Library Displays

On one of my first days in the library, Shawn took me to the district printing portable--just behind the  Ann Richards buildings on campus and taught me how to operate the cricut cutters.  After a quick tutorial, she left me with very broad instructions to create a "New and Recommended Titles" poster and left me to be creative.  It was a lot of fun trying out all of the different designs on various crafting paper supplies.  I could have spent hours there making new display signs for everything in the library.  Its a tremendous resource to have available so close!  But it is time consuming and somehow even the short distance becomes un-workable when you feel tied to the library.  

Shawn mentioned wanting to re-vamp her signage in the library and it was a project I wanted to help with--but as I got immersed in the day to day library activity, the signage seemed to lose priority.  Also, when I reflected on the signage--I considered that it might be best to make a uniform message with the signs.  It could be theme based or at least coordinated effort with color and size.  

The Ann Richards Library already has general signs for Non-Fiction and Fiction sections prominently displayed--and the smaller signs noting specific dewey sections are all uniform in blue and white.  Overall I think they are easy to read and clear.  The Library space is noticably welcoming.  The design is open with flexible seating (which we learned from Elizabeth Pope--is the new trend in library design) and attractive neutral color schemes that follow the Ann Richards Maroon and Blue school colors.  The actual starburst mural design was painted by Shawn's husband Griffin Mauser.  Many people comment on the welcoming enivronment in the library and I can personally attest to its high level of student use and activity.  

When I was researching library design for class and for my practicum in general--I found that pinterest was a great resource for researching and collecting images of library display and design ideas.  Many educators and librarians have shared their successful display concepts on pinterest and they appear to be easy to understand and implement.  Shawn seems to shy away from overt book display areas--integrating themes or holidays--but she always has a nice collection of interesting and highly acclaimed books on the top of the shelves.  Its invting and a great opportunity to grab students interest and spark curiosity in a good book.  

Another change or improvement in the library design and fuctionality is the addition of the iPad 1's to the library shelves.  Ms. Mellen, Shawn's clerk, was inspired to use the somewhat outdated and mostly useless iPads to serve as an onsite catalog resource on the shelves.  Now students searching for a book can turn to the iPad to look up authors or title names if they are having a hard time finding a resource on the shelves.  Its a great idea--easily implemented and very useful for students!  I've even used it myself many times!

Research

March 18, 2013

When I mentioned to Shawn that I really wanted to incorporate some more student interaction into my practicum experience she was immediately responsive and invited me to join her in meeting with the senior students as they did research on their inquiry projects.  This ongoing Senior Language Arts project is set to culminate with a term paper in just a few weeks.  While most of the seniors have much of their research and reading under their belts already, we were invited up to the classroom to do a check in with them on their resources for any part that they had yet to complete. 

When we arrived in Ms. Sokolo's classroom the students were getting some papers back and making a transition to working on their inquiry projects.  Ms. Sokolo did a great job of offering students a visual organizer for their progress on this journey.  Each student could clearly see what the expectations were and what was missing as they moved forward in their inquiry process.  Several students seemed to be missing one or two of the essays required.  Once I understood the parameters that the teacher wanted us to take into consideration (ie: an academic, popular or newspaper article on their topic), we went to assist students with finding these sources.

We used the EBSCO databases through the library website to access the articles.  Many of the topics seemed to fit well into the Psychology and Social Sciences databases.  So, we looked up topics.  As I did the searching, I talked through my process and asked the students questions.  What are you looking for?  What kind of information do you think you need to support your thesis?  What kind of perspective would be useful?  Together we came up with some search terms.  As we narrowed down the articles, I would point out the useful selection tools.  Our conversations went like this: "wow, 2,000 results, that seems high.  How can we narrow this down?  What if we look for just peer reviewed articles in journals.  Okay, great now its just 200.  Now what if we narrowed it to just the most recent results, like since 2010.  OKay, great!  10 results, that will make it much easier to sort."

The students were incredibly patient with me and they were very open to my suggestions.  I think we found some good things and I really enjoyed hearing about their inquiry projects.  Doing this kind of work will be so important for helping them to feel prepared for this kind of requirement when they reach college.  I hope they will remember how to do their own research--and most of all I hope they remember to go to the library and ask a librarian if they ever need help!

On My Own at the Library

Feb. 1st, 2013

Today both Shawn and Mellen were out of the library and I was on my own in the library!  Subbing at the library was great!  I had been thinking that I would like to develop more student interaction--but they already know to go straight to Ms. Mauser or Ms. Mellen when they have questions--so its been sometimes difficult to catch them to offer reader advisory or assist with any problems.  Today was my opportunity to see and be seen!  I tried to stay out in the circulation desk area during the busy morning before school and lunch times.  Students pretty much seemed to adhere to their regular in and out schedule, but I did notice it did seem quieter today. 

In the down times between student rushes--I was able to focus on a few administrative tasks.  Shawn had asked me to start a consideration list for her end of the school year book purchase.  She tends to purchase books throughout the year--but she is coming to the end of her allotted stipend from the Ann Richards foundation--so she is going to need to have a plan for the rest of that money this spring/summer.  Shawn told me her strategy for keeping track of consideration lists.  She tends to use two sources: 1. Permabound and 2. Follett.  Follett is particularly useful because they keep a list of the entire catalog on file and when you search for a title, it will tell you if you already own it.  Follett also offers an inventory analysis program which alerts you to the older titles in your collection and where you may want to spend time and funds rebuilding. 

My efforts today were to go through the School Library Journal and a few other library publications reading book reviews and establishing my list for consideration.  My default strategy was to include all of the recent award winners.  Also, knowing I had just weeded out the hard sciences, I searched for any recent publication that seemed like they might be topical or useful.  However, especially in this section, one may not want to invest too much money since they do tend to become obsolete much faster than other choices. 

 I had to note that most of the titles I searched on (especially award winners and other notable titles) were already in the Ann Richards inventory.  I have to say that Shawn has been an incredibly good steward of this library and she has curated a beautiful and very relevant collection for her student community.

Girl Start and Re-shelving

Feb. 26, 2013

Today the library was host to a team from Girl Start who came to instruct the students from sixth and seventh grade math classes on how to create video games.  There was a great deal of enthusiasm for this project among the students.  Though I was surprised by how few of the students actually admitted to playing video games in their spare time for fun.  As I was re-shelving books in the fiction section, I listened as the instructors walked the students through a plan for creating a video game--they had to think through all stages.  What would the game be able to do?  What would the moves be?  What would the consequences be for each of these moves and how would a player win/lose the game?  It was a great early introduction to both analytical concepts, planning and the fundamentals of basic computer programing.  At least from my perspective, it seemed to be a great success.  And once again, I was completely impressed with the maturity and respect that the students displayed for a new teacher and a special opportunity.  They are truly a special group of young women who are so fortunate to be in an environment that is nurturing them and teaching them so many important skills and character building traits.  I continue to be in awe of this community and the teachers, administrators and volunteers who support them!

Also, today the celebration horn blew to announce another student's college choice--one of the seniors had gotten into UT's Engineering program! 

www.girlstart.org