Friday, November 05, 2004
What does a librarian do when the catalog is down?
First, there's the panicked communication with our IT guy. He had just set the catalog to be automatically backed up every night (prior to this we were using floppies...I get hives just typing that) There is likely some mixed communication going on...so while the catalog gets fixed we:
make decisons about how to dispose of brand new science curriculum our teachers weren't interested in...we can't keep such items around because we simply don't have the room..so into the car they go to be brought to a much larger (yet still very underfunded parohical school) If there was a curriculum buyer in the area, I would have gone that route, but there is none.
I gather materials for our fifth grade who are doing projects on different contries and eras. I had brought in a kit of toys, coins and other items collected from around the world and was able to share it with the fifth grade while they are working on this project. As for print, we have a limited, spotty collection in this area - thank God for our National Geographics. One student is having a problem finding anything on Ancient India...it turns out that our newest encyclopedia - World Book 1999 - has a good chunk on that subject at the end of the India article. It's best to have at least two sources for any research topic...so I go online to the Pollard Library - our local public library. I am able to access middle school level databases there using my library card number. I find a great Ancient India article with color pictures for him.
I do the same type of thing for our science teacher who has assigned certain mammals to each student in one of his classes. This is an area where our collection is stronger...We are particularly helped by a source not usually seen in libraries. It is a complete set of animal cards sold through the mail to parents. This has hundreds of very detailed entries on many unusual animals. It is stored in 4 thick binders...the two on mammals will be very appreciated by Mr. V and his students.
Mrs. Gn, a great parent volunteer, pops in to discuss some of the confusion related to our catalog hiccups. She points out that in my desire to make catalog entry as simple as possible that we were creating a situation where we would not be able to distinguish between duplicate copies...so we are now back to inputting the ISBN number for each book. Thanks, Mrs. Gn.
One of my jobs is documenting our processes to make it easier to train parent volunteers. Today I focused on capturing screen shots of our catalog data entry process. I'll get a shot for each field we need entered, overlay comments on them and put it in a manual that will live next to the computer. (I am doing this using a little used feature of powerpoint ...the Print Screen Button. Every time I click this, I toggle back into ppt and past it in a new screen. )
Lastly, I decide against pursuing a library grant from the http://www.laurabushfoundation.org
It's a rare grants organization that doesn't require accreditation or public school status, but it favors very poor schools that have 90% + populations that are eligeible ffor free fed lunches....and I don't think that we are quite at that level - but I do need to confirm the number with our admin.
permanent link
make decisons about how to dispose of brand new science curriculum our teachers weren't interested in...we can't keep such items around because we simply don't have the room..so into the car they go to be brought to a much larger (yet still very underfunded parohical school) If there was a curriculum buyer in the area, I would have gone that route, but there is none.
I gather materials for our fifth grade who are doing projects on different contries and eras. I had brought in a kit of toys, coins and other items collected from around the world and was able to share it with the fifth grade while they are working on this project. As for print, we have a limited, spotty collection in this area - thank God for our National Geographics. One student is having a problem finding anything on Ancient India...it turns out that our newest encyclopedia - World Book 1999 - has a good chunk on that subject at the end of the India article. It's best to have at least two sources for any research topic...so I go online to the Pollard Library - our local public library. I am able to access middle school level databases there using my library card number. I find a great Ancient India article with color pictures for him.
I do the same type of thing for our science teacher who has assigned certain mammals to each student in one of his classes. This is an area where our collection is stronger...We are particularly helped by a source not usually seen in libraries. It is a complete set of animal cards sold through the mail to parents. This has hundreds of very detailed entries on many unusual animals. It is stored in 4 thick binders...the two on mammals will be very appreciated by Mr. V and his students.
Mrs. Gn, a great parent volunteer, pops in to discuss some of the confusion related to our catalog hiccups. She points out that in my desire to make catalog entry as simple as possible that we were creating a situation where we would not be able to distinguish between duplicate copies...so we are now back to inputting the ISBN number for each book. Thanks, Mrs. Gn.
One of my jobs is documenting our processes to make it easier to train parent volunteers. Today I focused on capturing screen shots of our catalog data entry process. I'll get a shot for each field we need entered, overlay comments on them and put it in a manual that will live next to the computer. (I am doing this using a little used feature of powerpoint ...the Print Screen Button. Every time I click this, I toggle back into ppt and past it in a new screen. )
Lastly, I decide against pursuing a library grant from the http://www.laurabushfoundation.org
It's a rare grants organization that doesn't require accreditation or public school status, but it favors very poor schools that have 90% + populations that are eligeible ffor free fed lunches....and I don't think that we are quite at that level - but I do need to confirm the number with our admin.
permanent link
