Category Archives: Miscellaneous

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on a challenging situation.

As I titled my post, I realized that in libraryland that actually has two meanings. Yes, there are challenges working with students, teachers, budgets, and purchasing decisions, but there’s also the literal challenge that librarians (and teachers) face when stocking their shelves or picking a class read. I’m choosing to focus on the former, but wanted to recognize that the latter is just as important to discuss.

I’d like to focus on student interactions and challenges I’ve faced over the last ten years in the high school library. Part of it also comes from the immensity of our district and therefore high school. While we have two additional campuses that focus on vocations and one as an alternate setting, our campus still receives 2,500 students daily. And while we see approximately 40-70 students per period, we still don’t interact regularly with all of the student body. Yes, there are the heavy users that we do know well, but there are others where we may only meet them once while instructing a class or on their own when they need a printer, a textbook, or a book for class.

I constantly remind myself of Doug Johnson’s quote that the goal of the library is to get back the reader, not the book. This is valuable advice when you don’t know the student’s history personally and academically. So each interaction must be caring but firm, helpful but educational. We have procedures to make coming and going uniform and for some first-time students this may be frustrating, but it is necessary. Likewise, we’re in the business of helping, but we’re also there to teach. This also can be frustrating when students want it done for them.

So the challenge is to provide the best customer service which includes a positive attitude. I am occasionally guilty of letting negativity get in the way, but I always want to remember what the ultimate goal is. I’m one librarian who represents the dozens they might meet over a lifetime or be the first one they’ve met in the hopes that they’ll return to our library and their own college and public library, so that focus should always be on winning back the user and gaining their trust.

In a few months, I will celebrate ten years working as a high school librarian. Excitingly, I’ve spent them all in the same high school library. Whoever I speak to, whether it’s my colleague daily or a community member, it’s readily apparent from my excitability and speed-talking that my favorite part of librarianship is readers advisory. The days I leave the library feeling most accomplished are the ones where I’ve spent the most time connecting students with books, talking about books, or reading (yes, we have created READ days where the only job of the visitor is to sit and read. We provide the hot chocolate and the modeling, so in between filling the urns, we’re reading too).

This past Friday I spent the day at our alternative learning center, a smaller environment for students in transition or that need something different than a large school of 2,500 students. Invited by the English teacher, she was embarking on an independent reading project and needed some expertise. I packed up three large boxes of fiction and nonfiction in all kinds of formats and including all types, some in multiples knowing that they’d be a hit. And I spent the entire day connecting with the class and then individually with each student. They “tasted” the books in a particular genre or format and maybe even one that I slipped in for good measure outside of their usual box. And what I left with was an amazing sense of pride in what I do and why I do it and a few new library lovers based on our positive interaction and the care I took in listening to what they liked and sharing passionately what I liked.

Days like those are why I go to work all day and why I read voraciously outside of work. But it’s not enough to just have the knowledge, it’s necessary to have passion behind it. Because that passion translates to trust. I’ve had students where I would check out a book I knew they would love and casually walk by them slipping it into their bag without another word. I’ve had students who brought other students in who would have never come on their own because “she knows books”. And all of the students in between, including the group of seniors I wrote about in June of last year. They are why I love my job and do what I do.

This post originally appeared on the Times Union books blog here.

Along with the resolutions and changed habits that come with a new year come feeds pushing challenges to read a certain number of books for the upcoming year. And while I  enjoy seeing the “year in books” Goodreads sends me as an avid user of the site, I will not be entering their reading challenge. Nor will I print out and complete a Bingo-style reading chart, promise to read a certain amount of classics, or read a book a day. Why? Because I like to have some control over my reading habits, sometimes my brain can’t wrap itself around Charles Dickens, and there are days I might read two books.

Frankly, life happens. And no one should have to feel bad about that. There are weeks where I stare longingly at my neglected books when family obligations override reading. I will even continue to request books knowing that eventually a particularly beautiful summer day (or a snowstorm as is the current situation here in upstate New York) will come along and I can tear through three.

Plus, I am a firm believer in following your interests. I didn’t read nonfiction until seven years ago. Now I can’t get enough. Luckily, book police do not come to your house if you have read fifty-nine self-help books and plan to read a sixtieth. Ultimately, making time to read and feeling content with the time you do dedicate to it is what matters.
A reading challenge could motivate the light- or non-reader to think about their reading choices and keep them honest about trying new books. Likewise, the same challenge might prompt a dedicated reader to have some fun. Me? I ride the wave of recommendations, reviews, bookstore visits, and deliveries to our library in shaping my TBR pile and I’m comfortable with that.

So, if you are a serial book challenge taker, what is your reason? And if you’re not, why not?

One of my favorite quotes circulating on Facebook and Pinterest right now being put on coffee mugs and t-shirts is

a day without reading is like… just kidding, I have no idea.

And that essentially sums up my reading life. I tend to read a little bit every day, if not an entire book, then a good chunk of one, with more at the ready. Sometimes it’s a graphic novel at lunch at work and sometimes it is a fast-paced thriller that I have to finish tonight because I need to know how it resolves itself.

But my favorite part of a vacation (obviously as a school librarian) is having the extra time to read. I do my house cleaning, organizing, chores, and errands in the morning when I’m at my most ambitious and then try to spend the rest of the day reading. And that includes my favorite part of the day, staying up later than I normally do during a regular work week now that the kids and husband are in bed.

In the dark. With a cup of tea. Just me and my book.On the couch. Comfortable pajamas and slippers. Maybe a blanket. Yes, me and the book.

This post originally appeared on the Times Union Books Blog

I’m a nerd for anything that I can learn from, so a day and a half excursion to Washington, D.C. is a ripe opportunity to learn and admire. And there was no better place out of all of the touching and awe-inspiring memorials, monuments, and museums than the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building as a book lover and librarian. As one Facebook friend commented, “Mecca!” I truly would have, if I wasn’t going to be trampled by roving tourist groups and admirers, laid down in the middle of the ornate Great Hall and sighed a big sigh of love. A great love of books. And as my two souvenirs quoting Thomas Jefferson attest, “I cannot live without books.” One adorns my bookshelf and one will adorn my wrist.

As much as the fountains and facade were surreal and the overlook to the Main Reading Room was gorgeous and touring the building’s hallowed halls were epic, I spent the most amount of time learning about Thomas Jefferson’s collection, arranged in a glass-encased circle and organized in his three categories of Reason, Imagination, and Memory. Then, studying the two exhibits: America Reads and Jacob Riis: Revealing “How the Other Half Lives”. Both of these exhibits are temporary with Riis’ ending in less than a week and America Reads ending in December. It feeds the mind and is a feast for the eyes with stunning images, easily read captions, and a powerful story to tell.

Visit this jewel when in Washington, D.C.– the “world’s largest repository of knowledge and creativity, with a growing collection of more than 162 million items”.  The library (and any library for that matter) is what will sustain us. A popular quote when positions and library funding is being cut is Walter Cronkite’s

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”

And the $23,950 that was allocated in 1815 to purchase Jefferson’s collection when the British burned Congress’ first is just such a cost.

If I never get back there again, it will be okay– a new adventure in a new place to learn new stuff, but I’m richer for this experience. I stopped to breath it in and admire it in a way I hope the many visitors do even if they’re not nerds for it like me.What library have you visited that takes your breath away?