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