K-8 multiple libraries HIT and book ordering day

[fran wolfe <flwolfe@WAVE.PARK.WY.US>]

Thanks to all of you who answered with similar stories.  What it all seemed
to boil down to was that when you get more than one library you become an
administrator and attempting to provide all the services you had provided
before as the single school librarian becomes impossible.  The loss to the
students will only become apparent when it is too late to remedy.
Perhaps as the year goes on those of us who are in the multiple library
situation could contribute time saving tips we have discovered.   I'm sure
these could prove beneficial to the lucky ones out there with only one
library, also.

To begin:  For the last two years my clerks and I have gone to a quiet
place in the district office to spend a day in the late spring ordering
books.  I bring SLJ's, Booklist, and catalogs with sticky notes applied to
pages where I have found materials that we might be needing.  They also
bring catalogs etc and teacher requests.  We discuss what is going on in
each school that might require new materials and new trends that might hit
our schools.  We have our requisition form on computer so typing our orders
has been easier.  We spend out between 50 and 90 percent of each school's
budget on that day.  We save some money for emergencies and teacher
requests throughout the year.  The orders are sent at the beginning of the
new fiscal year and we generally have four or five boxes of new books
greeting us on the first day of school.  We try to patronize companies with
data disks for the large orders, but we will place small orders with
companies that don't have data disks. This year we had our budget spent out
in two of the three schools by Nov. 15 and all the books were cataloged and
on the shelves.