Don't mess with a Librarian!

Today has been yet another busy day but there was something worth writing about this time!

I arranged for the careers service to come visit me at 11.30 to help me get to grips with the new system. For those who don't know, it has changed from the CLCL to CLCI although it might have gone the other way - the initials are so similar!

Anyway, Since I have only been a school librarian for just over a year and the careers section has its own way of organising itself, I didn't know how to organise the old system or the new system. Hence the request for assistance. hey at least I'm honest - If I don't know the answer I can admit it and know where to go!

So I booked them at 11.30 knowing break ends at 11.20 thereby giving myself 10 minutes of grace. Yep you guessed it they came early. At about 11.15!

So there I was checking out books, answering questions, keeping an eye on the kids and generally trying to hold it together without exploding at the misbehaving lot in the corner, I know we are good at multi -tasking but school librarians should really get medals for this!

I go over and solicitously ask them if they would like to take a seat as I was in the middle of break. I mean duh, it was a bit obvious. They agreed and sat down while I went back to my desk to check the time. I've got to be honest I closed the library for break a tad earlier than I normally would, but then the kids left pretty much on time give or take (take) five minutes.

The usual way of clearing the library means the 50 decibels shout, "OK everyone time to go back to class. Pack up your stuff. Log off the computers....." And then the walking around the library just to get the message across that the noise they heard was indeed me telling them go back to class and not for the benefit of my health.

So I got to the other side of the library and saw a group of three. I noticed one boy had a bag. I don't allow bags during break because of the trip risk. So I ask him if he was going to be in the library for the lesson. He says no, just waiting for his friend. So I say, OK, wait for him outside. He says Ok but just stays there staring at his friend. I say now please. Stil in a nice conersational way you understand. He puts his bag on his shoulder and says he was going anyway, so I turn away thinking job done.

I scootch around to the reading zone - nobody there, make sure that no one is hiding behind the free-standing shelving and lo and behold the boys are still there and the one WITH HIS BAG. Now this has now become a threat to my authority. He has obviuosly flouted the rules and taken advantage of my good nature and ignored my instructions. So I stalk up to him and say, really loudly:

"RIGHT, I ASKED YOU ONCE, I'M NOT GOING TO ASK AGAIN. OUT. YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR YOUR LESSON. WAIT FOR YOUR FRIEND OUTSIDE."

He looks at me as if reevaluating me and scarpers for it. Now that was a job well done. future trouble maker put in his place.

The library is now empty apart froma couple of giggling sixth formers (I never normally shout so it was quite unusual) and the careers people. I walk over to them and they say:
"Wow, I wouldn't mess with YOU".

I wonder if I can get them to tell the kids that?

Bit of fun...

Perusing my e-mail while eating my breakfast I came across a fun website someone sent me. I like my zen reading. course if it was horrible I just would have ignored it but hey if 'anyone' says anything nice about me it's good to share. :-)

TrueLifeKarma.com - Online Karma Test Click Here!

Your Karmic Alignment is: Zen Intuition!

Score: 16 You have a direct perception of truth. You are very keen and don't use it to take advantage. When you commit positive deeds, you don't do them to get ahead, you do positive deeds simply because it makes you feel good. Your intentions are almost always meant well and all this positive karmaic energy is bound to come back to you in a great way!

Busy, busy, busy

I've had a monster day today so I thought I would write all down to see if I actually achieved anything!

8.30

• Go straight up to the library. I haven't got time for the staff meeting today.
• Put all the extra missing things the cleaner found in the lost property box and the books back on the shelves (Will kids ever learn to put things away?).
• Put computer on
• Put the other computers on + photocopier/printer
• Unlock all doors
• The computer finally has the log on screen. Log in.
• Wait another five minutes for the screen to come to life.
• Open thunderbird. Swear under breathe as computer takes another five minutes to open it.
• Get a couple of books to catalogue and open firefox because our catalogue freezes in Internet Explorer.
• Let the little darlings into the library.
• Sort out riddle of the day.
• Ring up accounts to order new chairs for the library. Get told that I need to provide an estiamte of the library's value by the end of the morning.
• Save the cataloguing done so far and put to one side.
• Do some photocopying for the children/teachers.
• Open up evaluation already started by pure luck. Aargh its break-time.

11.00

• Shout at children not to run in the library as they try to grab a computer.
• Listen to anane but faintly amusing conversation about girl's pet horse. Smile politely and try to sneakily to do a bit more on the valuation while they are not looking.
• A girl wants to take out the Jane Austen Emma DVD. These come in pairs and I don't allow them to take more than one DVD at a time. Especially as a really expensive one has been 'mislaid' lately. Spend five minutes searching for said DVD. Under the shelf, on the shelf, on the desk, in the box. To be told, "you meam the one the other librarian put in the box ready up there?" Grrr
• Check out/check in about 10 books.
• Accept donations for the library by one of the pupils
• Shout at the kids break is nearly over. (They can't tell the time by themselves.)

11.20

• Peace at last. Finish evaluation - pat myself on back.
• Rush to loo - am desperate by this time.
• Send valuation to accounts with instructions to order chairs and get quote for other thing.
• Ring up to check they've got it. Yep, but forgot about stuff that belongs to other departments which they dump in library in other room.
• He deletes e-mails and tells me to send it again - except there was other stuff on there!
• Finish valuation and send of making sure the other stuff is on separate e-mail. I'm not checking to see if he's got it - too much to do.
• More people come in and ask me to do photocopying.
• Enquiry to find out if we have a book. Is very urgent need it for coursework. Not in library. OK will order.
• Processed books for teacher who wanted books urgently. Stamped and covered them.
• More photocopying
• Put an order together for some more books - tunnels, the looking glass wars etc and sent it off. Processed purhcase order etc.
• Put some memos together telling teachers of new additions in the library relevant to their departments
• Process some invoices of books that arrived yesterday.

12.00

• Assistant arrives. Woohooo - LUNCH
• Drop off post in teachers pigeon holes at lunch while looking at Softlink catalogue and eating hurriedly and sneaking a peak at the Times.
• Received another book package.

12.15

• Back in library
• Open up book package
• Process invoice. i.e. stamp, put date on, photocopy, put arrival on computer
• Check vent is on later.
• Ring up another school to confirm attendance at Carnegie Shadowing event in April.

1.00

• Juniors come in
• check in and check out books
• Reply to enquiry regarding Barrington Stoke books. Get really annoyed because the teacher doesn't want to do any work and tries to get me to do everything! Her excuse is she works part-time. well join the club! So do I but I don't fob off my work to others. I already made a leaflet for her telling her what books we had relevant for her subject. What does she want from me? Blood?
• Allow Seniors to come in early because it will closed earlier because of the 'event.'
• Talk to teacher about world book day and get distracted by another teacher demanding attention.
• The gigglers come in but are remarkably restrained. They are really nice kids when they are not trying to be annoying. ...and by trying to be annoying I mean making funny noises and asking "Is that annoying?" They still require my attention though :-(

2.00

• Assistant goes to lunch
• I show six former new book I bought which is relevant to her subjetc area. She takes it away to look at it and then borrows it. Oops, maybe I should have shown it to the teachers frst. Never mind I do tend to get too excited about new books.
• Quick chat to catch up on what happened during the day with assitant and the last shift.

2.30

• Toddle off to catch the bus. Gosh I am KNACKERED.

Books, books and more books

It's that time of year again when all librarians get really excited about awards. Nope not the Oscars, not the BAFTAS, not even the Golden Globe Awards. Say hurrah for the Carnegie Awards.

The long list is out and we are just waiting fo rthe short list and its full steam ahead for the shadowing events. There is even a shadowing site you can go to: http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/shadowingsite/default.asp

Go on have a look - you know you want to. :-)

...and when I say long list, I mean loooooonnnnngggg. The current list is over forty books! Luckily it gets whittled to arond 6 books each year. Luckily for me that is. I have to ask for book reviews from the kids to know who to take to the Shadowing event. Last year I had about ten reviews for each book - that's sixty reviews to read. Did I mention I work part-time? The kids weren't the only ones doing homework! I'm definitely thinking about doing a quiz this year.

So if you're stuck for a book to read at the moment why not look at the Carngie award nominees for inspiration. That's what I'm going to tell the kids anyway...

There's something strange going on...

So it's monday afternon. we've got a new set of children hanging around the desk wanting to chat (it varies on the monitor behind the desk) and I'm helping the new pupil librarian how to use the library software for checkins and checkouts. The giggle girls saunter over.

I'm suspicious of these at the best of times but as they took out my classics a few days ago they are in my good books at the moment. The 'leader' goes

'Libwarian, you're the best librarian in the world.' That's not a typo by the way. And my response?
'What do you want?' in a world weary tone.
'No Miss libwarian, we think you are the best libwarian ever. Why do you think we are up to something? That's what the other librarian said when we said it to her.'

Ahh, well it was nice for a moment there. Apparently they had been following my assistant around the library as she was shelving for the past ten minutes telling her how lovely she was. Still as games go, this is the nicest I've seen!

Bad Poetry

Now I hate poetry normally, but as I had the stuff from the (wedding) registrar come through today, I am in a romantic mood. So here goes, some really bbbbaaaddddd poetry!

This poem is for my wonderful fiancé
who I first met down the Bay
The fact that he doesn't consider it a blight
that I have bloody terrible sight
I love him more than I can say.

He looks after me when I am ill
When he takes me to dinner he pays the bill
In October we will get married
As never a harsh word have we parried
I know I will love him 'till I am over the hill.

There you go, I told you it was bad!

It just warms the cockles of my heart...

At lunchtime today, I had a mass of juniors flood in. This doesn't panic me as much as the seniors do. They are smaller, cuter and much better behaved than the seniors. A group of year 6 (ten/eleven year old) boys walked through the double doors at the library entrance, pausing at the desk and headed straight for the non-fiction bookshelves in an arrow formation. I swear I watched in open-mouthed amazement and glee. My and my assistant's heads followed (in unison) their progress with sheer disbelief. The sound of the dambusters music here would not have gone amiss. They were looking for the riddle answer in the bookshelves.

My work here is done. The pinnacle of librarianship has now been achieved. What can be more difficult than getting a child to use the Dewey Decimal system without being asked! - independant learning at its best. If I was only thirty years older I could retire in happiness.

Classics

The problem with budgets is that they go up as well as down. This year our book budget went down considerably so I have to find ways of making it go that little bit further.

My latest find was from the book people. I managed to get 10 books for just shy of a tenner. Have a look: http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productSearch_10001_10051_92371_100___10_SimpleSearch_2_1_2__basicSearch_

These are brilliant. All our classics are looking a bit dated and as my previous blogs show the kids at my school are really picky. I hadn't seen one 'classic' taken out by the younger years since I've been there. The sixth formers do but they have to for their A levels.

Anyway, I bought this set of books which are really colourful and a joy to look at. They fit nicely in the hand and the type face is a comfortable size to read. There was:

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Flambards by K.M.Peyton
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Anne of green Gables by L.M.Montgomery
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Party Shoes by Noel Streatfeild and
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

I had just emptied the box set into our cataloguing box yesterday (I loved the box it came in and thought I could use it for something else) when the little darlings spotted the box and asked me to get one of the books pictured on it. Well of course I went, 'we've got them - that's why the box is there.' I am my own worst enemy sometimes. I should have said I would see thereby giveing me time to catalogue them.

Anyway they saw me glance at the box we were keeping them and before you know it they were rummaging in there and reading the blurbs at the back. The up shot of this little escapade was my long suffering assistant had to catalogue them all this morning in a rush. By the time I got in some of the classics were already taken out! The girl I was taking about took out Flambards. Aargh, my planned display ruined!

I'm not sure who won that one. I think I'll call it a draw.

Librarians 4, Children 1

Trade Unions for Librarians

OK, I know I've done a couple of posts already today but instead of talking my fiance's ears off, I've decided to rant on the web instead.

This time it's about trade unions. I work in a school library as the librarian. I am at risk from idiot children saying something inapropriate because they think it's funny. There are some stupid kids in our school as well as extremely bright ones - but then there are different levels of stupidity.

I was witness to this last year. My assistant asked a child to stop reaching behind the desk. The child kept picking up pens, notepads, literally anything movable and playing with them. She was finding it hard understanding personal space I think. Anyway, the girl put her hand out with that annoying look that says "what you gonna do about it?"

My assistant puts her hand out (it was nowhere near the child I was standing right next to her so could see this) and asked her to stop. She was at least a few inches away from the child's hand. Next thing I know the kid is crying "she hit me". Becase I saw what happened I just ignored her overacting (she should really take up drama) and then she left a few minutes later laughing with her friends.

If she had been a nasty kid she could have caused a whole load of trouble for us. Luckily for us the kids at my school aren't bad. ...but it only takes one bad kid....

Which leads me to my grumble of the day. The various teachers unions won't take us on because we are not teachers. Even though it is part of a librarians job to teach kids about library and information skills and give inductions and we are at the same risk of unfounded litigation. Given this we are left in the cold with nowhere to go - least of all CILIP. At least trade unions if we could get in to one would use the fees (which are less than CILIPs by the way) to help pay legal costs if such an eventuality happened.

How is this fair?

Even though I am starting to love this job - I am also starting to think the risks are outweighing the ups.

Global Warming

This guy makes a very compelling argument for significant ACTION to combat Global Warming, whether you believe it is caused by human activity or not.

read more digg story

Last book I read - A Crack in the line by Michael Lawrence

I'm always reading books, but I've set myself the challenge of reading most of the book in my library, eek. Thinking this is a tad ambitious I've lately opted for new books that we order in. The last one was the Crack in the Line. I picked it up at first because it was set in the UK and was different from the usual sci-fi/fantasy I usually go for. It's obviously a children's book and the hero/heroine are basically two possibilities of the same person. The title refers to a crack in the railway line which leads to a train derailment. The mother has a fifty-fifty chance os surviving the train crash. At that instant the Universe becomes two universes. One in which the boy loses his mother and has a dreadful life and one where a girl (the same person but a girl) gets to keep her mother and has lots of luck and comes into money blah blah. I enjoyed this book although it was bit slow in places. There is some swearing in it so I wouldn't recommend it for anything below 12 years old. However it is not gratuitous swearing - it does push the story along - character development and all that. The main characters are likeable and there are some funny interchanges between the boy and his aunt who arrives at the house to look after him while his father is away. Luckily she is quite dippy allowing him the opportunity to pass between universes to meet himself as a girl. it's part of a trilogy and I have gone through two thirds of the second book. Admittedly it's not the best book I've read but certainly not the worst. If you are bored on a rainy afternoon, these do while a way a couple of hours.

eww public libraries - just kidding

I visited my local public library today and while its not as bad as the kids parents think, there wasn't a huge selection of fiction books on offer. We have more books in our spinners! Still I liked their what's new section (had six books in it which weren't actually that new), there was a book displayed there which looked quite interesting - I think I'm going to buy it.

I think they could've done more really. It was all a bit bland apart from the toddler reading bit which was basically a play area in the middle of it. There were no posters advertising forthcoming books or even what they have that might be interesting. I always insist on havin fresh displays every term in my library. it felt a bit oppressive to tell you the truth. It's visits like that that make me appreciate how nice my library actually is.

It's daunting seeing a lot of books with just their spines showing - you need to attract the reader - tease them with colour. Dare I say it - break it up a bit.

The staff were friendly though, I'll give them that. They don't give phone numbers out though - strange policy - o they think I'm going to sell it on the black market for library phone numbers?

hey ho