Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of school for most of the districts in our area.  I suspect it's a day of great rejoicing in public libraries, but my colleagues there are much too professional to agree out loud.  I do know some moms who work from home who are pretty happy today. 

And, in fact, most school librarians are also excited to welcome the new school year.  For us, this day is much more a new beginning than January 1. 

The first day of school brings freshly sharpened pencils, pointy crayons, clean lockers, and empty notebooks.  It's a day of optimism.

In the library, the books are completely in order and straight on the shelves for perhaps the only time all year (but that's ok--we want them to be used).  Our new displays are bright and catchy.  Our bulletin boards are fresh.  We have read tons of books over the summer and are ready to recommend them to kids. We have great ideas to collaborate with teachers.

A New Year's Resolution

Of course no new year would be complete without resolutions.  Let's do ourselves a favor and skip the ones in which we promise ourselves never again to eat sugar, to attend the family reunion each year, or to finally read Moby Dick.

Before I propose just one resolution, let me take a brief detour to connect a couple of seemingly unconnected sources.

1.  This summer I was fortunate enough to hear Raymond McNulty speak about rigor and relevance in schools.  One of the pieces that kept coming back to me is that in order to achieve rigor, learning must be relevant.  In order for learning to be relevant, relationships must be established first.  Relationships are critical.

2.  A book I'd recommend is Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.  A piece that resonated with me is that complex problems need simple solutions. 

So...it may follow that in order to solve the complex issue of how to create students who are information fluent, the first step may be to establish relationships with these students AND their teachers. 

Even if you don't buy into my logic, it darn sure couldn't hurt, right?


I propose that we all make a new year's resolution that we can really keep.  
Work on relationships this year.

How can we work on relationships?

1.  Smile and greet every person who comes in the library by name.  Every time!
2.  Every time possible, walk over and ask how you can help.
3.  Listen.  Treat every request as important, even if you're busy.
4.  As Michael Stephens suggests, perform a "kindness audit" for your library. 
5.  Ditch the fines. Consider, as one of our wise librarians says, "Your book is due when you've read it through."
6.  Nix the millions of rules. Most of us behave in a civil manner without posting them.  Deal with those of us who don't individually and quietly.
7.  Ditto to the zillions of procedures.  Don't make us jump through hoops to check out a book or chances are we won't bother next time.
8.  Try to say yes much more often than you say no. 
9.  Look around at your signage and get rid of anything that says NO, NEVER, DON'T, and CLOSED.  Rephrase these negative statements.  Instead of "NEVER print without asking," how about the much nicer, "Please ask before printing."  Or even better, "You may print two pages a day if needed."
10.  Be the living example of Ranganathan's law, "Save the time of the reader" (aka any person who walks through your door).

Here's to a new year and new relationships!

Photo: http://www.maxgladwell.com/

eBooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point

Have you registered for this great summit?

Just right books or just for fun books?

Occasionally when doing reader's advisory with kids we find ourselves in the middle of a situation.  A kiddo wants one book and the parent or teacher wants him to have a different book. 

The book the kiddo has chosen is (fill in the blank here) too short, too long, too much below his reading level, too much above his reading level, too silly, too scary, and basically, just not what the adult wants for the child.

The kid looks at us beseechingly--help!  The parent or teacher also looks to us for help, but it's more of in the "adults stick together" way.  What do you do?

How about if everyone can win? 

How about if the kiddo can check out whatever "just for fun book" that he likes?  That way it doesn't really matter if the kindergartener checks out a 500 page tome.  It makes him feel like a reader.  Let him go!  It doesn't really matter if a fifth grader checks out a drawing book.  It's fun.  Let him go! 

Ditto for series books.  This might be a good opportunity to briefly explain the importance of series books in creating readers (see the birthday cake theory post) and the fact that it's critical for readers to have freedom of choice in selecting what they read.

Chances are if the kid is allowed to check out his "just for fun" book, then he won't care if the adult prevails with what she considers the "just right" book. 

Everybody goes away happy, and most importantly, the kid's choice has counted for something.  In that case, we all win.

And with good reader's advisory, librarians will likely have another chance to recommend books the kiddo will love.  If we force choices on him, he may never darken the library door again.

Cool tools for libraries...pdf to Word converter

I may be the last person to know about this, but I just discovered a free tool that is going to make my work life easier.  Have you seen PDF to Word? 

Simply upload a PDF document, choose a file extension, add your email address, and voila!  You will quickly receive an email with the converted document in Word format.  Nice.

It's not technology, it's the way things are...

This morning I again had the pleasure of listening to library guru Michael Stephens.  It's always nice if new learning and real life match up, but seldom does it happen quite as neatly as it did for me today.

The session was over at lunch time, and I stopped at Boston Market before heading back to the office, which is about 45 minutes away.  I say that to tell you that I was out of my stomping grounds.

I ordered a chicken pot pie and water.  They gave me a clear cup for the water, and I expected the usual fountain where you push the little lever next to the lemonade for water.  Instead I found this Jetson-like contraption. 

I'll have to admit I was totally at a loss.  The big circle button said push, so I did.  Ice came out.  So far, so good.  I had no idea what to do next, so I pushed the silver lever and got a cup full of some sort of soda.  I sheepishly sat down, drank my stolen Diet Dr. Pepper, and proceeded to watch everyone else get drinks.

Either I'm slow or everyone else is a regular because no one else seemed quite so baffled as I was.  They knew that the top panel is a touch screen (ooh, cool!) and that there are literally 106 choices of drinks. 

My favorite moment came when a group of middle school-aged boys came in.  They clearly had never seen the machine either, but they did something very different than I had done.  They didn't mind looking like they didn't know what was going on.  They experimented.  They played.  They touched the screen repeatedly and went back and forward many times.  They didn't fill their extra-large cups with just one type of soda.  Oh, no.  They got suicides!

It dawned on me that the middle school boys and I were illustrating Michael Stephens' points on how the library should embrace 21st century learning. With apologies to Dr. Stephens because I won't do his presentation justice, the following are a few connections:

Michael Stephens on today's learners:

• For them, it's not technology, it's the way things are
• They are team-oriented and social
• They are curious
• Play = learning
• It's ok to make mistakes

Today's learners (and me) at Boston Market:

• It's technology to me, but not to these digtal natives
• I was embarrassed to ask anyone; they approached the machine together
• I didn't want to look stupid; they were curious
• I was getting a drink; they made a game of getting a beverage
• I was hesitant to make a mistake; they had no such qualms

How does this translate to the library?  Stephens recommends that we should:

• Break down barriers
• Explore play
• Know it's ok to fail
• Involve kids
• Encourage the heart
• Be human
• Embrace change

So please take a few minutes and check out Michael Stephens.  Play and be curious today.  Be willing to look silly.  And go to Boston Market and get a soda!

What's so special about specials?

Specials rotation.  The very words strike fear in the heart of elementary librarians.  If you're a secondary librarian, a new elementary librarian, or a really fortunate experienced elementary librarian, let me explain.

Specials rotation is the infamous fixed scheduling you heard about in library school.  Specials are the classes where the kids go while their teachers are having conference periods.  Generally the specials schedule rotates between art, music, P.E., and sometimes computers.  In a large elementary or if numbers at certain grade levels are high, the library may be placed in the specials rotation.

What does this mean?  It means that every single day one or more classrooms of students will be dropped off at the library for a 45 minute block while their teacher has planning time with the team. It means that the librarian will not be able to plan collaboratively with these teams.  It means that the library schedule will be driven by these fixed blocks of time.  And it also means that the quality of the entire library program suffers because the librarian is not able to serve students and staff at the point of need. 

If you are attempting to fend off being in the specials rotation, I would suggest that you read the following:

AASL Position on Flexible Scheduling

School Libraries Work

AASL Resource Guides for School Library Program Development

If you have already lost the battle and are in specials rotation, I would encourage you to document instances when the fixed schedule bumps research projects and spontaneous opportunities to meet needs.  Talk with administrators, teachers, and parents about why a flexible schedule is best.  Be sure to frame your reasons in terms of student needs or it may sound self serving.

In the meantime, what should you do during specials rotation?

Be positive and professional.  Don't make the kids pay for a scheduling issue.
Resist the temptation to kill time with arts and crafts or worksheeets. 
Ditto (double ditto) for library lessons such as learning about Dewey, how to use the almanac, etc.  ICK!!

Ok, so that was what NOT to do.  How about some things TO do...

If it were me, I would implement Reader's Workshop.  The goal of reader's workshop is to foster a love of reading, and tons of research supports the fact that the more kids read, the better readers they are.  Reader's Workshop is something meaningful that students can do during specials rotation, and it has the added benefit of requiring little planning from you.  DEFINITELY prefererable to busy work.

Set the tone for reading each day by reading aloud.  Read a chapter a day from a novel that will hold the attention of your students.  If you need suggestions, try Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook.  Alternate the types of books you read but make sure they are ones that your students will enjoy.  Have fun with the reading and avoid the temptation of "making a lesson" out of everything.  Just have fun with the book and your kids.

After reading aloud, each student should settle down with a good book(s) to read.  Kindergarteners and other students with limited reading skills can enjoy all types of books with illustrations and photographs.  You should always model reading.  The importance of this can't be overstated.  If you're up doing something else, it tells the kids that reading isn't important. 

You can find all kinds of information about Reader's Workshop online.  You won't need to take grades, of course, but tips on managing RW may be helpful. 

If you'd like an occasional change of pace, you could intersperse I-Search research projects.  Again, even the youngest of students can choose and research a simple topic with assistance.

Although specials rotation isn't what's best for kids, you can make the best of the situation with meaningful learning in a positive environment. 

The future of reading and libraries

Things I believe...

1.  Nobody knows the future of reading and libraries.
2.  There will always be people predicting doom and gloom.
3.  Budget woes come and go.
4.  Libraries date back to hundreds of years BC and will likely be around many more centuries.
5.  Reading is more important than the format of the book.  If printed books eventually get squeezed out in favor of digital formats, we'll still be reading.
6.  Education is slow moving and school library budgets are slim.  So while school libraries may move toward online and digital formats, especially for reference and nonfiction, traditional printed books will be around a long time.
7.  There's a difference in libraries merely surviving and libraries being vital.
8.  Librarians are that difference.
9.  A few critical things to vibrant libraries:  relationships, service, willingness to share knowlege, meeting students and staff where they are, and keeping current.
10. If we hold on to the 20th century model, we'll be alone in our quiet libraries!

The "c" word

I was a brand new MLS student during my last year as a classroom teacher.  One afternoon I remember waiting in line for the copier behind one of our math teachers.

She slammed her teacher's edition down on the copier and fumed, "I wish I could be a librarian.  What a cushy job.  Either the library is closed or she's sitting back there reading.  I wish I could close MY classroom whenever I felt like it."

I gotta tell you that made a huge impression on me.  I'd never thought about it much before, but it made me look at the library from a new perspective.

Some librarians will tell you that reading is their job.  No argument there.  But there's a giant difference between reading being your job and reading ON the job.  Reading is your homework.  If the library isn't busy, get out there and drum up some business!

As for the library being closed, remember my math-teaching friend and avoid the "c" word at all costs.

The library is a shared space that belongs to the entire school.  And as such, there will be hearing and vision testing, Coffee with the Counselors, TAKS testing, PTA board meetings, and the like that can shut the library down for more time than you'd like.

During one of your early scheduled visits with the principal, mention that you'd like the library to be open as much as possible because you want to impact student achievement as much as possible.  Is there another place that some of these meetings could be held?

Some closings are beyond your control.  Others rest squarely on you.

Always be open the first day of school and ready to go.  Can kids check out books?  You bet.

You'll need to get the books back in the last few days of school and do inventory, but let your campus check out books until the last two weeks of school and hold off on inventory until the last couple of days.  Even then, there's no need to close the library.

And yes, it's semantics, but choose your wording carefully when you're emailing the staff to let them know that the library is closed or when you're putting a closed sign on the door.

"Open after the meeting" sounds much friendlier than "closed."  Avoid the "c" word, both in philosophy and in practice.    The math teacher and I may be watching.

Self checkout for beginners

After I posted the piece about self checkout the other day, I remembered this picture of my two grandsons, ages six and four, successfully checking out books at our fabulous Frisco Public Library by themselves.

Yes, Virginia, kindergarteners CAN use self checkout!

And yes, I realize most grandmas don't take pictures of their grandsons checking out books.  You gotta love librarians, right?

More things I didn't know OR the first week of school

Although it's just the middle of June, I know that many of you (especially new librarians) are thinking about the start of school (at least in a tiny corner of your head).

As I mentioned earlier, there were an awful lot of things I didn't know as a new librarian.  Like what to do the first week of school, for one.

As a teacher, I knew what to do.  Collect forms.  Play get acquainted games.  Write the dreaded "What I Did this Summer" essay.  Review rules and procedures.  Collect more forms. 

But as a librarian, none of this applied.  The bell rang that first morning, and kids scurried to their first period classes.  The library--empty!  Ditto day two and three.  Where were my classes?  Weren't teachers supposed to come sign up to bring their kids to the library?

I quickly realized that most teachers weren't going to come to me.  I had to hunt them down and ASK them to bring their classes to the library.  Who knew that being a librarian involved cold sales calls?

And I didn't actually have a lot of ideas.  Hmm.  We could check out books.  And...wasn't I supposed to be doing library orientation or something?  Geez.

I'm guessing you're not as hopeless as I was, but in case a few ideas will help, I'll offer a bit of advice for the first week of school...

1. Don't assume that teachers will come to you.

2. Don't assume that teachers are too busy to come to the library the first week of school.

3. Figure up how quickly you can see every kiddo in school if you compress the schedule.

4. Make the rounds BEFORE school starts to every team in the building.

5. Let the teachers know that your goal is to get a book in the hands of every student during the first week (nine days, or whatever) of school.

6. Ask if they would be willing to sign up to bring their kids as soon as possible.

7. DON'T do library orientation.

8. Yes, you read that right.  DON'T do library orientation (more on this in a minute).

9. Check out books to kids.  Make an effort to learn their names.  Start building relationships with students and staff.  Encourage kids to come on their own any time they have permission.

10. Do something fun and flashy the first time kids come to the library.  Book trailer? QR code scavenger hunt? You Tube video about libraries or books or the latest version of Did You Know? 

11.  Be SURE to schedule the teacher's next visit to the library but DON'T let them book more than the first six weeks of school.  Otherwise, you'll have an instant fixed schedule.

And about library orientation...

Library orientation is boring.  Orientation presents facts in isolation that no one (but the librarian) cares about or will remember.

Do NOT show a PowerPoint that "teaches" kids how to use the Dewey Decimal system, how to use the online catalog, or about the parts of the library.  Refrain from telling kids all the RULES (shudder) of your library.

Is this really the first impression you want students and staff to have?

Instead, do something fun and welcoming.  Keep it short.

Afterward, simply let them know they can check out X number of books for X number of weeks.  There are no fines.  If you have an overdue book, the Mafia will not be called, but you'll need to return it before you can check out another book.    

That's it.  NO orientation.  NO rules.  NO long, dry speeches or handouts they'll leave on the floor.

Instead, tell the kids,  "This is YOUR library.  You are welcome any time.  I'm here to help you find books you'll enjoy reading and information you may need.  I hope to see you often!"