June 7

Lunch in the Library

We have done Lunch in the Library for YEARS with success.  Students would sign up to come to the library  instead of going to the cafeteria where they would hear a guest speaker on topics such as how to be a beekeeper, what it is like to do the Ironman, how to juggle and why it’s important to invest money at a young age.  We had 4 27 minute lunches and the first 10 to sign up would have lunch provided.  All others were welcome but would need to brown bag it.   We would feed them pizza and soft drinks while they listened.    Last school year we went to one lunch where students could leave the cafeteria with their food and eat in several designated areas (not the library although we were open).  We adjust Lunch in the Library to accommodate 40 students at once instead of 10 per lunch but noticed that, while students still seem to enjoy the event, our number have not been as good.  Here is our assessment of why:

  • because students are no longer “trapped” in the cafeteria, coming to lunch in the library is no longer an “escape”
  • because there is one lunch, students are able to eat with their friends instead of the old school “none of my friends have the same lunch as I have” problem
  • pizza is no longer a draw because the cafeteria serves the same vendor pizza at least once per week.

Former Rocket Aaron Reed taking about life as a Navy Seal

Former Rocket Donovan Johnson talking about playing professional basketball overseas.

Next year we plan to have our culinary class cater Lunch in the Library.  I’m not sure of a menu, but hopefully we can come up with something tasty and inexpensive enough to work for students and for our budget.  I’m not sure how to combat the other perceived issues with having one lunch.  Hopefully great food will be enough to lure them back.

Category: Programming | LEAVE A COMMENT
June 7

Genrefication

My clerk and I are genrifying the library. (is that how you spell it) . Here is what we have learned so far: Weeding is important….but:

  1.  Weeding

While weeding is recommended heavily by everyone who has already done this, and it is helpful and important, we weeded lots of multiples that we later wished we had kept.  Some titles fit well in multiple genres and it would have been nice to have several copies of the same book we could park in various sections.

2.  Follett genre report:

We used a spreadsheet provided by Follett that classified many titles for us.  (Note: many titles we had just weeded were still in the report so it may be good to wait a day or so for the collection data to update itself)  Some titles we did not agree with such as Hunger Games as Thriller when we would have preferred it in Dystopia.  (this is also a perfect example of a book that could go in several genres).  Also, many of the adult titles like John Grisham or David Baldacci were not classified at all by Follett.  As a result, my clerk and I printed a copy of the Follett report and went through each title using their spreadsheet to confirmed, changed or added a genre.  At first it felt daunting, but as we moved through the fiction, it got much easier.  It also helped us get a feel for genrefication so it was a good thing to have to do.  We then put our changes back into the digital spreadsheet so we could sort them.  The spreadsheet also had to be cleaned up because of the recently weeded titles that were still in it.

3.  Inputing data into Follett

Once the spreadsheet was updated, we sorted it by genre and then copied the column with barcodes for each genre into a .csv file titled by genre.  Then we could upload those files into copy categories in Destiny.  The Follett instructions suggested to scan books into these lists, but it felt easier to just upload barcodes from the spreadsheet.

NEXT STEPS

We have ordered tinted spine label and plan to color code our spread sheet for each genre title.  Students are going to come in July to help put on the spine labels and begin shifting books into displays.  Signage will be created to direct students.  A FUNNY THOUGHT.  Wouldn’t it be cool if a student could go to a board and tap “Romance” or “Sports” and have that shelf light up so they could find it.

Category: Library Environment | LEAVE A COMMENT