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Weekly Reflection 7

Sun, 15 May 2022 17:18:53 -0700

This week (May 13th) was a somewhat slow week for new progress on items. The day was primarily filled with bouncing from task to task as necessary, though mostly changing call numbers on books and in the system.

So many books to change the call numbers on!

Another short project that happened was to prep some class materials for Erin. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of these, but it was stapling together the cover, first page, summary, and a response form for a significant number of the books from the spreadsheet from last week. Some were missing a piece of the packet (cover, summary, first page, etc), which meant that I had to look them up and print them. These were used by interested students to help select the Eagles Reads list for next year.

I also assembled the start of a display poster for springtime non-fiction reads. This ultimately ended up looking like a Pacific Northwest nature nonfiction poster, which is a good idea for the area. The students picked out the overall design, but I glued together what had been picked out by the time I left. I found the book covers, printed, and cut them out to be the approximate same size. The title had already been glued on.

This is what had been completed on the poster when I left

A couple smaller incidents that occurred were a student needing graphic novels to read for his educational requirements (though he had an interesting comment about graphic novels not normally being allowed in his house because it wasn’t “real reading” – I had heard about this phenomenon in my Children’s Literature class, but had never heard it in real life!), and one of the graphic novels having an upside down cover that needed to be fixed. I mostly followed Erin around while she did the reader’s advisory portion of this, though that in and of itself was educational, since it gave me the opportunity to observe what she picked out for the student with very little time to think. (I also followed her around while she did RA for a student wanting dark fantasy).

Finally, the maker space and non-fiction sections are being swapped. This will put the non-fiction books more in the center of the library, rather that hidden away in a corner, and will provide a slightly less high-traffic place for crafts.

The maker space shelves have been cleared off – I did not get a picture of them being condensed into the current non-fiction section, though.

The weeding, however, has been completed for the moment, and once all the call numbers are changed in the system (including more breaking of Dewey to better serve students and keep similar concepts or eras together), and once the section is moved over, this project will be essentially done, so that’s super neat!

Weekly Reflection 5

Sun, 01 May 2022 21:39:15 -0700

This week (April 29) was primarily focused on similar tasks to my second week at Eckstein. I ended up covering over a dozen picture books and a few hardbacks with protective plastic, changed dozens of call numbers for the non-fiction section, and rearranged two sections of the library to provide more space and be more functional for students.

The first two (covering books and changing call numbers) simply involved time. I had been taught how to cover books my second week there, which meant that I was able to fill in spare time with this task, which ended up taking a couple hours over the course of the school day. Changing call numbers was another filler task, though once numbers were changed in the system and books re-checked-in (some were incorrectly marked as lost and often actually had fines attached to a student’s account through no fault of their own), they needed to be re-shelved in their new location in the non-fiction section.

Books needing their call numbers changed, primarily in the American History section

Through both mine and Erin’s efforts, the non-fiction section is almost entirely weeded as of this point, which means that the next major task is changing call numbers and re-classifying books to be in more logical sections for students. This means playing around with Dewey and strategically breaking it to better serve students.

Section 1, weeded and books on display!

Section 2, weeded and with books on display

For example, since we are located in Washington state, and it is unlikely that we will need the Dewey numbers for other states, the American history section is now arranged by time period, with Indigenous histories first in line, acknowledging their histories to time immemorial, and then, after modern history, uses the strategically broken Dewey numbers to indicate granularity of local history – Pacific Northwest, then Washington State, then Seattle. Other sections are effectively “genrefied” despite being non-fiction, with topics such as all types of ancient history being grouped together and infectious diseases and biology being together, along with fashion in the art section, rather than being spread out among different sections based on their exact take on the topic. While this would likely be less useful in a higher academic institution, it works well for browsing at the middle-school level, where most students simply come in to ask for books and find what they need for a school project rather than looking at the catalog.

This section is almost entirely weeded, rearranged, and has displayed books

The other section that I rearranged was the readers lounge picture books. This section was crowded into just two shelves, which was too small for the collection and did not allow for effective browsing. Instead, the sports books were condensed to fewer shelves and the picture books were given some of the then-empty shelves. I found the reasoning behind the reader’s lounge books really interesting and something I had not considered before. The reader’s lounge books are of an easier reading level – closer to elementary school or emerging-reader level – specifically for ESL or special-needs students who want books that they can read more easily without looking like they’re reading little kid books. It also allows for readers who can read fluently but just want to read something fun to have access to an easier level of book. I thought this was a really inclusive and good way of having a wider range of reading levels available in the library without calling out lower reading levels specifically.

Rearranged and expanded picture books. I forgot to take a before picture, but the sports books were spread out to more shelves than they needed.

Overall, I really learned a lot this week about how Dewey can be broken to better serve library patrons, and about arranging books to be more logical in their order for the students. If this was the only thing that I learned in the entire DFW (and it’s not going to be!) I think I would come away a better librarian for having experienced and helped out during this single week.

Weekly Reflection 4

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 21:39:07 -0700

This week (April 22) was fairly slow and was primarily focused on performing odd tasks around the library, as well as helping prep materials for classes that were in the library this week and for testing next week, including checking out laptops to teachers (ultimately learning how to check out technology to students and staff that need it). I also checked out books and helped students find what they needed when a TA or Erin were unavailable.

Some of my work today was going to be assigning potential sub-locations to non-fiction books; however, I was not super confident in my ability to properly assess new sub-locations for many of the non-fiction books, and so focused on filling in a couple dozen of the animal books that were reasonably obvious, then switched to other tasks with Erin’s permission as I was struggling with Dewey and its proper sub-locations.

After that, I checked in the overflowing book return to ease the load on the TA’s for the day, and then went to help Erin with her classes. The primary task of the day for the students was to create “shelf-talkers” for the library to highlight recommendations for their peers. My job was to prep strips of paper that fit the shelves and lightly crease them at the appropriate size, and distribute them to students who had an approved draft of their shelf-talker. Once the class was finished, I went around the library and put the shelf-talkers in their appropriate locations where the book should be on the shelf (some of the books had disappeared during the class due to students seeing their peer’s recommendations and immediately grabbing the last copy!)

A sampling of some of the student shelf-talkers

A shelf-talker I created, on display

I also created a couple for two of my favorite books (both of which are the starts of their series), which were books that did not have any other students create talkers for, but are excellent reads for the age group.

A shelf talker for Scythe by Neal Shusterman

A shelf talker for The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

I found these very fun to create and found the wide range of books chosen by the students interesting, since it gives me a better idea of what students this age are reading. I noticed at least five separate entries for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, which suggests that they resonate really well with this age group, as well as Baby-Sitters Club (which also had several talkers). I also noticed a surprising amount of shelf-talkers for It by Stephen King, which is not a book I would have expected in a middle-school library, nor one that I would think middle-schoolers would enjoy. However, I consider this a learning experience in my own inexperience with what children and young adults are reading, and will keep an eye out for other titles that I did not think of as being popular in the age group.

The non-fiction shelves also continue to improve. Between Erin and I, most of the to-be-weeded books have been deleted from the system and so the shelves are emptying out.

The non-fiction shelves are emptying out of old books!

Weekly Reflection 2

Sun, 10 Apr 2022 20:25:20 -0700

This week (April 8th) was primarily spent re-shelving checked-in materials and removing weeded books from the library catalog. While I don’t normally spend time re-shelving anything but non-fiction materials (since the library TAs mostly handle that), there was some backlog and I decided it was worth the time to be more familiar with the library layout and where books were shelved.

A full library cart

Other than that, my time was primarily spent in the non-fiction section. While books had/have been marked for weeding, they have not yet been deleted from the system. Instead, they are currently stacked on the shelves with post-its indicating that they are marked for weeding.

The non-fiction shelves as I found them originally

So, after shelving all of the pending non-fiction books and tidying up the narrative non-fiction section (since one of the grades had come through the day before looking for non-fiction books, and had done quite the number on it), I sat down with a laptop, a scanner, and the instructions for removing books from the system.

Some of these books have definitely outlived their usefulness, despite being in decent condition… like this one from at least 1969!

It was rather interesting looking at some of the books that had been marked for removal as I scanned them and scribbled out the barcodes before placing them in a cardboard box for easier disposal. Some of the books were falling apart, but some of them were in really good condition. Others were very clearly just outdated, while others were probably just not circulating well, and probably hadn’t been in some time.

A sample of the weeded books from this collection

While it was not a difficult task, it was fairly time-consuming, especially as I was also listening to the students that came into the library for their class that day. Each class was exactly the same, with the students filling out a survey, then playing a taboo/charades type game of guessing book titles from descriptions of the plot or of the title itself, and then had a ten minute or so long book rotation where they were previewing books and filling out another survey for their main teacher for the class (not Erin) so that in-class book clubs could be created, but still allowed the students some say in what they found interesting for said book clubs. There was also the books-and-bites group during first lunch, who were reading a comic book through Hoopla on the main screen while eating lunch. I took my own lunch time during this period, so I missed most of it, but it looked like something that I certainly would have enjoyed as a middle schooler (and still definitely would, so I may try to eat my lunch with them next time I am there at the same time as the group).

Ultimately, I got basically three boxes worth of books dealt with, though I did not have the opportunity to grab the third box and load it up due to classes trapping me in the non-fiction section due to how they were arranged in the library.

Two filled cardboard boxes and more books ready to be put in one

This was maybe a tenth of the books that are due to be removed, so I am sure that next time I am in the library (two weeks from now, due to spring break) I will continue with this particular task and see if I can get the rest removed from the collection so that other books can be added. Erin also set me up with a wishlist on the book buying service the school uses so that I can research and make notes of books that would fill a gap in the freshly-weeded nonfiction section, or even if I just know of a fiction title that would be a good addition to the collection that the library does not already own.

The end of this day’s work on the non-fiction shelves

I did find it amusing that by the end of the day, I had basically memorized the Dewey numbers for non-fiction about African history and one of the ones for infectious diseases/health information (the 960s and 614.4, respectively). This quickly sped up several areas of shelving, since I remembered exactly where that number was on the shelves, especially the African history. My guess is that a class recently had a project on the topic, considering that it felt like I re-shelved half the available books on the subject.

The 900s section (well, more like the 960s on) before and after moving to be weeded books into neater piles and re-shelving a bunch of books

There was also a smaller task that needed to be done, but only took a few minutes overall. Some of the non-fiction has been categorized by a previous DFW student, such as “LGBTQ History” and “Civil Rights – International,” and so I added those books to specific booklists so that sublocations can be added to the catalog for students looking for nonfiction on particular topics. I do not know if I will be continuing this categorization and adding further books to the list, but it would be interesting to have the whole non-fiction section eventually searchable by topic through sublocations.

(Also, I managed to empty out the whole re-shelving cart, even after refilling it a couple times!)

An empty library cart

Weekly Reflection 1

Sat, 02 Apr 2022 22:26:24 -0700

My first week at Eckstein Middle School was mostly learning the various library systems and getting the various paperwork for this DFW filled out. While I spent a couple hours familiarizing myself with the library space and looking through various tutorials created by other school librarians on the Follett/Destiny system on Monday (3/28), the bulk of my work this week was done on Friday, April 1st. I helped Erin add new call number stickers to several new and existing books and add colored genre labels, as well as check whether some of them were in the system yet or not. While most of the stack were already part of the collection, and were simply being moved to new places within the library, there were several new copies that needed to be added to the system, including assigning barcodes, finding replacement costs, and categorizing the book into the appropriate subsection. Another part of this book cataloging process was the process of covering dust jackets with plastic to extend their shelf life, which I was taught how to do this week.

The small completed stack of plastic-covered books, with call number stickers added by me

Another task I completed today was to re-shelve the Narrative Nonfiction section. It is a relatively small section in the library; however, it was quite messy due to students not re-shelving books properly and a significant amount of weeding having been done recently, leaving very few books in this section. It took about an hour to re-organize the shelves and re-shelve the significant backlog.

Before (left) and after (right) of reshelving the narrative nonfiction

Finally, a small task I took upon myself just after lunchtime was to organize the genre label shelf, since boxes were piled randomly and it was difficult to find the proper genre label in some cases. I made sure that all the stickers were coming out the same side, and that boxes were alphabetical so that it is obvious at a glance whether more colored stickers need to be ordered and which colors are running low. Unfortunately, the shelf is slightly too small for all the existing genres, so two genres are on top of the shelf.

A neatly organized colored genre sticker shelf – no before picture because I forgot!

Overall, this week was mostly completing small tasks of organization and learning the systems that I will need to know for the rest of my DFW, but it was productive.