Below are photos of recent eye catching displays in our district libraries.
At a recent get together with fellow district librarians we talked about our library displays. Displays are important for attracting attention to books so they will inspire our students to check out a book and read. Sometimes a little encouragement can really pay off, because these kids may otherwise ignore a very good read! Below are photos of recent eye catching displays in our district libraries. Hopefully these displays inspired you to create some of your own! If you would like to share any of your display photo creations on this blog, send pics to [email protected].
0 Comments
Banned books Week concluded today and we had a very fun and eventful week!
Here are the results of the raffle winners! Winners of the BBW ALA Coloring Sheet: Zoie F., Gr 9 and Marilyn L., Gr 12. Winners received Starbucks gift cards. Winner of the BBW Bookmark Contest are Yasmine Maddox, Gr 12. She will receive a Starbucks gift card. Literacy basket winners are (1) Riley C., Gr 12, (2) Aaron J., Gr 10, (3). Everardo C., Gr 12, (4) Christopher L., Gr 12 and (5) Ruth C., Gr 11. Thank you all for participating in our first ever Banned Books Week/Freedom to Read celebration!! This all couldn't have been possible without the assistance of the Judith F. Krug Memorial Fund Banned Books week grant that we were so fortunate to have received. MVHS Students appreciate you! Ms. Mares and Mrs. Salcedo MVHS Librarians ![]() What is Banned Books Week? By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read. Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically, this is held during the last week of September and it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those that may be considered unpopular. The theme for this upcoming Banned Books Week (Sept. 23 – Sept. 29) is “Speak Out for Banned Books!” The words in these banned and challenged books have the ability to connect readers to literary communities and offer diverse perspectives. And when these books are threatened with removal from communal shelves, your words have the power to challenge censorship. Each year, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom records challenges to books in libraries and calculates the top ten challenged books. This year’s list explores a range of genres (young adult, fiction, memoir) and formats (novels, graphic novels, picture books), but they have one thing in common: each book was threatened with removal from spaces where diverse ideas and perspectives should be welcomed. How Can I Get Involved? There are lots of ways to be involved in Banned Books Week 2018! First and foremost, talk about issues of censorship and intellectual freedom with your friends and families. Better yet, read and discuss a book that has been challenged. Participate in Banned Book activities that support our Freedom to Read. The MVHS Book Club is hosting activities for BBW that will be held Sept 24-28th. Come in the library and take part in the games, activities and a Read Aloud that will be held during both lunches and after school on Wednesday. Students who Tweet any of our BBW activities using the hashtag #MVHSlibraryBBW during banned books week will have for a chance to win a literary themed gift basket. (Drawing to be held Friday at 1 pm). You can: Take a selfie with a banned or challenged book. Share a reading from a banned book. Post a quote on the corkboard from your favorite banned or challenged book (or a quote about censorship). Share a story about an educator who has helped you learn about the power of words. Decorate a Banned Books bookmark. Tweet or IG something about a banned book or author. 2018 Banned Books Week Activities in the MVHS Library Monday: Participate in a read-a-loud, decorate a book mark or facepainting with a BBW theme. Tweet out your opinion or favorite BBW book/author and get an entry in our raffle. Make a statement supporting the first amendment and your right to read! Tuesday: On Your Own: Create a book mark in our special banned book display area or color a Banned Books Week graphic from the American Library Association. You can tweet a picture of it to enter our Twitter contest. You can also use our Library Instagram account if you don't have Twitter. Browse though the books and read our information boards. Wednesday: Banned Books Week Trivia challenge--Test your banned book knowledge against your peers. Come into the library and play a trivia game for fun prizes like gift cards, candy and a copy of your own banned book! Thursday: On Your Own: Bring Your Own Banned Book for an informal discussion with free refreshments. Create a book mark in our special banned book display area or color a Banned Books Week graphic from the American Library Association. You can Tweet a picture of it to enter our Social Media contest. You can also use our Library Instagram account if you don't have Twitter. Browse though the books and read our information boards. Friday: Make a BBW Button or Bracelet in the library as we continue our celebration of Banned Book Week! Don't forget to tweet out or IG your favorite event from the week and please take our concluding event survey! Moreno Valley High School Library staff and volunteers would like to thank: Yumeka Brown - Program Officer from the Freedom to Read Foundation Em Claire Knowles- Freedom to Read Foundation Banned Books Week Committee Chair MVHS Alumni/ BBW Decorators: Lily and Adrienne MVHS Book Club members and friends 2018 MVHS Library Teachers Aides and Volunteers 2018 Volunteer Photographer: Barney Garcia Becky Clark; for the morning announcements Ms. Nedy Salcedo, Librarian Ms. Ramin, Co Adviser Book Club and especially the Judith F Krug Memorial Fund Banned Books Week Grant, for making this event possible. Teresa Mares Co Adviser, MVHS Book Club ![]() I am finally making the MVHS School Library Handbook I have developed available on this site. For those of you who would like to use it, please email me and I will give you a password. This is a live binder and it is password protected. This is not to be shared and it is my work that does not represent any policy of the district. It is an accumulation of best practices I have come to use and wish something like this was available when I was a new LMA in May of 2014. If any of you LMA's would like to add material, please send it to me and I will find an appropriate place for it. Thank you, Teresa Mares :) This QR code will link up to digital resources and information for students and staff of MVHS. Padlet is free to use and so far, has been little trouble. This QR Code will be embedded in our Destiny library website for easy access to the Padlet.
I know many educators that have used Padlet in the past and have had a lot of success. Padlet is colorful and engaging for students and that appealing characteristic is what captured my attention. As of this date, users can only create three padlets for free. Recent changes for Padlet users are there is no more unlimited usage, hence there is a fee if you want to create more than three. Padlet Backpack was developed for educators and currently there is a 30 day free trial offer that I am testing out. The best part of Padlet for our use is that it helps our patrons visualize the information, which catches their attention to our resources. I would like this Padlet to replace the boring, ho-hum links on our Follett Destiny webpage. Every school that has Follett Destiny LMS has the same, dull landing page. Using Padlet to spice things up may be part of the solution for improvement. ![]() The Riverside County Office of Education hosted the first Library Media Educators Network (LMEN) meeting today for county librarians, media specialists and other library professionals. The purpose of this gathering was to educate and support librarians in their quest for increasing educational technology for students in relation to the California State Standards. LMEN was established in response to requests from individuals wanting to enhance 21st Century Learning Skills to support learners and educators. Meetings will be conducted virtually and RCOE Offices. Professional speakers are scheduled to cover a wide variety of topics that concern us as school librarians and will be archived on the LMEN site for our future reference. Our first two presenters, Julie and Laura, showed us MediaSnap, which is a digital resource that offers online content from California Streaming, DVD Lending Library, Groiler Encyclopedia, and other online partners. This is a fee based service and works much like what we have available to us already from Gale and Follett. The main sale point for MediaSnap is that users only need one username and password to use all digital content. We were offered a free trial until Jan. 31, 2016 for any interested parties (username 055012, PW: january31). Riverside Community College Librarians presented "A Library Bridge to College; Guiding Students Through Information Deluge and Preparing Them for College Level Research." The librarians commented that the number one problem they have are students who arrive at college unprepared to conduct scholarly research needed for class assignments. RCC Librarian Jacqueline Lesch stated that 89% of new students require remedial classes and that the initial college assessment does not test for information literacy. ![]() Finally Dennis Large from RCOE advised us on some tips and tricks using Google, Google scholar and Wikipedia. Tori Sturgeon took notes and will relay this information to anyone who would like it at our next LMA meeting. Moreno Valley Unified employees all agreed there were positive aspects of the LMEN meeting. One of the most important factors was the ability to gather and share information from other area librarians.
Many of you may be thinking, what the heck is a SWOT Analysis?! ALA describes a SWOT Analysis as being "your Library's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats." I used this strategy to help me quickly identify our most pressing issues regarding the next phase of construction -- "Modernization."
After creating a chart on paper, I brainstormed detailed notes for each category. For example, under Strength I listed "Support from Students, Administration and the community." I feel it is essential to have support from others so that changes can be made. In order to prevent each section from becoming excessive, I prioritized to the top 12 SWOT concerns. Writing it down helped me gather my thoughts in preparation for the first planning meeting with individuals such as the architect, construction manager, our Principal and two AP's. Rather then depend on notes or a PowerPoint, I used Prezi; a presentation software application that uses motion for a more interesting experience. In hindsight, it was not a good choice to use because I had no prior experience with Prezi and I was running out of time. I found it was difficult to insert photos into the presentation and think they were noticeably missing in the final version. I managed to get my viewpoint across by using ideas from the SWOT Analysis that were incorporated into the Prezi and supplemented it with library photos that I printed from my desktop. Using Prezi and the photographs, discussion of library renovation flowed and allowed us to transition easily into a mini tour of the library. There committee members saw close up the task at hand. After the meeting I was able to email the photos, equipment quotes and presentation to committee members who could review it at their leisure or pass on any necessary information. Below is the presentation that was created as part of the committee on Library Renovations: I've been hesitant to include social media as a marketing tool for the school library because I know it is a commitment of time in my already full schedule. Still, I realize that these apps are very popular with teenagers and they are our audience. Because the library was changing locations all over campus due to construction, I decided to create an MVHS Library Instagram page. My objective for creating an Instagram was to provide a platform where I could update students instantly about any library related news. ![]() The Instagram page to the left was made to promote new eBooks that were recently purchased by the district. Below the image I wrote, "Cat got your tongue...err...book? Try using our new eBooks! Just head over to the library website (link in bio), click on catalog, and then Follett Shelf." I added hashtags (#) that connected users to our site. For this page I created the hashtags #cat, #library and #eBooks. People who want to follow us were directed to our IG page by the use of these hashtags. A flyer was created to advertise our new IG page and an announcement was made during the morning student broadcast. Another promotional idea I have is wearing a tee shirt that will say, "Follow us @movalhslibrary on IG!" There are all kind of uses for Instagram combined with library marketing that I haven't even discovered yet. The best part is the positive feedback I've received from students, which has been fantastic! ![]() On the positive side, Phase One was beneficial because we were able to redesign our existing space to better meet our needs. Our return to the Library on September 23rd provided a chance to have the furniture rearranged by the moving crew. After all, this was a rare opportunity to have guys available that were willing to move and shift heavy objects. My goal was to have a set up that would allow me to see what was going on in all areas of the library with a glance when monitoring students during peak traffic times. I removed and rearranged furniture so that the OPAC computer monitors faced outward, eliminating any sense of privacy. Then I had our IT guy disable internet on the four computers so they could only be used for Destiny computer catalog searches, which uses intranet. I soon discovered a disadvantage of not having internet was that students could not place a hold for library materials. If a student wanted to reserve an item, they needed to request a hold at the circulation desk. Another downfall was that the eBook collection shown on Follett Shelf was not accessible, perhaps because they use an external server. We had several donated book cases that had been used in our temporary library location transferred into a small storage closet and arranged them against each wall. This room had once been a catch-all for anything needed to be kept out of sight and is now the new location for teacher's resources. The best feature is that this room can be locked, providing more control over valuable, limited resources like teacher's editions. Even though our stacks are on wheels, they are incredibly heavy. The men moved them in such a way that there is virtually no area that a student can hide. I have noticed that there is less food trash since students realize they can be seen if they try to eat in the library. Handling construction demands and managing the school library over the last six months has not been easy. Library services to students and staff were disrupted despite our efforts to provide a reasonable level of service. Damage to library materials during construction resulted in a loss of many novels, textbooks and some audio visual items. Even though these materials will eventually be replaced by insurance, they are not available for use now. The removal of several electrical outlets, data ports and two telephones made reinstalling equipment difficult upon our return to the library. The biggest misconception was that of the students and evident when they arrived in the reopened building. There are no visible improvements and students were disappointed that the library looked the same, if not worse because of the disarray. What many did not understand was that Phase One consisted of work that can't be readily seen such as wiring, A/C and heating upgrades and increased support for the structure. Phase Two, tentatively set for summer 2016, is focused on the remodeling and modernization of the library and hopefully will include expansion and technological upgrades. Ultimately, construction has been advantageous for students, staff and community members of Moreno Valley High and when completed, will provide better opportunities for learning and advancing our students' education. ![]() It’s hard not to be discouraged when I look at our temporary library in the Viking Inn and it looks like a tornado hit. As the deadline draws near and we are to receive students for the new school year, I ponder on how we are going to accomplish our tasks. ![]() On the negative side we have supplies in boxes, mixed up books/texts, dust almost everywhere, limited internet access, an injured librarian and staff members who are slated to move in as soon as we move out. Rather than move heavy textbooks, the idea that students can check out their books Wed-Fri came up so we can clear the rooms. This sounds like an idea situation if all goes like clockwork, but somehow I do not think that will happen. It means that all students would have to take all their books needed for their classes in one shot to rid the rooms of the majority of texts. We often hear students say that they will come back for the rest, or that they don’t want to carry them all or even more so now – that they don’t have a locker. While this is understandable, we don’t have the time to check each schedule so we cannot confirm how many books they really need. Working under the best conditions, we really need a full week to issue materials and take returns. Doing this in three days, plus packing up and trying to process new textbooks is too much. To me, the priority is issuing textbooks so students can get to work right away. I have to make sure we have at least two computers up and running, that the outgoing textbooks are as organized as possible and try and round up some good volunteers. The positive side, we have very supportive administrative team who are working with us to try and problem solve. It is possible we can get additional help from a substitute library assistant and some responsible ASB students. We also have excellent assistance from our IT guy, Jason Dolphin, who is quick to fix our library related tech problems. The next several days do not seem so bleak when I stop to consider the help we have. After all, positive thinking is half the battle! |
AuthorTeresa M. Mares is employed as a LMA III at Moreno Valley High School. She received her MLIS from SJSU in 2010 and has been working as a librarian since 2004. Teresa was a 2007-2008 ALA Spectrum Scholar. Archives
December 2018
Categories
All
|