LM_NET: Library Media Networking
So I am assumming that the library is automated and then you have LOTS of
help from aides or volunteers? You also probably have an extended
contract so that you can come in before school starts to get everything
new thats come in over the the last three months processed and put away.
For all of the librarians out there that still aren't automated, don't
have any help and have several thousand or hundred dollars worth of new
stuff to put away. I say let your teachers and your administration know
what you are doing every second that you aren't open yet. Let them see
you maddly zooming around helping the teachers get their rooms and summer
fantastic ideas off the ground as you are putting away three months of
magazines, getting all of those new items processed and the books shelf
ready so that you are able to open the library.
I was given the first week of school to get the major portion of the piles
whittled down. I didn't have any paid library assistants. I had as many
students as I could beg borrow or steal from other teacher assistant
positions. (They received full credit for working in the library) I had
not one, but two libraries to get up and running as was not automated.
While I realize she didn't say her situation, I believe that before we
give her false information we should find out what is the situation to
better assist any NEW librarian to function.
I just switched from that position to a new one. I volunteered to go back
to my old school and explain and answer any questions the new person
should have. I offered to be a mentor and to help her in any way that I
could. Some of what I had to explain to her she wasn't taught even during
the time she took to receive her masters. Not everybody is automated! I
get so tired of the library schools teaching just to that system. After
four hours I think she was running on system overload, so I gave her my
e-mail address and she has my home phone number. She has nine pages of
notes and I gave her the name of one of the students that I trained to
help her. I bet she is THANKFUL that she doesn't have to be ready to open
on the first day of school with a full schedule of classes.
R. Jean Gustafson
Librarian Extraodinaire
Lince Intermediate School
Selah, WA. 98942
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