New Job New Research

Sat in on an interview last week, and the gal told us she loves research. So what you say? Well, she wasn't a librarian, she wasn't a librarian wannebe, she wasn't even an education major. She was however, a doctoral student. I know loving research really helped her get as far as she has. Hopefully, I will be working with this young woman in my new job. Well, just a part time temp job, but really cool. In this job I will be managing a grant to promote multicultural literature. Through my own recent research I am learning a lot. For instance, I have learned that several learned folks do not agree on a definition for multicultural literature. And get this, it is not in wikipedia!!! In fact, I have challenged some of my grad students to add it. I hope by the time you read this post, there will be an entry!!!! Feel free to check it out and add to it. Along we researching what others think is the definition, I have been trying to read some of the latest and greatest books by and for other cultures. We are doing a much better job but we still have a ways to go. One of the aspects of this new job will be to look at the new stuff and provide training on and off line for LMS, private, public, and school, to help them improve their collections. I think this is going to be fascinating research. If you have anything I should read, please post those titles! I hope to be able to share some really good titles with you, but you may have the best ones right on your shelves.

Books!

As I sit here listening to the terrible rain storm, my thoughts are with all my friends who have to start school today. I can hear the wet tennis shoes rub on the slick floor, see the puddles from coats and umbrellas, but what I am really thinking about is where they will read to their kids today. There is something special about reading to kids and gets even more magical when you are in a room full of students. I just love it. I have been really hurrying to read my VRC books, the meeting is, yikes, next month.
Have you read any of these?
Skunkdog by Emily Jenkins
Wild Boars Cook By Rosoff and Blackall
Mrs. Crump's Cat by LInda Smith
My Father the Dog by Elizabeth Bluemle or
Boris and the Snoozebox by Leigh Hodgkinson
These books are very creative and they really are unique, not just a twist on an old theme.
Have a great day today, teachers and librarians! You have the best job in the world.

Scheduling

What a hot topic! Library scheduling seems like a short and sweet topic! Some folks think all school libraries are like public libraries, open access to all as long as the doors are open. Others think it is like the high school they went to, open access to all as long as the doors are open. Then one thinks of the elementary schools of the 1950's, you can't go to the library unless it is the scheduled time( which was probably a random time selected by an administrator who just has to get the job done). Elementary school librarians learned about open library schedules way back in the late 80's to early 90's. Open those doors, let teachers bring in students at their point of need. Schedule multiple time periods depending on the length of research time needed. Teachers and LMS were creating meaningful products which were utilizing Bloom's upper level thinking skills! We had it 'going on'! There were a couple of bumps in the road, Balanced Literacy with their huge book rooms, Standards of Learning skills which left out research components at several grade levels, but our creative and dedicated librarians worked hard to show teachers and students the right path. But alas, a new tiger is blocking the road. Did I say new? This tiger is an old tiger, he used to have a sheep overcoat! His name is Teacher Break Time. I see you smiling from here. Some teachers felt instinctly libraries were their break. They signed up for a library time and might even have discussed it with you, but it was cut and run at the door when it was their time slot. Others begged for a break time just to got to the bathroom (what is up with that anyway, shouldn't it be a right to use the restroom?). The tiger has a new promoter, well, not exactly. I see you nodding. Some nice folks in the big house in Virginia said, Elementary teachers should have 150 minutes of PLANNING TIME per week ( read break time). Oh, the teachers were so happy. Don't get me wrong, I was an elementary teacher for 20 years before I returned to school to complete my library coursework, I know it is hard to be locked in a small room for 6 hours with small children. My point here is bigger than that. The library is not part of that break time! To utilize one of the best and most expensive resources the school has, in the most MINIMAL way is not a sound instructional decision. I have seen scheduled library classes over and over again fail. Fail? Yes, fail. Fail to provide the utmost in strong library lessons. Lessons without the collaboration. Lessons without the appropriate time frame attached. Lessons without team interaction with the LMS and the teacher both teaching in the same space at the same time. Lessons where the content and the informational skills are not totally integrated. I would love to ask for your help, but the problem is you are way to busy making inappropriate schedules work the best you can for the students!

Fall Semester begins today!

Hi, hope your summer was awesome. Mine was and I am very appreciative of the beautiful sunshine popping through the clouds right this minute! Since the new semester begins today, it is appropriate to update the blog. I hope you read alot this summer. Books are my passion, but I do feel guilty reading when I have other things on my to do list. The problem is I ALWAYS have stuff on my to do list. It makes me tired to look at my list. LOL Please post what you have read this summer, I will do that tomorrow, but for now I have a new concept to throw out to you. Since we are licensed professionals I believe the license sets you apart from our careers. It is my belief as well that some of us do not take teaching/ librarianship seriously enough. This is evidenced by some lack of professional dress, attitude, and sometimes committment to the profession. Last month I had lunch with a gal who was my counterpart when I worked. Mary had recently heard a speaker who made this statement, " Professionals, like licensed teachers, should count on spending 3 per cent of their salary on work related items.". This has really rolled around my brain this summer. Mary and I talked about it, my family has heard me talk about it and now you get to hear me "talk" about it. Since I did not hear the speaker, I cannot speak to the specifics or ask questions about the philosophy, but I have a couple of questions to throw out. Is this figure a bit high for underpaid licensed professionals like educators? Does this 3 per cent include EVERYTHING? We buy a lot of food for children, staff, and community folks. Well, if it includes everything, then ok, 3 per cent it is. Personally, I would rather not have a total of what I spend, I might be able to buy a piece of furniture! LOL The concept is very strong though and I totally believe in it. Think about your professional dues! Ya gotta belong to your local, state, and national groups. Ooops, you have already heard me on this bandstand or is it some other kind of stand???? At any rate, write me and let me know what you think and post your book titles you read this summer!

New book

I have been a bit quiet on my facebook, twitter and blog lately. The beautiful outdoors keeps calling me. I am one of those people who just feel better when I am outside. However, I am pretty particular about the weather I want to be out in, no rain, hail, heat, cold, or anything else resembling those things. That translates to spring and fall is about it! Laying poolside in my yard ( if I can stay away from the weeds and pruning) means lots of reading time! Last month I enjoyed a first novel. The book is called Oxygen. It was written by a anesthesiologist and it is about..... a anethesiologist who does the right things but her patient dies anyway. I have been a doctor show fan since Dr. Kildare ( sorry young folks) and right up to Grey's Anatomy so this was a great fit for me. The main character is very likeable both medically and personally and as the reader you can really root for her! And best of all she discovers a mystery within the walls of her hospital. The author is Carol Cassella and Amazon has the book for $10.00. Amazon's review ties this book to Jodi Piccoult's work which I love as well. Please let me know if you grab this one as part of your summer reading! Actually, please post a comment for what you plan to read this summer. I have a stack all lined up but can always make room for one more. :>)

Twittering @ your library

I love talking to you all through this blog! I read or watch some cool thing and then I get to discuss it with all of you at the same time! Love technology. Ok, here's what I heard today. This tv star said her child's kindergarten teacher twitters all the parents! She tells them what the kids did that day so the parents can have these great conversations with their kids. I am so impressed with this concept, I can hardly stand it, partly as a parent and of course, partly because I see the library application screaming out at me! When my kids were small I did not want to have these really dumb exchanges with them. Here's an example. Hey, Bud, did you have a good day? Yep. What did you do? Nothin. And so on and so forth. So as we were driving home from the sitter's house, both my kids had to be ready to tell me one great thing and one not so great thing that happened at school. It was our routine. I promise you we had great conversations! But oh, if I had had a twitter starter for those conversations!!!! Very cool. So here's my question for you, do you twitter the happenings in your library???? Do you twitter what you are reading aloud to kids??? You get 140 characters in one twitter. That is enough to get a great book summary across. Speaking of book summaries, what about getting the kids to write potential twitters about books they have read????? Cute ppt idea. Oh, my, I am getting too excited now. I did twitter my book title today based on my blog topic here. Write me back and tell me a twitter story!

A Short Library Sermon

Yesterday we had a handout to help us take notes at church. Unfortunately for my spiritual life, my mind wandered a bit ( sorry, God). It wandered right over to libraries. My pastor's key points were entitled, Six Phases in the Growth of the New Testament Church. It was very interesting and he had scripture verses to illustrate all six, as any good preacher would. Here are the six phases he mentioned: Praising, Pure, Prepared, Powerful, Persecuted and Practical. I do not want to seem unspiritual at all, but do you not see as I did, how these points match our library programs??? Audrey Church was the first person to expose me to the concept of advocacy. She was the president or vice, can't remember, which in VEMA. As an organization I feel we made great strides because of her. These 6 P's from my church sermon fall under the heading of advocacy.
First P, you need to yell out to everyone how great your library is. Praise.
Second P, you need to keep your library pure. Your library, should be a very ethical and legal arena so everyone can count on you to spread the word about intellectual freedom and other key issues related to libraries.
Third P, your library should be organized. You should be following accepted cataloging rules and shelving conventions. Do not be so creative you patrons cannot find books in your library or worse they cannot find a book in the public libary.
Fourth P, you and your library should be powerful in so many ways. Remember the poster, " Your librarian the Original Search Engine"? You should be a powerhouse researcher and helper. You should also have developed a base of leadership in your school!! More on that in another blog post.
Fifth P is persecuted. This P is much more difficult to take from the New Testament church. I see it as there will be some folks on staff who do not want to embrace change so they will might say inappropriate things about your program. Don't worry, others will love what you are doing with the program.
Sixth P is pratical. Please by all means make sure your library program remains practical for all your patrons!
Debbie, you and I might be doing this as a presentation for VEMA in the fall!!
Happy Monday you all, I have to get ready for work.