Finally getting to work

Today, I had made arrangements for my mother to babysit my two smallest kids so I could go to the middle school to begin actual work with the librarian, Ms. Reece. I arrived at 10:00am and could stay until 2:00pm. I was hoping to get lots of work done, but when I got there, Ms. Reece excitedly informed me that I had picked a good day to come because there would be food. There was a kind of staff potluck to take place in the library. So part of the time was spent setting up for that and also eating the goodies, but I was also able to get in some valuable work. The most important part was setting everything up so that Ms. Reece knew about the parameters of my assignment and getting instruction on a few basics from her so I can eventually just come in and work, unassisted by her so she can go about her normal duties.

I weeded the 796's--sports, recreation books--and removed about 30 books that were either old and past their usefulness, badly damaged or worn, or both old and badly worn. In the process, I was able to survey a few students on their interests and discovered that they were interested in finding books on hunting from this section but there were absolutely none. Also, I found out that students who were interested in finding drawing books in a nearby section would like to find books on drawing fantasy creatures like goblins and satyrs. Ms. Reece has said that the drawing section and the sports section get a lot of interest from the kids.

I also learned how to check books in and out and to look up a child's number on the circulation software. Ms. Reece and I also walked through the process she usually uses when she is ready to purchase books to replace those she has weeded. So we found a few books that would be appropriate on fishing to replace books that I had suggested to be discarded. Ms. Reece is very appreciative of the help. I wasn't able to get all the books that I had removed through the entire process of discarding--removing barcodes, labeling and deleting from the circulation program--but I put my stack of books in Ms. Reece's office on a spare shelf and will work on it next week when I return. I am planning on working every Friday, helping to weed and generally doing what I can to learn about running the library and completing the requirements of my class project as well. I think it is working out well so far. I am ready to get a lot of weeding done.

I found a biography of Marie Curie that was published in 1937. Wow. I'll make sure that I am only discarding materials that Ms. Reece agrees should go, but I can see how a librarian finds it hard to let good books be discarded.

Collection Development Policy Analysis

I have been working on my collection development policy analysis. I am finally finished, except for minor editing, which I must do tomorrow. I need to get away from it to look at it again and tweak it. I was able to find many different kinds of collection development policies. I am not sure why people in class seemed to have such a hard time finding these. I do understand why school personnel may not know about a policy, but every school system has to have one. You just need to find out who to ask or get on the internet and browse. I found a brief but interesting one that turned out to be from Australia. I went to Wake County Public Schools' website because I figured they are usually up-to-date with the latest educational bandwagons, so I figured they would have a pretty good policy--and they did. First, I asked the librarian I am working with on my Action Learning project and she pointed me in the right direction, complete with her own editorial about what the former school board did to edit the policy. Overall, I thought the policy was a good one, but it did include a brief section that was objectionable and in my opinion, completely impossible to uphold.
"All portions of media containing sexually inappropriate content, profanity, vulgar,and obscene language or the insinuation thereof will be excluded from all audio and video media in the B____County Public School System and shall be edited." Ummmmmmm....... Who will decide what is deemed sexually inappropriate content, obscene language, or how about "the insinuation thereof?" Just how is this editing to take place? Do the authors mean that these materials are to be discarded, blacked out, offensive material removed? I just think this section is completely inappropriate as is because it is impossible to uphold in its current language. This section was probably added in recent years, by a school board majority with an agenda of censoring literary material. That majority has since been elected out of office by the outcry of the public, but the policy still stands after the elected officials serve their terms in office.