Before School B

 

The Before Photos

What did I walk into? School B

    Before the school year even started I was already exhausted just with school A.  Luckily or unluckily the second school library some books were shelved and the boxes put in another room.  This meant the boxes are even more mixed up.  In addition I felt pressure to sort through the boxes quickly so the band teacher could have the room back.  I don't have pictures of the HUGE pile of boxes for this school.  Most of the boxes were overpacked and breaking open.  This library went through a complete renovation and looks wonderful but unfortunately the number of shelves was greatly reduced!

    

    So I begin the process of getting through the boxes in the band room by weeding as I unbox.  Forget about doing it in any sort of order.  I could barely move these boxes.  I ended up weeding and discarding  2000+ books.  These books were in bad shape and or outdated.  I hauled by book cart the books I selected back to the library.

    Here are the before pictures without the band room pile.

    The tables and chairs will be replace they are just temporary till the order comes in.  The space looks great but has been a challenge.  I had to start teaching with the first day of school so no time to shelve books.  It has been a slow process but the band room is clear of library boxes.  I was able to put some picture books out for students to check out.  I have had to make decisions on the go.  I decided to put the holiday books in the cabinet you see in the last photo.  I have a cart that I will be putting books to highlight the season and holidays.  I didn't want to use shelving space for the holiday books that are used once a year.  These two cabinets are also the only storage space in the library.

    The school is a K-5 elementary and I gave students a chance to provide feedback on the library.  They loved the space but did not like how the books were shelved so far.  Now I needed to make more decisions faster.  This meant moving the books already on the shelves and reorganizing.

    I can't wait to get the last section finished and the last of the non library items out of the library.  The Non-Fiction sections are finished, had to create a section of each non-fiction for the youngest grades.  Bonus is that with these books seperated I don't have books falling behind other books.  Fiction (long) and Fiction (short) sections are finished.  Graphic novels are finished.  The reader section of books is on the shelf and I will come back to that to organize it better.  

    The last section is the one I am tackling now and that's the picture book section.  I have seen students at both schools use the picture book section.  They wander aimlessly and pull random books off the shelf that makes a mess.  Plus students are not really getting books they want to read.  I have decided to sort the picture books not by author but by topic.  I have sorted a couple bins of books and the students are enjoying selecting from these sections.  So I know I am on the right track.

The Before Photos What did I walk into? School A

The Before Photos

What did I walk into? School A

    Before the school year even started I was already exhausted.  School A the week before school was to start and all the books are still in boxes and the shelves still to be assembled.  I ended up with 3 days to unbox and shelve everything!  I have a great group of fellow librarians in the district.  They came and helped get the work done.  There is no way that I would have even come close to being done without their help.

    Boxes had to be moved and sorted into the correct order for unboxing.  They had to be moved so we could get to the shelves to put the books on them.  Looking at the photos now it doesn't seem that bad, but it was!  The boxes were moved several times and each time they were tossed and mixed up.  Even though the books are on the shelves the work is not done.  I am still working on better organization to make it easier for students to find books. 

    The shelves were set up in a good layout but the circulation desk was not.  It was put where the last librarians thought would be a good spot.  The desk was split in two.  One was put over by where the smart board will be.  I call this the classroom area.  You can see the other half in the last picture.  The desk has the backside of the desk facing the door and I don't like my back to the door. Plus you can see the mess that usually accumulates in the desk area.  To top that off there is no power outlet and no ethernet port on that side of the room.  So I tried wireless internet and that is not reliable plus running an extension cord to get power to the computer.  This is just not working.  The desk it useless and is now piled with books.  Some to discard and a bunch to figure out a location to put them.  I have been unsuccessful at getting the desk rotated to the other wall.  It's not far to go but the desk is too heavy to move.

Next post the before photos of School B.

 

 New School Year New Schools

Tammy Cummings Library Media Specialist Binghamton, NY

    Well this year has already been full of adventures.  Just over a year ago I switched school districts.  This meant working in two school libraries and moving to a new area.  Binghamton NY is now my home.  I've officially settled down or at least I had thought I settled down.  The district hired another librarian (or rehired one) and switched up who was working at which schools.  This meant two new schools and two new collections.

    Last year was the chaos of the pandemic and teaching asynchronously for part of the school year. Plus getting to know two new library collections. One school had over 700+ books that needed to be sorted through and cataloged.  Luckily I had help with that from Library aids and School Library Services.  Then having to make space for Covid testing in the library for part of the year and push into classrooms at both schools.  Towards the end of the school year I was finally able to have classes in the library!  I survived the school year, but then they sprung on us the switch up of locations!

    Start of this school year I found myself assigned to two different schools both of which the school library had undergone renovations!  All the books were in boxes at both schools!  Luckily at one school (School A) I had the help of other librarians in the district to unbox the books.  Managed to get this done before school started but it was still organized chaos.  Unfortunately at the other School (School B) I didn't have help unboxing the books until after the school year started, but the boxes were out of sight and I could start teaching right away.

    School A is a great space but the smart board is not up so I cannot project anything!  I do have two monitors so I use the second larger one to show students videos and such.  I only lost a little bit of shelving in the renovation at school A.  The collection is in desperate need of weeding.  About 900 books have been weeded as we were shelving.  The picture book section still needs to be weeded. 

    School B is an awesome space but shelving is very limited!  That has been the biggest issue with school B.  Very little was done before the school year started, but what was done the students did not like.  The principal had older tables put in the library so students had a place to sit to work.  At some point this school year the library will get new tables and chairs.  Learned the hard way that the projector does not work for the smart board and I am waiting on it being repaired.  Luckily there is a smart TV in the library and I use that instead.  The boxes of books were stored erratically in the band room.  I felt bad about taking up this teachers space and pushed myself to sort and weed fast!  Total so far of weeded books at School B is around 2000.  But all those books really needed to be weeded.  I still have my book budget for this year and need to get the orders placed.  Now I am am down to the books that really should stay.  I have almost completed the Non-Fiction (Informational Text) part of the collection, the biography section, readers, graphic novels and Fiction sections of the collection.  That leaves the picture books to get shelved.  Not enough room to shelve them plus I need to decide on how to shelve them.  Thankfully I do have help now with completing this library.

Things that I learned during this process:

1. Librarians don't get to pack boxes up at their pace and many non librarians will pitch in to get the work done!

2.  Boxes once packed will be moved an mixed up during the renovations!

3.  Librarians most likely won't get a say in the renovation.  You will be asked to spend a ton of time planning it but then the decision is not in your hands.

4.  Take care of yourself.  I pushed myself too hard and ended up sick for almost a week.

5.  Principals will say take your time and take care of yourself but they really want it done as quickly as possible.

This is the end for today.  I will start my next post about the decisions that I had to make and share some before and after photos of the progress so far.