I haven't written enough!

My days as a school librarian have sped by faster than the pages of a flip book animation. I'd hoped to have written more frequently. Soon I will be posting pictures of the changes but for now I just want to give you a Panther Library Project digest. The first few days were spent honing my opening and closing rituals.

I begin by picking up the newspapers (The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, West County Times, and the Berkeley Daily Planet) at the school corner. Walking into the faculty room, I check my box for magazines (37 titles) and mail and drop off any extra papers for the teachers. Then slipping in through the back door of the library I open all the windows so that by the afternoon the library isn't cooking and drop the newspapers and magazines off. Then I turn on all the lights, unlock the front doors for the waiting students, and pass them to raise the flag outside. Coming back in, I replace old magazines with new ones and yesterday's papers with todays. Finally I check my voice mail, my email, and the library reservation binder to plan the day's agenda.

Besides the usual daily work of checking out books, cataloging new books, going through older material to decide what to do with it, working with teachers and classes who come into the library, helping students log onto the internet, change their passwords, or print a paper I have slowly accomplished several miniprojects:

Created small signs for Dewey Decimal System hundreds subdivisions
Put up student artwork all around the library
Created a back to school display
Created a listening station with turntable and headphones for 1000+ records and began organizing and cataloging those records
Divided the library into two zones: a quiet study zone and a collaborative learning zone
Created a text book reference section for students who for any reason don't have a text book that day
Booked a local author to speak to students mid October about her book and ordered 20 of her books to give away to students, teachers, and parents who come to the book talk. Also created a display for the book advertising the book talk.
Helped re-image all of the PC's to improve their speed
Collaborated with a Chemistry teacher and a French teacher to create lessons that incorporated information literacy and web 2.0 technology
Celebrated Banned Book week with a banner, book display and Youtube videos.
And wrote an introduction to myself and my library program as a feature in the parent newsletter.

It has been a very busy first six weeks, but I have never been happier about a job in my life! It is stimulating and interesting in a hundred different ways in a single day. I actually have to make sure that I don't overwork and take breaks. It is outrageous that people think of being a librarian as a boring job; I've found it to be anything but!