Still Employed!

I still have a job next year! Hooray. I FINALLY met with my head of school and she said I could come back. She doesn't like me much but she said that since they have the money, I can come back. She also wants me to be more direct in getting her attention and getting the things done. And she wants the library to be used this year by classes of students. This should be fun. And I have heard that other teachers are planning to dump kids in there to do work. So next year my library is going to be full of kids going nuts. This promises to be incredibly fabulous.

I feel like all the decisions I make are arbitrary, as if I don't have reasons to back them up. However on closer inspection, I always do. I don't do research and I don't really know what I am doing. But then I think that is what life is like in general.

At least its Friday

Automation is often a drag. I had to catalog yesterday and today and it took forever! Like 8 hours worth of forever. My paper is due in a few weeks and I have to get cracking! One of my biggest challenges was always being flexible enough to find something else to do when my computer gets taken over. But also, I found myself constantly reprioritizing or throwing out parts of my plan. Its like I never had a solid idea of what to do and then I am always trying to cut corners. For instance, before I did anything, I wanted to have a shelf list. That got thrown out the window since I could never sit at my computer for long enough. As a result, I only have the barest of ideas how many books I lost this year (I am thinking at least 100) so that is approx. a 3%- 5% loss this year. Or, I wanted to get all the call numbers on books before I started to import them but the process is so long, I find myself attempting to split my time so that I can do both which makes me feel like I never get anything done. Agh! I am making real progress but it is so slow! I definately underestimated the time it takes for me to do anything and everything.


But all of this effort and I don't even know if I have a job here next year.

hummm...

Things I need to do:

• z-import
• call numbers
• find out if I even have a job as the librarian here next year
  

Thoughts to keep in Mind

I have learned a few lessons from the task I took on this year:

• Be focused. And organized. And when you set goals for getting things done, don't be surprised if it doesn't happen on time. Things always took longer than I estimated.
• Ask for help. All the time, with everything. My job is bigger than what I alone can handle efficiently. I could have really, really used some help. Its not such a big deal that maybe my stickers won't be straight (or even in the right place). Does it work? Go with it!
  
• Stop being such a perfectionist/control freak. Life operates at less than optimal levels.
  
• Be organized and have a plan to follow. I should have done better with that.
• Have a computer you don't have to share with anyone.
  

Automation is slow

I have learned that automation is slow. And I had some other gem that I forgot. MARC records are confusing and I have forgotten all my cataloging. Also, though I am very thankful for all the help I get, I am really slow to write thank you notes.

Also, while I am kinda sad to see the 8th graders leave I am kinda happy. And I have much trepidation about those rising 7th graders.

AUTOMATION!!!

I finally automated! I got the barcode reader up and working (that was super easy. all I had to do was plug it in) and I edited the records for the books that were already in the system. So now I officially have my own library card #0000000000001 ! Hooray me!

Now if I can only get it barcoded in a reasonable amount of time... ha!!!

Barcodes!

I finally have my barcodes! They are here! And they are so pretty! I can finally automate!


Speaking of... I think I bit off more than I can chew with this project. I know it is entirely doable but it would go so, so much faster if I had help. I really need help. Only, there isn't really anyone to help me. Now I really DO need an automation plan...

Waiting

I have learned that waiting is inevitable. I have always had something slowing me down whether it was for permission (it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission) or for companies (the stuff will get here when it gets here, and if it doesn't, follow up immediately) or myself (stuck in the dredges of "I don't know what to do next").
My biggest fights are with my school and myself. I wanted to do the right thing and ask for permission because I didn't want to make anyone mad, or do something I wasn't supposed to, or step on anyone's toes. Nothing got done doing this. That was all of fall and part of winter. Then I learned that the school valued initiative and just getting it done. Then I stopped asking for permission unless I had no other choice. (Now I dread asking because I know it will take so long for a response. I have to make sure everything is set up to go before I ask or else it will easily unravel.) So now I come up with as many work-arounds as I can. Like doing purchase orders instead of waiting for someone to find the time to get out the credit card and check out the cart that has been sitting online for so long. I didn't really know what those were until just recently. I am still working on using my time wisely. For instance, even though I have had my labels forever, I am just starting trying to make call numbers. I started where it is easy and am going to work my way to where it is hard. Thankfully, so much of my collection has call numbers on it, it will make it a whole lot easier for me. But there are still so many decisions to make. I just don't know how to do them all. And I have so many ideas I want to implement that I can't even keep up with myself. I still have to figure out collection development for this year. I have about a thousand left in my budget. That will get me 30 books. The school is advocating permanence. I know the stupid things will get stolen so why pay extra for them? Anything that is popular is more likely to a) get used a lot b) get stolen. So should I spend the extra money on permabound? And if so, what titles should I get? And what about lower reading ability levels? What do I do about them? Who to buy for? The kids who actually read vs. the kids who should read but don't. Should I get more graphic novels to reel them in? I think so but the school wants "culturally appropriate" (=black urban) MCAS (what does that mean?!!) books. I have too many competing interests for a measly $800.
Meanwhile, my barcodes haven't arrived yet and my pay is still sporadic.
Also, I need to come up with some points to argue for keeping me at SLA next year: I want a raise but I think there was a wage freeze. I want access to money I can spend at will without waiting for the assistant head of school to do it. I'll ask permission/seek authorization/email what and when I spend :) Need to work on that email...
It never ends. Its the end of the school year and the library isn't automated. I feel like a failure. A failure who is doing too much. (Did I mention I am trying to coordinate a Six Flags Trip too?)
Sigh. I need a vacation.

ugh oh

I just told Mrs. Stovell that I hope to have the library automated in a month. I am thinking it will take much longer. Plus I don't know where to start... I need to (in no particular order)

• make a form for students to fill out for a library card
• figure out whether i should start before I get barcodes and just do retrospective cataloging
• decide when i need all my books back
• decide what other books i want to buy
• finish up the book brick program- ask Ms. Marshall about her trip to Six Flags
  

Amazing

It is amazing how long it takes to get things done. I have ordered barcodes last week and they haven't arrived yet. However, I just got in a TON of books. So many, I don't know what to do with them. Besides write some thank yous.

Tuesday

Today the network was unfathomably slow. Too slow to do anything like check my email. On the bright side, I have $219 to spend at Barnes & Noble for my library! And I ordered a barcode reader and barcodes so as soon as they come I can start automating and cataloging. Not that I had any official permission to order it other than from our administrative assistant. I still haven't met with my assistant head of school. I haven't heard fro OPALS recently either. I don't really know what to make of that. All in all, a good day. I got some more books shelved and I will be chaperoning a movie night next Thursday night. I feel like I can get entirely caught up in trying to market my library while simultaneously trying to automate it and get it going. I am torn. And stressed about which I should do because I really can't do both. But I feel like they are expecting me to do things. But on top of what I was hired to do I have done:

• Two lollipop fundraisers
• Two Scholastic Book Fairs
• A Barnes & Noble Bookfair that raised $219 for books
• Run the book bricks program
• Organized and chaperoned two small field trips

I am still frustrated.

Thursdays...

I came in this morning thinking it would be a good productive day. Around 10 or so one of the students came and asked me if I was going to take them to Urban Improv. The person who usually takes them wasn't here today and so guess who got to do it? Me. When I asked the administration if they knew about the event and wanted me to take them they said they had forgotten today was an event and they didn't know which students were going. So I asked if they knew, which I didn't, but a call to the councilor who usually runs the program revealed she couldn't remember either. So I set out with 16 students...and now I am off schedule. Also, there was a whole chocolate cookie under the couch.

But the most unexpected thing happened! One of two tutors from some high school have a mother who is a librarian and was getting rid of 250 books. So she gave them to ME! AND they had a fund raiser and are donating the proceeds to my library!! I don't even know how to begin to say thank you to them.

And I also pulled the electric cord out of the back of my computer on a student who wouldn't leave.

Goooaaalll!

I found out yesterday that I exceeded my $200 goal from the Barnes & Noble Fair! We made $209 in book profit! I am so excited! I am so getting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!

Vacation Week

It is so nice to not have to go to work. However, I haven't forgotten about it. I am writing the report advocating for my (and their) first choice of OPALS on my vacation week. And Judy Narosny, Simmons' cataloger told me she would let my library HAVE the deaccessioned World Book Encyclopedias! Also, Ellen Chu volunteered to work in the library 2 mornings a week with me! (I have to figure out how to pay for her... yikes!) And I met Amy Ryan, president of the Boston Public Library. I was very excited about that. Also exciting, Rong says if my automation process turns out to be interesting, we may publish my final report! I don't yet have the numbers for my bookfair but I am hoping we did well. Whatever they are, we did well.

eek!

I forgot Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Books We Need

All Preferable in hardcover:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Kendra by Coe Booth
Crystal by Walter Dean Myers
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers
Slam by Walter Dean Myers
Game by Walter Dean Myers
Street Love by Walter Dean Myers
Hoops by Walter Dean Myers
The Outside Shot by Walter Dean Myers
Shooter by Walter Dean Myers
145th Street Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers
Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers
Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers
The Dog Whisperer by Ceasar Millan
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Darkness Before Dawn by Sharon Draper
Daughters of the Moon
Go Ask Alice
Bluford High Series
Secrets of Droon
Superman and Batman (DC and Marvel Graphic Novels)
How to Draw Cartoons
Spiderwick Chronicles
Ender's Shadow
Inuyasha
Naruto (manga series)by Mashasi Kishimoto
Frenemies
anything by R. L. Stine
Drama High Series by L. Divine
Red is for Rememberence by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Silver is Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Blue is for Nightmare by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Animorphs (any of this series) by K. A. Applegate
Pretties by Scott Westerfield
Specials by Scott Westerfield
Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
The Clique Series by Lisi Harrison
A-List Novels by Zoe Dean
The Watchmen by Alan Moore
Books about cars
Books about how to draw

And any of the classics (Bronte, Austin, Dickens, etc...)

Sigh

My tech problems are not improving since now that we have working PCs they a) aren't networked to the printer b) have a new administrative password I don't know c) have nothing to type on. C'est fantastique!

Lollipop $$ ???

I have no idea where my lollipop money disappeared to. I think it was absorbed by my bank account. But at least I know where it went and have kept track of it via a spreadsheet. But somehow it doesn't all work out because my account is still empty. Too empty...
Oh well. I came in to work today and still got hardly anything done. Just took down the book fair.

So I still have this left to do:

• Make a new display for the library board - Barnes & Noble Book Fair! and Check Out New Books!
• Research ILS software
• ILS Requirement Spreadsheet
• work on report of my decision for an ILS system (something tells me they won't care to even browse it)
• write a letter to School Library Journal- and put it on the meeting to-do list
• Announcements for next week
• Adjust shelves

it never ends...

Things to do today:

• Email about getting supplies
• Find out if the school will buy books from the book fair
• Figure out what Demco supplies I need
• Take down book fair posters (cut out pictures) and hang up B&N ones
• Make a new display for the library board - Barnes & Noble Book Fair! and Check Out New Books!
• Take down book fair and count up the money made
• Research ILS software
• take back my computer
  

Arg!

Today did not start well. First, I had to unexpectedly fill in for a field trip for my students. They were good thank goodness but I had no idea what was going on, where we were going, who was supposed to be there and why we were going at all. Then I found out that the book brick program that the school had made me do in the first place, was ripped off the wall. Good thing I have a spreadsheet that I keep track of it on. But literally, I have kept these up all year and they just tore them down because we have visitors? That was supposed to be a place for kids to look and read a peer book review so they could decide what to read next. Not to mention a visual so that they could keep track of how well their grade was doing in the contest. Sigh.

Automation is the furthest thing on my mind now. I don't know if I will ever be able to get around to it since the school continuously want me to do something else, something extra (Today its "please make a professional development section in the library along with one for parenting). And did I mention I literally had to ignore students to keep them out of the library long enough to actually do some work on my computer while they were pounding down the door? I also neglected to mention the internet being extremely slow.

So Now that I have actually compared OPALS and LibraryWorld, I can't decide what I want. Maybe it would be better just to give a presentation to my administrators and let them decide. OPALS has the added benefit of CERF, a database of good websites the students can use to research.

Also, I have come to the conclusion that putting all my books into this system, whichever one I decide, is going to take a really, really, really long time. Sigh. It feels like I will never get this library off the ground!!

Things I am learning:

• When you import a record in LibraryWorld, clicking on it automatically adds it to your library, even if it isn’t the right book. Which may be hard to tell since the record that shows up is just the title, no other identifying information, like author name. ISBN lookup is not that great and title and author search may have multiple entries.
• Getting the record automatically loads the book into the OPAC but you have to go back and enter the number of copies for it to show up that there are any holdings.
• You cannot search by title to check out.
• You must use a bar code to access a patron record. First name does not work.

There are also some things I am not particularly interested in for the library at this time:

Serials- I am not worrying about these yet and I don't forsee this library ever owning more than 5 serials which could all be kept track of by hand- also, since I cannot do my own budgeting anyway.

Holds- I am not looking for this level of sophistication yet. Plus, I am not sure anyone except for possibly the teachers, would care.

Processing Acquisitions- We get so few new acquisitions (hopefully that will be changing0 and our ordering would not be through the ILS. Plus, I am not sure what this is and how it works.

Self-Check Out and Telephone Notification - Both way too sophisticated for my libraries needs.

Sick

I am not feeling at all well this week and, as always, am drowning in my to-do list. I am having a book fair (a scholastic one) for the next week and a half and will be having a big Barnes and Noble Book fair that I am quite nervous about April 17. This current book fair is not going so well. I have sold like 2 bookmarks and one was to myself. Lollipop sale is going ok. Almost all the money is turned in and I raised around $400! Hopefully it will get better. I need another fundraiser to do before the Barnes and Noble Fair so I can have some money. Sadly, I spent most of the money from the lollipops on prizes for the raffle for the Barnes and Noble Fair. I just have too much money swimming around in my head and not enough in my pockets! Plus, I still haven't bought Kali's iPod yet.

Amidst all this, I am trying desperately to try out my automation software if I can just use my computer... Its down to OPALS and LibraryWorld. LibraryWorld is winning for now. Plus, it is way cheaper.

Why are there sunflower seeds all over my library!!?!

Hello, World!

I am the solo librarian of a small charter middle school in Dorchester, MA and a full time graduate student of library and information science at Simmons. This is my first blog, in which I intend to describe the process of automating my tiny, little library.

The Smith Leadership Academy Library is the small, but growing, library of Smith Leadership Academy Charter Public School in Dorchester, MA. The library serves a student body of just under 200 students and faculty of 31 educators and administrators. I work three days per week and am a full time student at Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. My duties are to support teachers with curriculum, help students with their work, and most importantly, automate the library. I also run a reading incentive program.

My goals are to make the library usable: to allow the check out of books and to provide resources students need for their own academic success, and automate the library with software that allows for growth and efficient use of the library by allowing patrons to search library holdings and lets me track books.