Week 5: New books

This week provided me with the opportunity to learn a major part of my future job description- cataloging! While the task has never seemed difficult, it has always appeared to be overwhelming. This week I found out that there are many shortcuts and resources that are available to librarians to help in this department. However, they will often cost the program. Upon walking in Tuesday morning, I saw a box with another two piles of books next to it on the circulation desk.

"New books?" I asked.
"New books!" Ms. Allen replied while smiling and clasping her hands together in excitement. I always can tell she is excited if the hands clasp together or both arms fly up at the elbow with fisted hands. The latter kind of resembles a cheerleading motion. It's no surprise then, that she also speaks with the same level of enthusiasm when this happens. Like any real librarian, nothing makes Ms. Allen happier than new books and/or new technology. Seeing that she had already begun to label, I proceeded to ask a series of questions that produced many simple, but valuable answers.

First question: Why Follett? Ms. Allen chooses to stick with Follett not only for their pricing, but also for convenience. When she first became librarian, she said that she had many different sellers coming to visit regularly. To her, a new school librarian, this felt overwhelming. So, like any good LMS would do, she started researching. She looked into each seller and looked at their services and prices. Ultimately, Follett won out. I also asked her about ebooks, or digital books. Apparently, that is already on her "to-do" list for next year. She will begin purchasing more of them for the 2014-2015 year. This question led me to budgeting. I was familiar with the "per pupil allocation" from previous courses in the program and various assignments, so I asked her where JTA stood in terms of funding. Luckily for us, we still get the full amount per student to use in the LMC. Ms. Allen explained to me that many schools do not get to use theirs in the LMC as they should. I'm curious as to where my future school will stand on that issue. Thinking ahead, I can already see why AASL's advocacy toolkits are such a great resource!

Questioning our budget, then made me think back to the books in front of me. For instance, I asked why she put her spine labels in that particular position. She said that different libraries will choose different locations. She chose that one simply because the previous librarian(s) had set the precedence with previous books and she wanted to keep a unified look.

Apparently the same could be said for the cover labels...

as well as for the interior labels, or labels inside the front cover. 

We also discussed types of binding and looked at the difference between Follett binding and a regular bound book. Ms. Allen explained that to have the nicer binding, it costs more (75 cents per book), but she felt that it was well worth it based on personal experience. Another thing she pays an additional fee for, is for Follett to create the barcodes for her and the sticker (as shown above) that also includes the Reading Counts value. 

This discussion led us to assessing programs such as Reading Counts and Accelerated Reader- their differences, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their appeal at different age levels. Although she continues to include the Reading Counts point values in each book, Ms. Allen says that very few teachers actually still use the program in the school. We talked about the pros and cons I had learned about through my studies and compared them to her experiences in the library. Ms. Allen said that we originally chose Reading Counts because MAP scores could be used to determine level and this aligned nicely with Reading Counts. However, she feels that the middle school age is too old to be using such programs. For instance, at the lower elementary level, kids are being encouraged to read- anything and everything- they can get their hands on. Given an incentive (although not grade-based), students are typically more than willing to read to reach a goal or be given a reward. However, once past this stage, many of the upper level readers are expected to read material that reflects their reading level, but often not their interests at that particular age. For instance, a seventh-grader may be required to read books at the twelfth grade reading level that they tested at, but not be able to relate to the mature subjects addressed in the story. 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Giver-Readers-Circle-Laurel-Leaf/dp/0440237688

When first starting this program, I remembering learning that Lois Lowry's The Giver was actually on the banned book list. I read The Giver in my fourth grade Gifted program, along with others such as Flowers for Algernon and various works by Shakespeare. I never remember feeling at all uncomfortable or perplexed by the subject matter. After learning of this list, I read The Giver again. Sure enough, I picked up on much more than I ever had as a nine year old. I can only imagine how many times this same situation occurs when young students are trying to reach their required number of points. 

All in all, I had a very productive week in the library!