Books I bought today

New books that I just bought from the Friends bookstore :)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Been looking for this in hardback for while..)
Luna by Julie Anne Peters (The only one of this group I have read. Love Love Love!)

School Librarians Roundtable...

I have been meaning to do a write up about this awesome experience, but I've gotten delayed. No more waiting for you though!

As I have said before, my internship at a local HS is pretty awesome...ok, so maybe I have said that a lot. :)

Another reason to confirm said awesomeness is the fact that I was invited to attend a roundtable of sorts where all the city school librarians meet to discuss events, ideas, and anything else.

The school system I am part of is pretty small. - 1 HS, 2 Jr. Highs, and 5 elementary schools.

Since I was a slacker and didn't blog immediately after the meeting *tsk tsk* I don't remember every single detail about the meeting. But here are some of the highlighted points...

• Destiny (Catalog software for School Media Centers) - It turns out that this chunk of change comes out of the library's budget, which in my school for the last couple of years has been non-existent. Possible idea? Ask the PTO to help with payment.
• E-books and e-readers. I would definitely say most of the meeting centered around this up and coming technology. Should school libraries have e-readers? What are good companies to purchase downloadable books from? Rules for checking out e-readers?
• Rules and Evaluations..... Ok, this part surprised me. There are sooooooo many guidelines that the state and national board say must be followed. I mean there was like a 52 page handbook for one association. I never really thought about this aspect of the public school system and it was more than slightly intimidating
• Big events or programs that the librarians had done - I remember one school had Waffle House come and cook waffles for the kids for one event....mmmm waffles..

I did talk a little and they were very welcome. I knew a little about e-readers, so I talked about how my library has an employee of Barnes and Noble come give workshops on how to use e-readers and I explained that Nooks are library friendly, which means users have access to free downloadable books from the library, whereas with Amazon's Kindle, users are restricted to only Amazon books.

I also mentioned the use of Friend's Bookstores to them when it comes to buy new materials. For those of you who don't know, Friends is an organization set up with a public library that is strictly for the public library. They usually do the book sale and run the Friend's Bookstore. This is a great source for anyone who is trying to build a collection or just wants to get some great books for a great price. Sometimes damaged books are sent to the Friend's Bookstore once they have been discarded from the collection, but most times these books simply haven't checked out or they are in need of a replacement

Like I said, it was an awesome experience and I was so glad that I was given the opportunity to see what goes on "behind the scenes". Sorry y'all didn't get the full extended version, but I promise to be more prompt on posting

Dr. Seuss' Birthday - Reading Material

March 2nd will be the 107th Birthday of Dr. Seuss. To celebrate and honor Dr. Seuss my SLIS school will be reading to a local elementary school in Tuscaloosa. I wasn't able to participate last year, but I have decided that since I have the day off I'm going to make the drive to T-Town.

I've picked a couple of my personal favorites to take a long:

Mary Has A Little Lamp by Jack Lechner
Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman
Princess Hyacinth: The SurprisingTale of a Girl who Floated by Florence Parry Heide
It's A Book by Lane Smith
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (Since it would be nice to have at least one Dr. Seuss book)

Honorable Mentions (They didn't make the list mainly because they are currently checked out....)
The Stonecutter by Demi
Princess Justina Albertina by Ellen Dee Davidson
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Animals should definitely NOT wear clothing by Judi Barrett
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett (Its a classic, but I'm sure they have already heard this one and I want to expose them to other titles.)


What would you recommend?

Lack of posting...

Dear Readers...if anyone is reading,

    I apologize for my lack of posting. I start out with good intentions every time I start a new endeavour, but usually between the 2 jobs, an internship, grad school, and a dog, blogging gets lost among the hustle and bustle. I promise to do better though!

I am now on Twitter! Follow me @LibrarianJuJu   (I have been regularly updating!)

Here is a quote from a few weeks ago....

Principal (on the intercom): Students, take out your cell phones and text your parents saying that school with dismiss early at 2PM due to inclement weather.
Me: Ms. R, I'm scheduled to leave at 2 (which is was 2 PM right at that moment)....
Ms. R: Go! Run!

And that is how you learn to outrun 1800 students...

Book Recommendations for the Day

I recommended these awesome books to one patron today...

Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis
The Duchess of Whimsy by Randall de Seve
Princess Justina Albertina by Ellen Dee Davidson

Her Theme? Picture Books that promote Self Confidence (Paper Bag Princess), books that teach about accepting others (The Duchess of Whimsy), accepting others (Tadpole's Promise, I don't care how morbid it is), and about not being a brat (Princess Justina Albertina)

How I became a librarian....

People have been asking me this a lot lately and this is exactly how the conversation went down....

But first, let me give you a little background information. I earned my Bachelor's in Art History from UAB in the Spring of 2009. I love my Bachelor's Degree, but it is sitting on my bookcase collecting dust (soon it will be in an awesome frame that my sister brought me...still collecting dust.) I had always wanted to be a museum curator, but I realized that not only would I have to get my Master's (which I was definitely cool with), but that I would also have to get a PH.D. All this seemed a little daunting to a girl who was about to graduate....now back to the life changing conversation. 

Picture It. My Mother's House...Fall 2008.

Mom: What are you going to do after you graduate?
Me: I don't know.
Mom: I think you should go to library school.
Me: Ok

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is how I became a librarian. I never dreamed of it, but I worked in my school's media center during elementary and junior high, so to my mother this was the perfect solution. It was the perfect solution to me too, because after some quick research I found out that I wouldn't have to write a thesis. I was definitely headed to library school!

Please answer the question....

Me: How old is your child?
Parent: K-4


I have no idea what the heck K-4 is, Lady, and it still didn't answer my question. I thought maybe this meant the child was 4 years old (I'm going on the assumption that the 4 in K-4 is for 4 yrs. old), but after further talking with this parent, I don't think she knew how old her child was either...

This is also another one of my favorites....

Me: How old is your child?
Parent: 36 months.
Me:...so 3 years?
Parent: 36 months.


I would say after one year, maybe 18 months, you can stop counting your child's age in months. But really, 36 months?

1984...

 So why are there 6 copies of George Orwell's 1984 sitting in my passenger seat?

We have many copies of the required readings for the English classes at my internship. From Julius Caesar to Frankenstein. This list also includes 1984, which is quite popular right. So popular that there are no copies left of the shelf. I mentioned to Mrs. M that I had seen several copies at 2nd & Charles (i.e. heaven). Some of these copes as low as fifty cents. She promptly took out $5 and instructed me to get as many copies as possible for $5.

How awesome is it to go to 2nd & Charles (ie heaven) with someone else's money?  Pretty awesome.

I picked up 2 copies for fifty cents and the other 4 ranged from .75 to .90
She told me it was ok to buy used books cheaply because even if they only lasted another year or two it would still be worth it. She said to pick the best looking copies, meaning no tears or rips. I decided it was ok if there was writing within the books (like notes by previous students) because all the copies that we have already have notes in them from previous years' students.

On a side note, I talked with one of the managers at 2nd & Charles (ie heaven) and they sadly told me they couldn't accept purchase orders (which means we can't buy books from there for the school in large quantities), but that the school could set up a donation account so if anyone wants to donate their store credit to the store they can.

Well, I'm off to bed because I don't want to have a repeat of Monday morning where I woke up 10 mins before I was suppose to be at my internship because my dog decided to sleep on my phone (ie my alarm clock). Mrs. M got a kick out of this!