I posted a query a few weeks ago about opening a new elementary school
library. The planning principal asked me to compile a list of supplies
they should order and asked for information about determining an adequate
book budget. Thank you to everyone who responded with the suggestions
below.
Jenny
>
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We opened an elementary school with a $135,000 book budget a few years ago.
Used a primary jobber (Follett) (both books and multimedia) with several
smaller orders going to several more publishing firms.
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When I opened a new library, I took a Highsmith catalog and went through
it page by page seeing what I needed to order.~ I have been open three
years now and have everything that I need from that first search.~ I would
choose Highsmith or The Library Store.
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Generally 16 titles per student is the goal for starting a new library.
So
based on the projected enrollment, you can multiply the number against
that
goal and get the recommended number of titles. However, being able to
fund
that varies from community to community. Be sure that you understand that
some folks have to open with lower budgets and the goals for numbers of
titles, etc. have to be adjusted.
Some elementaries begin with at least $70,000-$100,000 budgets. That's
books. The supplies, furnishings, technology, come from other designated
funds. Many districts open with bond money that sets at least $200,000 to
be spread over the first two to three years.
Whoever the vendor is, Mackin or Follett, their experts at ODC work should
be able to advise you in more than just the book cost.
Use all the professional help you can get from vendors as they compete to
serve you. Make sure they serve you!
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By all means order your books with jackets attached. DON'T think 50 cents
or a dollar is too much to pay – trust me, it's not! The "labor pains" on
attaching jackets is not worth doing on site if you can avoid it. It is
very time-consuming. And by all means use a good vendor like Follett. They
have enhanced cataloging and one of the easiest websites to use. I haven't
worked with Macklin, but have heard they are good too.
Follett is great to work with on an opening day collection – they will
ship all the books when you are ready and for large orders, they send
someone who will bring in all the boxes (you won't believe how many boxes
and how much room they'll take!) to the library (other places will drop
them off outside or at the office – trust me, you want them delivered IN
THE LIBRARY so your custodial staff don't have to move them, especially if
rain is in the forecast!) They also box by call number ranges in shelf
order – that is a giant help, and it is marked on the top of the box. You
could actually pull the books from the boxes and shelf directly if you had
to. We didn't – we did an assembly line to check off the packing sheet,
then check each book, stamp it and attach the extra labeling (ex. holiday
labels, author letters on picture book spines, etc.). I worked with about
10 book vendors and Follett was by far the best with a very low rate of
error/problems (less than 1 per hundred, I'd estimate).
Be sure to specify how high you want your spine labels up from the bottom.
DON'T go with "standard" which is 2.5" up. WAY TOO high! (covers up much
of the title) Personally, I prefer 1" up from the bottom of the spine,
which still leaves room for an additional sticker or label. I specified
that any call numbers that were too long for the width of the spine be
attached vertically top to bottom .5" up so that the numbers or letters
don't wrap around the spine and out of view. Makes shelving so much
easier. Just be sure to specify you want all labels in normal position
UNLESS the call numbers are too wide otherwise they may put your FIC
labels on sideways (they did a few of these in my last small order!).
If you do stamp your books with your library name, address and school
district, get the self-inking stamps and order several (they say they'll
do 10,000 impressions each, but I'd say closer to 5,000 stamps each before
wearing out.) They cost $15 - $35 each but they take more than a week to
make (the rubber stuff has to age properly), so keep that in mind. I had a
lot of senior and parent volunteers to help check books and stamp.
Remember you are probably stamping the book 3 or 4 times I stamp inside
front and back covers, and at least one on the front flyleaf and usually
the back flyleaf. However, a lot of places don't bother any more, since
the school name is on the barcode (be sure to specify the school name and
school district for the barcode labels).
Also, after you download each vendor's catalog records, be sure to spot
check the top, middle, and last book on each page against the computer's
record to be sure that the import numbers match the book barcodes and
listing. I had no problem with Follett, but another vendor sent 100 books
(all fifty state, 2 copies each) and half of the printed barcodes did not
match up with the titles in the catalog. This was a company that sent out
their processing (Follett does theirs in house).
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I worked in a public library. I knew what was weak in our collection so
when the library didn't offer me a position as a librarian and I was
recruited locally by a school~I took the job. I consider myself pretty
knowledgeable when it comes to the type of~information needed by the
children in elementary schools.
The amount of books you get will obviously depend on your budget.
I went through the states SOL's and wrote down the information by grade
level that children would be studying Including all areas of studies. I
made sure that~information was on each grade level.(nothing like a first
~grader trying to read a biography on Columbus that's 50 pages of small
print)
I received a list of books from the lead people in the county it had books
titles that were required to go along with the curriculum in each subject.
good series for lower lowers are Rookie Readers and Picture Windows.
I don't know what your budget will be so the amount of books will depend
on that. Do you also have to purchase the AV equipment with your money?
What I ordered:
Reference
sets of encyclopedia easy ones for the lower students-various types
dictionaries- grades k-2, 3-5 different level order class set of each
different animals, reptiles and mammals--check out with the ~world book
vendor,
world almanacs, world records, various atlas's
sets of books on author's
thesaurus one class set (at least 25)
Biographies:
various types from Kindergarten -fifth grade
Books:
check with Follett or your book rep~for the top series--Too many to
name~check Library Journal , book list for new releases
Read Aloud:
check Scholastic make sure get with at least 4 books and one cd, follett
as well as Weston woods sell these
Supplies:
magazine covers
boxes to put old issues of magazines in
tape, staples/stapler at least three or four, include the long arm one
special book tape for taping pages
dust cover jackets, get the type on the roll and the flat ones , you will
need various sizes make sure you have at lest some~ that are 17in high
get laminate rolls to cover paperbacks , various sizes, I order mine from
Kapco but Brodart and Gaylord both sell it
scissors
regular tape
barcode labels you will need to make the decision on size
spine labels~~ (same as above)
clear spine and barcode covers to protect the labels-again your choice
just make sure they cover spine label and barcode.
paper clips
brads
heavy duty clips
clear tape,~2 in wide~as well as package tape
3 ring binders best type are the D rings put copies of your orders and
packing slips in
dividers
extra hanging bags for cd's and books get the heavy duty type they come in
various sizes.
CD~RW's and R's for archiving
pens,pencils, highlighters
crayons, markers and colored pencils for the classes when they come into
the library -Not mandatory this was my choice if I~ did an activity~I
didn't have to rely on classes to bring there own school supplies , it
pays off.
desk organizers
bookmarks
stamps with school name on it, to use to stamp inside of books, also
stamps for reference, discard and received
Professional material:
you will have to find this lots of good info from Upstart
I also purchased stuffed animals to display by books again it depends on
your funds
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Our school opened in August of 2006 and I was there for pretty much the
whole process.
I'm not sure how exactly they determined our budget for books, but our
school opened with around 830 students and we had a $100,000 book budget.
They split it evenly with $50,000 for fiction and $50,000 for nonfiction.
Permabound did our fiction section and Follett did our nonfiction. Our
district chose to go with opening day collection lists created by the
companies. I think we had a very nice opening day
collection. The nonfiction especially was very balanced as Follett based
it on the North Carolina standard course of study. The fiction section
had a sufficient amount of titles, but if I had been choosing them, there
were some selections that I wouldn't have chosen. Our Follett rep even
came out to the school and helped me unbox and shelve
the books when they came in!
As far as supplies, the district did the supply orders, but I have a lists
of everything they ordered. I can honestly say that with what they ordered
we were ready to go on the first day of school.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jenny Takeda, Library Support Specialist
Beaverton School District, I.T.
16550 SW Merlo Road / Beaverton, Oregon 97006
Phone: (503) 591- 4165 / Fax: (503) 591- 4306
Jenny_Takeda@beaverton.k12.or.us
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