Target: Book room (LONG)

["Miller-Breetz, Julie" <jbreetz1@JEFFERSON.K12.KY.US>]

I'm feeling very frustrated by the following turn of events and am not sure
at this point what the best course of action to take would be.  Any words of
wisdom would be appreciated.  Here's the scenario:

I currently have a main circulation room in my library as well as another
small room right off the main room that is used to house videos,
professional materials, reading recovery books, and classroom sets/multiple
copies of books.  This room has been in a state of disarray as many of the
items in it had not been cataloged, weeded or organized in some time, but
over time I've been able to (mostly) get it in shape.  This year reading
specialists in our school have taken time and have leveled just about every
title (excluding professional books and videos!) we have in this back room,
the hope being that students will be able to engage in more guided reading
at levels that are appropriate to them.

I have recently become aware that some staff in the building are wanting to
establish a book room in our school.  I believe a few other schools in the
district have created such a thing and my understanding is that reading
recovery books are the materials that are primarily housed there.

The sentiment in my building, however, is that our book room should include
not only the reading recovery books, but also all of our classroom sets and
books with multiple copies (many of which are nonfiction titles on a variety
of subjects that support the curriculum).  The problem is that those who
want the book room don't envision keeping the materials where they are now,
but instead moving them to a room in our school that has just become vacant.
This room is not  on the same floor as the library, the checkout system will
apparently be some kind of manual process, and I don't believe anyone has
been given the responsibility of overseeing this room.

Here are my issues:
1) Why take the time and energy to move books to a "book room" when one
already exists?

2) What is the logic of separating the collection of books in our school
into 2 different physical areas?  Teachers who are looking for content area
books will now have to go both to the "book room" and the library for
materials on whatever they are teaching.

3) What about my job to help teachers find appropriate materials?  If the
collection is split up, I'm not going to be able to steer teachers towards
materials in the "book room".

4) What will the impact be on trying to build support for my fledgling
flexible access program?  I'm concerned I may be seeing less of teachers
since they'll be going to the "book room" instead of the library.

5) The "book room" may very well be organized by levels, i.e. level 1 books
here, level 2 books here, etc.  If someone is looking for books on plants at
a variety of levels (to reach all the students at various reading levels in
their class), will they be able to access the books they need without having
to spend an inordinate amount of time picking through books to find what
they need?

6) With a manual checkout system and no one overseeing the room how will
loss be dealt with?

7) What is a library if not a "book room"??


Leaders and other staff in the building seem to be strongly supportive of
the "book room".  My position places me in direct opposition to them, which,
as you know, is not a great place to be.  I'm not sure if this is a battle
to fight, or if I should just wait a few years when hopefully everyone will
be ready to move the books back up to the room off the library (assuming
there is one, since who knows what it will be used for once most of the
material is removed to the "book room"!)

I would love to hear from anyone else who has faced a similar situation, who
currently has a "book room" , or has anything they would care to share with
me on how to deal with this situation.

Thanks,

Julie Miller-Breetz, library media specialist
Engelhard Elementary
Louisville, KY
jbreetz1@jefferson.k12.ky.us

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