during the summer, which are just really good stories (A Beautiful Lie).  I was excited to also offer two excellent summer/beachy graphic novels for the display, This One Summer (which was checked out so quickly that it's not in the photos) and Robot Dreams, respectively.

I hope you have a lot of summer reading on  your to-do list for the next couple of months.  Remember, even if you don't get a summer break, it should still be a time of rest and rejuvenation.  I hope you get some time to yourself to rest, rejuvenate, and READ! 

Winter Reads

All of a sudden it's winter in these here parts.  We're bundling up, most are cursing the light snowfall that's already occurred (not me!), and it's the perfect time to talk winter reads.  Cause, seriously, what is better than curling up with a good book, a hot cup of something, and a fleece blanket?  Not much, I can tell you that!  (I'm just sad I don't get to do that too much anymore.)

At the beginning of the semester I saw a bulletin board on Pinterest with the title "I Read a Latte!"  Of course, I've had it in the back of mind to use once it got chilly.  I thought I'd save it for January, but it was just too good not to do now.

Here's the method...I found several lists of winter reads--Goodreads, other Pinterest boards, and my own mind (ETHAN FROME!  THE SHINING!  LITTLE WOMEN!).  I used these as a starting point.  After creating a list of chilly reads (that included MANY genres!), I made sure we had the books on the list in our Uni Library.  Then, the real fun began!  I hunted down book covers of the titles, and I got to make them into lil MUGS!  That's right: MUGS!  For lattes...GET IT!?!

Because I was too cheap to buy new border, I just used a book border I already had.  I justified this to myself, because the title is "I Read A LATTE," so a border with a lot of genres present makes sense.  (I do really wish I had a border with snowflakes, though.  But, like I said, not a lot of cash what with kids' birthdays and holidays coming up.)  The final touch was procuring Starbucks cups this morning for the board.  Those were free (as they should be with all the money I spend there). 

This is one of my favorite boards yet.  I hope you like it, too!

Food & Gaiman

I made a diary entry about how "unfortunate" I was to create displays about food and Neil Gaiman.  I hope you know I was kidding!  I just realized I never posted the finished products.

I've known since the beginning of the year that I would do a food display for the Thanksgiving season.  I had fun just roaming around our collection pulling books that had to do with food: I pulled fiction, graphic novels, memoirs, and non-fiction.  I couldn't fit all of the cookbooks we have, so I tried to put a good variety.  Praise be to the heavens that the Uni Collection does have what I think is my most favorite food book of all time: The Gallery of Regrettable Food.  When I worked at Pages for All Ages, we used to pour over this book at the Info Desk.  It is one of my all-time ultimate favorites.

I also made some signage for the display, encouraging students to ask for help if they need to find more food books or want to search for them at one of the public libraries.  I had to use a still from Oliver for this...of course.  This is also how I got a photo of Jamie Oliver included.

The Neil Gaiman display also turned out well and included signage.  Since he's the author of the month, I included info about him: vital stats, his work, his social media sites, etc.  It was great fun collecting his books for the display, but a lot of his books are checked out--no shocker there. 

He's one of the biggest advocates for libraries, and for some great personal stories he has about libraries and being a book nerd, check out these links:

• Libraries are Cultural "Seed Corn"
• Reading Agency Lecture

Library Diary

Dear Library Diary,

What a traumatic day I'm having.  Currently I'm in the middle of two book displays...TWO.  Both of them so hard and tasking to complete.  The first one is a display for food books, aptly titled Food, GLORIOUS, Food.  What with Thanksgiving right around the corner and Christmas, too, I thought our aspiring young chefs at Uni might like some cookery books to peruse.  I've managed to cull fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels for the display.  But, THEN, when I came in to work today, my thoughtful co-worker, Paul, had placed a copy of Michael Pollan's Cooked on the circ desk for me.  He knew it would be good for the display, and he knew I would like to look through it, too.  I do enjoy Michael Pollan immensely, but now all I want to do is read the book, not work.  Oh, woe is me.  Librarian problems! 

Then, after shifting some displays around, we now have room for THREE different displays to be going at once.  Fun, yes?  Well, sure, but NOW I have to come up with a new Author Spotlight display.  Supervisor Amy suggested Neil Gaiman, which will result in one of the most well-rounded displays I've done, since it will include novels, graphic novels, and picture books.  Neil Gaiman?  Really!?  I have to spend the day looking up information on Neil Gaiman, the man who encourages parents to always read to their children, and everyone to read, read, READ as much as they can. I also have to look up images of him for the display signage? 

UGH!  This job is ridiculous!  Librarian problems ALL DAY, son!

Here's to a better day tomorrow, Library Diary,
amanda

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!   

Oh, Canada!

Happy October, everybody!  It's been a great start to the school year here in the Uni High Library, and today I got to put up another awesome display to try to keep our readers reading.

You might not know this, but the second Monday in October is Canada's Thanksgiving.  What better way to celebrate the awesome Canadians that have shaped pop and literary landscapes than to devote a book display to them???

To say I had fun doing this is, well, an understatement.  Here's the method to my madness...

I searched various online sites for Canadian authors.  Goodreads' Listopia is always a good place to start, and I also did a basic Google search.  I also found a great site which listed a lot of famous Canadians, aptly entitled Famous Canadians.  From there I started to make scratch notes in my Thinkin' Notebook.  (Yes, that's what it's called.)

Now the real fun started.  I created a powerpoint to be my visuals for the display.  The powerpoint is all about the things we wouldn't have without Canadians.  My favorite is, "Without Canadians We Wouldn't Have...Hey, Girl! Memes."  Oh, Ryan Gosling.  Thank you for being Canadian.

The display is made of books we have in our collection, and this time I got to integrate a non-fiction source (even though I know no one will check it out, it makes the display well-rounded) and a few graphic novels.  (I had no idea the guy that wrote Scott Pilgrim or the guy that wrote Shoeless Joe is Canadian.  Thanks, Google search!)  I was sad we didn't have any Michael Ondaatje in our collection, because The English Patient is one of my favorite books, but I did learn about some new authors (the aforementioned Bryan Lee O'Malley and the crew behind Kill Shakespeare), so that makes this display very satisfying and worthwhile. 

One last observation: Canadian authors like to use their initials--L.M. Montgomery, E.K. Johnston, W.P. Kinsella.  Just a Canadian thing I guess.

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!!!

Getting Ready for Banned Books Week

I've been planning for this since the first week of school.  It's the first big library even of the year.  I am too excited to celebrate the freedom to read in a couple of weeks.  Here are a few of websites to get you as excited as I am and to get you involved in the deviant behavior of reading banned books.

Banned Books Timeline -- Including banned/challenged books and why they were banned/challenged.  Perhaps my favorite on the list is Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which encourages an equal collaborative relationship between teacher and student.

About Banned and Challenged Books -- Always heard about Banned Books Week but haven't really looked too much into it?  If you want more information after viewing the timeline, check out this site from the American Library Association (ALA)

First Amendment Film Festival -- Get the masses pumped up for Banned Books Week by having a First Amendment Film Festival.  My favorite pick?  Show Christian Slater in Pump Up the Volume.  That sounds like an awesome time to me!

Frequently Challenged Books -- Here are the lists you need: all the banned books you can handle!  I challenge you to read at least one.

Banned & Challenged Comics List -- This year's focus for Banned Books Week is graphic novels.  Check out this list to read some deviant graphics!

Those are just five to get you started.  Tune in next week for some display and bulletin board ideas for your own Banned Books Week decor.  And, remember: you don't have to be a librarian to spread banned books awareness!