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!

Nonfiction Categories - Round Two

How do you find books in the nonfiction section of our library? 
A. Using DESTINY
B. Using the pictures in the library

Hmmm....so if the students are using the "pictures" in the library to help them find books, on one hand I am happy (Way to use the resources around you!) and on the other hand I wonder if those very same signs have influenced the creation of their nonfiction categories. 

So today was an experiment of sorts.  Today, I removed all those signs BEFORE sending them off to create their category lists. 

Did they need them?  No. Did they miss them?  Yes, at first.  I saw them looking and even had a student or two asking about them and heard some chatter but once they got into the groove, their natural discussion kept the categories flowing.

 

                              

                                   

Students used the shelves (and even the nonfiction return cart) to get inspiration and ideas for nonfiction categories. Lots of great thinking!

                                                                  



 

The Place Looks Great (Just Don't Open the Closet)!

True confession time.  If you call me and tell me you are "stopping by" later today, I am going to whip myself into a frenzy of running the vacuum and shoving things in closets that you have no business opening.  I am going to light some candles, wipe the bathroom down and you will be, if not impressed, unaware that the closets are bulging with my hidden stacks of "treasures du jour" AKA mail, school stuff, shoes, purses and other stuff not yet returned to their rightful places. Chances are, being housework phobic, those treasures will stay there until the next big cleaning spree or remodeling bug that hits.

If you walk into my library, you will see a wonderful space that looks awesome.  I work hard to make it inviting and colorful and library-ish but not in a stuffy way.  Neat stacks, labeled shelves, signage and shelf markers galore help to make this happen!  My library makes me proud.

But today I humble myself and shake my head and throw open my library's proverbial closet.  The closet that has not been touched for a while.  SIGH! 

In the past, I have "casually" weeded the Fiction section.  That cover looks old.  That one is torn.  What is THAT book? Nothing too strenuous as I know my Fiction section needs to be beefed up but I have been focusing on my Nonfiction and trying to get it more current.  I also have been buying Fiction ebooks.  With the upcoming genrefication of the Fiction section this Friday, a good hearty weeding was long overdue.  So I printed an aged titles list, grabbed an empty cart and went shelf by shelf.  Let's just say one cart was a laugh.  There were way too many oldies hanging out on my shelves.  I promised to be honest as I wrote this blog so, ugh, here goes.  Take a look.  It isn't pretty.

Yes this is a card pocket in the back of the book.  I didn't even learn about these in grad school.  I just remember them from my own childhood.

And these are just SOME of the cards.  Let's take a closer look shall we?

              
That's right ladies and gentlemen!  You are NOT seeing things.  Some of these cards are stamped in the 1970's and 80's. In reality, had I attended this elementary school, my name could be written on some of these! YIKES! Go ahead.  Add my name to the Librarian Wall of Shame.  I'll wait while you write it up there in (hopefully) non-permanent ink.

Just to be clear, these are not beloved classic books like L.Frank Baum's "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" or Marguerite Henry's "King of the Wind" or even Judy Blume or Beverly Cleary books.  These are bell bottomed, rotary phone dialing, station wagon riding books.  In many cases, it has been so long since the book has been checked out that the last patron's name isn't even listed in our library automation system. 

My closets are clean now and ready for reorganization and sprucing up.  Join with me in pledging to not let this happen again. 

It's Election Day!

Did you get your sticker today?  Did you vote?  I did!  It's such an important right that we have and, even if my candidate isn't the winning one, I feel like I had input and I made a difference.  I think my students are going to need to feel like they had a say in this reorganization of our library.  I need to make sure that THEIR voice is heard and appreciated.  After all, this is their library too! 

Yesterday the emails were flying as I realized that I only had 11 days to get my space prepped and ready for the shift to genrefication in the fiction section of the library.  I am blessed to have autonomy in this process, to have my decisions supported and to have resources made available to me. I am also blessed to have suggestions, questions and the opportunity to "defend" my choices and flesh out my thinking.

The Fiction Categories have been chosen!  They are:

Action/Adventure
Humorous Fiction
Historical Fiction
Mystery
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Sports Fiction
Just Like Me
Graphic Novels

Chimere and I had discussions about the combination of Science Fiction (one of her favorite genres) and Fantasy.  The two are closely related and my rationale, for combining them, is that having these books all together in one place will expose readers to both genres and an expanded set of books that fall in the categories. 

Fran mentioned a category "Just Like Me" and originally I thought, "what?!" but the more I think about it, the more I like it.  I like the approachability of "Just Like Me" versus Realistic Fiction.  I perceive this category being contemporary Realistic Fiction. 

I've printed reports from Titlewave showing my Collection Statistics and aged titles in my Fiction section.  I've also begun to curate Resource Lists in Destiny, using MARC record fields, to have a starting point for classifying the books in the Fiction section.

Reports, reports and more reports!



If you look at the photos of my library, you will see that many popular fiction titles are already housed in the Series section or in baskets for quick and easy access.  I am considering moving some of these back into the new "genrefied" fiction sections to expose students to other similar titles.  I am still thinking on this although I need to speed up my thinking as this big shift is occurring in just 10 days!

As all this is occurring, at the beginning of this post I mentioned having the students give input into categories for the nonfiction section.  Since this is a shortened week, due to a half day Professional Development on Monday and closed for Election Day today, I am going to have the 3rd through 5th grade classes for the rest of this week break into groups and create lists of categories they would like to see in the nonfiction section.  By introducing the concept of genrefication and sharing the process of transformation for out library in the upcoming months, I hope to ease any anxiety some may have about where their "favorite" book is now residing in the library. :-)  Don't worry, the Titanic book will still be there!

My plan is to break the classes into 5 groups and allow them to generate categories they would use, in their kid friendly language, and that they think others might be interested in using. Then I want to look at the categories that consistently appear across classes and grade levels and compare them to the categories floating around in my head and on the many pieces of paper that I write notes upon.  (I admit it!  I am a Post-It Junkie!  The more the merrier and the more colorful and quirky the better.)

Getting this input from students is something for the PLUS side of doing a mid-year shift. 

A Library Trick or Treat

It's October 31st. The time of the year when trick-or-treating is the only thing on the minds of elementary aged children everywhere. Working in an elementary school gives you an inside look at all the anticipation of a night full of transforming into something other than your same old self. Today is also the day that I met with my fearless library supervisors (Fran, Chimere and Kelly) to plan for the transformation of the school library! We're doing it! We have a plan! We are proceeding with the genrefication of the school library. Hopefully this will turn out to be a treat for the library and not a cruel trick. I am off to pass out the candy and spend some time with the neighbors.