Books, books, and more books!

  Today I spent most of my time trying to sort through books that have been in different areas of the media center but not in circulation.  (These were not the newest books that still need to be processed.)  I found these books in a box in the media specialist's office and in small stacks in various places around the media center.  Some paperbacks were found in the back storage room.  Most of the books had barcode labels and spine labels attached, but many were bare.  I finally decided to check each book to see if it was labeled for shelving, if it was showing up in the online catalog, and if an Accelerated Reader (AR) test was available in our school. Depending on the results, we shelved the books for circulation or placed them in new stacks in my office with a note explaining what was lacking.  This led me to find out how to order AR tests, and I placed several titles in my new shopping cart in Renaissance Learning.  I have never seen paperback books in our media center, but I decided to put some into circulation since the ones that I found in storage already have AR tests at our school.  Once again, this decision led me to another learning experience.  I went online to see how to protect the paperbacks, and my husband helped me apply Contact paper to most of them.  They seemed to turn out well for a first try.  Now I need to figure out how to generate original barcode numbers based on the system that the previous media specialist used.  At the end of the day, it seems that I haven't been able to clear off any space in my office. 

Hours in the media center:  9

Media Meeting

 After conducting several orientations for second grade, I met with the director of media services and the other first-year media specialist.  The director called the meeting so that she could explain our media budgets and hear any concerns that we have thus far.  I'm not sure what media budgets are in surrounding counties, but my budget seems to be very small.  There are three components of the budget:  supplies (tape, book carts, etc.), books, and software.  The director stated that the renewal for our circulation system is generally the only item that is paid with the software funds.   Most of the questions that we posed to the director dealt with how to use the circulation system, how to discard different types of materials, and how to address issues such as nonpayment of fines for library books.  She told us that we could work with our site administrators to develop policies for our individual schools on some issues.  She seemed to be very supportive of the media programs in the county, and she offered to find us some training for using our circulation system.  Before I left for the day, I ended up weeding out some materials that were in the professional development area of our media center.  I actually found some materials that contained the old, thin floppy disks for use with the old Apple computers.  More and more I am seeing the need to be diligent in weeding the collection. 

Hours in the media center:  9

Media Center Orientation

This week has been spent preparing for media center orientation.  I had to learn the circulation system in order to update it for the current school year.  Then the class rosters continued to change with students being moved to adjust for special education services from the inclusion teachers.  Finally we were able to make library cards and set up a schedule for orientation.  I spent a lot of time trying to prepare an informative but interesting presentation since this is my first appearance in front of the students in the role of media specialist.  After having so many encounters with technology in this program, I decided to make a PowerPoint presentation and show it using the laptop/projector/screen combination.  The PowerPoint was designed to appeal to the 4th and 5th grade students, so I will need to create a second,  more simplified, version for the lower grades.  I may even decide to just use a poster with the kindergarten and first grades which is what the previous media specialist did.  It was exciting to interact with the students during the instruction part of the orientation, but then I felt so limited in my knowledge of the collection when students asked me where certain books were.  I'm sure that this will improve as I shelve books now that circulation has begun. 

Hours in the media center:  40+.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school, and it was my sixth day in the position of media specialist at the local elementary school (PreK-5).  This practicum is the last course that I have to take to gain media specialist certification.  I spent most of today trying to learn how to update the online catalog system that we have.  The previous media specialist left some instructions about things that must be done at the start of the school year, but I wish there was much more detail in her notes. I began updating the system by editing the patron list, and that was a long process.  Two grade levels at my school moved into another school, so there were several teachers who had to be taken out of the system.  When I entered their patron ID numbers, some of the teachers had materials that were still checked out in their names.  Then I started trying to find out if those materials had been left behind at our school or if they had been taken over to the other school.  This made for a rather complicated day in the catalog, but I just plan to start working on this again in the morning.  There is a full-time paraprofessional who has about five years of experience in the media center, and she has been able to do some other tasks while I work in the catalog.  Thank goodness for that! 

Hours in the media center: 7.5