Nothing Library Related

This is not at all library related...I just loved the video. A sure sign of your age when the Muppets cover a song from your teenage years.

What are you thankful for?

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, it always turns my thoughts to gratitude and this year is no different. There are so many blessings in my life and I am thankful. Unlike many people, I have a job that I love and even earned tenure this year. Library world may be a rocky ride these days in California, but continuing to advocate for strong libraries and getting the message out there is important. I'm also grateful for my family, my health and my home...there are so many less fortunate than I.

Happy Thanksgiving!

CSLA Day 3

Another good day at the CSLA convention with some intriguing sessions that have given me more good ideas to take home.
Booktrailers--A how to session that gave me some ideas on another way to promote books.
Clout--This session just reinforced that I'm on the right track for making myself indispensible in my school. Involvement, patience and persistence will pay off.
Reluctant Readers--more with book trailers and book talks and a great book list all of which I can use when I return to school on Monday.
Membership meeting and the Brag book...I need to work on my bragalogues but I'm getting better at letting others know what good things are happening. Small steps...

I'm glad I made the effort to make it to the conference. It was well worth the trip. I'm going home with good ideas and the confidence that I'm doing things right.

CSLA 2009--Days 1/2

I made the trek to Southern California for the annual conference and so far I haven't been disappointed. While it's obvious that budgets are tight, our numbers are smaller the commitment to school libraries is obvious throughout the last two days. The sessions I've attended have all given me good ideas to take home and to use quickly with my staff and students.

Thursday:
I attended two workshops:
Deb Stanley's Research using Web 2.0 and interactive white boards which gave me a lot of "I could do that..." moments
Michael Cart's Best Books for YA is a can't miss workshop for me. His lists and passion for books helps my collection development every year!

Friday:
Testing Tidbits--Wow! This is stuff I can use with my English dept. ASAP. Here's another way to show my value with the CST tests.
PLC's and Libraries--Reinforced the idea of my role as a partner in the PLC process. It's the role I've adopted, but I wasn't quite sure if I was on the right path...this session validated my process.
Web 2.0--Anna and Marie are amazing in what they do with their students. I'm in awe of the tools that they use and the creative ways they've incorporated these tools into their library programs.
GALE's Power Hour was fun a little wine, some munchies and I won $25 Starbucks card.
The President's reception with the Follies was a fun cap to the day...

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Sesame Street

If you've been to Google at all this week, you've probably noticed their doodles have featured various Sesame Street Characters. That's because it's the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street this week. Google posted this video on their blog and it just brings a smile to your face...not to mention the video is from 1982 and Google the company didn't exist until 1998...

A bustling and vibrant library

I love days when every period has classes come into the library...the place is bustling and there's an energy that's different. Today was one of those days. Every period saw a different group of students there to work on projects for English, World History and Sociology. But something was missing...why did they come here? For the space to spread out, for access to the computers, but what role did I play? This was one of those days that was busy, but my role was limited. No one needed help except on the computer they couldn't get signed onto. No one asked for my expertise in helping find good information for their research--google and wikipedia were the sources of choice. The teacher's don't include me in their plans. As much as I've tried with one of them, she rebuffs my overtures of guidance. I felt like the clerk not the expert in the room. How do I change the perception?

This year is my third at this school. More classes are using the library this year. More teachers are open to collaborating and finding the best ways to provide their students with information. But still the students don't ask and if they're teacher hasn't allowed me the opportunity to teach in even a small way, how do I make the student's realize what a resource they have in me?

Pondering...just pondering?

Musings...

I don't post here often and I wonder if I should just discontinue this blog. Still sometimes it's nice to have a place to ponder the work that I do and what's happening in my library world. Where else can I vent frustration over 5 days in the last two weeks that closed the library due to testing? Where else do I get to ponder if the little steps I take to help staff or students really make a difference? As I sit and wait for school site council meeting to start I wonder where education in this state is going? Money is now "flex" money so SSC has no real say in how it's spent. Luckily, I was able to advocate for only a 20% cut to my library budget when I met with my administrator and showed him how I would spend the remaining 80% to serve the whole school.