Short & Sweet

Last week, though shorter, seemed to be packed with just as much activity. Even though we are already well into the school year, I'm still tying up loose ends from last school year. One item that I was finally able to check off was cataloging and covering all of the new books from last Spring. New books on display always make me feel better!

With a feeling of satisfaction after finally completing one book order, I found myself scrambling to finalize another book order. With the addition of FollettShelf last year, another layer is added to the ordering process in first looking to see if a title is available in eBook format and then deciding if it is worth the money. Follett recently added a few more publishers to their deck, but there are monstrous variations in the pricing from one publisher to the next. The book order should arrive soon, which means there will be another stack of books to catalog and cover. One bright side to the eBook headache is that they are instantly available, cataloged, and don't have to be covered!

Speaking of cataloging, I'm in the process of re-cataloging the graphic novels, once again. With the Lower School collection now being in the same space as the rest of the collection it made sense to combine our 5th grade and up graphic novel collection with the Lower School's. Formerly, we signified this section with a green dot, but we will now be using "gn" for this section. We changed how we cataloged graphic novels a few years ago. We went from using the Dewey to using Graphic Novel (GN) or Upper School Graphic Novel (GNUS) first, then, the first three letters of the publisher, like DCC for DC Comics, and the first three letters of the title, like OWL for "Owly and Wormy." For example, the spine label may look like this:

 GN 

DCC

OWL

 The only exception would be if there is a main character, like superman. Since there is a more definite style from one graphic novel publisher to the next this has aided students in going straight to what they like and has also made it possible to keep series and characters together. 

Putting together a book review display kept my eyes from crossing due to all of the cataloging! In the coming year, I want to make the 5th and 6th graders feel more empowered to review books themselves. In the past, I have done book talks and regularly recommend books when classes come in for library day, but the students haven't done much, if any, recommending themselves. In sticking with our movie theme for the year, I put together a theater marque on which the students will then stick their book reviews. 

I purposely kept the sheet simple, so that it doesn't take long to fill out or read. 

If all goes well, I also want to introduce the kids to Novelist , so that they can read and write their own reviews online. This will help the kids to find books pertaining to specific topics and improve their writing. Also, knowing that people other than those at your school will be reading what you write ups the ante a bit.

Like I said, a lot happened in four days, but even the most tedious of tasks have their moments of contentment, making for an enjoyable ride overall.