A Look at Book Checkouts! Library Impact Dashboard

 A Look at Book Checkouts! Library Impact Dashboards!

I have spent the last two years categorizing the picture book and reader book sections of my two libraries.  I have switched away from having the readers mixed in with picture books and NF books.  I moved them to their own section called Readers.  Both the reader section and the picture book sections are now sorted into categories.  I used the same categories for both sections.  The Readers have the Letter R added to the category label.  More about this in another post.

I have been spending time learning how to use Google Looker Studio.  It used to be called Data Studio which I was familiar with and I wrote several blog posts about that journey.  I decided to create a Library Impact Dashboard after seeing one at a conference and a virtual training session held during my Thanksgiving break.  It was worth the time!

I wanted to expand on this dashboard so I started researching what else Google Looker was being used for.  Two items stood out to me.  One a Mini Credentials board and a digital reading log.  Let’s talk about the reading log.

In both of my schools students are expected to read independently outside of school at least 15 minutes a day and some up to 20 Minutes a day.  They turn in reading logs.  I found an awesome example online.  I started to build my Google form to collect the data and the Google form to display the results.  I am worried about getting teachers to buy into this.  With Looker studio you need data to build your dashboards.  I will need to create some fake entries to get the board set up.  I’m not really into fake data so I have set this aside for a moment. Good news is that once it is set up I can delete the fake data and start collecting real data without damaging the dashboard.

Where else can I get data?  I looked at my Library Catalog and see a report for Loaned Items…… Now this report would have to be run each week or for me at the end of my 6 day rotation.  This is the biggest drawback of this report. If you don't pull the report each week you will loose out on data. All other reports that I have use so far you can pull at any time and even years later.

OPALS does not keep this information past the book being returned.  I learned about why in one of my Master Library Classes and its a good reason.  When I pull this report I will need to ensure student information is left out for this very reason. I do not want to do an end run around keeping a history of what students borrowed form the library.  OPALS has an option to leave out student information when running this report.  This report does give me some great information that I can create a dashboard with.

1. A list of books loaned out with no user information.

2. The Author names

3. Location of the books

1. Special Locations (Short Chapter books/series picture books & Reader categories)

2. The next two sections - the location field is blank and it is easy to add these after the report is pulled. 

1. Dewey - All the Nonfiction Books

2. Fiction - Novels - the longer ones - shorter ones are in Chapter Baskets

   

This gives me a look at the most popular authors & the sections of the library that get looked at the most.

1. Now to start asking questions

1. Why is an author more popular than others?  Is it the number of their books that I have?  Is it just because the author is popular?  What else can it be?

2. Which sections are seeing the most use?  Do I need to weed these sections or purchase more books for them?

The best reason to create a dashboard is to look at the data and ask questions.  The report looking nice is great but you want it to lead to questions.  I will be adding this report to the Library Impact Dashboard as a second and third page of the report.

Picture Book Genre

 Picture Book Genre

UPDATE:  I have also sorted the Reader section for students into the same groups.  I used the same stickers but added the letter R to identify the section to shelve in.

Many libraries have added Genres to their fiction collections and there are tons of resources online to help you complete this task.  There are however not many resources online for adding Genre to the Picture Book section of the library.  I started my journey at https://obxlibrarian.weebly.com/blog/easy-picture-book-genrefication  I was sad to see students just wandering around the picture book section when it was sorted by author only and spine out all the time.  Once I started to switch over to Genre topics for picture books I saw a change in the students when looking for books.  They took the time to flip through the front facing books to see what was in that section.  It was amazing!

1. The first step is to go through your picture books and pull out board books and step into reading type readers.  They make it difficult to shelve books because their size is so different from most picture books.  I created their own sections for these books.

2. You will need to select the topics (genre) that will work best with your collection and your students.  Here is a list of the topics I went with.

1.  ABC’s

2. Adventures

3. Animals (wild/zoo)

4. Author

5. Bears

6. Bugs

7. Career

8. 123’s

9. Dragons & Dinos

10. Farm

11. Friends and family

12. USA/Government

13. Pet Stories

14. Princess/Prince

15. Scary

16. School/Books

17. Sea life

18. Silly Stories

19. Sports

20. Holiday

21. Superhero

22. Trucks & Equipment

23. Video Games

The highlighted topics can be large sections.  I am looking into breaking them down into smaller sections.

Author sticker means to shelve by the author’s name.

3. I created stickers with the above labels on them along with clipart to match. I printed these on blank spine labels.  I placed the stickers on the top right corner of the book cover.  Choose what works best for you.

4. Now the work comes in.  Sort the picture books into piles based on the topics.  Then place the stickers on them.

5. How will you shelve the books now that they have stickers on them?

1. Spine out?  I do this for the large sections

2. Bins on the shelf.  I do this with small topics.  I prefer front facing books as much as possible

3. Larger bins on the floor to highlight a section/topic of the collection.

6. Holiday books have a spine label and shelved out of the way but still accessible to students.

NOTE:  I do end up with some overfull bins but that is only at the start and end of the year.  All other times the bins are half empty.

The following are examples of the genre stickers I created using clipart.  I am not claiming this artwork as my own.  Please use your own artwork or clipart.

It has been awhile since I posted!

Let's Keep Going!

Hello Everyone:

    It has been a busy couple of years.  The last time I posted it was my first year at my two school libraries in Binghamton City School District.  I was unboxing and weeding two elementary school libraries with lots of help from my fellow librarians.  I survived! 

    I have been working on a new Google Site to hold my lesson plans and all things I need to track as a professional librarian. :)  You can view my work here, but many things you won't be able to view until I am ready for them to be public.  Don't worry I won't keep them a secret for long.

I was happy to see that Data Studio is now Google Looker Studio.  I did a 4 part post about creating reading logs using Data Studio.  Now I am back creating new reading logs and even more important Library Impact Dashboards.  View here.  Since I have two school libraries I have two dashboards but I have created a blended dashboard to combine the stats to view the totals of both schools.  There is a limit to the number of blends you can create in Google Looker Studio.  I believe it is 5 but I have had issues after 4 blends.

I would love some feedback.

Tammy Cummings

Librarian

Reliability Spectrum VS. FAKE News

Tammy Cummings, MLS
Center for  Instruction, Technology & Innovation

Reliability Spectrum VS. FAKE News

Librarians and educators today spend a lot of time educating students in regards to fake news.  The AASL Standards Framework for Learners has a standard (VI.A.3) that states "Evaluating information for accuracy, validity, social and cultural context, and appropriateness for need". (AASL)  In my role as a Library Media Specialist I have done many lessons on fake news and how to tell a valid source from a not so valid source.  I have seen many lessons by other librarians that concentrate on the areas of accuracy, validity.  These are the biggest evaluations used to decide if something is fake news or not.  The new Social Studies exams are now asking students to rate sources based on a reliability spectrum.  This connects with the remaining parts of the new library standard.

The new standard includes the need to evaluate sources not only on the accuracy and validity but also the social and cultural context and the appropriateness for the need.  This is the core thought process behind the reliability spectrum. Students will have several articles to read and they must rate them on this spectrum.  Students will need to know that it is not asking if the articles are fake news or not but how reliable are the sources to answer the questions that are being asked.

My example to students is as follows:

I am looking to create a healthy meal plan for the week.  I have three sources available to make my decisions.  

1. My grandmothers recipe box that is filled with our family recipes for generations.  
2. Local chef who wrote and published a cookbook.
3. A friend who is nutritionist and studying to be a dietitian.

Now I need to evaluate each source but what are the questions? Plus I need to state my reasoning.  Why did I rate that source the way I did?

Question 1:  Which source is reliable to create a meal plan for someone with a health issue, which one would be reliable?  Would you choose the friend studying to be a dietitian?  I would say that source would be between reliable and somewhat reliable, since the friend is still studying to be a dietitian.  Plus a dietitian is the better choice for nutrition decisions for health issues than a nutritionist.

Question 2:  Which source would be reliable to cook a meal for a night when everyone wants comfort food?  Would you choose Grandma's recipe box or the Chef that published a cookbook.  I would say that my family would want Grandma's Cooking and that makes it reliable.  Everyone likes Grandma's cooking.  The Chef I would say is somewhat reliable because to publish a cookbook you have to keep in mind what the reader would like to see in the cookbook.  That cookbook also needs to look appealing to get people to buy it but that doesn't guarantee that the recipes would be considered comfort food.

My example doesn't cover all the aspects of the reliability spectrum but it is a start that will get students talking.  Getting students to understand that the new Social Studies exams want them to take a stance and back it up.  There is no right or wrong answer to the rating but they need to be able to back up their decision with reasons and it can't be "just because" or "because it is".

The big take away is that students need evaluate their sources and be able to state how reliable those sources are.  Everyone not just students need to be able to chose a stance (using  the reliability spectrum) and be able to articulate why they took that stance.  It's OK to not agree but you must be able to back it up with your reasons.  Not everyone in my family would agree that my Grandmother's recipes would be considered comfort food.  They might say that the Chef's cookbook is more reliable.  That's OK because I know my family and they will not hesitate to tell me why, but they will also listen to my reasoning.  Are your students that comfortable with making a decision and stating why?

Remember it's not just about fake news but also about the reliability.   Lessons on Fake news are a great way to get student's attention and engage them in learning.  We also need to remember that there is more to evaluating sources and help students develop those skills.

Works cited:

(2018), National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. Chicago, ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.

AASL_ReadingtheStandards_OnePager_2017.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2018, from http://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL_ReadingtheStandards_OnePager_2017.pdf