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Hi Virtual Friends, Thank you for all of the responses regarding the opening of a new school! We have learned from experience that the library media specialist should be brought on board as early as possible. Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts to do so, that did not occur in our district. (Surprise!) The librarian hired has not had nearly enough time to get the core collection in order. She did decide to use Mackin, and has been very happy so far. *Here are the hits:* For a school opening in the fall the first thing you need is a budget, or amount of money that will be allocated for books and AV. If my system is opening an elementary school that will eventually house 1,000 students, we open the library with enough books and AV media to satisfy our state standards of meeting 10-12 items per child in the library collection. That would be a minimum of 12,000 books and AV media (videos, DVDs), though we usually end up with about 15,000 to 18,000 in the opening collection. Since the average cost of a new library book is around $19.00, you can do the math. Begin by contacting the major venders (Follett, Perma-Bound, Bound to Stay Bound, Thompson Gale, Davidson Titles, etc-----venders may vary with your area) and ask them to develop an opening day collection for you for a set amount of money. I usually split my total money between several different venders. The major venders are used to doing this and create an opening day collection based on percentages established by the industry for the “model collection” . You can give them guidelines, titles and subjects or authors to avoid (or include). I also have a local representative that provides me with direct ordering of several non-fiction companies. I would call on the venders BEFORE April in order to give you time to go over their suggestions and edit the lists to your preferences. Also include reference companies like World Book, World Almanac, Gale, etc. Remember to include professional materials. I usually order more of the EASY books from Perma-bound and BTSB and more of the upper ranges from the other companies. I have a personal list of authors and books I want included in any elementary collection that I make sure is added to one of the orders if not suggested by the vender. Remember to look over the title suggestions for books that may be inappropriate to your school community, or remember to tell the venders beforehand to avoid certain topics. I begin my actual book ordering in April. It generally takes anywhere from 30-90 days for the orders to come in. I would also order the library circulation system and scanners at that time. Establish barcode ranges for each company taking care to allow enough for each. Order the books processed to your system’s specifications. Most will ship shelf ready and actually in shelf order if requested. This saves time! A crew of parents or volunteers who can open the boxes, check the books in against the packing slips, stamp with school identification and shelve can speed the set up time. Our schools open August 1 or thereabouts. Usually the new libraries open within a couple of months more or less depending on the skill of the librarian and the amount of volunteers. ***** Opened a new K – 8 library in 1997. Follet’s Titlewave was incredibly helpful. Follett was the basis of my Opening Day collection. I did the selections myself but it took A LOT of time, and I had ten year’s experience with children’s lit, so there was a lot I just ordered without having to check the descriptions/reviews. The rest of the titles I had to check individually to be sure the materials were well-reviewed. Titlewave makes that pretty easy, but it’s still time-consuming. Important: any vendor you are doing a big order from, find out whether they deliver into the library or ship to the office or district only. Most places drop off at the office, then you have to haul them over to the library. This is a LOT of backbreaking work and potentially dangerous (we had a dad hurt by a dolley as he was loading). Follett ships (big orders) and delivers INTO the library for you. Trust me, when you have 20+ boxes from a vendor, that’s a lot to lift and move, especially in inclement weather. You appreciate having the delivery guy put them where you need them. Be sure your building is ready for occupancy. I would recommend having the books arrive after the shelving has been installed. Our library was incomplete due to a race to get the other classrooms done by Sept. Our books began arriving before our bookshelves in Dec. We finally opened in January. Also, they (Follett) mark the boxes on the outside as to what the range is (example: FIC AAA- CAB) and they don’t mix the books unless it is the overlap (end run of Es and beginning of FIC, for example, or a batch that arrives a little later). Pretty much the books are in the boxes shelf-ready if you have ordered them pre-processed (which you definitely want to do!!!!). Other companies don’t do that. There are about 30 fiction books per box to help you plan. You need to have an idea of how many boxes will arrive and need to be stacked until you are ready to open and shelve them. On our end we had volunteers stamp the inside covers with our school name and address (that’s optional since your school name will be on the barcodes) and add our own (colored) labels to the spine to distinguish Fic from E, etc. but we had Follett do the regular spine labels and barcodes on each book. I ordered $50,000 worth of books from them and we had only a few errors. If you order from other vendors (especially small ones) find out if your books are sent out to be catalogued or processed before they come to you. Avoid dealing with those vendors. I had one that shipped my order to another state for processing and I had to call long distance different states to track a missing box down. We never did get it. Be sure they have a toll-free number and competent service. Be sure your (furniture) vendor is going to place your shelving in the stacks for you. It is a lot of work to snap in all the little shelf-holders and lift the shelving (ours was wood, so they were pretty heavy too) into place. Be sure the height of the shelves is adequate to stand all books upright if possible. Check your nonfiction now – I would guess that shelves placed 13” high/apart minimum would be good for most books, probably 15” for picture book shelves. You want to standardize the placement as much as possible so the visual look of it is nice also (hope that made sense). I was fortunate at my old site to have lots of extra shelving, so I left the top and bottom shelves open (no stooping to file books on a bottom shelf!) in the fiction and nonfiction areas for display and used the center ones (that’s about three shelves if you have high stacks like mine) for shelving. Make sure you have a phone with an outside line (or a cell phone) asap because you will likely need it to check on orders and receive processing questions from vendors. I had to run back and forth to the main office for calls! Consider ordering 2 book ends per case if your cases are 35” or wider. I found using two (one at the end, and one about halfway) helps prevent a lot of sliding books when the books begin to circulate. In addition to Follett, you’ll probably want encyclopedias, magazines etc. that you’ll need other vendors to order from. Plan now whether you’ll keep records in file folders or in a big binder with dividers. You’ll have a lot of paperwork to keep track of. Also, have a master list of barcode ranges set aside for each vendor. For example, you might want to set aside 10,000 barcode numbers for Follett, 500 for smaller vendors, etc. Think of how many books you will likely order from that vendor over the next ten years, and set aside that many numbers so they can start the new numbers right after their previous order. If you don’t order again from one of them, you can always assign their numbers to a new vendor. I used a spread sheet to track mine. This way you’re sure your barcode numbers don’t overlap between vendors. ****** This sounds just like our school district. We are opening up 2 elementary schools and one middle school next year and no librarians have been hired. The one that the principal wants to take with her has not completed but 2 classes of coursework and the librarians in the district are expected to help out. ****** I am still going through the set-up of my new library. I moved in Oct. 30. You are right to want the MS in place early, but since that isn't going to happen, let me tell you my experience. I transferred to the new school from the high school, so I technically WAS hired before the library was ready, but I was not consulted in any of the decisions. The results, as you might imagine, were less than stellar. I have a library full of beautiful but useless furniture. The furniture includes 2 oak lateral files, an atlas stand, and magazine display racks, but not a single book truck. I do not have a budget for magazines nor can I buy an atlas. I re-file hundreds of books daily by carrying a handful at a time. The principal had me meet with the Tesco rep to help design the room, but then ignored all of my suggestions. I had asked to be present when the furniture was set up, but I wasn't allowed to. The results were they delivered the wrong chairs and the wrong tables. The tables were put together improperly with the tall legs on the computer tables and the short legs on the patron tables. The circulation desk was put in the wrong place, then 12 inch square holes cut into either end of the desk to access the power and data drops. Unfortunately, there were no data ports put in the power ports and now my compter, phone, and printer cables are a massive jumble. Tesco is supposed to come back either this month or next to move the desk and cut grommets for the cords, but I am not holding my breath because the rep is fighting my desicion. In the mean time I have almost tripped at least twice a day over the rat's nest of cables. My suggestion, don't buy from Tesco, find someone else. The collection is pretty much the same story. I was not allowed to select the books. My principal basically ordered a "library in a box" from Follett. It is such a poor collection, I could just cry. In Arizona, the state facilites board requires that an opening day collection has 10 books per student based on the capacity of the school. Our school has just over 600 students, but has the capacity for 850 students so we got 8,500 books. Our budget was $105,000. To make the numbers work out right, we got 18 bibles (we are a public school) and 2 boxes of other religious books including one titled "Pray Like Jesus." We got a book called "Time to Pee" with charts and stickers! We are a K-8 school. If they aren't potty trained by now, a book just isn't going to help. We also got 5 boxes of various manga and hard bound comic books (the complete set of Donald Duck, Garfield, and Peanuts!) We got 2 dozen books on Native Americans, but only 3 about Arizona tribes. Native tribes are a huge part of the 4th grade curriculum and with 21 recognized AZ tribes, you think we could have found a few more AZ tribe books. I got wonderful picture books illustrating the lyrics of various Christmas songs and no less than 12 illustrating the Star Spangled Banner. On the flip side, I got no Animorphs, only 2 Lemony Snickets, no Laura Ingals Wilder, no Harry Potter, well you get the idea. Again, either select the books yourself or find someone other than Follett. I don't know your system for checking out books, but I wish I had asked for pockets on the books so I have a place to put the due date slip. I wish the county would open up the budget so I can get color-coding labels for my reading counts books. I would like little things like an address stamp to stamp the books, a date stamper for the due date slips, acid free mending tape for the books that are already starting to rip. Or at least a pack of construction paper to make signs for the stacks. It took a week to shelve all the books. My Follett rep came one day, the lead custodian helped me three days, and some ladies from the district office came in on Friday when I was just about dead on my feet. Thankfully, the books came in Dewey order and it was just a matter of pulling them out of the box and putting them on the shelf. The big problem was that the delivery man needed his pallet back and piled the boxes up every which way and left us with a huge jigsaw puzzle. We have no union here, and the principal was never available to have a discussion with, so I was on my own. From my experience, I would say get involved early, be loud and demanding, and make sure the kids are getting what they need and that the district is getting value for its money. Vendors will try to push their leftovers off on you if you let them. Don't let them. ****** Anchorage School District has opened over 25 schools in the last 20 years. Usually it takes nine months to select new resources and prepare a new expansion of the library index. We have a centralized library index serving over 100 library centers based on SIRSI software application. A school librarian is placed on an additional addendum that is provided for nine months. When the new school opens, that librarian is the librarian in charge – however selection work for the library has been done in the past months with the staff assigned to the new school. All educators are on addendums for the new prep work. Some newly appointed principals to a new school are creative with university credit courses for the new team to gain credits for the added workload as well. Purchasing pattern is determined by the district’s purchasing office. Books have generally come from any vender wanted with a bulk of the book buying either from Follett or Baker and Taylor. Multimedia comes from a variety of decisions, usually direct with the production company. ****** My information may not be the kind of support that you're looking for, because I volunteered my time to set up our new library when we moved to a new and much larger facility in 2000. At the time, I was a part-time teacher in the middle school and full-time mommy, who saw this as a way to support my child's school. As a result of this volunteerism, I was offered the job of librarian (I had about 5 years of library experience and a Master's in English). I did not have the task (or joy!) of ordering new books; this is a private school, not public, so funds are tightly controlled; and there had not been a professional (read: degreed educator) in the position previously. ** How much time did the librarian need to do the physical aspects of setting up the new facility? *I worked for about 4 - 5 weeks, unpacking and arranging 8,000 volumes, setting up an A-V area and a teachers' resources area. I also had to learn the Athena circulation/cataloging software system on my own. I also had to unpack and weed heavily---something that would have been nice to do at the OTHER end, instead of carrying all of those books over here to be thrown out. The books arrived around August 10, and we opened for our first visitors around Sept. 20. ** Was the teachers' union supportive in communicating to administration the extra demands an LMS needs in setting up a new library? *Not applicable to my situation. ** What are some suggestions to consider when talking w/administration about lead time to setting up? *Ask when they want the library to open. It may sound funny, but they may be balking at the paid summertime, and yet not have any trouble with opening the library several weeks after school starts. This may be one way to get the input and time for the new librarian. Another point for them to consider: Each librarian sets up her "space" in her own unique way. If someone else had set up my library, it would have taken me many hours to rearrange someone else's hard work. I guess I have a little obsessive/compulsive "Monk" in me. :) ** Any suggestions in purchasing (vendors, cost etc) the opening day* *collection? Any difficulties? *I wish I had had this "problem". I also do not purchase processing. Sigh. ****** I just opened a new middle school library. I was the librarian at the only middle school in the district, so a great deal of planning fell on me. I selected all the books (over 8000 titles). I started by replicating the collection of the first middle school and updating where necessary. We used Follett to order all the materials. They were a great help. They took my current collection and created a list for me to work with. They provided free processing (shelf ready!) and packed all the books in true Dewey order. They also sent to reps to help me unpack the books. I spent months working on the lists of books. This was done while I was working in the first library. I spent some time over the summer with the book list, but most was already completed. As for physical set up, the furniture was installed by the vendor. The books (187 boxes worth) were unpacked in 1 day by 4 people. It was a long, tiring day, but very worth it. I then spent 1-2 days fixing records/labels I didn't agree with (our entire collective biography section was mislabeled). I did a complete inventory of the books (using a laptop and a scanner). That took at least a day. I covered the paperback books with KAPCO covers (that was actually an ongoing process that went on into the school year). Of course, the unexpected always happens. The Friday before school started, my library circulation server crashed and we had to order a new one. That took 2 1/2 weeks to replace. We were open the first day of school (as was my plan); we just couldn't check out books. It's almost a semester into school and my assistant and I are still hanging posters, rearranging furniture (a little) and figuring out our organizational strategy. Our overheads and carts didn't come in until several weeks after school started. In a way, not having everything perfect in the beginning is a blessing. You have time to figure out how to use your space. I would say at least 1-2 weeks before school starts would be good to get everything unpacked and situated. Any extra time I spent in my library was my own. I didn't get paid for extra days (although I did ask). But If I hadn't spent that time in the library, the first few weeks would have been crazier than they already were. ****** I was hired to start a new middle school around Feb/Mar, before the school opened in July. I had 3 weeks to order new books. I could not have done it without the help of our Follett vendor. He provided me with an opening day collection of books for a K-8 school (which will eventually be a middle school, after the elementary is open), I went through the list with a fine tooth comb, added my own selections, took out some I did not think we would use and sent it in. Of course, it's not perfect, but it was a nice start. I tried also to balance it with percentages that Follett or Wilson's provides for the numbers in each Dewey section. I ordered EVERYTHING from Follett (except World Book encyclopedias and World Almanacs). They came in Dewey order in the boxes. Our rep came and unloaded the boxes and inventoried them for us. I had a team of helpers come in and we put them on the shelves in one day. Our rep most just stacked and opened the boxes, we went behind him and put them on the shelf. I would highly recommend this way of doing it if you have no support and/or time. I don't think there is any way you can get a perfect collection, especially if you're ordering someone else. If I had it all to do over again, I would have asked for about 5 weeks or more lead time (the hold up was the budget number wasn't set yet, so I kept waiting). I probably would have asked if it was OK to reserve a certain portion for the new librarian to spend after they got in the facility. I would definitely use Follett again, it was so easy to use titlewave and they were very helpful. I also would have asked for a stipend to do the ordering (I did not get one, I think because I was the one moving to the new library), but if I wasn't, I would ask for one, it's very time consuming. The bookshelves and tables, etc. were already set up when we received the books, I did not have to do that, it was relatively painless, lots of work, but pretty easy. ****** Jackson has gone through this three times in 5 years! Current librarians generally do the orders. I used Bound to Stay Bound and Follett, with shelf ready processing. The district tried to give us substitute teachers while working on this. Also, a substitute teacher taught library a la carte while we were putting things together, usually 2-3 weeks. We had trouble not getting into the building much ahead of time, although I was allowed in prior to the other teachers. We got help from the PTN. Fortunately some of them could do heavy lifting. It was tough. Good luck! ****** I am the librarian at a new K-8 school. I come from the perspective of having been a classroom teacher for the past 8 years, and (though I had contemplated switching at some point in my career) didn't switch from a classroom position to the library until about a month before school started. Also, I passed our state library test (a month into the school year) to earn my library endorsement, but I do not have any library coursework, grade-level or otherwise. Having said all that... I'm in a rapidly expanding district, with two K-8 schools being built every year, and a high school planned every other year for a while. One main challenge to getting my collection in place was that construction wasn't finished until about three weeks before the students started. Since our school had no librarian for a while, our district's (half time) library coordinator ordered the first 40% or so of the collection. Her personal preferences led her to order from a number of different sources. That's been a frustration to me, as it's hard to figure out what's coming from who and when, and doubly hard to try to avoid ordering duplicate copies of books. I've entered the details of orders from other companies as lists in Follett's Titlewave service so I can try to avoid duplicates. I've been able to order the rest of the collection, which is a process that's still in progress. It's been a great deal of fun for me to choose much of the collection, but the flip side of that is I've had deliveries trickling in off and on all year, and realistically it may be springtime by the time I have all my books. If you had a way to create the whole order at the beginning it would be better. I've been very happy with Follett since I do my ordering online. Their website seems to be more detailed and extensive than others. (Granted, I can't say I have a great deal of experience with other companies, and the deals you get will be a prime factor in your decision.) Whether it's Follett or not, ordering the vast majority of your collection from one vendor seems to me to be the way to go. You likely know this already, but I'd suggest having your "must-have" books in a separate order rather than part of a massive one. This way they won't get dropped as part of a do-not-exceed situation. For me, this would have included Shel Silverstein, Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter, etc. As far as physical setup, our contractors installed all the shelving and the circ desk. The only (!) physical work to be done by district personnel was the arranging of tables, etc. and the stocking of books. The ordering itself has stretched into many hours - I'd suggest getting the union involved in arranging extra pay for the extra work the current LMS's will do in preparation. I haven't really dealt with the union as far as needs. My principal and AP have been extremely supportive, and I've voluntarily come in a few evenings to shelve new deliveries just out of my "Woo-hoo! New books!" excitement. ****** It took me 6 weeks to get the library ready to open after the books arrived. And I had a couple of very faithful volunteers who helped. Everything wasn't processed on day 1. I started planning in the Spring for a Labor Day opening. Many cooks spoil the broth- Someone will need to be "in charge" to make sure a complete collection is ordered. I created an Excell file with Dewey number (rough number), author, title, publisher, ISBN, cost so I could sort by Dewey and make sure I had a balanced collection. Ordered books in April and May for a July delivery. The books don't just "appear". Books arrived- they may come "processed" but you still need to check the order list to be sure they sent what you ordered. The books need to be stamped with the school name I also wrote inside the book the call number and the barcode number (just in case the barcode slipped off). The MARC records need to be loaded in the circulation software. The books placed on the shelves. I'd encourage you to do an inventory before the library opens- I discovered that I had MARC records but no book, books but no MARC records. I used Follett for the bulk of the opening day collection. BUT you still need videos/DVD's, encyclopedias, Databases, etc.... ****** Our district opened 4 new elem. schools about 2-3 years ago with new libraries which are now closed due to failure to pass an operating levy. I digress. They were run by library aides. Their supervisor and the district curriculum director decided to go with Follett's new library collection. What they found was there were a number of too easy books. One grandmother thought they were better for a two year old. ****** We opened our school 7 years ago. They hired the principal and secretary to work one school year before the opening. I was told that my transfer was approved in January before school opened in the fall. I kept the job I had through the end of the school year. They paid me by the hour to prepare the opening collection order, equipment, and computers. I also worked with our district media and tech director and the technical people to develop the LAN. I can't remember exactly, but I think they paid me for about 90 hours. I worked more than that. I used Follett for the opening day collection. I chose all the books myself. ****** I would invite you to follow this link for an overview of what Brodart can do to assist with your new school. I am NOT in sales, but I am a professional librarian in the Collection Development Services dept., with 20 years experience in school libraries, and have helped produce selection lists for lots of new school openings. This is a HUGE task for your staff, and we see lots of districts with the buildings in place, but not the staff. We can do anything from prepare selection lists for your present librarians to choose from, to doing a complete vendor select collection based on your specific needs (I just did a vendor-select project for a HS and MS in Oklahoma). I would be happy to converse with you more on what projects look like from my side if that will help. I will not have any sales people from here contact you unless you ask me to do so. Best wishes on this huge undertaking! http://www.books.brodart.com/schools/newschools.htm ****** Contact Alice Booth Sawyer at Baker and Taylor. She is the Curriculum Specialist and Collection Development for them. I worked with her when she was with Follet and Sagebrush. She assisted me in the opening day collection of three schools...one middle, one elementary and one alternative high school. She is an experienced librarian of over twenty years. She can probably help you more than anyone else in the business. ******* Hello! I saw your posting on LM_Net and thought I might be able to help you with some of your details regarding the new school opening. Setting up the new facility is going to depend on a lot of factors, but one area in which you definitely need to get started early is the furniture/shelving ordering. You need several months advance notice in order to get things in on time since most items are custom built to the space. You should talk to furniture vendors to find out what their lead time is. I'm an Opening Collection Coordinator for Mackin Library Media and have worked with over 400 schools on their collections. In my experience, the shelving being late is second only to construction delays as the biggest reason for a delay in the library opening on schedule. The time required for purchasing the library collection itself is going to vary, but I can give you a typical scenario. We generally start working with a customer at least four to five months before the library will open. We start by helping them to develop a unique core collection of titles. We ask the staff for specific details about the school, their demographics, their goals for the collection, their budget, and curriculum needs. We then put together a custom core list that takes all of those details into account. Then, the librarian or team of people working on the collection will review the lists and maybe add in their own ideas and take out titles they feel aren't necessary, etc. They may ask us for more titles in a different section or have us revise things. Usually, they'll allow about two months for this whole process before they finalize the actual list. Most vendors like to have at least 60 days from the date of purchase order to get the shipment to you, although the more time given, the better. I usually recommend to people to get their orders in to us 90 days before the library will open. This ensures that even things that might be temporarily out for awhile and need to be reprinted, will have ample time to arrive. Setting up the library itself, once you actually get in, depends on a lot of factors such as which vendors you are working with, and what they have agreed to do for you. For example, when you work with Mackin, we actually send shelving help for you so that all the books can be put on the shelf in a day. If you aren't working with a vendor who does that for you, then it all depends on how much help you have and if the books are presorted for you. It can take anywhere from two days to two weeks. I, of course, would also be delighted to send you some information about Mackin's services for Opening Day Collections. In fact, if you have an interest, we could even start putting together a suggested core list as mentioned above. There is no need to commit to Mackin in order to have us prepare a core list and proposal for you. It's simply a good way for us to show you the quality of our service and what we can provide. Would you be interested in having us pull something together for you? At the very least, I could send you a packet of information that tells more about our services. Just let me know if that would be acceptable. Thanks, and please don't hesitate to contact me with other questions. As I noted above, I've worked with an awful lot of schools and have encountered just about every situation you can imagine, so I'm happy to share some of the things I've learned in that time. You can reach me at 800-245-9540 or via email. Good luck with everything! ****** Susan Kirby-LeMon Skano Library Media Specialist Clifton Park, NY slemon@nycap.rr.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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