Library Media Tech Talk: August 2018

Monday, August 20, 2018

An Easy Way to Keep Track of New Books

It seems there is no end to the list of new books that are released by publishers each month. On top of being a literacy specialist, teacher librarians also must manage the facility and student visitors, collaborate, create programming, market library services, serve as school technology support, and many other duties. If you have found it a challenge to keep up with new books as a result of these numerous job tasks, I want to share a simple way that changed our practice in the school library last year.

The Struggle

I find it difficult to read as a result of the many daily tasks I experience as a teacher librarian. This is a fact I have worried about for several years. I've been working hard over the summer to read more, and I'm very proud to say that this will be a continuing priority for the new school year. The simple fact is that it is impossible to "sell" students on book titles if we can't speak about them with knowledge and passion! There is something very powerful about telling a student about a book that we have read and love. It is one of our most important tasks. We have used Junior Library Guild as a means of receiving new YA fiction titles for many years. In addition, we order books that are popular. We also make an effort to order appropriate titles that students and teachers request. But the question remains: "How do we truly know our book inventory?"

Google Docs to the Rescue

Last summer, I decided to use Google Docs as a way to record all our new incoming titles. I thought this could be a resource for placing the title and a brief summary of all the new titles we place in the collection. Kaitlyn Price, the co-librarian I work with at Lakeside High School, agreed that we could use this document in many ways. She and I both decided to sit down each month when book orders arrived and handle each book. We made this a regular practice throughout the school year. We decided to put the title, call number, genre, and summary information in each entry. While reviewing each title, we try to read a few chapters of the book in addition to the summary.

While this didn't help me memorize each title, I certainly had a much better handle on new titles each month. In addition, I could pull up the Google Doc at any time and do a search for any word in the document. This was especially helpful for titles that I couldn't remember. I may not recall the title, but I could enter a keyword in the find tool for the document and usually locate the book in question.

I have included links to the new title documents from last school year and our new one for 2018-2019 below.

Our Doc from 2017-2018

Our Doc from 2018-2019

Next Steps

This method may not be for everyone, but it has certainly helped us do a much better job of becoming familiar with new titles in the library. It has also been a great document that we can share with teachers that might be interested in new titles. We have also shared it with our most avid readers so they can see what new titles have come in. We plan to continue this practice each month during this school year!

In my next blog article, I'll plan to show some of our monthly newsletter examples and how we share them with students. I hope these short "hacks" help you improve your service to students and teachers.

Other links that may interest you:

Our 2017-2018 Annual Report

Social Studies Maker Project Part 1

Social Studies Maker Project Part 2

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Saturday, August 4, 2018

Our 2017-2018 Annual Library Report

I have written about our journey with annual library reports many times in the past. If you have never shared an annual report with your library stakeholders, please, consider creating one this year. Library annual reports can convey a lot of information as an advocacy piece for your program, and it can help change the perspective of what you do each day. Reports can also speak to administrators using data and statistics. It is important to provide a return on their investments in library resources and staff.

Changes for the 2017-2018 Report

We chose to streamline our report to contain both library and textbook circulation statistics, teacher collaborations, and tech work orders. (We serve as technology support in our building.) Photos of new collaborations and linked blog article reflections of those events are also included. Hopefully, this will help some of our stakeholders find our two library blogs and read more reflections from our school library adventures.

Things We Will Add Next Time

We keep a Google Form for student sign-in/ sign-out. I failed to put that in the report. Next year, I will make a note to include that statistic so stakeholders will view data indicating how many students visit the library during free flow times. I also should have shared how many books we added and removed from the collection. That statistic is easy to pull from the circulation system. I think that stakeholders would like to see evidence of how the collection changes through the year. To have a current collection, items must be added and discarded!

The Report (Completed on Sway):

Next Steps

This year we will be collecting tech support evidence when we assist teachers with classroom technology problems. This will show how many work orders we keep away from our district technology team. It will also show how much of an impact this service has on our building. You may have special services you provide in your building (in addition to librarianship job duties). Consider collecting data related to that job to share with your stakeholders. In our situation, seeing how much technical assistance we provide the building may help add value to our positions now and/ or in the future.

None of us in the education profession should think that we are always protected and/ or are owed a job position by a school. Assume no one knows what you do and find statistical ways to share the value of your job and your program. Try to approach each day and each year as if you have to re-apply for that job at the end of the year. How might students and teachers benefit from our professional actions if we all had that goal each day?

I have seen many examples of annual library reports over the years. Ultimately, every teacher librarian must select what data they want to share with their stakeholders. Remember, you know what is best for your audience. These data choices may change from year to year. The important thing is that you tell your library stories through some type of annual report. These stories are about student and teacher growth through the lens and services of the library. If you don't share these stories, who will?

Other links that may interest you:

The Arkansas-Beijing Connection