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Dear Megan,
        You know, I've always wondered, just what DO librarians do all day??
Using this as the theme, I sent this out to all my teachers (and
administrators) the second year I was on the job.

Just what do school librarians do all day?
DonUt they have an easy job, just reading to kids and checking out
books?

I am so glad you asked!  Here is a representative sample of what I did
one day last week:

%Find books with info on Babe Ruth for a teacher.
%Go through the fiction section and find all the books that are on a 2nd
and 3rd grade reading level.
%Talk to Rosemary Brown about how to determine just what
constitutes a 2nd and 3rd grade reading level.
%Show 7th grade helpers how to mark the 2nd and 3rd grade level
fiction.
%Pull Thanksgiving and Native American books and make displays so
teachers can find them easily.  Search for a picture book, I Am
Thankful, to add to the display.
%Check on 7th grade helpers to be sure they are doing the job right, go
over several steps they didnUt understand.
%Train a volunteer how to put the nonfiction back on the shelf.
%Find books on camouflage for a teacher.
%Show volunteer how to stamp the audiovisual kits.
%Start to plan how the studentsU check out cards will be filed and
retrieved.
%Realize my directions on stamping the kits werenUt clear, go over how
to stamp kits again, more carefully.
%Locate a video of folk tales for a primary teacher.  Make a note that
several have requested videos based on childrenUs literature and that
we have none.
%Suddenly remember that two volunteers who usually come on
Thursday told me they are coming today.  Scramble to find jobs that
each will enjoy doing.
%Cover two dictionaries with plastic covers.  Call down to Central Office
and beg for them to send me five more plastic covers so I can cover
the rest of the reference books.
%Pull a rhyming picture book (usually found in the picture book
section) from the music section of nonfiction where it has been very
erroneously catalogued.  Put it in a growing stack of books that need
new call numbers.
%Pull a cookbook from a section on crafts and put in growing stack of
books that need new call numbers, to be reclassed to the cookbook
section.
%Make four phone calls, one to a publisher tracking an order we
should have by now, two about the operation of the copier, one to
request a supply catalog that a teacher asked about.
%Help two 6th graders look up VeteranUs Day in the encyclopedia, give
a mini-lesson on encyclopedia indexes.  Discover that this encyclopedia
has next to nothing on VeteranUs Day.  Help kids search for another
book that does have info.

And this is before I get to read to kids and check out books!


--
Johanna Halbeisen
Woodland Elementary School(K-4)
Southwick, Mass
jhalbei@k12.oit.umass.edu
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996 18:25:32 -0400
From: MarjorieP@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: WWW Home Page for Library MediaSpecialists



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