Many of you, like me, have made a shift from one job to another this summer. Kudos to each of you who still managed to get their posts in during September. Me, I’m just now getting to my desk to write this. (I just now have a desk in my apt!!) During this transition, a few earworms have made their way in. I imagine others have found certain songs rolling around their brains this last month too. With Teen Read Week‘s theme being Books with Beat this year, and our blogmaster giving her students a weekly playlist, I thought it only fitting to put down some of the beats that have been in my head lately.

Here’s my playlist: (more…)

At last, things are starting to settle down! As a school librarian the first month of school is the most chaotic and tiring of the whole year, well except maybe the last month. Getting the library set up – new books unpacked and shelved, posters hung, letters to parents and staff; the list goes on and on. The beginning of the year is always overwhelming; no matter how long you have been a librarian. For most of the country that beginning rush is starting to wane. For many of us, we rarely have time to collaborate with teachers, let alone other librarians.
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Throughout my library branch, we have our state’s truancy law posted which basically says that anyone age 15 and younger should be in school from 7a-2p or have appropriate documentation if they are at the library during these hours. (more…)

About 10 days ago the musical group OK Go premiered their newest video, White Knuckles.

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Everyone wants to go on a road trip!  Here is your chance to join YALSA’s LIS (Library and Information School) Road Trip!

Launching in 2011 this road trip will focus on the LIS’s around the country.  We want students and professors to host an event, a program or happy hour on each of the ALA accredited schools to help faculty and students be aware of what YALSA does.  We will contact the ALA Student Chapters as well to engage them in our road trip!  Look for future announcements on the blog and on a newly created wiki space.  The LIS Road Trip Task Force is looking for volunteers to promote YALSA and the values of membership to our future librarians!  The Task Force will be creating promotional materials, how to sign up and how to market your event.  Please contact Jerene Battisti, chair, if you have ideas or questions at jdbattisti@kcls.org.

“They say there is strangeness too dangerous in our theaters and bookstore shelves…Those who know what’s best for us must rise and save us from ourselves…” – from “Witch Hunt” by Rush

Yes folks, it’s September, and that means two things are certain:  students are back in school, and potential censors and book challengers are coming out of the woodwork.  Recent challenges to Sherman Alexie’s “Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and Laurie Halse Anderson’s “Speak”  were just the first to greet the new school year.  Interestingly enough, this last week of September is Banned Books Week, and therefore the perfect time think about the potential for censorship, and whether you’re ready for that challenge if it comes your way. (more…)

In August, I left my job at the Darien (Ct) Library to become the Academic Technology Coordinator at Hamden Hall Country Day School. While I’d begun my library career as an independent school librarian (at Wilbraham & Monson Academy in western Massachusetts), I have never been in the classroom before.  Having now switched from a school to a public library and back again, I feel like I’m getting a pretty good sense of the overlaps between the two areas, as well as the significant differences. If you’re considering making the move to a school, here’s what I’ve learned in my few weeks on the job. (more…)

As a part of our community outreach each fall, my public library sends representatives to as many “Back to School Night” open houses as we are able.  Library staff bring posters and flyers describing our programs for children and teens, library card applications, giveaways like our nifty color-changing pencils, and raffle tickets.  Students and parents can see what’s going on at the library, get a card and a fancy writing implement with the library’s name on it, and fill out a raffle ticket to win some books.

Since I am new, and the first full-time young adult librarian my library has had, I want the teens, parents, and teachers in my community to see me and have every opportunity to say hello.  So, I have volunteered to go on five of these visits.  The first two were this past week and the experiences were vastly different.
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Earlier this month mk Eagle wrote about working with guidance counselors. Collaborating with other librarians and people who work with teens in the community is an important aspect to providing great YA services, but we can also find opportunities for collaboration within our own libraries by working with our non-YA coworkers.

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When mk proposed the idea of 30 Days of Back To School, I was heading into uncharted territory as a solo librarian covering two libraries in my large public high school (we have about 2200 students in grades 9-12, with one library serving grades 9-10 and another serving grades 11-12), and leaped at the chance to write a greatest hits post on collaboration with classroom teachers.

If nothing else, I needed a set of reminders to myself about how to work effectively with faculty for the benefit of all students, and after the last couple of years of working in the Senior High library, I have a few ideas to share, largely based on the advice of my personal school library guru, Alice Yucht (and which I hope you lovely readers will add to in the comments). As I write this, though, I am preparing to leave my school for a job at Infolink, NJ’s Statewide Library Cooperative, as a Program Coordinator in charge of continuing education for libraries in South Jersey. While I’m very sad to leave my school, I’m also very happy to share with you all some of what I’ve learned along the way. Here goes!

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