Planning Library Programs, Celebrations, and Displays

I love that, as an educator, I get two official “starting over so I can get it right this time” days each year:  January 1st and the beginning of a new school year (which is Aug. 13th this year). There’s something hopeful and energizing about fresh starts, isn’t there?

I also adore new school supplies; each July I head out to the office supply stores in search of my planner.  Several years ago I stumbled across one that is as close to perfect for my needs as I can get without designing one myself:  Mead’s QuickNotes Academic Year Weekly/Monthly Planner. It’s well-organized and includes an extra planning space (QuickNotes) each week for jotting notes.  Each month begins with a full page of QuickNotes space which is perfect for noting special celebrations for the month.

Noting the Dates

Today, I sat down with my planner, my SCASL Executive Board Handbook, and my Mac.  (I want to thank our SCASL leadership this year for including a page of special library-related dates – very helpful!)

One other calendar that is essential to my planning is my school district’s calendar.  I crop it a bit and tape it inside the front cover of my planner.  I highly recommend doing something similar; I refer to this often during the year.

I am by no means finished with filling in the dates and celebrations, but thought I would share some of what I have so far.

The number one search query for bringing visitors to my site has been “library display ideas” and I hope that those of you who have landed here from such a search will find some ideas to use in your own library.

September

National Library Card Signup Month

• Partner with the public library to create a display and perhaps have a representative onsite one day.  Many students and their parents do not realize all of the resources that are available to them from the public library.
• Print the PSAs from ALA to display. Playing on this idea, get a group of your teachers and administrators to pose holding their public library cards.  Ask your superintendent if you can get a photo of him/her also.  How about your town’s mayor, police chief, sheriff, local politicians?  Make it into a contest to see which students can name the pictured local celebrities.

Banned Books Week Sept. 30 – Oct. 6

• Check out the Banned Books Week YouTube Channel.  Perhaps you could have some of these videos of celebrities reading from banned books playing in your library before and after school each day.
• Save and use ALA’s free downloadable clip art to display in your flyers, newsletters, bibliographies, or posters.
• Check out other display ideas from ALA.

Constitution Week Sept. 17-23

• Partner with a social studies/U.S. History teacher to display student work.  Because the CCSS recognizes the Constitution as one of the foundational US documents, perhaps you could create a board with not only the history of the Constitution, but also reading strategies.

October

National Book Month

• The National Book Foundation sponsors this event.  Why not use their list of National Book Award Winners (1950-2011) to choose books to display?  On October 10, this year’s book award finalists will be announced.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month

National Reading Group Month

• Promote your book club!

Teen Read Week Oct. 14-20

• The theme this year is “It Came from the Library!”
• Check out the YALSA Teen Read Week Pinterest board.
• Demco has several great posters (either plain or laminated) for TRW – love the Librarian Zombies!

Mystery Series Week – 1st week in October

• This one is new to me.  Love mysteries and students often request them.  Gather some of your mysteries for a great display the 1st week in October.

Banned Websites Awareness Day Oct. 3rd

National Read Aloud Day Oct. 22nd

November

National Life Writing Month

• This celebration is perfect for a display of biographies and autobiographies as well as one on books showing your how to chronicle your life’s story.

National Novel Writing Month (Often referred to as “NaNoWriMo”)

• Why not use this month to spotlight several new YA or children’s book authors?

American Education Week Nov. 18 -24th

• Display ideas: books with schools as one of main settings, books about education, faculty members photographed with a favorite book

National Game and Puzzle Week Nov. 18 -24th

• We’ll only have two days of school this week since it falls during Thanksgiving week.  Have games spread out on tables for students to play.

January

Appreciate a Dragon Day Jan. 16th

• Delightfully new to me!  Cull all of your dragon books for a dragonlicious display.
• Create a board of literary dragons and ask students to vote for their favorite.
• Use movie tie-ins to The Hobbit that debuts in theaters in December.

ALA Youth Media Awards Jan. 28th

• Create displays of the 2010, 2011, and 2012 award winners.

February

Digital Learning Day Feb. 6th

• This page, created for school librarians, provides lessons, tools, strategies, and more to help you promote this celebration.  Visit the Showcases page and watch several of the videos.  Can you encourage your teachers to let you film them sharing how they use technology in their instruction? These could be shown on your school’s newscast or played for students before and after school on Feb. 6th.

March

Teen Tech Week Mar. 10 – 16

• Last year, my co-librarian created a Tech Museum in one of our art display cases.  He included artifacts with printed info sheets.  Why not show students how technology has changed over time?  We had a record player, Sony walkman, a typewriter, 3.5 inch floppy disks, and much more in our case.

Read Across America Day Mar. 2nd

• No one is ever too old for Dr. Seuss!  Create a display of his books, or if you are in a library that doesn’t carry many of his books (like my high school library), create a bulletin board with book covers, quotes, and Seuss characters. The NEA provides printables that would go great with a Seuss board.

Freedom of Information Day Mar. 16th

April

School Library Month

National Library Week Apr. 14 – 20

National D.E.A.R. Day Apr. 12th

• You’ll find a variety of ideas here for displays and activities.

Support Teen Literature Day Apr. 18th

Children’s Book Day Apr. 30th

May

National Library Legislative Day May 7th

Teacher Appreciation Week May 6 – 10th

Resources

Want to discover other appropriate, delightful, or whimsical celebrations to assist you in planning for your library this year?  Check out these sites:

School Library Monthly Almanacs:  Author & Illustrator and Events (as of this posting, the new school year’s calendars are not posted, but you can review last school year’s calendars for ideas)

ALA’s Celebration Weeks & Promotional Events

Three for: Awesome Ideas for Library Displays

Is there a support group for Librarians Who Lack “Display Panache”?  If so, I need to join.  Until I can find that support group, I rely on Pinterest, Flickr, and Google to provide me with ideas.

Pinterest

• My Library and Displays BB board  This addicting site is the perfect place to gather display ideas.
• So Tomorrow Library Bulletin Boards and Displays  Anne Clark’s collection
• Bulletin Board Book Displays  Miss Pippi’s cache

Flickr

• School Library Displays  From bulletin boards to display cases, this group provides plenty of ideas.
• Libraries and Librarians Thousands of photos; use search terms to discover bulletin boards and displays.
• Book Displays  Again, it’s best to narrow by search terms.

Google Search

• Library Displays Elaine Pearson’s blog is always an inspiration.
• Elementary Library Routines Crowd sourced display ideas
• Library Book Display Ideas  A Squidoo page on library displays.  Although there are ads throughout the page, it is worth scrolling though for some great ideas.

Now, finding time to create these awesome displays is another problem.  Fortunately this semester I have some talented and willing service learners to help!

Image attribution:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/vblibrary/4604389463/

ALA and ISTE: Attending Conferences Vicariously

Cold Light

Ever feel like you’re on the outside, looking in?  It’s not a bad thing!  If, like me, you are not attending either of the “biggie conferences” this weekend, you can still keep connected to those who are and learn vicariously though them.

Getting Live Feeds

First, you need a Twitter account.  (If you have never used Twitter, now is the PERFECT time to see this powerful learning tool in action – promise!)

Have no idea how to get started?  Visit David Wees’ “Eight Videos to Help Teachers Getting Started Using Twitter.”  He includes information on not only how to sign up for and customize your Twitter account, but also videos on how to use Tweetdeck, an application that simplifies and organizes your Twitter experience.

The Twitter client I use is HootSuite which is an online application (you don’t have to install anything on your computer).  There are many YouTube tutorials to help you get started with HootSuite, but I’ve embedded one below you might want to watch.

HootSuite

Using Hashtags

Once you have chosen your Twitter client, you want to set up columns, or threads, based on hashtags.  Then either Tweetdeck or HootSuite will do all the work of finding the conference tweets for you and you can sit back and let all the conference updates come to you!

American Library Association Conference – #ALA11, #ala11

International Society for Technology in Education – #ISTE11, #iste11

HootSuite Conference Columns

Let the Learning Begin!

Some of the best professional development of the year is about to begin.  Are you ready?

Image used through a Creative Commons license

“Cold Light” by Scott Ripton (Quasic) http://www.flickr.com/photos/ripton/3108800277/

You Can Take the Librarian out of the Library, but…..

I’m into my third week of summer vacation and loving every hectic and relaxing minute of it.  I have been back to the school library a few times to water plants, check on the mail that piles up over the summer, and just visit with office staff.

Today after stopping by the school library, I headed over to my local pubic library branch (two libraries in one day – nirvana!).  I had to return a couple of public library books that had been left in lockers at school  (those rascally kids!) and also turn in one of my book reviews for our public library’s Rock and Read summer reading program.

As I walked in the door, I heard my name being called – one of my favorite students was in the library with her aunt checking out  a load of books to carry home.  When I asked her if she was participating in the teen summer reading program, she said “no” and then gave her aunt a strange look.  Turns out her aunt reads as much as she does and wasn’t participating in the adult reading program.

So here I am, a school librarian, encouraging one of my students and her aunt to join the public library’s summer reading program.  Then up walks another one of my students who is also – gasp – not participating in the summer reading program.  Can I keep my mouth shut?  Or do I urge her to sign up, too?  Whadda ya think?

Photo attribution:

“Relaxing on the Beach” by Andrew Osterberg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualphotographystudio/2890301351/in/set-72157607796135691

What’s Your Library’s Story?

I just came across this gem today. Nancy Dowd, Director of Marketing of the New Jersey State Library,  created this powerful video simply entitled “Sean.”  Powerful.

Bull’s Eye!

Image attribution:  Poster by thewikiman   http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewikiman/5163839574/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Ned Potter, author of thewikiman blog, created and shared the above poster in a Jan.4th post.  Short, simple, to the point. Love it!

 

 

The Ultimate Teen Bookshelf from YALSA

Another notable reader’s advisory and collection development tool has just been released. The Ultimate Teen Bookshelf list  is available for download as a .pdf file.  The list includes 50 books, 5 magazines, and 5 audiobooks.  It was compiled by Pam Spencer Holley and Judy Sasges from suggestions by subscribers to the YALSA-BK discussion list.

“Ultimate YA Bookshelf,” American Library Association, June 25, 2009.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/yabookshelf.cfm (Accessed July 01, 2009)
Document ID: 549310

Library Usage Soars in Poor Economy

An interesting report on the popularity (and necessity!) of libraries in today’s economy from the Today show.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/31237988#31237988

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

And the Winner Is…..

http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php?terms=searchlights&page=1&edit=yes&com=no

Recognizing Excellence!

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences bestows the Grammys (short for Gramophone), the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League recognize achievement with Tony Awards, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes excellence with Oscar winners.

Excellence in literature is recognized with myriad awards.  There is the Pulitzer Prize  for newspaper journalism and literature, the Edgar given by the Mystery Writers of America, and the Newbery Medal given by the Association of Library Service to Children just to name a few.

Recognizing Excellence?

Then there are the awards that no one wants to win or awards won for negative reasons.  There’s the FBI’s Tne Most Wanted Fugitives list,  Mr. Blackwell’s Top Ten Worst Dressed Women list  which acknowledged* celebrities’ fashion faux pas, and  the English Department at San Jose University’s Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest that  encourages bad writing (recognizing “winners”  and dishonorable mentions for the opening sentence to the worst possible novel).

The MUSTIE Award

Librarians and school library media specialists are charged with developing their library’s collection. The obvious way to do this is by purchasing materials which will meet the needs of the library’s users.  But the not so obvious way is to pull and dispose of materials which are no longer meeting the users’ needs.

Librarians have been known to pull and dispose of these materials in the dark of night so as not to raise the ire of bibliophiles everywhere:  “What?!!! Throw out books?  Preposterous!”  I propose a new award to add glamour to the fine art of weeding:  the MUSTIE.

The term “MUSTIE” is defined by CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries  in this manner:

M =  Misleading (and/or factually inaccurate)

U=  Ugly (worn and beyond mending or rebinding)

S=  Superseded (by a truly new edition or by a much better book on the subject)

T= Trivial (of no discernable literary or scientific merit; usually of ephemeral interest at some time in the past)

I=  Irrevelant to the needs and interests of your community

E=  The material or information may be obtained expeditiously Elsewhere through interlibrary loan, reciprocal borrowing, or in electronic format

 The 2009 Boiling Springs High School Library Media Center’s MUSTIE award goes to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arnold, Robert ,Harold Hill, and Aylmer Nichols. Modern Data Processing (Second Edition). New York:  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1972.

 Although this book obviously was cutting edge for 1972, it now easily fits the MUSTIE criteria:  misleading, ugly (although it could be mended), superseded, trivial, irrelevant, and up-to-date information can be found elsewhere.

Now, how to celebrate the book’s winning the MUSTIE Award?  Keep it on display as an example of outdated material (keeping the bibliophiles happy), or send it on to book heaven?  After all, it has earned a jewel in its crown there now! 

 

*Richard Blackwell, fashion critic, died on Oct. 18, 2008

“Oh, it’s so Ning to be with you”

“Oh, it’s so nice to be with you, I love all the things you say and do…” Gallery  

I was first introduced to Nings through Joyce Valenza’s TeacherLibrarianNing (2430 members). I have to confess that I found the interface quite confusing for a while.  However, since joining that Ning, I have joined several others and have become accustomed to the way Nings work.

The Ning that has excited me the most recently is the SCASL Ning.  I’ve attended three SCASL (South Carolina Association of School Librarians) conferences in the past and have been impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity of other media specialists in South Carolina.  The current leadership of SCASL has made intensive efforts to involve our association with Web 2.0 through blogging, podcasts, and even a webcast. 

Now, thanks to Julie Putnam, South Carolina library media specialists have their own social network.  As of today, 235 people have joined the Ning.  Great ideas are being shared and new friendships are being formed. 

I want my teachers to experience the professional development that Nings offer, so I thought I would find several to recommend.  The numbers in parentheses after the title of each Ning are the number of members in the Ning as of the date of this post.

English Companion: Where English teachers meet to help each other (594)       This Ning  was created by Jim Burke, author of many books including the namesake of this site, The English Teacher’s Companion. 

Classroom 2.0  (15,559) Winner of the 2008 Edublog’s Award for Best Use of Social Networking. This Ning focuses on introducing teachers to Web 2.0 tools and how they are being used to enhance instruction. 

Smart Board Revolution (750)      The members of this Ning share tips, ideas, and lessons for using Smart Boards in the classroom.

VoiceThread for Educators  (248)      The members here are participating “to create, build, and keep resources” for those using VoiceThread in the classroom.

So, You Want to Start Your Own Ning?

Ning in Education (3229)      This is a Ning on how to use Nings in education.  It’s a great starting point for anyone considering developing their own Ning.  If you want to start a Ning for your secondary classroom, be sure to investigate the offer for an ad-free site.

Image attribution:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/49512158@N00/1638001945