It's A Fact (or Things I Learned From the Nonfiction Un-Dew)

Now that I am a seasoned pro (with weeks of experience- haha!), it is time to reflect upon the nonfiction transformation much like I did for the fiction un-dew.  So here are some lessons learned:

1) It was a lot of work.  Let me repeat that.  IT WAS A LOT OF WORK! It was valuable work.  It was rewarding work.  It was needed work.  But it was a lot of work.  If I had it to do all over again (or if someone asked), I would have them schedule a longer period of time ( or more warm bodies) for the physical moving, reshelving and labeling of the books.

2) Again, pregrouping the books into their respective categories saved a lot of time.  This step helped to speed things up or we would probably still be working.

3) This is an EXCELLENT time to weed.  I thought I knew my collection really well but I really only knew the high traffic areas (sports, military, animals, fairy tales and such).  The lesser checked out areas had many books that were either too sophisticated in language/content or outdated or just plain uninteresting to my population. (Hope you didn't fully erase my name off that Librarian Wall of Shame!)

4) With no disrespect to Mr. Dewey, some of the Dewey classifications made us scratch our head.  Why are the Star Wars Clone Wars novels in 791?  Hmm. Based upon a movie? So looking at every book was important as was trying to think like my students (to some degree).

5) Some books never seem to have a clear home. These books needed to be put to the side and explored further as time permitted.  If not, the flow and progress we were making would have been stymied. 

6) Some books are going to get mislabeled.  This can be because we were moving so fast that we accidentally picked up poetry books and labeled them as jokes (Yes this really did happen and was discovered by a student looking for joke books after they had all been checked out but 6 books were still on the shelf) or it could be because we labeled it in the most logical way we, as adults and educators, thought best at the time.  But, after living with the collection, the book needs to be recategorized.

7) In regards to thinking like a student, things like choosing to group biographies with their corresponding sports and military vehicles with military books,  has produced many an exclamation of, "I didn't know we had this book" and "Look at the new book" and "Triple H book - cool!"  It is worth noting that these are books we have always had in our collection.  They have just been relocated to where the students would instinctively think of looking for them.

8) Speaking of thinking, students struggle with this.  I can see the part I will play in extending their critical thinking skills during book check out.  The exchanges go something like this:
Student:  Where are the cat books?
Me:  What section do you think has cats in it?
Student: Animals?
Me: Correct.
Student merrily goes to animal section and stands before starting to look at every shelf and exclaiming that they can not find them.
Me: What kind of animal is a cat?  Is it a wild animal?
Student: No. 
Me:  So which category (pointing to the shelves) do you think a cat would be in?
Students: Pets?  Oh here it is.  It's a pet.
Me:  Yep!

9) Subcategories (like the Pet subcategory within the Animals category) have been a HUGE hit and asset for finding books.  Our OPAC computers have been disconnected as we move some furniture and have some wiring completed and students have, unwittingly, been exploring the stacks and making new discoveries.

So the learning continues as I strive to keep The Five Laws of Library Science by S.R.Ranganathan in perspective. (See them here)  Today I feel like I am doing well with these!

And, as always, here's the REVISED REVISED REVISED revised timeline from this post:

1) Create classification headings for the FICTION section of the library based upon the interests of my students and DESTINY classifications.
2) Work with the library office to design spine labels that include a graphic and word for each section. A matching larger sign will be created to be displayed above sections.
3) Complete Fiction section re-do by Friday, November 14th. Just in time for American Education Week!
4) Create classification headings for the NONFICTION section of the library by Friday the 21st!
5) See #2
6)Complete the NONFICTION section re-do by December 3rd. That's right!  Just 2 short days!!!!!
7) Remember to run circulation reports and statistics before during and after the process.
8) Document, in pictures, the transformation.
9) Document, via this brand new blog, the transformation highs and lows.
10) Complete Common Ground proposal before December 21st.
11) Update library wiki (Ok, let's be honest, CREATE library wiki)
12) BREATHE!
13) Finish the signage for the Fiction section.
14) Get the subcategories in order and shelves labeled.
15) Get large signage posted.
16) Work on a plan for location field in Destiny OPAC.
17) Begin coordinating visits from librarians who want to come take a peek! (OK librarian ... only 1 has asked)

Nonfiction Numbers

As promised, the numbers have been crunched and all I can say is

 

 

I can hardly believe my eyes!  I compared the one week checkouts of the new nonfiction section with those of a one week checkout during the same time frame last year.  If you recall, I did the same for the Fiction redo. (Read all about it here.) In that post, I raved about the 60% increase in book check outs.  Well, in the words on Bachman Turner Overdrive,

 

 

 

 

So here are the numbers that I found when I ran Collection Circulation Reports in Destiny for corresponding time frames.  I chose the week of 12/9/13-12/13/13 to match with current year's week of 12/8/14-12/12/14.

 



Dewey Range	# of items checked out	# of items checked out	Increase in items checked out
	12/9-13/13	12/8-12/14
000-099	0	9	9
100-199	1	2	1
200-299	1	3	2
300-399	6	31	25
400-499	2	3	1
500-599	22	63	41
600-699	23	65	42
700-799	12	92	80
800-899	6	26	20
900-999	4	48	44
Total Checkouts	77	342	265

 



No your eyes are NOT deceiving you!!!  That is over a 340% increase in book check outs in the nonfiction section. 

I realize that there is a novelty factor (as with the fiction section redo) but it still makes we want to do this:

The way I see it, novelty or not, the books are in the hands of kids and not sitting on the shelves and that can NEVER be a bad thing.

Nonfiction Feedback

This was the first week for the new and improved nonfiction section of the library.  Students were super excited to explore the new categories.  If I had a nickel, for each time a student asked if this was a "new" book, I could retire!  They, and I, discovered so many neat books that had been languishing on the shelves. 

I put out the Flipcam again and here is a snapshot of the videos that were recorded:

 

 

I did have a few kiddos who seemed lost and not sure where to go.  It is much like going to Nordstrom's for the first time.  So many floors.  So much to see.  Where to start?  It can be intimidating.  I'm anxious to see how things go over the next few weeks. 

 

And the unexpected AHA that happened today?  A third grader asked, "So when we return our books, we don't use the numbers anymore, right?  So, how do we put them on the cart?"  Ummm...hadn't thought about that!  Here's the cart he was talking about:

 



 I love this cart.  It was one of the first things I bought for my library and I worked really hard teaching the students to look at the spine of the book and put it in the correct spot.  We have almost 500 kids checking out multiple books.  That is ALOT of books to shelve by myself.

 

Thank goodness for 1/2 days for students, and a delayed meeting with Kelly, because I was able to make some very quick changes. I removed the numbers and added the stickers from each category.  I tried to anticipate the most highly visited categories and combine those with lesser visited ones.

 

 

We are going to live with this for a week or so and then I plan on making 2x2 copies of the icons and finalizing the placement of them on the cart.

 

Shortly afterward, Kelly arrived and we spent a couple of hours working on the submission for Common Ground 2015.  It is hard to believe only a month has gone by since all of this started.  We had so much to reflect upon and even more "next steps" to complete.

 

Check back later this weekend as I am going to crunch some numbers and see how circulation fared in the new nonfiction section.



A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words (But that never stopped me from talking!)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have a million words to say! Let me begin with the deconstruction of the nonfiction section (or as I like to call it - the "OMG! what a mess I have made of my library" moments).  As I shared in this post, I mixed up the sections to make it, hopefully, more friendly for the librarian (me!) and the patrons. This involved moving ALL OF THE BOOKS!  At one point, I looked around and wondered if I had lost my mind.  Here's the before photos as I worked on stacking (literally) books in their new homes.

Former 796-920 section - Now the ANIMALS

Former 639-795 section - Now Jokes, Supernatural and Once Upon A Time

 Note my trusty Post-Its :-)

Former 921-999 section - Now All About Me, Native Americans, Holidays/Traditions, Religion

Shelves are ready for books to be tagged and placed upon them.

Stacks and stacks of books!

Did I mention there were stacks of books?

Books and more books!

 

I started this slowly the week of Thanksgiving by closing nonfiction check out and putting all of the Sports books on a cart.  Then I attacked the 921 section to pull biographies of sports players along with biographies of inventors, artists, composers and anyone else of note who fit in another section. ( I did decide to keep presidents and founding fathers in the Who Am I? section instead of American History because there are so many of them.) Next, I pulled poetry and joke books that fit with other categories.  Thankfully, it was time for Thanksgiving Break.

 

Upon returning on Monday, December 1st, my Principal allowed me to get a 1/2 day sub for the afternoon and Chimere and I finished moving, stacking and shifting the remainder of the collection.  We also started an ever growing books to be discarded pile. 

 

Promptly at 4pm, the U.D. (Un-Deweying) Crew arrived.  7 of us dove in and started placing category stickers on each and every book and covering the stickers with very tricky sticky !#$%#%#  label covers.  By 7pm, our stopping time, we were a little more than 1/3 of the way done.  I went home very tired, very dirty and very anxious. Take a peek at the hard workers.

 Everyone loves the green chair!

 

 

 Back to work on Tuesday and the eyes of the kiddos were wide and wondering.  No one has ever seen the library such a mess!  Frankly, my eyes were wide and wondering too!  Wondering if this was going to get finished.  But promptly at 4pm, the crew was back to work their magic.  By the end of the evening, the labels were all on the books and many were on the shelves correctly but there will still many just laying on the shelves.  What's a girl to do?  Freak out! (Read it all here!)

On Wednesday, after our Professional Development meeting, Kelly and I returned to Edgemere to get all the books on the shelves correctly.  I am proud to say we only had to stay until 6pm.  And when we departed, to the untrained eye, the place looked great.  Just don't look too closely or you will see the subcategories are not yet defined.  But there is time for that.

And, on Friday, the angel Donna swooped in and put her expert weeding skills to work and deleted over 700 titles from the nonfiction section.

So, at this point, I would say we are 90% completed. For those of you keeping up, here's the REVISED REVISED revised timeline from this post:

1) Create classification headings for the FICTION section of the library based upon the interests of my students and DESTINY classifications.
2) Work with the library office to design spine labels that include a graphic and word for each section. A matching larger sign will be created to be displayed above sections.
3) Complete Fiction section re-do by Friday, November 14th. Just in time for American Education Week!
4) Create classification headings for the NONFICTION section of the library by Friday the 21st!
5) See #2
6)Complete the NONFICTION section re-do by December 3rd. That's right!  Just 2 short days!!!!!
7) Remember to run circulation reports and statistics before during and after the process.
8) Document, in pictures, the transformation.
9) Document, via this brand new blog, the transformation highs and lows.
10) Complete Common Ground proposal before December 21st.
11) Update library wiki (Ok, let's be honest, CREATE library wiki)
12) BREATHE!
13) Finish the signage for the Fiction section.
14) Get the subcategories in order and shelves labeled.
15) Get large signage posted.
16) Work on a plan for location field in Destiny OPAC.

So excited to see the reactions this week to the new and improved nonfiction section especially after an encounter I had in church today.  I live, work and worship all in the same community.  Today in church, a first grader ran up to me and gave me a hug.  Then she asked me if I was "finally done putting all those books back where they belong".  I was very happy to tell her that I was finally done.  She then proceeded to make me pinkie promise that she could check out a nonfiction book this week. 

Now I am off to watch my son, via the magic of LiveStream on the Internet, participate in a traditional college Christmas program.  Stayed tuned this week for some more details and data about the collection as well as student feedback.

 

 



The Nightmare Before Winter Break (Warning: Negativity Below)

Ok, since I promised to be honest, I am just going to put it all out there and say I AM OVERWHELMED, FREAKED-OUT and STRESSED!  I know this will pass and I keep telling myself to breathe in and breathe out but I feel like this:

 

 

Why you may ask?  Let me count the ways...

1) Despite spending a large chunk of time prepping the nonfiction section by physically stacking the books on the shelves, in their new homes, this task was not finished until 3:45pm on Monday.  Why is this a problem?  No other prep (like cutting out signage) was completed.

2) Even with crews of 7 and 8 people working for 3 hour stretches over 2 evenings, the shelves are still not ready for student check-out because they are either a) on the shelf but not organized or b) not standing on the shelves just laid there. (I will post pictures tomorrow and this will be clear.) 

3) I have a TON of books that need to be weeded (due to age and such) and a very present looming deadline to have this done so that my collection is accurately reflected for uploading for funding of new materials.  This is tedious and time consuming.  It involves either removing the back page and sending to the library office or doing it myself.  I started removing back pages to send to the library office and sticking them in a box.  My custodian (whom I dearly love!) emptied the box in her typical awesome efficient way of making the library look fabulous!  She assumed it was trash.  Now I need to pull those books out of the boxes and get them on a cart so I can delete them by hand.  Holy Setback Batman!

4) The Area Superintendent is coming for a scheduled school visit and I don't want to make myself, my principal or the library office look bad by having a library in disarray. I have a scheduled library meeting this afternoon so I am out of the building but I will be back to work afterwards to get it "company ready".

5) And...the holiday books aren't out yet and the library displays are not up for December and...

6) My refrigerator is dying so we had to go shopping last night, after a very long day, to buy a new one. CA-CHING! (Although my husband did appreciate the fact that I did not do my typical back and forth trying to decide which one to choose.  Fatigue can be a plus!)
7) I am looking ahead at trying to think about a plan for entering the location into Destiny for the Nonfiction and Fiction books and the deadline for submitting the Common Ground proposal.

Ok, so the whining is over for now.  I promise to get back to my more positive self by next post (whenever that may be!).

The Calm Before The Storm

Tomorrow is the BIG day.  We begin to genrefication of the nonfiction section.  I must be honest and say that I am STRESSED.  It seems like an awfully large project to accomplish in 2 days. 

After an early closing Wednesday, and start to the Thanksgiving Break, I chose to take the long weekend and recharge with my family.  Spending time with my son who was home from college, enjoying family and even participating in a bit of retail therapy.  But now it is time for a reality check with a full inbox and a plan for the next 2 days.  I began shifting some books last week in hopes of getting a jump start on moving the titles in my nonfiction section.  Let's just say there is still much to do.

But, lest I get too overwhelmed with the tough stuff, first some statistics!  I ran a Collection Circulation Report for 11/18/14-11/26/14 (the first week of the new genrefied Fiction section) and 425 Fiction books were checked out.  I compared that to the same time period for the year before (I checked and Thanksgiving was on the 28th last year) and 251 Fiction books were checked out in that same time period.  That is an almost 60% increase in book check outs for the same time frame.  I realize there is a novelty factor that is occurring but I will take it!

So this is the plan for my upcoming week:
Monday - Work AM, work with Chimere in PM to ready for the crew coming in from 4-7pm (thanks to my principal graciously allowing me to get a 1/2 day sub), present at Faculty Meeting at 4pm, work with crew until 7pm.
Tuesday - Pray for cooperating weather so I can teach all day and work with the crew to finish (hopefully) the nonfiction section.
Wednesday- Area Superintendent visits and I am sure she will be stopping by to see the changes so I better be ready! Afternoon attend Professional Development session
Thursday and Friday - Capture student reactions to the change.

For those of you keeping up, here's the REVISED revised timeline from this post:

1) Create classification headings for the FICTION section of the library based upon the interests of my students and DESTINY classifications.
2) Work with the library office to design spine labels that include a graphic and word for each section. A matching larger sign will be created to be displayed above sections.
3) Complete Fiction section re-do by Friday, November 14th. Just in time for American Education Week!
4) Create classification headings for the NONFICTION section of the library by Friday the 21st!
5) See #2
6)Complete the NONFICTION section re-do by December 3rd. That's right!  Just 2 short days!!!!!
7) Remember to run circulation reports and statistics before during and after the process.
8) Document, in pictures, the transformation.
9) Document, via this brand new blog, the transformation highs and lows.
10) Complete Common Ground proposal before December 21st.
11) Update library wiki (Ok, let's be honest, CREATE library wiki)12) BREATHE!
13) Finish the signage for the Fiction section.

Wish us luck.  Photos and reflections to follow but probably not until Wednesday!

Tools of the Trade

This is a short week due to Thanksgiving.  That means just 3 short workdays of 6.5 hours each minus classes to teach equals AARRGGGHHH! Being the Type A, always need a plan, kinda gal means that this is freaking me out a bit. (OK- a WHOLE lot!)

So I gathered up my "tools" to plan an attack on the project today.

Tape, my beloved Post-Its, tape measure, pens, paper and markers - a genrefication go-to kit!

I know what you are thinking - she's finally gone over the edge.  But there is a method to my madness.  The shelves in my library are not all same sized.  Depending upon their location, they range from @25 inches wide to over 50 inches wide.  Enter the tape measure.  I needed a rough idea of how much shelf space each category would require.  This meant physically walking around and measuring the existing real estate being occupied by books in different categories.  Armed with these numbers, I began to write the new categories on Post-It notes so I could start labeling the shelves and working out the anticipated amount of space each category would need.

Initially I followed the layout of the library; aligned as closely as possible to the Dewey classifications. And then, I had an epiphany!  I was not bound by this any longer.  I was free to organize as I saw fit. 

First round of organization was trying to create a logical "flow".  But when I sat back and looked at it, I realized I was not really meeting the needs of my students and of myself as a librarian.  Back to the proverbial drawing board.  I had a really hard talk with myself and dug deep to find out what I wanted to achieve.  Here's my answer:

1) I want to incorporate relevant biographies and poetry into each category.  Looking for a wild animal book and you might pick up a biography of Jane Goodall or a book of poems about elephants.  How about finding a biography of Neil Armstrong with the Space books?  Could be life changing for some student.

2) I wanted to separate "high traffic" areas to create better flow and visibility of under utilized sections of the library.

3) I wanted to put frequently accessed topics within a quick visual range to be able to assist the youngest patrons.

So I pulled off the Post-Its and repositioned them yet again.  Tiresome?  Yes.  Worth it?  Yes. I feel like I have a loosely planned idea of how many shelves each category will need and how I want them positioned.

I also took the opportunity after school today to quickly peruse the poetry section and pull books that I wanted to include in other categories and relocate them to that category.  I also did a very quick perusal of the biographies to pull any immediately obvious connections (like sports biographies) and relocate those.

I know I have only scratched the surface of what needs to be done in preparation for Monday's start to the genrefication of the nonfiction section.  So incredibly thankful that I have Kelly, Chimere and Fran working on labels and ordering and printing. 

Tomorrow's goal is to look at the layout again with fresh eyes and see if it still feels "right".  I might even ask a few students what they think. 

But for now, I am one tired librarian!

From the Mouths of Students

As much as I had hoped to interact with the students more during this first week of our new "genrefied" Fiction section, the reality was American Education Week was a deterrent to this.  Lots of parents and grandparents were really curious about the curriculum being taught (If I had a nickel for every "Wow, this sure is different than when I was in school" and "I need to come learn these lessons") and the changes occurring in the library.  And, fortunate that I am, many were parents of my former Kindergarten students who are always so gracious and kind and want to update me about the progress of the children in their family. I also got some wonderful feedback about our first ever Pumpkin Decorating Contest. 

So what is a librarian to do when she can't be everywhere at once to capture authentic reactions?  Answer: Flipcam   After the second day, it finally dawned on me that I needed to "solve the problem-get creative" as I tell my students all the time! We have a Flipcam.  My students know how to use a Flipcam.  (Technology working for me instead of against me for once this past week.)  I simply announced that during book check out a Filpcam would be available, on the circulation desk, for anyone who would like to leave a message for the library office about the reorganization of the Fiction section.  It could be positive or negative but they had to support their response.  About 30 students decided to take the challenge.  Since I am not posting all 30, you just need to take my word when I say that there were no negatives.  Unfortunately, the sound quality was not good on many and, as expected, there were some very silly students who just wanted to play around.  (I would not have expected otherwise.)  The clips below are a fair representation of what was recorded.  Take a listen.

(For the record, that is NOT a new book!)

 

Encouraging and energizing and just what I need to face the shortened Thanksgiving school week with my overly large To-Do list.

 

Tonight's task, after updating the blog, is to tackle the many emails hardworking Kelly has been sending today.  I really do appreciate sharing the load with the library office.  Two short weeks until the next transformation.

 

 

What's the BEST Way To End American Education Week?

It's been a LONG week of parent visitation, technology curses and cold bus duty but this picture shows exactly why all that disappears:

 

 

This 4th grader has been following me around the library for WEEKS asking for this book and for WEEKS I have been telling him it has been checked out.  Today it was finally returned and I snagged it before it could be checked out.  I called him down this afternoon during my planning and said, "I know you think I wasn't listening to you but I was and I have something for you." Then I handed the book over to him.  He was so excited that he jumped up and down and did a dance.  Then he looked at me and said, "You really did listen.  You're the best!" 

 

I saw him (and another student from his class) a short time afterward and the girl commented, "He was so excited about that book that he danced around his chair in the classroom and showed it to everyone."

 

Yep!  That is definitely a great end to American Education Week.  #winninglibrarian

 



They Like It!

Take a look at the swarm of students in part the newly arranged Fiction section.  This was a spontaneous moment.  I promise!  I just got one picture snapped because it is American Education Week after all!  Can't wait to see what the rest of this week's classes think.

58 and Counting!

The time crunch is looming so I spent my planning today condensing the student suggested categories into one cohesive list.  I took their categories (some of which were really interesting) and my rough list and combined those.

Tonight I sat down and typed the list and we are at 58 categories (so far)!  I've emailed the list to Fran, Kelly and Chimere to get feedback.  I know there will be more additions but I have looked at it so much that I can't see it any longer.  I'll share the list later when we have finalized it.

2 weeks until the crew comes to transform the Nonfiction.  YIKES!

Nonfiction and New Learning

First,  thank you to my fellow LMS who have reached out via email to show some love for the project.  That makes this endeavor all the more exciting.

Now, as promised, lessons learned.

1) Having the books already placed into genres was a HUGE timesaver.  I had a few middle school students come for 2 afternoons to help with this but I forgot to take their pictures.  Thanks Riley and Kenny!

2) Making a "rough" map of where the genres would end up on the shelves was also a plus.

3) Listening to adults touch a book and spontaneously share a memory about it = priceless.

4) WOW!  It became IMMEDIATELY evident that my Fiction collection was unbalanced.  The Science Fiction and Sports books barely fill 1/3 of a shelf.  This is going to be such a huge asset in purchasing for the future.  The ability to scan a shelf and tell instantly what genres need "beefing up".

5) I removed the baskets that originally sat on the top of the bookcases because it was too cluttered with the signage AND the genres in the bins did not correlate with the signs.  I am still mulling this over and trying to determine if I want to somehow reposition the signs and return the baskets.

6) I reabsorbed the Matt Christopher and American Girl books back into their respective genre collections. 

7) For the series on the series bookcase, I did not add spine labels yet.  I want to see how the students are interacting and, frankly, it will make shelving easier for me right now because anyone helping me will know that no label=series bookcase.  I am sure I will add them in the future but probably not until the nonfiction section is completed.

8) Kelly is investigating the feasibility of having a location field in Destiny to point students to the correct genre location.

Speaking of Nonfiction, we had a meeting Friday afternoon and the timelines from before have changed.  Here's where I stand:

1) Create classification headings for the FICTION section of the library based upon the interests of my students and DESTINY classifications.
2) Work with the library office to design spine labels that include a graphic and word for each section. A matching larger sign will be created to be displayed above sections.
3) Complete Fiction section re-do by Friday, November 14th. Just in time for American Education Week!
4) Create classification headings for the NONFICTION section of the library by Friday the 21st!
5) See #2
6)Complete the NONFICTION section re-do by December 3rd. That's right!  Just 2 short weeks!!!!!
7) Remember to run circulation reports and statistics before during and after the process.
8) Document, in pictures, the transformation.
9) Document, via this brand new blog, the transformation highs and lows.
10) Complete Common Ground proposal before December 1st.
11) Update library wiki (Ok, let's be honest, CREATE library wiki)
12) BREATHE!
13) Finish the signage for the Fiction section.

Piece of cake, right?

Fiction Princess

Remember that movie with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, The Princess Diaries? (I love those predictable feel good movies.)  Today felt a lot like that movie and first date prep all in one!  To refresh you (with thanks to Disney for the images), here's her before:

I had looked at my date's digital footprint (blogs, posts and articles online), planned my outfit (signage and book labels) and had directions to our meeting place (my "map" of the planned shelving areas for the Fiction section).  I was ready and waiting. (It was Elementary Conference Day so there were no classes just families coming in for conferences with teachers- perfect day for this.) So at 8:30am, this is what the Fiction section looked like:

Stacks of books (much like piles of discarded clothes before a date) awaiting labeling and reshelving.  The clock moved ever so slowly as I awaited the "crew" coming to help me.  The thought of leading the charge was daunting.  I wanted someone to tell ME how to make this work.  I wanted direction and instead I was the one who would be giving the direction.

So the helpers (hair and makeup people- if you will!) arrived and we got down to work. (Here's the movie reference again!)

Labels were placed on each book spine.  First problem of the day - where do they go?  Above the spine label or below?  What about the books with Black Eyed Susan stickers?  Uhhh...ummm...Below?  Put it over the sticker? Uhhh..help!  So the stickers go under the label unless there is a Black Eyed Susan sticker.  Then it goes above the spine label.  After the label is affixed, cover it with a clear label protector.

Everybody grab a book and jump in!

 The clear covering (for the labels we created) were "challenging" to remove from the roll at times.

 Note to self: Bigger trashcans needed for Nonfiction!

 

 

Second hiccup of the day: Fantasy and Science Fiction.  If you remember, I was pretty adamant that they be combined.  However, I listened to the rationale for separating them and decided it would be in the students' best interests if they were separated.  After all, that is how it is done in the "real world" libraries.  So now I have a Fantasy section and a Science Fiction Section.

 

Third hiccup:  The 5x7 and 3x5 copies of the labels were missing and the school's color printer was not working.  Not a catastrophe by any stretch of the imagination but disappointing.  It was like not finding the matching earring for the pair you want to wear. 

 

So after all the books were labeled (which surprisingly only took about an hour and a half), it was time to return the books to their new shelves.

         Not too many pictures of this because we were busy!                                                 

 

Throughout this process, curiosity from people passing by was high.  Parents peeked in.  Teachers stopped in for a second.  We kept working.  And, just like in the movie, we have a pretty amazing finished product:

 

 

 

 

Take a peek at our final results,

 

Princess Amelia is all ready for the ball and the Fiction section is all dressed up and ready for the doors to open Monday morning.  I hope the kids like their "date".  I sure do!  I so appreciate the help of Fran, Chimere, Kelly, Ben, Jennifer, Justin and Val.

 

When we were finished, we basked in the "beauty" of it all for a few minutes and switched gears to look ahead at what is happening next - Nonfiction and new learning.  A much larger undertaking to be sure!  More on that in a later post.  Right now, I just want to gaze (in my proverbial mirror) at the loveliness that is my date ready Fiction section fit for a Princess.