Adult Titles: New for the Fall

Game Day:  Meet the People Who Make it Happen  by Kevin Sylvester

A behind-the-scenes look at the unsung heroes behind the star athletes in the world of sports. 

The Notorious Benedict Arnold:  A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery  by Steve Sheinkin

A fresh look at a famous American villian, the author recounts the tactical brillance, heroism, and adventurous nature of Benedict Arnold. 

A Nation Within a Nation:  Organizing African-American Communities Before the Civil War  by John Ernest

Examines the strong community organization, religion, and culture of antebellum slave life.  The author argues that the strength of this culture helped to define the 18th century African American living in both the North and South no less than slavery.

MS/US: New YA Novels

Purple Heart  by Patricia McCormick

A contemporary suspense novel set in wartime Iraq.  Private Matt Duffy awakens in a military hospital and must piece together the puzzle of events in his mind with the conflicting stories his friends are telling him.  Tackles the issues of war and heroism.

Erak's Ransom by John Flanagan

Book 7 in The Ranger's Apprentice series.  A mission to save their friend Erak leads to new challenges, allies, and foes.

Lower School: New Novels

Wonderstruck: a novel in words & pictures  by Brian Selznick

Following up on the success of his Caldecott book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Selznick uses the same picture-telling format to tell the tale of 2 stories set 50 years apart as young Ben seeks the father he never knew.

Torn  by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Book 4 in The Missing series, time-traveler siblings find themselves in the thick of a mutiny on Henry Hudson's ship in 1611.



Lower School: New E Books for the Fall :)

ZooZical  by Judy Sierra; illustrated by Marc Brown  
A hippo and kangaroo decide to beat the boredom of winter by staging an elaborate musical.

Kindergarten rocks!  by Katie Davis

Dexter Dugan thinks he is ready for kindergarten, but what if...?  A comforting look at first-day jitters for new students.

9 Things That Happen When You Read (a re-post)

I was so touched by this reading, that I had to re-post.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the Web 2.0 world that we forget all we gain from reading a book!This is a re-post from Book Browse: http://www.bookbrowse.com/blogs/editor/index.cfm/2011/9/25/9-Things-That-Happen-When-You-Read

1. We observe the general scene and follow the narrative. Whether action-filled or more literary, we read all novels the same way: seeking out the meaning and main idea.
2. We transform words into images in our mind, completing the novel as our imaginations picture what the words are telling us.
3. Part of our mind wonders how much is real experience and how much is imagination. "A third dimension of reality slowly begins to emerge within us: the dimension of the complex world of the novel."
4. We wonder if the novel depicts reality as we know it. Is this scene realistic, could this actually happen?
5. We enjoy the precision of analogies, the power of narrative, the way sentences build upon one another, the music of the prose.
6. We make moral judgments about the characters' behavior, and about the novelist for his own moral judgments by way of the characters' actions and their consequences.
7. We feel successful when we understand the text, and we come to feel as though it was written just for us.
8. Our memory works hard to keep track of all the details, and in a well-constructed novel, everything connects to everything.
9. We search for the secret center of the novel, convinced that there is one. We hunt for it like a hunter searches for meaningful signs in the forest.

From Orhan Pamuk's The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist (2009), which originated as a series of six public lectures at Harvard; abbreviated and paraphrased by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. in Creating in Flow.

Library Server Upgrade Scheduled for September

We are upgrading our server this month to Follett's hosted service.  The implications for problem-solving technology issues are obvious: we will be able to solve issues quicker with a hosted database that allows us to work with Follett's wonderful technology team.  Current problem-solving is dependent on the speed of an already over-worked technology department.  As with most schools, our technology department is understaffed.  Any library issues, which are crucial to us, have to fall in line with all of the other needs across the campus.  

The professionalism of Follett is what motivated me to make this move.  I have dealt with Follett for over 15 years at various libraries, and have always been impressed with their support, solutions, and timeliness.  I lost the only library staff member I could rely on for data input and corrections, so those duties have fallen on me. I don't need to tell other librarians what my work load is now that school is back in session, including adminstrative duties, collection management, staff management, teaching and facilitation, and technology leadership on campus.   Knowing that I can count on Follett will make my life much easier.

I was assigned an Implementation Specialist who immediately set up a conference call to walk me through the process.  The total migration will close our data system down for 2 work days, with training on the 2nd day.  Again, the professional and timely manner in which this job is being handled, even though it isn't a large job like a school district library system, is top notch.  Looking forward to a quick migration from start to finish!

Early Issues with Flex Scheduling

While I remain positive that our move to flex scheduling will promote greater usage and real learning, there are issues our staff will need to address.  After the first 3 weeks, we sat down and came up with the following concerns:
1.  Classes coming "with the teacher" for group check out were more unruly than students coming in on passes without teacher supervision throughout the day.
2.  One library staff member was not making a clear job transition to the circulation desk, further blurring the line as to who was in charge of the class.
3.  Some teachers were simply sitting down and chatting, and ignoring their class behavior all together.

First, we must address our own responsibilities.  While a changing role in the library is difficult, moving from "library teaching assistant" to "library clerk" should run smoother, as we are all cross-trained in circulation duties.  Additionally, we contacted the school administrator to clearly define how a class should behave in the library.  For some reason, this was not a problem that we could forsee.  But, without clear supervision, children who always behaved beautifully in the library were running amock.  As with all library staffing in the current budget crunch, we are stretched thin.  But we can make this work by being proactive and addressing issues as they come up.  If we are to be a success at flex scheduling, we have to be more flexible, and give our patrons more support and "gentle guidance" as we make the change.