GIFSL: rearrange the furniture (encore edition) and Skerricks Live (well, sorta)

Hey, does that photo look vaguely familar?  You might have seen it here (GIFSL 11) - it's currently having an encore in issue 71 of the excellent Curriculum Corporation journal, Connections. 

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And if you don't go and follow that link and read issue 71, you are a great gaby (I've been rereading Georgette Heyer in the holidays and being reminded of some excellent historical colloquialisms) because there is some fine and brilliant reading there.

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Welcome back!  I hope you had a great holiday too.  Every holiday's a good holiday!

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS if you're interested in a Live Version of GIFSL and other treats from here, I'm speaking about such things and more at an ASLA NSW one-day conference Planning for 2010, in very fine company (June Wall, Ian McLean, Terry Bruce and Sharon McGuinness).  Click on the link to find out more - the location is in Sydney, less than an hour from the CBD.

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GIFSL* 42: : Trailer Time

So if you happen to have a screen, projector and computer available in the library....
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...and your office won't fit all the kids who want to see the trailers you're talking about... (as in, you have an office that ends up looking like a sixties-style-how-many-people-fit-in-my-Mini? plus multiple noses pressed to the glass...) when you're showing a trailer...(as I often do)...
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...why not have a trailerfest one lunchtime?

Here's the list of trailers I showed on Friday, in the second half of lunch (most of which I've mentioned previously on this blog) (and how curious that so many are related to books!):

Sherlock Holmes (books by Arthur Conan Doyle)
http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/4086/Sherlock-Holmes-Trailer-HD
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Fantastic Mr Fox (book by Roald Dahl)
http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/4784/Fantastic-Mr-Fox-Trailer-HD
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Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (books by Rick Riordan)

http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/4628/Percy-Jackson-and-The-Olympians-The-Lightning-Thief-Teaser-Trailer
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Where the Wild Things Are (book by Maurice Sendak)
http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/4894/Where-the-Wild-Things-Are-Full-Trailer-HD
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Alice in Wonderland (book by Lewis Carroll)

http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/4697/Alice-in-Wonderland-Teaser-Trailer-HD
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Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (books by Darren Shan)

http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/4882/Cirque-du-Freak-The-Vampires-Assistant-Trailer
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Twilight: New Moon (second trailer) (books by Stephenie Meyer)
http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/5011/The-Twilight-Saga-New-Moon-Trailer--Featurette-HD
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and a mashup: When Buffy [the vampire slayer] met Edward Cullen
http://www.rebelliouspixels.com/2009/buffy-vs-edward-twilight-remixed

Hints'n'tips:

• Have a list with links like this, so you're not hunting for them. 
• Open each link in a new browser tab, wait for each one to load/do its initial buffering, then press the Play arrow and then Pause.  Some won't start loading unless you press Play; you want them started so you don't have to wait while a trailer is buffering.
• Do this setup before lunch or lunch 1 (if you're showing them lunch 2, as I did) so you're ready to roll.
• I thought about popcorn - but wasn't sure if that would end happily for me or the cleaner, and then forgot to buy any in the morning, so this time it didn't happen (microwave popcorn).  (Of course, she says with a mean grin, I could always just zap some microwave popcorn for its sensory/olfactory impact, without actually offering any around...)
• Ratings: the list above generally reflects that I'm in a high school - primary schools may want to pick and choose to suit.  Generally, trailers are PG/suitable for all audiences (even if the final film has a tougher rating) so they can reach as wide an audience as possible.
• There are other teaser trailers and earlier trailers/other trailers for some of these films - I picked the ones I wanted to show.
• Next time I might take requests in advance and show a couple of those (vetting...).
• I did mention to the assembled crowd, while switching from one trailer to the next, the book connections of the trailers.  What cinema doesn't have advertising??
• The sound was up, of necessity: as of course you realise, one MUST comment throughout any trailer to one's friends.
• I'm not aware of any students whose work was disadvantaged by this; if any had needed a quieter section, we would have pointed them in the direction of the senior study upstairs (which has closing doors).  Mostly, our library lunchtimes are busy and not silent (keeping up to 150 kids silent for 50 minutes?  You need more than a credit card for that one - priceless!), but since this was an extra-loud treat, I figured, what the heck!
• Cost?  Nothing, as long as you have the equipment (as an increasing number of libraries do, or to which they have access) and take the time to set it up (and lookee, I had to invent my list and I've given it to you free!).

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If you have any other book-related trailers to suggest, suggest away!  These are almost all on Trailerspy, as this site doesn't usually have fanmade trailers (which are like rabbits to the power of ten on YouTube, even if you try to search to exclude them), and it may be unblocked where YouTube is blocked on some school systems.
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There are a lot of upcoming literary adaptations, though - I was surprised how many. This was another way to show the library as being a 'happening' place where good stuff goes on and it's fun to be.  It would have been impossible before the days of direct projectors or the internet etc - but now, there is fun to be had!  Certainly this also encourages reading of the books - kids will often ask for the book after seeing a trailer.
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Here's how it looked:

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As you can see, the layout of our library (and configuration of the light switches) lets this one area become dark (often useful in class time to focus attention on the big screen).  Before you think, well, MY library doesn't do that...we have a screen/tablet, not an interactive whiteboard, so the screen (electric, an idea I was so grateful to be able to borrow from Rooty Hill HS) is only down when in use (otherwise the back area is out of sight).  Now if I had an interactive whiteboard...hey, isn't that a great billboard opportunity?  We make what we can of what we have.

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The rather recognisable face on the screen is from the Buffy v. Edward mashup.  It was really fun for me to listen to the kids' assorted reactions to the various trailers (and you will see I neatly accommodated both Twilight lovers and Twilight haters!).

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I didn't advertise this madly, as it was a test run.  Numbers grew by word of mouth over a couple of days as I mentioned it to regulars, and grew through the lunchtime.  Next time I'll use the library door noticeboard and maybe email to kids about it (ie. rewarding those who either visit the library or read their school email).  If we have student Sharepoint up by then (it's in the works), I will have a Library section there which I could use too.

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As the kids were leaving the library, my school assistant tells me that lots were talking very happily about this, as being cool and fun and great and good.  Hurrah!  Think I'll keep it as a treat a couple of times a term, though, so it doesn't lose novelty value (and there are enough new trailers to show).  Since many films nowadays have more than one trailer (eg. Twilight had a teaser and two subsequent official trailers) you can use the same film/different trailer to fill out your list.

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What do you think? - do leave a comment!  Could you try this in your library?  (Ask around the school for a a direct projector and a screen you could borrow, if you don't have these or an interactive whiteboard in your library).

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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS.  Since 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything**...I'm not sure that this GIFSL (am I really up to 42 of them???) is that answer.  But by golly it was fun to do, for the library staff as well as the kids.  Everybody happy!

*GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries
** as is known to readers of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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GIFSL* 61: Cheap Bookmarks Week (Tuesday)

Before you cry, "VANDAL!" let me point out that this hardback copy of Harry Potter fell to bits after being loved to death by our library borrowers.  Pages falling out all over, irreparable.  But not useless.  Oh dear me no.  Because every left hand page of the book has the header, "Harry Potter".  The pages are a reasonable weight of paper.  And the knowledge of Harry Potter among children is extensive.  And J.K. Rowling created with these books a world and vocabulary that is highly recognisable.  Character names, spell words, place names and more.

So if you take a page with Harry Potter as its header, and slice down either side to a bookmarky sort of size, you'll get, pretty much every time, some bit of recognisable vocab on the page (as well as the Harry Potter cue at the top).  Lupin.  Hogwarts.  butterbeer.  Expelliarmus.  And you will also get a bookmark that kids like and which hasn't cost you a bean.

And there are lots and lots of pages in Harry Potter books, so you have lots and lots of bookmarks which you can share generously and without a qualm.  It's recycling and it's useful and fun.

Tune in tomorrow for another cheap bookmark idea!

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries, an ongoing series on this blog.

GIFSL* 51: take photos (with an added bonus: Skerricks: all singing, all dancing live version!)

(Actually, I lie.  No singing, no dancing.)  But it's lovely to have received some invitations to speak at teacher librarian meetings and conferences about re-imagining/enhancing/sprucing your school library.  So if you're going to the Sydney TL conference in Leichhardt in March, the Northern Sydney TL conference in Terrey Hills in March or MANTLE (website will show the 2010 program soon) in Newcastle in May, it will be lovely to meet you.

One of those looked like it might have to be done using the Connected Classrooms videoconferencing and Bridgit, so I would have been at my own school but beamed on a telly with my presentation on a whiteboard at the meeting venue.  Circumstances altered and I'll be able to attend in person, but I'm thinking I'd like to add being able to do that to my skillset.  Always good to learn something new!

I spoke at two conferences last year,  ASLA (NSW) and Western Sydney TL - they were fairly close together in time, so I didn't tweak my presentation enormously between the two (although I did tweak it - there's always something to make better/more effective). It was great to get the positive feedback and know my contribution had been useful.  This week, looking over the presentation (I don't have notes, the PowerPoint is my prompt as I find that more interesting, less 'rote' and besides, like lots of teachers, you switch me on, I talk... and I enjoy public speaking), I can see plenty of room for more tweaking/changing, even though it's only a few months down the track.  New things we've tried.  Improvements to the library.  More goodness to share!

I cannot encourage you enough to take photos of your library.  At least once a term, or more often if you change something (as we do with our foyer/entrance area).  Not only to record what you've done, but also to remind you of the evolution of your library, to see what's better than it was before.  I just wish I'd photographed my current school library when I walked into it first ten years ago, so I could have those photos to compare with how it looks now. 

One of the ways in which this blog has been really useful to me is the way in which providing illustrations for it has made me fish out my camera more often than I might otherwise have done, to catch 'before' shots as well as 'after'.  The camera's lens, and the reality of a photograph, can help see more clearly what one likes and what one would like to change/improve/develop. I've only got to look at the renovation of the library entrance (several entries from May 2009 on the blog illustrate this - use the archives over on the right) for just one example.

Other ways to use photographs (hurrah for the digital camera) include our framed row of student readers and (which used some of those photos again, as well as others taken at lunchtimes etc) our Christmas tree.

Cheers

Ruth


*GIFSL: good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* no. 52. DIY CD case wall art

From (US) Country Living magazine's look at the Photojojo book, here's an idea to play with.  This link will tell you exactly how to make a collage like the one pictured (and who says it has to be all one photo? and aren't there lots of library-related image possibilities?  oooo yes.). 

The Photojojo site has lots more (free) ideas for playing with photos, and plenty of scope for teacher librarians looking to make their libraries more interesting/engaging/fun.  And once you have your CD cases in place, who says the artwork has to stay the same?

All you need is a little time and some simple items: CD cases, photo paper and cardboard.  Nothing expensive there.

Photos of book covers?  Kids?  Kids reading?  Lots of possibilities...

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* 60: Cheap Bookmarks Week (Monday)

We hand out a bookmark with every student loan at our library, for all sorts of reasons.  Because kids like to know what page they're on.  To make it easy for students to know what page they're on without bending book corners (to make it easy for them to do the right thing).  As a freebie.  As a promotional item promoting the library and our current theme.  Because we can.

If you follow the tag for bookmarks on this blog, you'll find a bunch of the ones we've made using Publisher and coloured cardboard (click here or over on the tag cloud on the right on the word 'bookmarks').

With a limited budget (but a confetti-style approach to bookmarks) I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive and clever ways to create fun bookmarks.  By and large, I don't go for laminated-precious, but ones we can hand out with generosity and enthusiasm: so they need to be inexpensive.

One thing we're about in the library is facts and information.  So, get yourself one of these:

...which isn't a tricky find in an op shop/garage sale for a couple of dollars.  Study the pages:

and realise that the column widths line up on either side of the page (in this edition: check if you have a different year's edition).  A bit of guillotine work slicing along the space between the columns and you have hundreds of bookmarks for less than five dollars.  Bargain!  Fun facts and information which the kids enjoy (and which can be tied into a wider library promotional theme if you wish).  The columns lining up means you can read front and back, and if a pic gets sliced, oh well - read the current entry in the current copy of the Guinness Book of Records, waiting for you at your school library!

Here's another facty-book find with equally good potential:

That one cost me a whole four dollars at an op shop.  Thick and full of bookmark potential, hundreds more for very little money.


Tune in tomorrow for another cheap bookmark idea. 

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries

GIFSL*: 21. Tree

Taking a break from the break, I wanted to let you know about this idea, since some of you may want to pootle out and invest yourself.  But I'm really on holidays.  Except when TL-brain kicks in with an idea.
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I'm sure you're familiar with Christmas trees.  We have a library Christmas tree (see some pictures here).
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The Tree is something that homewares shops and decorating magazines have been, I've been noticing, extending to other seasonal celebrations.  Halloween, for example.  Black tabletop trees can be found.  Easter decorating isn't something I've seen in a lot of homes, but the shops are working on us... Maybe it's a tad more difficult in our southern hemisphere, where Easter doesn't arrive with spring and relief from winter, but instead finds us grateful for the relief from summer heat, and the arrival of autumn (fall) (not everyone agrees with me, but spring and autumn are my favourte seasons).  Nevertheless, the iconography of bunnies and chicks and eggs is still around, and some shops sell Easter decorations.
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Including this tree.
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Which I thought very promising. 

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I'm all for multiple-use decorating.  If you've read this blog for a little while, you'll notice that the dark brown bookcase in the foyer lends itself to multiple-uses.  Likewise, although this tree may be sold as being for Easter decorating, it's not specifically Easterish, in its native state.  Is it?  So it could be used for all sorts of things, couldn't it?  I've seen these around at Christmas time too, but not one this size.  It's approximately  100cm/38in tall by 70cm/26in wide. Big enough to have some impact in a school library, where small decorations can look dwarfed by the scale of the space.  And it's flat, so it can fit on the table behind the borrowing desk.

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Right now, I haven't done anything but buy one, because they're 50% off at Bed Bath 'N' Table, now $50 (they were $99.95).  Before you faint, consider the price of a laminated poster (often $25).  And think how you could use this tree in a multitude of ways throughout the year; and how you could decorate it in ways that involve imagination and available resources rather than money.  Lots of possibilities.

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So this is your heads-up.  The BBNT chain doesn't have a web site or online ordering; I don't know how long their 50% off Easter decorations will last; in fact, I know nuffin more.  But I'm sure this tree will feature on this blog, and wanted to show it now in case anyone else might like to buy one (and no, I have no shares in BBNT!).  If you want to find a store near you, try http://www.whitepages.com.au/.

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Cheers, Ruth

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*GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries
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GIFSL* 58: Enchantment and your school library

@brainpicker on Twitter, and the associated blog Brain Pickings, provide a constant supply of inspiration and ideas on a huge range of topics.  Not narrowcast "teacher librarian-focused stuff", but all sorts of things from left field and out there and what about?, and hey, here's something to think about.  I love foraging among the wider world to bring back good things to inform my teaching (eg. this blog! - see the intro reference to a flypaper mind).

Take this infographic from a recently published business book, Enchantment: the art of changing hearts, minds and actions, by Guy Kawasaki.  Not something I've tripped over in education circles, but a great lens to use in thinking about our business as teacher librarians, promoting our libraries and their services.

Read the whole blog entry on Brain Pickings here, including links to an enchantment aptitude test, an interview with the author, and more. 

As school library staffing is being challenged, our work as teacher librarians evaluated, the ill-informed happy to spout that 'it's all on the internet now' and so forth, this infographic is, to me, valuable professional reflection for considering what I do and why and how, and how I can do it better.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL: good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL*: 24. World Time Clocks

A long time ago, when the world was young, somewhere I saw the idea for having some clocks in the library with world time on them.  So I bought some inexpensive clocks, and they went up on the wall - they've been there for several years.  When we painted the internal foyer, the clocks went back up on the wall.

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The places underneath vary, we change them from time to time.  The basic plan is to have a place from North or South America, one from Europe, and one from Asia, to show the variation in time around the globe.  It's a bit geography, a bit world citizen, a bit, something to see in the library.  Opposite these is the library clock with OUR time on it.  We've had some interesting conversations about day/night and times in places, with the kids.

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Recently, at Lisa's high school library, I saw her take on this.  She'd seen ours, and went back to her library with her own spin on the idea, including this:

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Lisa added a map, and the time difference.  Clever!  It's great to watch an idea evolving, as people pick it up and make it their own.  Ian's done the clock thing too, in his primary school library - read more on his blog here.

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What you need: three clocks (or more) - and they don't need to cost much, Ikea or two dollar shops or discount department stores have them for under $10 each.  Some idea of the places you're going to highlight.  Batteries.  Oh, and a memory, so you change the time when daylight saving starts/finishes, if you have daylight saving in your part of the world... There are plenty of easy world time websites to check for correct times.

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Cheers, Ruth

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GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries
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GIFSL*: 36. Stats are your friend (2)

Now you've had some fun with maths and a calculator, here's another easy library stat to keep an eye on.  In my library's OASIS library software, I can see each week's total number of loans.  I can see the daily ones, too, but they can vary due to assorted things.  But keep an eye on the weekly number.  What was it at the same time last year?  Same? More? Less? 

I also compare the same term from last year with this year's term - the total number of loans, and the weekly average.  Without in any way having a robotic enslavement to stats, it's motivating to know how things are going.  To be encouraged to keep going, when they're going well.  To be inspired to do better, when they're maybe down a little.

You can also check the impact of specific programs - the first couple of days of holiday borrowing usually produce a spike, and the last two weeks of term when we promote holiday borrowing usually have elevated figures compared to other weeks during that term.

This is by no means the only measure of your library's success; but it's a useful tool, for sure and certain.  The stats I've mentioned here and in the previous entry are relatively basic ones, and library software should yield these to you without too much trouble.  In OASIS Library (as found in NSW DET schools) I get this info from B2 (Circulation) then M1.

Again, if I was sharing these figures, I'd be inclined to % them rather than talking raw numbers, as that can be clearer (or less likely to be misinterpreted).  But these are ones I mostly just check for my own knowledge of our progress, our 'sales'.

Cheers, Ruth

*GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries

GIFSL*: 22. Cupcake diplomacy

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At the end of last term, I scooted around the school staffrooms one recess, and gave every teacher who wore a Holiday Borrowing badge a special thankyou bookmark (for their holiday reading) and an Easter cupcake.  Not that I'm being mean to the colleagues who didn't wear a badge, and I'm sure there are lots of reasons why they didn't get their info to me, but hey, teachers like being fed a free cupcake, don't they? So maybe fingers crossed I'll have even more takers next time I solicit participation in holiday borrowing, or another library program?

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Now stop saying you can't cook, or you don't have time.  Took an hour or two to make and ice them, tops, and this is easy easy cookery.

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What you need: Green's Really Good Chocolate Cake mix (this is fast work, OK, but this mix doesn't taste 'packet') and the ingredients it asks you to add. ECONOSECRET: I make them using little muffin tins and little muffin/cupcake paper cases, so there's a nice mouthful in each one and I get lots of cupcakes made: this time, with this mix, it made around 50.  The icing mix is in the packet too, and I added the eggs on top from an Aldi baglet.  I cooked them for 10-15 min (depends on your oven) - the mix is for one big two-layer cake, but fifty cupcakes served my purposes nicely.  And my colleagues liked them (you made them?!), and felt appreciated, and it cost me under $10 (maybe 15c per thankyou).  Cheap as cupcakes! (well, not if you buy them commercially).

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Cupcake diplomacy.  I had a few left over which were deployed in other useful thankyou ways.

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Cheers, Ruth

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*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* 48: Valentine's Day 2010

I know, I'm sorry, too late for you, but hey, bookmark this or bung it in your Delicious list or save it in your reader, and you can use it next year.  And the year after...

Valentine's Day is a convenient starting 'theme' for the school year - being nice to others, in the most general sense, combined with 'love reading'.

We had bookmarks, featuring the prose I wrote last year (read it here).  Cardboard colour choices? Pink and red.  A bookmark for every borrower, library PR, useful for the borrower and summat for nuffink that the kids appreciate.

We unpacked last year's Valentine banners (featuring a quirky fabric marrying hearts and skulls, just the thing to appeal to teenage taste).  Read all about how to make them here.

Note the bookcase selection: pinks and reds and a few purples, and while the pinks give it a girly cast (there are not a lot of uber-boy books with pink spines) the reds mix it up so there's something for every browser/reader/borrower.  Books picked on a colour theme can be rather handy at helping the kids find books they might not have found before, too.  Apart from the obvious purty factor.

Hey, did you notice something else on which I have not yet commented?  Up in the air...

Ah, God bless Ikea's little cotton socks for having a heart theme for Christmas 2009.  These wooden hearts, sold two to a pack, were severely reduced after Christmas and I snaffled them up.  Perfect for Valentine's Day; and their scale good for this purpose, as they don't get lost.  It's awfully worthwhile checking our holiday decorations after the event and seeing if there are bargains to be had that can be deployed in your school library.

If you wanted to do something similar, you could try heavyweight cardboard, painted, or even balsa wood cut to shape and painted.  Neither one immensely difficult nor immensely expensive.

I'm also very grateful that, while we have a high ceiling through most of the library, we do have lowish ones in the small foyer area, which allows us to do things such as hanging these hearts.

What did the kids think?  Cool, miss.

It was a nice mood and way to start what's proving to be a hectic, busy, cheerful year.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL*: 32. Thrillers (sizzle marketing)

One of the great challenges of a library, as opposed to a bookshop, is that you generally only have a single copy of a book to 'sell'.  So you do a GREAT job on persuading a student that Book X is worth reading, and the student borrows it... and you have to start again with Book Y for the next student.
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So when promoting books, 'sizzle' becomes important.  An approach that can be adapted to a wider range of authors or titles, so when Book X is borrowed, there are other options around.
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I've been experimenting with 'sizzle marketing' this year.  One of the recent experiments was Thrillers.  Narrowly defined, Thrillers could just mean Ludlumish books.  I went hunting for definitions of thrillers, and burgled out the bits I liked, deciding that Thrillers were books with thrills/excitement/adventure, and by gosh and by golly,what school library doesn't have books falling within these generous parameters?
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Using a thrilling colour scheme of yellow and red, (easily found in standard school cardboard) we had a header on our foyer bookcase:
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...and extracts from the quotes I found on the noticeboard behind the borrowing desk:
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And bookmarks based on these quotes, using yellow and red cardboard.  I also had a plan for a banner, but time and other commitments defeated that plan, this time round.
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There wasn't an especial spike in lending, but the purpose of this isn't the spike anyway.  We had something else on the noticeboard/bookcase/bookmarks before this, and something else after, and the regular changing of the guard on these is a signal that our library is a place where things are evolving, not static, where there's something new to see, something new to find or discover.  Subliminal sizzle, as well as more overt marketing.
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What do you need?
The yellow and red cardboard are standard school colours, nothing special.  Some of the more unusual fonts came from Scrapvillage.  The quotes (formatting is my own) from assorted googling.  Bookmarks were my usual 2x4 grid using Microsoft Publisher.  If you're on the nswtl email list, I sent a copy of the file for the bookmarks and the file for the posters (with my school name removed) to the list a week or two ago.  The bookcase header letters are laminated, and behind them you'll find nothing fancier than a metal bookend.
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Cheers, Ruth
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What are your ideas for marketing the sizzle?  Do leave a comment!
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*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries
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GIFSL* 62: Cheap Bookmarks Week (Wednesday)

From an op shop/charity shop/garage sale, find the right sort of dictionary, with pages of reasonably thick paper, and a size of book/column width that lends itself to bookmarks:

...like this one, and you have hundreds of bookmarks for a few dollars.  Just some slicing with the guillotine.  (Or do you have a suitable dictionary that is overdue for being culled?)

Libraries Define Your World:
there's a theme you could tie in with it.  I think definitions have a lot of scope for use for display purposes in libraries.  A department store book section featured this, in big print, high on the wall:

And they used definitions on their lampshades:

There's an idea worth adapting/borrowing: how could you use definition decor in your library?  Think of the rich (and amusing) words you could define.  Not just Book, or Reading.  Student.  Work.  Study.  Learn.  Adventure.  Discover.... lots of potential there, isn't there?

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries, an ongoing series on this blog.

GIFSL* 21: Tree (revisited)

In GIFSL (good ideas for school libraries) 21 I mentioned this tree:

I bought one last year (after Easter, on special) for the school library, and it's since graced the table outside my office full of face-up borrow-me impulse-grabbing books.  It's had various things hung on it over that time - bats at Halloween, laminated fabric motifs, book cover and so forth, depending on our themes (with banners/bookmarks).  In fashion parlance, its 'cost-per-wear' has been worth the purchase; it provides a focal point on a table I deliberately keep a tad untidy, so kids don't feel, by browsing, that they're disturbing a neat-and-do-not-touch display.

Bed Bath N Table, the shop from which it came, has three white tree options this Easter.  None are dirt cheap, but I'd point out that one of the attractions of these is their scale/size - they don't get dwarfed in the context of a library.  The above tree is $99.  About the same height, but 3D/in the round is this one:

I don't think I have a spot for it in my library, but it certainly has potential.  Smaller, but not small, is this one at $129:

As I said in my original piece, these aren't specifically Easter - you can tweak the themes to suit yourself.  They do only seem to be on sale (in these larger sizes) at Easter.  So you can buy now and secure one, or wait till the after-Easter discounts and potentially miss out (last year I gambled and won, but it's always a gamble!).

Bed Bath N Table is a chain of shops, but unfortunately they don't have a website/online store.  The shops can order stock in from other shops, though.

No affils or suspect brown paper bags with apple pies or crisp banknotes: we've been happy with ours, and so I thought I'd give you a heads-up, when I saw them again.  Photos taken with permission.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 44: : Duchamp seating for the masses...

Did you know that the artist Marcel Duchamp spent some of his working life as a librarian?  And that his 'readymade' work of art, Fountain, has (as more than one art teacher commented) a counterpart (homage? echo?) in my office?

No, not an exact replica.  Sheesh.  But this:

...is part of my office furniture that gets regular use.  I own these - bought them over time from op shops, junk shops, garage sales, wherever.  While I have a chair in my office for visitors, I quickly learned that you only need three or five kids telling you things and wanting to talk about cabbages and kings, or schoolwork, or the outrage of Disney buying Marvel, or whatever, to know that standard size chairs aren't the answer.  With these, my small office can seat five extra kids - and when they're not in use, the stools are Duchamped from the overhead beam.  Practical Art! (I'm happy to acknowledge that it was one of my school assistants who had the inspiration of hanging these up).

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I know not every teacher librarian has an office - but I do know that my glass box at the library entrance has become part of how I teach and work.  Can't count the number of times every day, every week, throughout the year, that I have conversations here, hunt things on the computer here, think through projects, advise, listen, offer tissues, dispense advice, dispense discipline, solve problems, encourage, mentor.... door open, door closed (sometimes it's so valuable to be able to close the door).  

I have a few oddities hung on the wall, too, personalising the space and providing conversation starters with kids and staff.  Sadly, I'm given to lying about them (yup, that old photo is Great Aunt Grace...).  Maybe one day I'll tell you about the photo that's part of the biggest lie - I've had a LOT of fun with that (and so have the kids who've worked it out and then participated in its perpetuation...!!)

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It's part of our work, though, isn't it?  The daily meeting and greeting and listening and engaging in lots of small ways, sometimes educational, sometimes welfare, often both.  Those mismatched stools earn their keep.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good Ideas for School Libraries

GIFSL*: 35. The library is not a Café , but...

It actually happened kinda sorta as an accident.  Last period one afternoon a fortnight, a slightly bolshie Year 9 English class come in for their regular 'wide reading' period.  We're training them, their teacher and I, and fortnight by fortnight you can see them settle into what's expected, and find it (unexpectedly to some?) a pleasure.  Most of them now arrive with a book in hand; for those who don't, I've put out a tempting array, cover-up, on the tables in fiction (this usually ends up, like birdseed, looking like it's caught the attention of at least some of the birds... ha!).

So one of those afternoons, I made a cup of coffee for the teacher, who rather needed it, and a couple of the kids said, what about US, miss? and then I said, well, what if we have a draw and I'll make a cup of hot chocolate for one lucky student...

Couple of things, here.  First, our standard library rule is, for all the obvious reasons, no food or drink in the library (we make exceptions for bottled water on 40deg+ days in summer) - to deter vermin, prevent damage to books etc.  BUT sometimes breaking a rule (one cup of hot chocolate probably won't do major damage) can have useful power and impact.  Second, leverage your advantages. I have boiling water, a foam/china cup, a sachet of hot chocolate from my private stash.  Nothing tricky there, for me.  But to a kid, last period of the day, to find yourself with a cup of hot chocolate?  Lottery win!

Lottery was what we did.  The refinement is that not every student gets an entry slip in the draw for the cup of hot chocolate - their teacher wanders the group (scattered around fiction upstairs and filling up the reading retreat on the mezzanine) with slips, handing them out when a student is reading.  And hey, most of them got an entry form.  So then we did the draw, and I made the hot chocolate, and that student settled back with their book, the mug and the biggest grin....

Now each period they come in, books in hand, and ask about the draw.  For a simple idea, it's working rather nicely.  Today, their teacher brought a box of sachets and more than one kid scored a foam cup of hot chocolate.  And nobody spilled any of them, and all of them come to the library with happy anticipation, and they read as they didn't before, and it's another step for them, and a success for them and for us.  It's good.  It's not happening for every wide reading class in the library, but with this group (and the teacher's other regular group) it's become a 'tradition' and one of the reasons they look forward to coming to the library (hurrah!).  Hot chocolate diplomacy!

I wrote this, as a throwaway line, in an email, describing the library yesterday afternoon, and got asked what I meant by the draw...

Year 9 are curled up on the soft chairs and floor cushions, reading (most of the time) ... and we're about to draw the One Year 9 Student Who Was Reading ALL The Time Gets A Hot Chocolate And Makes All The Others Jealous winner.

.. so now you know.  Floor cushions, you say?  What floor cushions?  I know, I haven't told you about them.  Next week, OK? 

Cheers, Ruth

*GIFSL = Good Ideas for School Libraries

GIFSL* 31: To cull is not to lose

A couple of years ago I went through the fiction section and culled.  My goal, on that particular occasion, was to fish out the classics which were making the shelves look old and tired.  I wasn't sure, then, whether to keep or toss (I lean more towards hoarding, in general terms, so this is sometimes harder for me than it may be for you, dear reader, if you are and I mean this in the nicest possible way a tosser).  So I reclassified these as "Fiction Classics".  They stayed in the collection, but housed in our back room, so borrowers had to ask for them.  I figured that a year or two would give a sense of what was likely to get trade, and what was not.


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Isn't that in inspiring collection?  Not?
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So over the last couple of years, a few of these have been reclassified back into Fiction, and have gone back to the ordinary fiction shelves - Alice in Wonderland is one example, probably driven to some extent by interest in the upcoming Tim Burton film (Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter...).  I bought a new Pride and Prejudice, since the ones from here were all ratty.  Ditto Wuthering Heights.  Ditto Jane Eyre. Ditto a few others, redeemed for various reasons. 
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Nobody has come hunting for Dostoyevsky.  Or Hesse.  Or Xavier Herbert.  (I can name you the only student I know who read Dostoyevsky, and she did her HSC five or six years ago).  I don't quite know why some of these were acquired in the first place - unrefusable donations, perhaps?
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So now the time has come, and the Fiction Classics are being reviewed.  A half dozen or so have been selected for redemption, but most have been disposed of.  They aren't being used.  They aren't appealing editions (for some, the spines are unreadable).
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To cull, though, is not necessarily to lose.  For all the material here that is out of copyright (most of it), it won't be inaccessible to our students.  There are plenty of e-book libraries online where these can be obtained, in a format readable on a computer - eg. web page, or pdf.  E-reader not required.  A whole class can access the one book, so it's more than the physical printed books we had here could do.
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Certainly, the copyright material isn't so readily available; but if it's not being used now, and hasn't found friends for years, how strong is the library-as-depository argument anyway?  We can't keep everything.  Taking this material off the shelves has made room for, and showcased, a lot of other books which have been finding friends and encouraging our students to read and borrow.  They may not be reading Xavier Herbert, but they are reading Scott Westerfeld.  And finding books they want to borrow more easily, without these dreary-looking books.
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Local libraries offer access to interlibrary loans, if copyright material is needed.  Our role has changed, with the opportunities the internet offers, from what we thought we oughta or needed to do, twenty years ago.  So these books are now culled, but to cull doesn't mean to lose.  Now we have a responsibility to make our students aware of the other possibilities to support the collections we keep - like e-book libraries.  More on them later.
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Cheers, Ruth
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*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries

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GIFSL*: 23. Noticeboard

We have a noticeboard behind the borrowing desk.  It used to look like this:

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...which, as I realised after listening to Kevin Hennah's presentation last year, was all about us, the library staff.  Rosters, timetables, phone numbers, calendar (TWO calendars), the odd funny picture.  A couple of kid-related items - how many things you can borrow and how long for.  But, by and large, an opportunity wasted.

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So we took pretty much all of that stuff off the noticeboard.  The rosters etc went into a folder we keep at the borrowing desk, easy to consult.
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I didn't want just one thing on the board - our school name, or some such.  This, like our bookcase, is a chance to promote various things to the students through the year, sell sizzle, encourage borrowing/reading/library use and so forth.  Every few weeks, it changes, the refreshing of its contents a reflection of the fact that the library isn't a static place.

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So here are a couple of more recent views of the noticeboard behind the borrowing desk:
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This is fairly plain vanilla - I only had one Harmony Day poster.  But that, plus the local library's promotional posters for Youth Week, represent things relevant to our kids. 

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We have left several items on the board as standard: on the left, our 'wish for the year' and just one calendar (checked each day as we turn over the date due stamps).  On the right, and on a standard proforma, standard teal coloured paper, the notices about how many books can be borrowed, and for how long, and our laminating rates.  And we did put our exterior paint colour chips up there, as we were dreaming...

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This is the noticeboard when holiday borrowing was on.  The pictures are from a recycled calendar, and the bookmarks and prizes (toothbrush/eggs) part of our prize draw.  Having them up there prompted questions and engaged the kids.  We plan to reuse the holiday borrowing poster (and the bookcase header I've blogged about before) when holiday borrowing comes around again.  For one, why reinvent a rather nice looking wheel, and for two, the return will be recognised as a signal of holiday borrowing by the kids.  Maximum effect for less effort!
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There will be more pictures of the noticeboard here as time goes on, but for now, why not see what your library noticeboards say?  What they contain, and how else you could organise them?  Doesn't have to be costly, not at all.  It's more about thinking, and looking at what you have with fresh eyes.  Like it or not (as I realised when I looked at our noticeboard before changing it) it's one of the messages you're sending about the library and its priorities.
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Cheers, Ruth
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*GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries

GIFSL* 64: Cheap Bookmark Week (Friday)

This is one of my favourite ideas.  It taps into libraries as places with facts and information: facts and information can can be fun and light as well as heavy.  It offers the opportunity for some fun interaction when you hand over the book and bookmark.  It recycles something you can find in op shops on a reasonably regular basis.

See that price tag?  $4.  The most I've paid for a box of Trivial Pursuit is $6.  And what's inside?

No, they're not question cards, they're bookmarks!  Lots and lots of them!  No guillotine work today, just some fun to be had.

It's probably a slightly pricier idea than some of the other ones from this week, but here's a comparison.  A commercial library supplier I checked had quite a few bookmarks which came in bundles of 200 bookmarks for $40.  In this box of Trivial Pursuit I got 200 bookmarks for $4.  A tenth of the price.  Still cheap as chips, and fun! (This idea is part of my presentation about Re-Imagining your School Library: I've presented it in Newcastle and south-western Sydney in the last month, so I know there are TLs in those areas scouring their op shops and garage sales for Trivial Pursuit!)

Links in again with a theme of the library being a place where you find facts and information (and fun, the unexpected, a happy moment) - oh, there are lots of ways you could tie this in to a wider promotional theme.

Hope you've enjoyed the Cheap Bookmark Week ideas on the blog this week - do comment, your feedback is always appreciated.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries, an ongoing series on this blog.