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  These books were in bad shape and or outdated.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.