It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.
GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.
Still slower than what used to be the usual by a long shot. #bookaday is now ...12 days away? Including weekends and PD.
Stuart Gibbs has some fun ideas for stories. In this one the main character is a kid living on the first manned base on the moon. Stuff happens. Now I need to catch up on the Spy School series. Seeing as how I'm pretty sure I have an E-ARC for at least one of them. And one was on the Bluebonnet list last year.
If you're not already a SW fan the Jeffrey Brown books will not make you one. You have to know at least something about the movies. But if you are a fan? THEY ARE GENIUS.
Tomorrow is the retirement celebration for my assistant of 10 years. I know. As mentioned I've been SERIOUSLY spoiled. She is great. If I've ever been thought of as being good at what I do ... it's because of her. Knowing she could keep all the day to day stuff going while I dreamed of bigger things for the kids has been a lifesaver. Next year = great big fat unknown. How do you big things and deal with the fact there are still 187 accounts with overdue books? Some, we've discovered, are actually on the shelf. But it takes a long time to verify all of them. Can't do that and teach at the same time. Many, many, many are sitting under beds or in dad's cars. Can't call all of them and teach at the same time. Which is the priority? I would have always said teaching but we've wanted some of these checked out and not returned books already.
The fiction section is jam packed with books sitting horizontally on top of books. That drives me insane. At least it's only at the end of the year.
Also ... hope you had a great (dry and twister free ... as so many places are NOT) Memorial Day. There are so many people to which we owe a huge debt of gratitude.
Oh yes, the end of the year overdue lists. We still have a couple more weeks of circulation and mine is sitting at around 450. It will get worse before it gets better. I know that some of them will be on the shelf, but 450 books is too many to start searching for. I'm hoping it is under 200 two weeks from now.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. At first I felt better but now I am curious. 187 STUDENTS is what I had (will run another batch tomorrow but I know we didn't get that many back today :P). I wonder what the actual number of items is. I shall see and report back! But yes. That takes TOO LONG to go looking. Our system doesn't print the call number on the report so if it's one I don't know first have to look that up, then go check the shelf. The list does need to go down!
DeleteI've had some luck with e mailing home, and I do get out overdue slips to the students, which seems to help and can be done early in the morning. Feel your pain. I lost my assistant 12 years ago-- I hope that you at least get another one, although it won't be the same. Loved Space Case. My copy walked away for a while, but thankfully came back!
ReplyDeleteDo you have easy access to parent emails? I have to bug teachers. They are not part of regular "mainframe" contact info. Much of the time those phone numbers are wrong anyway. The teacher may or may not have an updated number and if anyone has the email they will. Mornings have been the #maker time (still better than standing at the front door holding it open for 45 minutes ... was not super fond of that the first semester) but no more of that for the last two weeks.
DeleteA lot of my overdue books and lost books from the previous year are also on the shelf, but totally in the wrong spot! It's a fun chase. I'm a new librarian working in a very small rural school, and I don't have an assistant. Still trying to get my bearings in here! Thankfully, on the subject of overdue books, a lot of kids have even admitted they lost them and tried to pay right away! For that I am spoiled.
ReplyDeleteSo many don't have an assistant! I must stop feeling sorry for myself. It's just I will miss her. And she was super helpful. Shelves not in order. Sigh. "Can't you get the kids to help you put books away?" "Sure. But then we won't be able to find half of them again." Fiction and picture books they do fairly well. Yet to find a kid who managed non-fic very fast or for very long. To be honest even back when we had adult volunteers ... they had trouble keeping the fiction and everybody books separate! And juxtaposed Dewey numbers. I mean, we're all human and make mistakes. But when it's a volunteer that doesn't have to live with the results of the mistake "WHERE IS THAT BOOK?" then, well ... fatigue sets in. Good luck!
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