It's Good To Be Home

I'm baaaack!  My flight landed late Wednesday night and I was ever so glad to return home and see my fellows once again.  I did manage to read 2 of the 3 books I packed for the trip. 

My brother and his wife renewed their vows and the ceremony was lovely.  Here's a peek at one of the photos I took:

But I will admit that most of my time was spent like this:

 

If you look closely at that top foot, you will see the souvenir that came home with me.  That's right, only I could go to somewhere this lovely and break a toe.  So now my footwear for the next month will include this stylish number:

 

Unfortunately, this also means hanging up my hammer as Bobbette the Builder and also opting out of some other summer library commitments.  But I can still finish my time as a substitute librarian so I headed back to work to check in and check out some books at a nearby school and hobble around and reshelve some of them.

I can't believe students come back in a month!  Where has my summer gone?

It's Vacation - Time to Read and Leave!

In 5 hours, I am leaving for vacation.  So, obviously, the thing to do is write a blog post. BWAAHAHAHA!  Well, it is if your name is Sandy. 

I had my second set of summer library hours this week and actually met a community student who came in to exchange some books.  We had a lovely chat.  I hope I get to see some more kiddos like her over the next two weeks. 

One of the components of the summer program is to keep a reflection log.  For this week, one of the biggest AHA's that I reflected upon was the differences in collections.  I know in my last post I indicated that I saw come new titles I was putting down for my library.  But the other part of the equation is what is "missing" in this foreign library.  The books that I instinctively reach for when someone asks for a title that is checked out and I know just the thing to recommend or that book that I just know would perfectly fit the interest and reading level of a kiddo. It doesn't mean the collection is bad.  It just means it isn't mine.  It also means that I really know my collection a lot better than I give myself credit for sometimes. 

But enough reflecting.  Now I am engaging in my typical pre-vacation sleeplessness.  The night before I never sleep.  I am just too darned excited about the trip.  This year's trip is a bit different because I am traveling out of the country without my husband or son.  I am, however, traveling with my brother, sister-in-law, 13 yr. old nephew, 10 yr. old niece, 5 yr. old nephew and 1 yr. old niece and my thirty something cousin.  So I definitely won't be alone!  My brother and his lovely wife are renewing their wedding vows on the beach in Turks and Caicos.  While the whole gang will be arriving together, Aunt Sandy is returning home solo next Wednesday night.

I've packed light - only 4 pair of shoes and 3 camera lenses for this trip. I've loaded the IPOD with music, TED talks and podcasts for plane and beach. I've written the "in case the plane crashes" letters for the husband and son (not kidding!) I've also packed 3 books for the beach.  Books I intend to read and leave. 

I am not a big fan of ebooks.  I like the aesthetic of turning pages and dogearring them to mark my spot. I know it isn't fashionable to say that but it's my vacation so I can say what I want.  I like books.  When I travel, I buy books, read them and leave them behind when I am finished.  I like to imagine that someone finds the book, picks it up and begins to read.  Someone who maybe didn't have reading on their mind before seeing that book lying there.  Sometimes I bring the book home.  If I really loved it or if I know I want to pass it on to someone else.  But mostly, leaving the books behind is a win-win because that is guaranteed room for souvenirs. 

So, enjoy your week.  I will be "on island time, man" and share some pictures next week (hopefully).

There's No Place Like Home

Today was my first day as a "visiting" summer librarian for another school in my district. Their librarian is happily celebrating the birth of her new baby girl (this morning!) and I agreed to spend 12 hours this summer at the library so students in the school's summer enrichment program and from the surrounding community could check out books. 

I was a bit apprehensive because a fellow librarian posted on Facebook last night that she had 0 participants show up at the school she is covering this summer (also not her own school).  I know I have a captive audience in the summer program students but I am not sure about the community ones.  I did send out a Tweet last night to remind them and I know the principal did ConnectEd calls and a flyer went home before the end of the school year. 

I do have some familiarity with this library because Cara, the librarian, was my mentee during the past school year.  She has done a great job making the library a more "kid friendly" by reducing the clutter on the shelves, increasing signage and making popular items more readily accessible.

BUT...it still feels like a foreign country to me.  I miss my Un-Deweyed library as students walked up to me today and asked me if there were any books about dirtbikes or giant pandas or Pokémon.  I missed being able to stride confidently over to the shelf and say yes or no.  I knew the Dewey section to look in but it isn't my library and so I had to look to find that section and then find the right shelf and then find the right section within the shelf.  I have a list and I spent some time pulling some books for students for next week.  But not being able to find the material instantly was frustrating for me.  I felt like I was spending time wandering along the yellow brick road looking for the land of OZ.

And I miss my series section and my graphic novels section.  I miss being able to recommend something on the fly.  I didn't realize how often I did that until that was taken away.  When you are using someone else's collection, you don't realize how different it is from your own. 

But there is good news.  I am walking around and seeing some new titles that I do not have and checking out some authors and series that are not in my collection. 

And I am meeting some new munchkins!

End of Year Stats from Bobbette!

So first I need to apologize for once again being a bad blogger.  School has been out for 2 weeks and as I wrote in my last post, the first week was full of meetings. 

This past week was full of construction, or rather, deconstruction.  My old concrete porch has been sagging a few inches each year.  But the time has never been right and the stars have never quite aligned for the start of "The Great Porch Project".  However, this is the summer that everything has begun to fall in place.  We finally found a contractor willing to tear down the old concrete porch (conveniently built over the gas line entering the house) and rip up the sidewalk. So last week I traded in my laptop and books for work gloves and power tools.  That's right folks.  Believe it or not, I spent the week working with my little brother helping him tear the siding off of the front of my house, ripping out the 4 front windows, reframing and installing 2 new windows, enclosing and framing a wall where the other 2 windows were and TYVEKing the front of the house. I used a table saw, an electric nail gun, slap stapler and tin snips.  I am using sweat equity while I am off this summer to save on some home equity. :-)  You may now call me Bobbette the Builder. (not Wendy because she doesn't seem tough enough-hahaha!)

 

So that will be my big summer project this year.  Fingers crossed that we can get it done before school starts.  This week we are, hopefully, pouring footers so it will be a light week.

 

This week will also be the week that I get the pleasure of covering a fellow librarian's summer library hours during her school's summer enrichment program.  I am really excited about getting to spend time there and hopefully bringing some data and ideas back that I can use to persuade my administration that summer hours would be beneficial for our school too!

 

But before I do any of that I need to fulfill my promise to share the end of year data with you. So here it is:

 

Total Circulations

November 18, 2013-June 1, 2014         11988

November 18, 2014-June 1, 2015         13329

Total Increase In Circulations                 1341 or 11.2%

 

 Fiction Circulation Comparison

November 18, 2013-June 1, 2014         4379

November 18, 2014-June 1, 2015         5215

Increased by 836 checkouts

Graphic Novel Circulation Comparison

November 18, 2013-June 1, 2014         1113

November 18, 2014-June 1, 2015         1240

Increased by 127 checkouts

Destiny Title/Copy Data Report Findings – Fiction

1417 titles were listed on the exported report

625 (44.1% of the fiction collection) titles had increases in circulation over the previous year’s circulations

Of those 625 titles,

•440 (70.4%) had no circulations during the 2013-2014 school year

•131 (20.96%) increased by 3 circulations over the previous year

•231 (36.96%) increased by 5+ circulations over the previous year

Top 3 Fiction Genre Classifications with title circulation increases were:

 

 

Just Like Me (80)

Fantasy (52)

Humor (36)

(*Note: 126 titles are not yet assigned location fields in Destiny)

 

 

 

Destiny Title/Copy Data Report Findings – Nonfiction

3891 titles were listed on the exported report

1085 (27.9% of the nonfiction collection) titles had increases in circulation over the previous year’s circulations

Of those 1085 titles,

•803 (74%) had no circulations during the 2013-2014 school year

•149 (13.7%) increased by 3 circulations over the previous year

•175 (16.1%) increased by 5+ circulations over the previous year

Top 5 Nonfiction Genre Classifications with title circulation increases were:

 

Animals (132)

Science (106) – Top 3 subcategories: Inventors/Inventions 34, Weather 21, Experiments 15

Sports (81) – 27 were biographies now located in the sports classification

What Can I Make? (67)

Who Is? (48) – Discovered by the 3rd grade teachers

(*Note: 227 titles are not yet assigned location fields in Destiny)

 

 

The Bottom Line:

           Circulation has increased by 11.2% which may not seem too terribly significant BUT over 1200 books (800 nonfiction and 400 fiction titles) that were NEVER checked out last year circulated this year which means my collection is experiencing a rejuvenation because my students and teachers can quickly and easily find what they want and related materials.

So exciting that the initial data not only held but increased. Can you see me doing my fist pump?

 

 

 

 

 

    
 

	Increased by 836 checkouts
			Increased by 127 checkouts