CCA Library Log

Library is flourishing so blogmaster is moving on...

2006-10-16T09:06:00.000-05:00

The CCA Library has come such a long way in 3 years - look at the photos in the last posting! Carol and her team of Linda, Leslie, Bev, Jamie, Ramona and Peter have worked hard and smart to bring the library to this place. Carol is now the on-site librarian and main cataloguer. My part from the beginning was to bring the mini-assortment of books that CCA had and turn it into the makings of a library that could make its way to accreditation. Right now there is enough "library" to have as a base from which to begin improvements for accreditation. So I , blogmaster and library builder will move on to other adventures. So as of this posting, this blog is ending. Blessings on you all at Community Christian Academy, Lowell MA
Winifred Flint, MLS

The librarian in her new habitat...

2006-10-04T07:16:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Our librarian Carol here is helping a student - on her knees as usual. She is also shown managing the library's catalog. Across from her desk are bins full of books waiting to be catalogued - about 400. An eighth grader - Sam- comes in to help with this never ending process - as 2 parents from the PTO - Linda and Leslie.

New library now has study areas...

2006-10-04T07:05:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The big brown table is a great addition to the library - there had been no place to lay out reference books for study in the old location. It also provides an area for classroom instruction in the library (one of the many requirements of for full accreditation with ACSI). Note also our first quiet study area - surrounded by cataoguing bins - but still a private area for a bit of reading.

The new larger library is now open!

2006-10-04T06:58:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Librarian is in San Francisco....

2006-09-10T18:15:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

I'm working....Really...Until the end of September. So I have not yet seen the complete library - otherwise you'd be seeing it too. I am taking a sabbatical where I organize all that I've learned at CCA and am putting it together to help the Christian school movement in general... i also hope to visit some other Christian urban schools out here - always looking to learn form those who have gone before us.

san fran is full of energy, creativity and life- not to mention the best food in the world - sourdough bread and king crab. and this guy reading in the street really happens around here all the time-so many things make me laugh out here.

WOW! The library is doubling in size!

2006-08-18T11:59:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

We are moving to an area between the cafeteria and computer room - great visibility. We will have a door to the computer room which will bring us that much closer to ACSI accreditaiton. Access to technology greatly increases our knowledge base and gives an opportunity to train students on efficient and ethical searching (this is a bit more in the future) . Right know the most exciting development will be room for study tables - so students can actually use the library to examine reference books that can't leave the library or to study or to do homework. The librarian in charge this year - Carol- will be in charge of moving the books and of course she already has a plan - she is so efficient. The following are photos of the new library being built. The men pictured are Pastor Najem on the left and Chris O'Neil on the right. Chris is the one doing almost all the physical labor. - blessings on you Chris!

"Left Behind" - the great and not so great...

2006-07-23T10:09:00.000-05:00

Our mystery reader here has chosen an item from the incredibly popular Left Behind series as his favorite read. This extensive series makes a colorful splash on our shelves - catching the eye of anyone who walks in. Students are drawn by both the visuals and the exciting events experienced by Christians like themselves. A particularly great feature of this series is the way it gives both parents and children a point of conversation - both reading and enjoying the same book- excellent for family bonding and 0f course - building better reading skills. And cliff hanger endings leave the reader hardly able to wait the for the next installment...music to a librarian's ears. We have a limited selection of books that might interest a middle-schooler so this is a very popular series. This series does raise a few difficulties, though, that are addressed in the audio post.

Why "Captain Underpants" is important

2006-05-16T17:08:00.000-05:00

oye - how they love these books - normally we wouldn't take time to repair cheap paperbacks but in this case we do - there is fear of a small riot if this series were to go missing...

and our Mystery Reader says this is his favorite book - could it be Elvis?!

God is sparing the library from this...

2006-05-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Even though areas a few streets away from the school are under water - we are still dry...I was particularly concerned because we are partially in a basement...but so far - so good...

shelving - a summary of needs

2006-05-06T15:53:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

See the recent posts for details of shelving needed for each type of book. There are various arrangments possible but one that makes sense is:

use bookcases with 4 shelves - 36" wide
this will require 2 for fiction/non-fiction/bio and reference
this will require 3 bookcases for easy readers and picture books - easy readers on top two shelves and picture books on bottom two shelves (technically picture books require one more shelf but we will ignore that for now...)

this adds up to 5 bookshelves, 36" wide with 4 bookshelves
typically these are 9 to 12 inches in depth

lacking enough wall apace 2 sets of bookcases could be put back to back

this must be the ugliest shelving in the world...

2006-05-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA
It is used shelving from college libraries that are upgrading. http://www.booksforlibraries.com sells them for cheap if you are going by shelf inch/dollar and they can carry a lot of weight. It's not the most appropriate for a school library but it could work for some of our books. Materials for teachers could go on the top shelves as could the books we are still in the midst of processing (getting into the catalog etc.) Non-fiction and Reference - typically hardcover and thus more heavy would be a good match for these shelves. One disadvantage is their height and bulk which would dominate a room unless placed wisely- we certainly wouldn't want it blocking our precious New England sun!

more shelving for picture books - another example

2006-05-06T14:32:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The idea here is the old record bins - remember those? Imagine those replaced with coloful dish bins and then filled with picture books...the shelves would still need to be somewhat high. (this photo is of product ironwood glacier media browser from demco.com)

more shelving - picture books

2006-05-06T14:19:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

This is an example of the space needed for picture books. Note that there is plenty of room to flip through the books and that there are several shelf dividers to help keep books upright. The height of the shelves is also taller. This demo has about 25 books per shelf - we have about a 100 donated picture books in the queue which means we will need about 4 of these type shelves to store them. Our current shelf of picture books is jammed 100 to a shelf - so we should get 3 more shelves just to store those properly. This adds up to 7 picture book shelves that need to be purchased to fill our current needs. (this photo is of product Lov'n wood oxford picture-book shelving from demco.com) It is possible that some of this need can be met with clever use of shelf dividers on some of our larger width metal shelves.

Giraffes are very welcome at our library...

2006-04-27T17:13:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

They might have a hard time fitting in the door but they look great next to it! This mural was painted on the sly by our art teacher, Mrs. Russell, who came in on a Friday afternoon and Saturday - her days off - just to surprise the staff in the library. She also thoughtlfully left some of the book spines blank so we could choose our own titles - check back here to see what we choose....THANKS, MRS. R!!!!

2006-04-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

A Tremendous Book Has Moved...

2006-04-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy, Lowell, MA

It was old - 1983- and the reading level was far above most of our students but the illustrations made it so valuable to us. "Brother against Brother: The War Begins" was part of a Time-Life Series and had the most compelling photos, and posters of the Civil War in our collection. The detailed paintings of slave auctions breaking up families highlighted how art can illuminate injustice; the photos of scars on disobedient slaves are graphic depictions of evil and the military identification photos help us understand how the common person can get caught up in institutional sin....but the majority of pages were slipping away from the binding simply making it impossible to circulate anymore...so now it will have a special home in Reference where it will be used under the watchful eye of staff.

Normally one does not announce such a move , but as a matter of respect to the subject matter such an announcement needed to be made.

A Physical Description of Our Library

2006-03-31T12:11:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The room is 12 x 20 ft with 10 ft ceilings. It is located on the first floor that is half basement which explains why we look UP to see the ground outside.

We have a great location inside the school because all students must pass us on the way to the lunchroom. And the school copier is only steps away.

Team members here are: Carol at the desk wrestling with the computer catalog; Jamie shelving and re-shelving - a never ending job; and Ramona, double checking spine labels on our newly processed Human Body books - what a coup that was! The little one in orange (Emily) appears to be giving a lesson in something to an intrigued Stephanie.

What our library looks like when fully staffed...

2006-03-31T09:33:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The best aspect of our physical space is the row of windows on the wall opposite the door into the library. A sunny treat during grey New England winters. As you can see though , we are a bit cramped for space. Our largest flat space for processing books is the space Carol is using. (Carol is our main staffer for the library)

On our list of must haves is at least one large study table for students to study at and where they can use reference materials (and of ocurse we would use it for book processing when no students are around,,,)

In the top picture there are 3 adults and their 3 preschoolers (I including me in the doorway taking the picture. ) As you can see, we can handle a "crowd" of about 3 students in additon to who is already shown.

My favorite decoration is the poster of 3 crosses from a variety of tradtions... totally by accident placed above some of our Bible resources.

Did you ever leave the baby on top of the car?

2006-03-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

That's how I feel this week...when we realized we have NO Bibles or concordances in the library...Granted we live off donations - but you'd think we would have noticed this....It has been in the back of my head since the beginning but somehow at some point it just must have fallen out...But CBD Warehouse sale to the rescue! If you live anywhere near Boston - you must check out their GIGANTIC quarterly sale. Our main library staff have graciously offered to jump into the fray at the next sale with some of their precious PTO dollars to rectify our embarrassing situation. These are our selections; the emphasis is on NIV because that is the most common in the church/school community. We have the list prioritized - if we can only get two - that's more than we have now...

Hello Bev D. (2:30 on Tues march 14 2006)

2006-03-14T14:25:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

I had a friend emergency and can't be there in person, but I did want to refresh you on catalog entry -particularly with our new body books. I will be in and out this
afterernoon but do try and call my number in the front of the logbook. I will just give you some hints about specific fields that might make things go faster. I am blogging this because getting thru the phone system is iffy...

See our Tower of Health!

2006-03-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Have you ever seen anything so healthy?! These are all courtesy of an Amazon gift certificate from Mrs. Berman - a good friend of CCA. She put no strings on her gift so I chose to increase our collection on the human body - at the middle school reading level.

We were able to get about 20 books - mostly used hardbound - for about $220 - great value for the money. There was considerable time though spent in selecting the books and then making the purchases through the used book mechanism of Amazon.

As I write this post, the books are still in processing - that means waiting to be put into the catalog but this batch is on top of the queue...

I focused on three subject areas: systems of the body, genetics, and diseases. I also focused exclusively on books for circulation - none for reference. This is backwards from typical library practice - "fill in reference first" but since we have no place for kids to study the reference books in the library - it makes better sense to get them books they can remove from the library.

Being new to the topic and its resources I needed to find the best authors/publishers..I didn't automatically know them like I know other resources. The following part of this post will be of most interest to other book selectors for tiny school libraries. I will first describe how I used some expensive tools still available to me, but then I will share how to do it on cheap.

My first task was to find out who the big names were- who were the publishers, series, and authors active in these subject areas. I did this by going to various sources and noting how many times I saw them...it became obvious because I kept seeing the same names. Through my Alumane connection to Simmons College I still have access to 2 databases Worldcat and BooksInPrint that cut this job down to size quickly. Worldcat lists the holdings of most libraries in North America, etc which allows me to see, for example, the most held book on the circulatory system for juvenile readers across the U.S. - mostly in public libraries. Scanning the list of the top 10 books on this subject yields hints about a prolific author, an interesting series and a popular publisher.

Few of these are recent - since these are the most held books - they are likely to have some age on them - so I go to my source that will tell me the most recent and even forthcoming books by these authors, publishers or additions to series - BooksInPrint. These tell me recent editions, publishers current in the subject and adding to series. But since I will be buying used at Amazon - I will likely not have access to the very newest - but its good to know the options in order to put the quality of the offerings into perspective.

I now have a list of potentials in a certain subject - but need to have more of an idea of their contents. Because of their popularity with librarians, I'm 99% sure they are scientifically accurate and well written for the audience but I want to doublecheck the reading level required plus see that certain hot topics are handled in the way that the school is comfortable with. I can't examine these in person so I am going to need to rely on other sources.

For science works I always check SB&F - Science Books and Films Online (45$/yr); these are detailed reviews written from a secular viewpoint but yet very useful in assessing the worldview within a certain book. They are also excellent for pointing out scientific inaccuracies. They may not have the exact book - but there is a good chance they will have something by that author or publisher - still useful for comparison.

I also check Christian Library Journal (20$/yr) - it is hit or miss that they will even have much of the subject matter but if they do - its a valuable review.

I also mine the catalog of my local public library. Many libraries now link from the book's record right to professional review journals full of reviews written from a librarian's perspective. That means it is not intended to sell you something or grind an axe but tell you if the book does what it intends to. Usually these are fairly lengthy.

Amazon is a also a source for reviews...the editorial reviews are the most immeditately useful...but the readers' reviews can provide valuable insight - sometimes in ways that the writer did not intend. And there is some concern that Amazon does not post all the negative reviews it gets - which leads to a skewing of the results.

Here is On The Cheap
1) find out what other schools are holding by tapping into their online catalog
a) the largest Christian schools in your area - this will tell you "safe" books
b) the most expensive private schools in your area - this will tell you most scientifically reliable and the most well respected

2) find out the most held books on a certain subject by going into the online catalog in a large library system such as Chicago, Los Angelos, Queens - it doesn't have to be one near you - it just
has to be one that has many branches.

3) at your public library or the ones above - check out the links to reviews

4) check the reviews at Amazon

A library table or a camel?

2006-03-10T11:29:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Sometimes I do get frustrated with our lack of resources and our backlog of books to catalog and our small space and our lack of a library table for kids to sit at to study.....But then something comes along to help put it into perspective...At least we have a stable space and compared to these folks we have an embarrassment of riches....You've heard of book mobiles - how about using camels instead?

Shamu and Mickey aren't enough??!!

2006-02-24T17:56:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The school to the left and linked here is in Orlando Florida and has the most library items I have seen in a Christian school library - 23,000. And I am totally digging their library website. http://tfaroyals.org/AcademicExcellence/LibraryServices.htm

Coming soon:

2006-02-21T12:09:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

This section of our collection will be increasing greatly (due to generousity of a former teacher) Way Cool!!!

A Great Tool for Amateur Cataloguers

2006-02-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

Definition for cataloguing - assigning the right descriptive words (subjects) and shelf addresses (dewey numbers) to books and storing this information in computer so folks can easily find what they are looking for.

Most of the cataloguing has been done for us by the Library of Congress(LOC) - we just go in and copy their work...this is called copy cataloging. But for some items that the LOC hasn't gotten to or never will have (like some esoteric Christian materials) - we need to do the original cataloging.

There are lots of rules for this... so many that there are people who make their entire career out of cataloguing just one area of knowledge - like zoology. But in our library we simplify as much as possible - bending some rules along the way (but don't tell the Library of Congress...)

This book is an example of making the job easier for our parent volunteers. It consolidates the professional shelf of many very thick cataloguing volumes into a single inch book.

Its benefits:

it is in print; we can easily order multiple copies
it combines the subject with the dewey number (this pairing is hard to find...); makes it possible to only lookup one item instead of two
it has almost 3 times the subject headings as the last tool we were using
it contains many, many more Christian subject headings that the church library resource we had been using

The title of the book is People, Places & Things: A list of popular library of congress subject headings with Dewey Numbers. It costs $50. Click here to order it.

I love the freebies at library conferences...

2006-02-02T15:46:00.000-05:00

library goal for rest of 2006: catalog all fiction

Besides the usual pens and pads, there are all the free books...not as many for kids, but if you look you can find some appropriate for a christian school. And I did. A great bio to build up our Native American section... about Princess Winnemucca...It has photos, illustrations, timelines, and even listing of websites. Thank you Compass Point Publishers for your generousity.

Seeking wisdom from my elders...

2006-02-02T15:39:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for rest of 2006: catalog all fiction

Am back from site visits to 3 Christian school libraries in San Antonio...these are all well-established schools with many more resources than CCA, but still with many of the same issues we face in our small library. I gathered a huge amount of data and quite a bit of wisdom from more experienced librarians. Already I am implementing some of what I learned.

for those anxious to catalog & brave...

2006-01-03T12:31:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

I'll show you how to mine the local online library catalog for the dewey number and verify you have the right subject. Let's use Penguins...get into the Pollard Library in Lowell....click on the catalog....put penguins in the general box...scroll through the results for the first apparent non-fiction (this is a judgment call)...if it's in Lowell, the dewey number will be listed immediately under it...if its not in Lowell, click on the Title, then click on Holdings and the dewey number will come up. 598.47

If you're feeling unsure that penguins is the correct subject, click on the title and scan the box on the right - the subject headings used by the library will be at the bottom.

Goiing thru this same process searching for Possum doesn't yield anything that looks like nonfiction, so I click on the first title and see that in the box on the right listing subject, it is Opposum..going back to general seach and putting in Opposum yields a results list that looks more promising - at #9 I click on the title and find the dewey listed - 599.2

This technique is just for the brave and determined - we will be giving workshops using print sources - not focusing on the internet.

Cataloging Workshop(s) is coming....

2006-01-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

Now that I'm done with the Simmons MLS, I need to leave the CCA library team with a basic understanding of cataloging. There will be minimal theory for the first workshop and we will concentrate on non-fiction animal books because there are not too may judgment calls as to subject - it's either about penguins or not.

Cataloging requires two pieces of data - the subject and the dewey decimal number. New cataloguers need to have a source that combines these for them - but for various reasons these are hard to find. CCA owns the best one "Subject Headings for Children: A List of Subject Headings Used BY The Library of Congress With Abridged Numbers Added" by Winkel, 1998. (right now it is in my house - will bring it in) It is a reasonable number of pages, 178, and covers people, places, things and concepts. Unfortunately, it is out of print. This means I need to look to a different source and one that I can get at least 3 copies - 2 for the workshop attendees and one for me. The ones for the attendees will become CCA property. I have an order in to examine 3 other resources to determine which is best for CCA's needs and budget. Heads up PTO: I will need re-imbursement ASAP for the workshop to go ahead. We are looking at at between 50$ to 100$ per book - I will be paying for my own. So PTO treasurer/leader, please call me/email if this is workable and when I could expect re-imbursement.

Workshop details: 2 hours
no children
a quiet space with tables and chairs
at least 2 attendees

I am beginning a job search and preparing for a professional conference the end of Jan - so early Feb looks best for me. Keep me in the loop...remember my phone number is in front/back of logbook.

Working around a balky printer

2005-10-09T20:23:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

Kudos to the library team for not being hung up by a reluctant printer...once figuring out that it was likely more than a cartridge problem and bringing in a local onsite guru who seconded the opinion..they and the guru routed the printing elsewhere in the building...so labels are still being printed and books still being processed to get on the shelf....think of the L-team as the Marines of school libraries - you really don't want to be between them and their mission...

(I have an email into our offsite tech help to get him on the printer problem)

Faster than a speeding bullet

2005-10-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

Faster than a speeding bullet are our our data entry folks - the library team has taken care of over dozens of books...they are all in the catalog and now are awaiting labeling - go L-team!!!

Where are the books ready for the catalog?

2005-10-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

They are in very large plastic bin marked "ready for catalog". This bin is under the windows, on the floor - probably under other boxes.

Sometimes, catalgouing info is located in the back of the book - common in National Geographic Books.

Apologies to the volunteers - so appreciated! - who came in to data entry into the catalog but couldn't find the books to process. I have tried to call you at home; will keep trying - hoping this posting helps in the meantime.

What's happening at Teacher Orientation

2005-08-30T14:33:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

We just finished day 2...it's good to learn about all the school's policies but I have to admit to having sympathy with all children who are not "natural sitters"...I must be the queen of the squirm club...(that's what so great about being a librarian - there's so much moving around and talking in our job.)

At orientation , I especially enjoy the aspect of getting to know my fellow staff members. It's so much easier to help one another when you have an idea of the personality behind the person.

Tomorrow I give my presentation on the status of the library...here's a brief overview:

the basic facts on how to access the library
my background/history with CCA
show overhead slides of blog/associated website
give packet to teachers
goal of library effort - ACCREDITATION!
show skills needed for information literacy
show tools needed for infomation literacy
Book Talk

What makes for a good nonfiction book?

2005-08-15T08:32:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

Good in this case does not refer to the subject or the editorial content...it refers to to the arrangement of information within the book. Good nonfiction makes it easy to extract the information out of the book and the most useful extraction tool is an index. Any nonfiction book sold to the library market today has an index - it's crucial in its own right but is also needed for information literacy best practices and alignment with the highest in education standards. Many of our donations were originally intended for the home market which emphasized reading for pleasure, rather than information, so that many of our donations do not have indicies.

Nonfiction becomes that much more useful too, when it contains a list of other sources for the reader to consult In the past, these were lists of books or articles - a bibliography. Today, many include websites - a webliography. These are very helpful in guiding student research.

Other key features include:

table of contents
glossaries
timelines

WOW! 600+ donations still to catalog...

2005-08-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

And to think the library team has catalogued over 1600 already (over 18 months with all volunteer labor - mostly from parents.)

Finally got most of the donations in covered plastic bins - history, geography, easy readers and picture books will go into the next round of bins. Estimating that one of these bins holds about 50 to 60 books:

science, technology, math - 1 bin
science - animals - 1 bin
fiction - older grades - 2 bins
fiction - middle grades - 2 bins
Bible, ethics, Christian life - 1 bin
Art, Sports, Social Sciences - 1 bin

Into the bin for older fiction, I also tucked in biographies and any fiction that looked especially enticing to those children looking for adventure or boy characters.

Right now all bins and boxes are neatly piled up on shelves - freeing up the floor for a desperate cleaning. Cookie has promised this will happen before school starts.

This is a note to LM...re: comments from July 19

2005-07-20T15:46:00.000-05:00

So good to hear from you! I would love to get to get together and go over about a billion things. I can be very flexible in the summer. Can it be adults only so we can concentrate the most? About the Challenged dinosaur books - I was hoping to use them as tools to explain some of the finer points of selection policies and censorship to the adminstration et al. Glitches like this are to be expected when we are in the midst of policy creation - not a big problem. You should know me by now - the only real problems are when kids are turned off from the library or volunteers are not happy. take care, winifred
--
Learning to turn data into wisdom
MLS candidate at Simmons College, Boston
http://ccalibrary.blogspot.com/

Progress on processing donations

2005-07-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

Most of the non-animal science is now awaiting data-entry into the catalog. I will leave the animal books for use as a training tool for new cataloguers. The subjects are usually specific enough to make classifying them fairly obvious. I expect to do training in August.

Our donations are a bit in disarray...we have been so blessed we have piles all about. Mostly my fault since I was so behind in classifying. In the meantime, I will bring in some covered plastic boxes that will better protect our books while they are awaiting processing. This will keep them from getting dusty, damaged, etc.

I will be bringing home 3 boxes of novels and biographies to classify for the older grades. The PTO donated from their annual book fair - among many awesome books - the classic biography series Childhood of Famous Americans; at least 10 volumes - even one on Roberto Clemente! Someone else donated an extremely valuable and age appropriate, 20+ volume, series on the world's greatest composers. The quality is staggering. I'll also be processing a series of classics - abridged. These should substantially increase the amount of reading choices for our middle schoolers.

Does "out of date" always warrant tossing?

2005-07-19T09:11:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

Not always, but I do have to ask this question about many of the science donations we receive. Since we are so lacking in this area, I give the donation every possibility to stay - but there are rules.

There can't be inaccurate information. If the Empire State Building is described in the technology chapter as the largest building in the world - out it goes.

Some subjects are so in flux, that I know that anything published before a certain time will contain multiple errors. For example, a survey work on bio-mechanics published in 1982 is hopeless. There have been so many advances in materials, implementation of computers, and changes in understandings of diseases that there is no way I can hand this to a student in good faith.

If the presentation is riddled with stereotypes of gender roles or over-illustrates one ethnic group - out it goes.

I give more leeway to works that are simply incomplete. They get extra points if they add at the end that scientists are always learning more - a loophole and a prompter for further research. If the work purports to be exhaustive and is published in the last century - out it goes.

Sometimes the work is just too advanced for our school - so I send it over to the high school.

Some examples of very old works that I accepted - after much internal dialogue:

Rockets and Satellites (1985)
Most of this is very readable (sixth grade reading level ) on the basic physics of rockets and satellites - which hasn't changed. There is nothing on the wonders of the GIS (Geographic Information System) but at least it ends with the concept that rocketry is in its infancy.

We came In Peace: The Story of Man in Space (1969)
This is a type of the Time-Life series filled with illustrations, charts, etc on the first moon landing. It can be construed as more historical than scientific which gives it a pass. It is a unique work, even listing what companies helped on the Apollo project.

Out of the 60 science donations I've been processing, about 10 have had to be discarded for age reasons.

~60 science donations in process

2005-07-19T08:43:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and all fiction for grades 5 to 8

Here are some of the latest works we'll be putting in the library:

Millions to Measure (2003)
Incredible Earth: How Things Work from the Inside Out (1996)
Robot Explorers (2003)
Sky Fighters: Warplanes in Action (2003)

Status meeting today with Pastor & Principal

2005-07-18T09:18:00.000-05:00

Library Goals for 2005-2006: Catalog all science for all grades and fiction for grades 5 to 8

Wow! CCA has come along way from a few books in a closet two years ago. We have over 1500 books catalogued; a smart and committed group of volunteers and access to the Internet in the library. In the meeting we went over ACSI accreditation requirements for the library and what the next steps would be for each area - catalog, physical space, etc.

We also planned a series of meetings to better help communication between library volunteers and administration.

For the next few weeks, I will processing science donations by assigning subject headings to them; I will have to leave the actual data entry into the catalog for other volunteers due to carpal tunnel problems.

Off to the cataloguing cave now...

Librarian brain dump at school's end

2005-06-16T10:58:00.000-05:00

stuff to do...in no particular order...

get library cleaned
listen to donated books on tape; if useful to
curriculum and in good shape - buy tape cassette players (with no radio) for classroom use
write up year assessment; good, bad and weird
get next year's school schedule
speak to administration about presenting at parent's orientation
get a link to cca blog from school website
work on library talk for teacher orientation
figure out what to do about missing national geo mags and how to handle these mags in future
call L team to thank for great work
make list of items that we want to purchase (eg. extra large book covers - thanks for the heads up on this, Jamie)
look into project management online software that will track the myriad things and tasks we need to accomplish (see stuff from march conference about sources)
search classrooms for loaned items that were not yet catalogued (see logbok Nov 2005)
call B. D. to see if up for data entry into catalog
track Selection Policy status (I need to annotate)
write donation policy
list all technology and versions of software we use in library
communicate the vision for a library worthy of accrediation by ACSI
think through volunteer training

Reasons for discarding some Christian textbooks

2005-06-16T09:48:00.000-05:00

I gave these donated textbooks a year on the teachers' shelf in the library and they were never borrowed. They are a reading curriculum with teachers' guides for grades 1 to 4. Usually, additional curriculum is good to have available to give teachers another way to look at how others are teaching the same material. But after I examined these at length I can see that they don't offer classroom teachers much insight. They are a day by day cookbook of exactly what to say and what to do for each story read. This might work in a homeschool situation with children of a certain personality but certainly not in a classroom with multiple learning styles.

The publication year is 1985 which is another warning that this might not be up to par. But since this is not science or history where items age rapidly, I gave it a second chance to redeem itself. However, it totally failed. The stories and illustrations showed woman and girls as passive and only doing traditional stereotypical tasks. Basically, the men were having all the fun and adventures. Plus, there are very, very few illustrations of people of color. This clearly does not match CCA's population nor its Pentecostal history or experience.

Sometimes items such as these can be sold to homeschoolers, but a perusal of ebay and half.com indicate that these books would not do well online. They are way to old and are not in great condition. There is no local place to sell them, so they will be discarded in the trash.

Overdues down to 16!

2005-06-14T15:51:00.000-05:00

Good job team! The administrative staff is willing to pursue them - thanks guys!

I was in today looking over the National Geo collection in the 8th grade - we have many missing. I'm thinking over ways to deal with this...There are quite a few uncatalogued items in the 5th gr classroom - see the Nov 2005 logbook entries for specifics. We need to retrieve them and get them catalogued - they are high use items for this curriculum.

I'll be in again on Thurs morning Jun 16.

This is why I blog instead of emailing

2005-06-11T12:59:00.000-05:00

There are members of our library team that don't use email but can get to the Internet easily. This means they can read a blog with just a few clicks. They can also make comments to the blog and thus to me and the rest of the team. It builds community among co-workers seperated by space and time. In the library, the blog comes up whenever the Internet is accessed so the team can see also see the latest post when they are in the library. (We also use a paper log book for those who are not comfortable with computers.)

Year-end status of library overdue books...

2005-06-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

Dear CCA Administration,

The library team has valiantly tracked down 75 of the 100 overdue books at year-end. To get the last 25 will require contact with parents either through a letter or a phone call. Pursuing this option requires administrative staff skills and availablity - which the library does not have. If the administration wants to commit time to retrieving these books - great (send me an email). Otherwise, we will count them as a loss this year. This is not ideal, but for our first year it is not the end of the world. Next year we will have more experience in how to get a higher rate of returns.

I choose not to have the PTO pursue them more because we have such a backlog of donations to go through - weighing the costs makes it clear that is more valuable for the volunteers to add to the catalog rather than pursue overdues.

take care,

Winifred Flint

MLS candidate at Simmons College, Boston
http://ccalibrary.blogspot.com

Learning to turn data into wisdom

End of School Updates

2005-06-07T13:31:00.000-05:00

Thanks, Jamie for continuing to track down the checked out items - that is extremely helpful. Have you been able to get into the catalog? Carol left me a phone msg at home last Wed that said there were catalog problems (I didn't hear it until the weekend...family error) Currently I am trapped in "Intemittent No Car Land" with forays into Registryville - this is to explain my absence. Frustrating beyond belief to not even know when I can get into the library...I am learning to pray AND breathe deeply....

The Mystery of Martin Luther King, Jr

2005-05-19T10:07:00.000-05:00

As I muck about in our catalog today I realize that very few of our MLK books come up when I type "Martin Luther King" in...I noticed this in January but then just did a visual search of our shelves and shelf list to get all that our teachers and students wanted...as our downtime approaches this summer we need to understand why we have this problem. I suspect that it is not inaccurate cataloguing but more a function of the cataloguing software. We can work around it if we can take some time to walk through all the search types for all the fields. Recording what we learn in a manual for future users will be helpful.

Cataloguing Re-dos

2005-05-19T09:54:00.000-05:00

As I check-in some books today, I've noticed some oddities from "way-back when" when we were all just learning the system.

We have a number of Clifford The Big Red Dog that need to be re-catalgoued such as the one in the catalog as The Mystery of the Kibble Crook. And The Clifford series info needs to be put in the Comments field.
We have about 30 in the adult and kid's series of Left Behind that are catalogued in such a mishmash that it is difficult to find one of the books in the catalog - even when the book is in hand.

First Draft of Selection Policy on Pastor's Desk!

2005-05-13T12:14:00.000-05:00

Thank you PTO! They created a selection policy - on top of manning the library, running the book fair and managing the RIF program. There would be no library at all at CCA if it weren't for them - affectionately known as the Ls, Gs and BD.

Accreditation example

2005-05-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder how other Christian schools go through accreditation? Check out this news article on a Texas school somewhat similar to CCA. link here

How to print lists of overdues by patron...

2005-05-05T12:38:00.000-05:00

Our library software, which shall remain nameless, does not make this easy. So we have to use a different approach. We will use a "secret" feature of PowerPoint to capture and print these lists. We will in essence be making a photograph of what's on the screen when the library software is running and then putting the photo on a PowerPoint slide. Then we can easily print it and give to the patron. The "photo" feature also prints the blue desktop which we want to avoid beccause it eats up color ink. To do this we will get Word running and open our catalog software on top of it - this giving us a white background - easier on the ink supply.

Directions:

Open Word; get a blank document on screen
Open Powerpoint; choose a blank presentation
Open the Library software
Click on Find > using the name of the patron
a list of all overdues from that patron will come up
On keyboard, find "Print Screen SysRq" key on right of keyboard
Click this key; it will put a screen shot on the system clipboard;
Click back into Powerpoint
Paste onto blank slide - Voila!
Print the slide- get it to patron.

this is a test of the post by email feature

2005-04-13T19:50:00.000-05:00

i'm still figuring out all the cool stuff about this toy...

WorldBook Encyclopedia for $200!

2005-04-13T11:26:00.000-05:00

At the Computers in Libraries conference I went to in March I talked with the World Book vendor. I found out about a great offer for private schools under 200 students - get WorldBook online for only $200 per year. It will be licensed to use on any number of school computers hooked to the Internet and allows remote access from home (you need proxy server - talk to your IT guy - if you can access your school computers from home already then you have the proxy server in place.) Compare this to the print price of over $1000. And the price for schools over 200 students is $445/year. Call (800) 975-3250 to find the sales rep for your area.

CCA elementary can't take advantage of this because of the school's limited Internet access, but our sister high school that has a room of computers on the Inernet could.

The Librarian Goes to the BIG School...

2005-04-13T11:00:00.000-05:00

Actually I've been in school now for several years to get my Masters in Library Science. The current class I am taking requires more work than usual plus a type of internship at a "real" library - real being one that is run by an MLS. That is why I have been scarce around CCA this semester. I am doing the internship at a GIGANTIC Technical High School - Greater Lowell Technical High School . It supports about 23 shops plus the full academic load of a high school. My assignment is to create a Collection Development Policy Manual for the school. I am the only one in my class working in this area; and there is actually not much in our professional literature either about schools of this type...so once again I get to plow new ground. This time though I have a great guide in the GLTHS librarian, Mr. Hall. He is very experienced with years in the field plus he is so cutting edge that he's the one who alerts the school to new technology - way cool for a librarian. I think I want to be like him when I grow up...

Here is how big GLTHS is compared to CCA:

The entire CCA library would fit into the librarian's office and store room.
The entire CCA school would fit in just the main part of the library
The budget for the GLTHS library is larger than the budget for all of CCA
Just their video collection is 6 times larger than our entire collection

I am required to evaluate a portion of their collection, so I am working on the 10,000 videos and am homing in on Automotive videos....who knew there could be so much film devoted to car body work?! Gotta get back to work...

Computers in Libraries

2005-04-08T12:01:00.000-05:00

This is the conference I went to in DC to see what I could learn to get CCA on the fast track to accreditation. ACSI requires an intermediate level of technology access and instruction but CCA is barely even at the basic level. Some of the tools required are a bank of computers with internet access that can be used for information instruction such as how to search web effectively and safely. Also needed is library software that allows the students to search the catalog themselves- this is the absolute minimum requirement of catalog software. Currently the library staff must search for students - this is like always tying a kid's shoelaces for them- simply unacceptable in the long run. (This software was purchased by a nonprofessional librarian before I ever came on the scene.) My goal at the conference was to see what I could find that would help us jumpstart our technological improvements. I learned way too much to put in this one posting but here is a tiny list:

using cheaper software to run on our computers (LINUX)
jumping right to wireless- skipping the hardwire stage
using Instant Messaging from librarian to help kids with homework
how to use web resources to shore up our print collection - free
how to build a better website for kids

I got my hands on a bunch of reources that I need to sit down and process - which I'll do when my class ends...what class you ask? more on that in the next posting...

How another tiny school is building its library...

2005-04-05T13:18:00.000-05:00

Some of my fellow Simmons students have gotten the volunteering bug and started a library at a small, underfunded public school in Boston...it's interesting to see how they tackled the project. Link here

What's the librarian doing in Washington, D.C.?

2005-03-18T17:52:00.000-05:00

A bunch of stuff with CCA in mind...details to come later...but this post is about the books I scored at the brand new Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian...by virtue of their inclusion in this bookstore I knew they would be respectful of American Indian culture and adhere to the highest academic standards...so here they are:

Library Team: I mailed them first class today - Friday - expect them by Wednesday; I put in all the cataloguing info, so they are ready for data entry.

How to spy on teachers..

2005-02-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

I normally don't recommend this habit but it is so good to see teachers using the library so heavily...here are some popular subjects:

Dictionaries, thesauri and maps - almost none are on shelf - all are being used in classes
Native Americans
Other Countries
The Presidency

Here's what's circulating...

2005-02-25T10:10:00.000-05:00

Right now we are up to about 1377 works in the catalog and about 130 books are checked out; (a 10% circulation rate)...

"Junie B. Jones" - a series about a first grader is the most popular by far according to our checkout statistics. Following behind is the "Left Behind" series, "American Girl" series, and joke books. Oh and how can I forget the ever popular "Captain Underpants". If we had two copies of every book in that series we'd still have kids wanting more. One of my favorite memories of working here is hearing a sixth grade boy bargain with a fellow student over the last copy of "Capt. Underpants". I strongly suspect a future in politics or law for that boy...

It is good to see some of the classics checked out too and I don't think it's because it was assigned by a teacher...these are

"White Fang",
"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde",
"The Complete Sherlock Holmes, V1 and 2",
"The Lord of the Rings",
"Treasure Island",
"Pollyanna"
"The Black Arrow"

Cat books remain popular as do books on snakes and World Records Almanacs. The series on behaving well by Joy Berry is also being used. Some surprises are a coffee table book on Spanish Art and a book on fractions....who knew?!

What we learned from doing a midyear assessment

2005-02-03T18:35:00.000-05:00

These are changes we will need to make to our data enty for cataloguing so I can better check the state of the collection w/respect to subjects.

B will need to have a number as well; it will roughly be the subject that the person is most famous for; here are some examples :

Babe Ruth will be B 700 (sports)
Picasso B 700 (art)
Eleanor Roosevelt B 900 (history)
Mother Theresa B 200 (religion)
Martin Luther King B 300 (social problems)

T for teacher resources will also need to have a number added. It will be the number for the subject the reource is used for.

We also need to note in the Collation field if it's a Paperback (pb) or HardBack(hb). This is necessary for me to more accurately assess the dollar value of the collection.

We need to implement these additions immediately for new entries and when we have downtime, to go back and fill in this info for the works missing this info.

Inside the Librarian's Head

2005-01-23T19:31:00.000-05:00

Given that Christian schools have been around for a couple of decades, the lack of professional materials that deal with Christian school libraries is perplexing. And the utter absence of anything with a charismatic/pentecostal focus is also baffling. Librarians need these to properly design a collection plan that fits the organizational culture. Creating a library from scratch with no money is hard enough; also needing to build the tools is just so laborious...I have no choice but to create these tools, but the issue is that as an outsider to this community I can unntentionally bring bias to my plan. This would be considered a professional failure....so its off to the BU School of Theology Library for me...I need to find out as much as I can about pentecostalism and education. A type of going back to first principles... I am motivated to do this because there appears to be mixed messages among the evangelical, charismatic and fundamentalist curriculum guides and textbooks at CCA...more on this later.

Freebies and from the ALA MidWinter

2005-01-23T17:37:00.000-05:00

This is a huge library conference that moves all over the US. This year it was in Boston, so I got to check it out, for the first time. I got to see what's new and what's coming up. As part of the PR, publishers are generous with handouts- which I gathered when appropriate for our libary. Moody was giving away Gun Lake by Travis Thrasher- it looks like a good read for our older middle schoolers. Captstone who publishes works at reading level gr.3-4 for interest level gr. 3-9 is getting into graphic novels; I scored The Boston TeaParty. I also signed up for a free excellent series on medical issues written at a middle school level. The one on asthma first caught my eye because we in New England have the highest rates in the United States. PETA was giving away "Kids can save the world: 101 easy things to do". In our library, works dealing with good stewardship of creation are non-exsistent so I am happy to have this book. I really appreciate the activist angle too. But I hesitate to put it in our collection quite yet, because it advocates a view that it not balanced by anything else in our collection. So I think it will be going into the "not yet" box.

There were a lot more than freebies...I really had to work against coveting...here are some of the goodies that got me dreaming...I am partial to works that deal with tough topics and I found one on Northern Ireland at a reading level gr. 4. It comes in a series that would be wonderful for us. Our social studies works are OLD, out of date, not attractive, containing dated information ...this series on countries would fit our upper elementary curriculum on other countries beautifully...the complete series of 50 books goes for about $800...

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life was another winner. I can see this being used extensively - maybe even daily - by the middle school. The 6 volume print is $600; it's also available online. It's possible to get a 30 day free trial - the PTO might want to talk this over with the middle school teachers so that all can evaluate it. Hey -its free to dream!

And lastly (before this posting turns into a book) anything from Eerdman's Books for Young Readers. Gorgeous, rich, evocative, deep, many many award winners...we already have been blessed with The Lord's Prayer

The Coretta Scott King Awards

2005-01-21T11:07:00.000-05:00

These are books chosen by the library's largest professional organization - the ALA - to highlight works by African-Americans that promote the ideals that Dr. King died for. Click here for more info and the 2004 winners. CCA has one of these winners. I think that the CSK award winners should seriously be considered for inclusion in any American Christian school...it's good to see that it is listed on the Evangelical Church Library Association's site under Best Selection Tools from A Christian Perspective Kudos to you - Donna W. Bowling!

"martin luvs coretta"

2005-01-21T10:33:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't actually see this carved on one of the study tables in BU's School of Theology Library...but it was during his time here in Boston that he met Miss Coretta and got married. Watching the PBS special "Citizen King" this month caused me more to focus on Miss Coretta and her character. Turns out she was actually by nature, more the activist in the family; Dr. King really preferring to preach and teach. Amazingly, she led a huge march 5 days after her husband was assassinated. The more I learn about her and the difficulties of being Dr. King's wife, the more I respect her. Here is more on her life- a tribute from a college president and the offical one from the King Center in Atlanta.

January 2005 PTO mtg action items

2005-01-13T17:32:00.000-05:00

For the first time ever we had a meeting where the majority of library volunteers and the librarian could work out problems together in the same room and in front of the catalog. Exciting times! Ms Gros listed a number of issues that are arising due to lack of a policy dealing with overdues plus issues related to multiple copies of titles that are not marked as multiples in the catalog. My action item was to set up an tentative Overdue Policy asap.

The fix to the multiples problem requires that we go back into the catalog and redo the records for the multiples such that the copy# will show up on the spine - as well as in the catalog record. I began marking the multiples on a type of shelf listing and putting these multiples in a document called ?Duplicate or multiple on the Library computer. I need to finish that document. And the fixes can take place as a high priority background task. We have many multiples...we shouldn't checkout copies of any title that has multiples until all of that title is labeled correctly. We need to put a flag of some sort in a book's record if is a multiple so we not to check it out until fixed...perhaps the word "multiple" in front of the Titles in the Title box? You could go through the list of multiples in the document I created on the computer to quickly find these.

Going through the "problem box" reminded us that a policy needs to be crafted that will handle challenged books. In the Fall, Pastor asked us to make one that would cover curriculum as well. Mrs. Mac and Mrs. Green have taken that job. Mrs. G will go through the Urban Christian School Library Website to cull all the info on Selection policies. And Mrs Mac is lining up members for the Selection/Challenged book policy committee.

Some of our book mishandling can be attributed to the fact that our book processing area is too open to the public...little hands don't always know what's off limits by reading labels...The PTO decided that covering a couple of the bookshelves that hold our donations not yet in the catalog with curtain type fabric would be helpful.

In this vein, making a slot in the library door for book returns when the library is closed would also help keep track of returns. The hole has to be larger than our largest book and low enough on the door to feed into a padded box placed on the floor. The PTO was going to talk to the school adminstrator - Mrs. D - about getting this done.

The backlog of donations -500+ - is weighing heavily on me. I realize we can't rely just on me to all the cataloguing, there just isn't enough of me to go around. So I am looking into ways to delegate the more obvious pieces of cataloguing; putting toghether a mini-course on cataloguing; and lastly simplifying some of the caaloguing rules for our very small library...

Lastly, I was assigned to find RIF catalogs that sell non-fiction...so will do.

Did I miss something? let me know if I did, Winifred

Drum roll please....

2005-01-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

The value of the library collection is :

$45, 253.26!!!

This number was arrived at with the help of Bowker Annual 2004 and its average book prices. See posting titled Insurance Assessment for more gory details..

Cataloging errors that will need to be fixed....

2005-01-04T09:43:00.000-05:00

Errors are bound to creep in when we are all learning a new skill. At the beginning when the PTO started inputting data into the catalog, without any traning from a librarian, quite a few oddities snuck in. More powerful software would allow us to fix them en masse, but our bargain basement catalog requires us to go in and fix these errors one-by-one. We are doing much better cataloguing now, but it would be good practice to fix these past errors during our slow times. Since I (the librarian) am the one most familiar with assigning subject headings, I will be the one that selects the correct headings. I'll mark up a shelf listing and have the volunteers enter the corrections. (It's not clear though when I'll have the time to do this...)

Fiction, by itself is not a valid Subject. When apt, it can be appended to Subject
History, by itself is not a valid Subject. When apt, it can be appended to Subject
Story, by itself is not a valid Subject. Rarely is it even part of a Subject

None of these are valid Subjects:

Animal Stories
Action
Stories and Rhymes
Humor
Children-classic
Classics
Left Behind
End Times
Pioneer Life
A JigSaw Jones Mystery
Oppressed
Puzzle
Picture Book
Little Critter
Regions of the World
Mysteries

Map shows up in many records that are not for Maps

500 catagory has many works that can be moved to more specific numbers in the 500's

There are misspellings in all fields. These should be fixed, as found, by the volunteers.

Library Assessment for Insurance Purposes...

2005-01-03T11:39:00.000-05:00

This is a work area for calculations (a work in progress). I'm listing the property and then a rough idea of how much it would take to replace. This year I will only evaluate books; those already in catalog and those destined for catalog.

Total works in catalog - 1296
(minus encyclopedias -30)
1266

Visual inspection

Fiction (including Picture and Easy Reader) -about 25% in hardback 219
(paperback 75% of 878 is 659)
Non-fiction - about 50% in hardback 184
(paperback 50% of 328 is 184)
Reference - about 90% in hardback 18
(paperback 10% of 20 is 2)

Total hardbacks 421

Total paperbacks 845

Other Resources ( not in Catalog)
20 years of National Geographic in Print
15 non-fiction books with audiocassettes from Troll Publishers (mid 1980's)
60 Teacher /Professional Development
500 donations sorted (approx)
1 New Book of Knowledge/ 1983 with 13 annuals and 1 on Space
1 WorldBook Encyclopedia/ 1982 with 3 annuals
1 Funk & Wagnalls WildLife Encyclopdia/ 1969 in 11 volumes (the compete set has 15)
1 New Book of Popular Science/1984 in 6 volumes

Computer System

catalog software
catalog database
labor costs to redo
hardware

Furnishings

Shelving

Bulletin Boards

Posters

Contents of Cabinets

RIF Books
Other PTO Property
Office Supplies

Music Teacher Goes Wild at Conference...

2005-01-02T18:06:00.000-05:00

and buys a slew of music books for the library out of her own pocket. Blessings on you, Mrs. B!

Understanding Music: An Usborne Introduction

this is a 64 page encyclopedia on music with the very accessible Usborne prose and cartoon illustrations

Let's Sing about America

this work goes hand in glove with our curriculum's emphasis on American history in the younger grades. The inclusion of chords for voice and piano makes it valuable for the older children who are learning how to read music.
Amadeus Mozart
This is a juvenile biography that captures Mozart's childhood.

The Living Clarinet

One of our first multi-media works...this comes with a CD with tracks of 10 famous classical pieces by composers that are covered in the accompanying book. The history of the instrument and how it works is also included. It would be great to have had jazz covered as well, but it's still a valuable donation.

Tchaikovsky Discovers America

A feast for the eyes! The oil painting illustrations add so much to this
story of a young girl meeting Tchaikovsky on his 1891 tour to the New World. There is CD that supplements it that would be a great complement...

Lifetimes: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

This book is goldmine for middle-schoolers who choose to do their biographical report on this Russian composer.

Swan Lake

"[This] adaptation of Tchaikovsky's ballet eloquently demonstrates the interpretive power of dance, making this book an excellent introduction to the beauty of the ballet." -Publisher's Weekly
I've assigned subject headings to these plus other info that must go into the catalog record. These are now in the queue for our data entry team to add into the catalog. Then these can be available from the library for students (or teachers!)

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2004-12-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

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Catalog is Up and Running...Thanks Mr. Webster!

2004-11-05T19:56:00.000-05:00

Mr. Webster came in tonight to work on the problem...he showed me how to avoid it in future...have put together a manual of screen shots to show exactly how to open catalog. It is right next to keyboard.

What does a librarian do when the catalog is down?

2004-11-05T13:38:00.000-05:00

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.

Why bother keeping 20 years of National Geos?

2004-10-30T16:08:00.000-05:00

Good question. Normally a library will only keep periodicals if there is an accompaning index. The index is key. Without an index, it is impossible to find information among 240 issues. Learning how to use such indexes is an important part of figuring out how to find information. But the kind donor of our 240 National Geographics did not include an index...
But thanks to the Massachusetts Board of Commisioners, we can access an index to National Geographics via the Internet from our local public library. All we need is a library card! Using the library's electronic index allows us to find the articles of interest in the National Geographics - letting us use its beautiful images and maps to the fullest. Those are very valuable to our students because our non-fiction collection is so sparse and the National Geographics is our only pericodical.

Read Your Email - Mrs. McIl... (no text in blog)10:30

2004-10-29T09:29:00.001-05:00

What the librarian did on Wed Oct 27...

2004-10-27T18:51:00.000-05:00

When I got to work, Mrs Grosz was already there, finishing up business from days before. She also subbed for the gym teacher for four classes...talk about busy!

We printed out a batch of labels, and in the process of affixing them, ran into some catalog confusion which I to go in and make right. This took more time than I would have thought.

The Open House showed us that we really needed to beef up our books for 8th graders and so I went through all of our fiction donations and the recent donations that we hadn't sorted yet to find good stuff for our junior high. I put those aside for me to take home and annotate with the correct subject headings/classification numbers.

I went though the recent donations and was very, very sad. It turns out these were from another Christian school that was no longer in operation. They had given us two crates of BEAUTIFUL high quality animal books that I know our students would loved....except that I had to throw most of them in the dumpster asap - victims of must/mold. Keeping them in the library would have contaminated all other books...Books just do not like garages or basements...what a bummer.

We had a slew of forth graders visit...that is truly my favorite part of the job...my day was made when I delivered some books to Miss. Roux's class and a boy just had to read me the coolest poem from the anthology he had been so happy to borrow from the library today...there are some good things happening in that class - go Miss R.!

Also time thinking thru our work flow for processing books and making labeled boxes for different steps. We need now to think about all the steps we need to do with the book in addition to labeling it such as stamping CCA on it, putting a pocket in it, etc. Actually I need to think about it and talk it over with those in the PTO gifted at such details...

Got a heads up from the Fifth grade teacher, Mr. V. that his class will be doing a report on mammals and the Encyclopedia upstairs (our newest one, the World Book 1999) didn't help as much as he would have liked. He said he'd be getting me the particulars.

Mrs. N popped in and said she needed more permisson slips for K4 to take out books - Mrs. G got right on it.

And somewhere in there I had a bit to eat and drove my neightbor home. A busy but good day!

Tasks to do for volunteers as of Wed pm Oct 27

2004-10-27T18:34:00.000-05:00

1)Write in the years on the top of the slipcovers for the National Geographic magazines. I have started this for 1977 to give you an example. I used a whiteout pen that is in the bottom drawer with the scissors and tape.

2)There is a booklist for the 8th grade that I'd like to have marked by noting those that we have in the catalog. Put a checkmark by those titles on the list. This should be in the back of the logbook. If not there, look in the set of papers/folders on the left of the desktop.

3)The only books ready for catalog entry are in the box marked "ready for catalog entry". These are multiple copies of Where the Red Fern Grows and Anne of Green Gables; the first ones of these have already been entered. To input the rest, use the COPY feature, marking the title with the appropriate c.2, c3, etc.

4)We need to figure out how to use the new data stamper. It's on the top of the desk with instructions that I didn't have time to read. So I'm counting on one of you!

What I learned from second graders...

2004-10-13T07:39:00.000-05:00

I learned that adult book shelves don't work for them. They and the kindergardners need to see the front cover of a book to figure out if they'll like it. Reading tiny print on a book spine is beyond their reading ability. Once I laid out all the picture books throughout the library, they were very interested. Of course it looked like a bomb had gone off in the room after they all had left - but that was a small price to pay for them to learn that the library is a fun, interesting and useful place for everybody.

So we need to make or purchse appropriate shelving for them. Earlier in the summer I checked out our best equipped local library, Andover, for some ideas. Here is a snippet of info about that from an earlier posting to this blog. Goto the Archives for July 27 and read "The library has moved."

These are two more links to pictures of good shelving for little ones.
http://www.gaylordmart.com/adblock.asp?abid=423&sid=AB2AA67151FA41CF0009C55BB9A2A1

http://www.gaylordmart.com/adblock.asp?abid=1367&sid=AB2AA67151FA41CF0009C55BB9A2A1

So this needs to become an action item for PTO/Admin.

Thanks, Winifred

The Library is Officially Open!

2004-10-12T13:27:00.000-05:00

Today we had 2 classes come in, 4 students at a time; 2nd grade in the morning and k5 after lunch. What an adventure! I had great fun helping them to pick out books and getting to know them. Now I know who likes action books, but not sharks and who will go for the latest in the ever popular series of Captain Underpants. "Junie B Jones", the famous first grader, was also a big hit. We even had our first book lottery; necessitated when two girls went for the same Birthday Club Donation - an easy reader from American Girls. The girl who chose the number I was thinking of, from 1 to 5, got the book. I suspect that book will be in great demand - thank you Birthday Club donors!

Our First Month...

2004-09-27T14:04:00.000-05:00

During our first month, I have been busy showing the teachers how to use the catalog so they can begin bringing their classes in. It is unclear when the library will be staffed by parent -volunteers, so we are making sure the teachers can help their students use the library and check out books for them.

During each teacher's orientation, I have been finding out their students' immediate needs and checking out those books under the teacher's name. This is how we have gotten Insect books into the 4th grade; Poetry helps into the 5th grade; Community Helpers into K5 and identified a number of resources in our unyet catalogued donations to be catalogued ASAP for the 6th, 7th and 8th grades.

Mrs. Russell, our Art teacher, was the first to take out a book; she was very excited about a new Drawing Faces book from Usborne.

About 23 books have been loaned out - we want this number in the 3 digits and soon...

We have 985 books in the catalog - WOW - last November it was 500...

The PTO will be arranging the official Open House for the library when students can come in themselves and check out books - Oh, Happy Day! Stay tuned for details...

Time-Life Series Books...

2004-09-13T06:59:00.000-05:00

Some of you may remember these...a glossy volume would appear in the mail every few months in some sort of series. In our house, my parents ordered one on Leaders of the World and one on Science. And so I learned about Albert Schweitzer (sp), Dag Hammerskold (sp), but from the Science series I am drawing a blank...Maybe that's why I never passed Inorganic Chemistry...

CCA library has part of one of these series now. It is on the Civil War which is covered by our 4th and 8th grades. The reading level is high school but it is still useful to us because of the many diverse illustrations. It is chock full of old photographs, historical paintings, maps and diagrams. Because of the reading level, it is best suited for a teacher to refer to and then incorporate into a lesson- rather than expecting a 4th grader to read it and absorb it. It would be possible, though, for an advanced 8th grader to learn from it, especially if they were very interested in the subject.

A unique thing about this series is that it takes about 24 volumes to go through the War - allowing one volume to focus on one battle. This provides much more detail, bringing the Civil War to life in a real way. It also makes it easier to compare this War and its battles with other Wars. Teaching using comparisons can help make the knowledge stick longer than just memorizing names and dates.

Besides the advanced reading level, the fact that it was published in the 1980's is a bit of a negative. A more current work written by experts would automatically include the latest in archeology, map interpretation, and military analysis. Scholars are forever adding to our knowledge of history, so it is usually best to have the latest for the most complete and accurate view of history. But for now, we are happy to have what we do. (And if anyone has more in this series, we'd love to have the other 14 volumes...)

Library Status as of Saturday 9.11.2004

2004-09-11T12:21:00.000-05:00

Bar coding has commenced! Linda M. has started labeling fiction with their correct bar codes; using bar codes will make checkout faster.

All donations for Reference have been catalogued; these include encyclopedias, dictionaries and atlases (collections of maps). Now they are waiting to be spine labeled.

All donations for the Bible subject area have been assigned suject headings and dewey decimal numbers (also known as "shelf addresses") by a librarian - yours truly. Now they are awaiting data entry into the catalogue by parent volunteers.

Now I have to figure out which Subjects to tackle next; I am leaning towards Biography (about 10 books) , History (less than 10), or Science.

There are about 100+ donations in the Science and Technology Subject area; I eventually will be seperating these into sub-categories and then making a decision as to which to work with first - after talking to teachers about their science curriculum needs.

Easy Readers Now All Labeled...

2004-08-24T20:23:00.000-05:00

Thanks Amy for seperating the Picture Books from Easy Readers according to what's in the catalog and then alphabetizing them by author...what a tedious chore, but so necessary...I labeled all the Easy Readers that were in that pile/section...They look great with all those red dots in a row...

Now we need to tackle labeling the Picture Books...I printed the labels and they are sitting next to the row of Picture Books waiting for the magic to happen...

In the meantime I will continue to whip the non-fiction into shape...

We are now grounded...

2004-08-24T20:19:00.000-05:00

Electrically that is... a worker bee named Josh came in and put in a grounded outlet for our computer to work from...and some other kind soul dropped a surge protector on my desk...so now we are using a surge protector from a gounded outlet...how electrically secure can we get?!

How to Search the CCA Library Computer Catalog - Draft

2004-08-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

Some Background

The catalog is a record of everything in the library. In the bad old days it lived on little cards in wooden drawers – known as the “card catalog”. Today in most civilized societies it lives on a computer in a piece of database software. At CCA, this piece of software is called Library 1.7. It is advertised as being appropriate for churches and schools and is relatively inexpensive. It was purchased and had at least 600 entries before I, the librarian signed on to the project. I point this out so that those familiar with other library catalogs and those familiar with software will realize that I am aware of many of the flaws of this system. But we will work with what we have now and plan appropriately for the future.

At CCA, the catalog software is started up automatically upon power – up; you don’t need to select it. Following are instructions for powering up the system.

Powering up the Computer to get to the catalog

Plug in the computer; this means plug in the white adapter that has 3 power cords going into it. This means power is now going to the monitor (the TV like screen) ; the actual computer (the beige box to the right of the monitor on the short cabinet) and the printer.
Turn on the computer by pressing the oval button under the green Intralink symbol.

This will cause a bunch of numbers and codes to display on the monitor as it goes through its powering up sequence. You can ignore this usually (unless ERROR comes up; see end of document; don’t worry it -looks scarier than it really is.)

[Pink is the name of the window; gray is the button/choice to be selected/clicked - this color code was lost when I pasted this document into the blog - will re-do in later drafts. wf]

Green intralink background; desk top is beginning to be displayed

Enter network password window
Don’t need to enter anything; just click on OK

Microsoft networking window
No domain server was available to blah blah, just click on OK

Icons will come up on desktop , overlayed by Library 1.7 Window w/in a window
Click on File in upper lefthand corner
This will open new window; click on Open (Existing Library)

Opening Lbrary 1.7 Database window
On left side click on lib .l17; then click OK

This will bring up the default screen; a full record of the first book in alphabetical order by Title. This screen has all the buttons and tool bars we use. Exploring the catalog only requires the Search or the Find buttons on the tool bar. Avoid the other buttons; a misstep with one of them can cause a catalog record to be altered or even deleted.

How to Search Catalog

Use the Find button (not Search – that is more complicated)

Find Records by beginning portion of Any Field
The simplest way to find is to type in the word you are looking for in the white box on top and then select and click Any Field in the box underneath. Then click the Find It button on the top right side. The results will come up the bottom half of the screen. Double Clicking on a result will give you the full record for that selection.

There are actually 22 different fields you can search, for example the author, title, media type and so on. Right now our library collection is small enough, that doing a find on the Any Field choice is probably the quickest way to get what you want. Advanced gets you some trickier options in this Find feature.

If you want to look for words in more than one field at a time, that is when you use the Search button (rather than Find). Clicking on Search brings up a window with 3 options – to search you want to choose Set Search Options. You might want to use this feature to get an idea of the age of our science books. Here you’d scroll to Science in Subject 1 and type in 1995 in the Copyright box. Then in the gray box, you’d select Greater Than. This will then search for all Science books newer than 1995. Of our total science books in the catalog today(8/9/2004), 7 out of 35 are newer than 1995.

A key thing about looking for Subjects in Search mode is that you can’t type in the subjects you want into the Subject box; you have to scroll to one that is already used by the catalog. If you don’t know what subjects are already in the system, click on the arrow to the right of the box and scroll through the choices, clicking on your selection.

This restriction also extends to the Publisher and the media type (book, CD, etc.)

You will find as you scroll through the choices that there are entries that look similar. Some of these are mis-spellings which have yet to be corrected. It is good to take note of similar but misspelled words when you want to find absolutely everything on a certain subject. For example, as of 8/9/04, there are two subject entries for Volcanoes: Volcanoes – Fiction, and Volcanos. Even if you want non-fiction, it would be wise to look at the Fiction entry: our data entry is less than perfect and a less experienced volunteer may have assigned the wrong classification Fiction to Non-fiction. As time goes on and we have entered the first round of donations (still over 500 to go as of 8/9/2004), then we will go back and correct the older entries that have errors.

Powering off the Computer
If you are done searching and there is no one else in line to use the system you need to turn off the system and unplug it. Currently (8/9/2004) we are using 3 prong adapters to plug into the building electrical system plus we have no surge protectors. This is not exactly the safest way to keep computers running – so we shut them off and take them offline whenever they are not in use.

To shut down, click on File on upper left hand corner, click on Close.

Backup File? Window
Click on No

Library 1.7
Click on OK

On bottom of Screen, click on Start
Click on Shut Down

Shut Down Windows window
Choose Shut down the computer?
And click on Yes

Screen will go dark; once all is quiet, unplug the 3 plug adapter from the wall.

Thanks. WF

ERROR
This comes up sometimes during power-up. I won’t go thru an explicit debugging operation here; I will just give you some quick fixes.
-hit the key it is requesting; if no response
-make sure all connections on back of computer and plugs are in securely and then
-redo the power up; if no response
-leave me a note about what went wrong and what you were wanting; take a deep breath and step away; I will fix it ASAP and get you what you were looking for.

Library should be fully open end of September

2004-08-12T14:26:00.000-05:00

The goal has been to have all books already in catalog spine labeled and bar coded by school's opening day.... We stopped putting more donations into the catalog in June to give us more time to process what was already in catalog. The collection is divided into:

Fiction 99% lableled
Non-Fiction 60% labeled
Biography 99% labeled
Easy Reader 5% labeled
Picture Book 5% labeled

The labeled books can be barcoded as soon as the sheet of barcodes has been printed (by Mr. Flint). The barcode is the book's accession number - its unique identifier - that allows us to track it and tell when it has been borrowed. This info can be typed into the catalog when the book is being borrowed, but scanning a barcode is much easier and less prone to mistakes.

The big push now is labeling the Easy Readers and Picture Books. These have to first be divided between ER and P and arranged alphabetically by author in anticipation of the spine labeling process. Instructions to this effect are in the library on the desk. I need to look into the order that the catalog sw prints out spine labels to see the easiest way to finish the spine labeling.

I will be in Chicago on family buisiness next week (Aug 17-22). This means less manpower so it doesn't look like our original goal will be met. I think we will be making good progress to have the ER and Picture Books spine labeled by school's opening. The barcoding is a new process to us and so allowing time for glitches - assume we will be fully barcoded by end of September.

To help me keep track of how well I establish goals, I need to analyze the reasons when we fail to meet them. Unexpected events that slowed us down were: taking the time to physically move and rearrange the library, losing our Simmons volunteer earlier than anticipated, and needing to re-work many entries in the catalog. I hadn't really accounted for that at all, but it takes time to assign useful, correct subject headings and dewey decimal numbers. This tricky process is what librarians call "cataloguing"; "Real" cataloguers are a gifted bunch - please send us one, Lord because you know that is not my strength!

An Open Door Brings New Library Friends....

2004-08-04T18:23:00.000-05:00

Usually I keep the library door shut when I am blasting Disco Saints but today it was so hot I kept the door open and got to visit with:

Dave - who is doing floor maintenace and will be giving us a shiny new floor!

Mrs. Roux - the fourth grade teacher who has encyclopedias to donate and has cool stuff to decorate our new bulletin board.

Cookie - who told us the Library can use the bulletin board right outside the room.

Mrs. Lane - a former worshipper at CCF who has since moved to Worcester and is now homeschooling. We have many extra copies of certain resources given to us; I was able to pass on some of them to her. Glad to know they are going to a good home!

I have a dream...(apologies to Dr M. L. King)

2004-08-04T17:24:00.000-05:00

I have a dream that one day children will be able to visit the the CCA Library anytime on any school day and even after school....because it will always be staffed...but until that time we will be creative with the staffing we have. Due to the size of the room, only about 4 children at a time will be able to move around comfortably - so this will need to be our limit for the time being. As the school year gets underway, the PTO and the administration should decide the best times of the week for the library to be open given the limited staffing. Lunchtime recess and after school are good times for children to come in and browse. I will be available to staff it one whole day a week - the exact day to be determined by the time school opens.

Given the crowding problems, the collection scarcities, and staffing issues, I think the best way to help the school use the library in the fullest way will be for the library workers to pull all books for a unit as requested by a teacher. These books would then be charged to the teacher's card and delivered to them en masse to be used by the individual children in that class.

Here is how it would work in the case of an Ancient History unit: We would search the catalog for subects related to Ancient History such as Roman, Greek, and Bible Times. We would look in fiction, as well as nonfiction, picture books and easy readers - making sure to include books on tape. Picture books are great for illustrations and easy readers are necessary for readers not yet comfortable with the printed word. Reference material will be loaned out as well (only to teachers) with the understanding that Reference works do not leave the school building, These are typically the most expensive of all our books and we so we want to be good stewards. We would also photocopy the appropriate entries from the appropriate encyclopedias and send that along as well. In addition we will point the teacher to useful Internet sites - starting with those available on the Urban Christian School Library website.

Help me play with this blog...

2004-07-30T20:23:00.000-05:00

I learn new technology best by jumping in and playing with the buttons...but the way to learn how to fully work the Comments feature requires you- the reader - to play too. So click on the Comment word at the end of the posting and talk to me! Let's see how it works for anyone and everyone...I am especially keen to see how this works as a way to communicate with parent volunteers!

Now putting spine labels on Science books

2004-07-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

Two Tasks in the queue now...

There is a pile of Science books on the desk that need to be checked to see if they are in the catalog. If a book shows up in the catalog, shelve it where lives in Science - according to its classification number. If it's not in the catalog, put it on the bookshelf with the clock.

Mrs. Scarpa came in and showed non-fiction what it means to get in shape...thanks Mrs. Scarpa! Today I fine-sorted Science, putting it in order according to our Shelf Listing and checking off the books actually on the shelf. There were a small number MIA (missing in action) - meaning they are in the catalog but not hanging out with the Science books...I will be sending a search party for them if we don't turn them up after we've labeled all... Now the Science books with classification numbers 500 and 590 are ready to be labeled...their labels have been printed - in an order easy to use; the labels are placed on top of the Science bookcase. If there are questions about which book gets which label, check the Shelf Listing. which lives on the desktop.

Our Current task in the Library

2004-07-27T10:48:00.000-05:00

Currently seperating the non-fiction into rough categories of:

science/tech/math
history
biography
Bible/religion
poetry/jokes/short stories
sports/games
encyclopedias
dictionaries

I'm rearranging these on labeled shelves as I do it so that a volunteer could also work on it.

Once the rough sort is done, then we sort in the subject according to the Shelf Listing (which lives on top of the desk). This is a listing of every book in the catalog by classification such as Fiction, Biograhy or dewey decimal number for non-fiction. Once in numerical order, it will be very easy to label what we have. I will be printing out labels for all non-fiction by the end of this week ...

The Library has moved!

2004-07-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

Last week, the library was moved from the upstairs to the downstairs next to the Preschool...around the corner from the copier. It's about twice the size with freshly painted walls and high windows - it's a lovely space. Mr. Michelaney (sp) was very helpful in figuring out good arrangements for the shelves - Thanks Mr. M. The rest of the Michelany (sp) family were very hard workers - I highly recommend their children as future helpers.

There are some expected retrofit issues...the one of most concern are the electrical outlets...the two in the room do not take 3 pronged plugs...we have jury rigged the computer with an adapter, but clearly this can only be a temporary solution...at this point we can 't even use a surge protector...so we need some electrical re-work in the library. In that vein, we are also looking for an Internet connection for the library.

Some other things we could use are a bookcases designed to hold picture books - these are laid flat against a surface so the children can see the front cover...another way to hold these books is with a a sturdy set of bins on legs...think shortened milk bins made out of wood, sitting on top of legs so its all about 3 feet tall...these could be made fairly easily by a carpenter, especially the flat book shelf...I could give more specifics to them

Some colorful rugs would also make the room warmer for the little ones...and some sturdy stools designed for library use - these are the only safe ones to use and they would help the youger ones reach to the higher shelves.

If you can help provide any of these needs, email me or talk to Linda Mcilehany(sp). Thanks.

Our Immediate Goal

2004-07-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Our immediate goal is to put spine labels on books that have been entered into the computer catalogue... this means that for awhile we won't be taking time to put any more books into the catalog until further notice...donations for now are being stored at the back of the library under the windows...

2004-07-26T20:58:00.000-05:00