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On my first job, 25 years ago,  I walked in to a library (5 days before the
other teachers arrived) and wondered "What do I do now!!!!!

I hadn't thought about;

How I would handle checking out books. How long did they go out, what were
the penalties for being late etc.
Where all of the mail would go (catalogs, flyers, letters, memos etc)
where was all of this kept and how much did I NEED to keep?
Should I weed out the oldest magazines to make room for the new ones.
How many library aides should I accept from the guidance people.
How I wanted to do lunch.

How I wish I could go back and undo the early mistakes.  It should be
REQUIRED that the previous person leave a folder with important information
- what magazines have been ordered, what books have been ordered, how the
order system works, where the supplies are etc.

One serious situation;  You are NEW!  A teachers wants to do something they
have ALWAYS DONE! How much do teachers tell you how things will be, and how
much will you tell them.  Remember that you are NEW! The teacher may very
well IGNORE you.

Hope this list is of some help.

You probably already have the one I will suggest:  Dealing
with the child who takes refuge in a library for various reasons.  We've
discussed that one rather extensively lately, and every year that I was
in the school library (both at the middle school and high school
levels), I always had students who did not fit in or who couldn't deal
with other students who would take refuge during break times in the
library.  I suspect that for a few, I was one of the few people who
*really* got to know those kids.

Some of the things we didn't learn include:  1) dealing with the
different teacher's "personalities" or quirks (I'm sure you'll have your
own stories for this area), 2) being asked to substitute, 3) being your
own janitor, 4) basic accounting for keeping track of your budget
because the District Office does make mistakes, 5) never being able to
finish any one project before the next one or two get started, 6) never
getting caught up, 7) being able to "change hats" fourteen times in an
hour so that everything gets done, 8) being able to answer any question
about school, curriculum, teachers, etc.--whether you're supposed to
know it or not (a living, breathing encyclopedia, dictionary, telephone
directory, medical desk reference, curriculum guru, atlas, etc.) and 8)
the number of hours that you will put in-- if you care about your
library.  Hope this helps.


LAST YEAR, IN JULY OR AUGUST, LM_NETTERS DID A COMPILATION OF
SURVIVAL SKILLS FOR NEW LIBRARIANS. IT WAS VERY WELL DONE AND SHOULD BE IN
THE ARCHIVES.

ALSO, IN ONE OF THE LINWORTH MAGAZINES THERE WAS A LIST OF THE "TOP TEN
THINGS MY MENTOR NEVER TOLD ME".  THIS AGAIN WAS LAST SUMMER.

SO YOU MAY WANT TO CHECK THOSE OUT.  BOTH WERE EXCELLENT.


    How about specific programs like Accelerated Reader?  They are pretty
easy to jump into now, but I walked into a Dos based version of it, and
others might do the same

Nancy Westendorf, Librarian
Community School 14
Rochester, NY  14605
NSpringWes@aol.com

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