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Vaguely professional-related griping
Mar. 15th, 2004 10:39 pmSo I'm not going to launch into my rant about approximately forty percent of the elementary and junior high school libraries in the city (close to two hundred of them) do not have a teacher-librarian, instead have a library assistant (read: usually someone's mom who may possibly at one point have worked in a library and shelved books and stuff and what possibly can you need actual training for?), pretty much all part time, in some cases fifteen hours a week or fewer.
Just, it's a bad thing. Trust me. For the kids (oh gee, what do we need information literacy skills for anyhow? Let alone the importance of establishing positive relationships with reading and libraries at an early age), the poor, beleaguered library staff, the teachers who are perpetually just sending kids to google, and the school library itself.
I'm currently subbing for the next month in a junior high library. Nice, bright, well-kept facility, really decent collection, no display space. I'm a huge believer in displays and browsing collections. I've been "making" display space on half-empty shelves and the one table I've co-opted because really, I'm bored. Feeling incredibly under-utilized (and honestly, under-employed), and damn sick of starting somewhere new every few weeks or months, and being in someone else's library.
It's tough to put together a display with just white paper. Junior high libraries don't have coloured construction paper aa a matter of course, incidentally. ;P But some jury-rigged fiction display I now have.
( just in case anyone's remotely curious what books I put out etc )
I came up with maybe six books for a St Patrick's Day display. (Could not find Last Wolf of Ireland anywhere, dammit. Did find James Heneghan's The Grave which is a very cool time travel book.) I could have pulled stuff like James Joyce etc in a high school library, and an elementary would have all sorts of Irish folk tales and leprauchans, but not so much in the junior high. So the other half of the table is... wait for it... books with green covers.
Like I said. I was bored.
The library assistant I'm subbing for was midway through inventory and weeding when she got sick. So it looks like I'm weeding again. Incidentally, weeding has nothing to do with the care and uptake of any potted plants you may have in your library and everything to do with getting old, outdated, falling-apart, possibly now historical artefacts of books off the shelf.
I havene't yet said anything about some of the treasures I pulled off the shelf at the school I was at last month, have I? Watch this space for some positively absurd, and in some cases scary examples of why regular collection maintenance includes taking books OFF the shelf as well as buying new ones. As well as a vague recounting of my weekend and why Anna's tarot cards were all about our washing machine, what I've been reading lately, and other such thrills.
I would no doubt ramble on for many page more right now about all of the above but that would be tedious to actually read all at once. And I'm dead tired and need to go crawl into bed with my girl. Hate early mornings. Blah.
Just, it's a bad thing. Trust me. For the kids (oh gee, what do we need information literacy skills for anyhow? Let alone the importance of establishing positive relationships with reading and libraries at an early age), the poor, beleaguered library staff, the teachers who are perpetually just sending kids to google, and the school library itself.
I'm currently subbing for the next month in a junior high library. Nice, bright, well-kept facility, really decent collection, no display space. I'm a huge believer in displays and browsing collections. I've been "making" display space on half-empty shelves and the one table I've co-opted because really, I'm bored. Feeling incredibly under-utilized (and honestly, under-employed), and damn sick of starting somewhere new every few weeks or months, and being in someone else's library.
It's tough to put together a display with just white paper. Junior high libraries don't have coloured construction paper aa a matter of course, incidentally. ;P But some jury-rigged fiction display I now have.
( just in case anyone's remotely curious what books I put out etc )
I came up with maybe six books for a St Patrick's Day display. (Could not find Last Wolf of Ireland anywhere, dammit. Did find James Heneghan's The Grave which is a very cool time travel book.) I could have pulled stuff like James Joyce etc in a high school library, and an elementary would have all sorts of Irish folk tales and leprauchans, but not so much in the junior high. So the other half of the table is... wait for it... books with green covers.
Like I said. I was bored.
The library assistant I'm subbing for was midway through inventory and weeding when she got sick. So it looks like I'm weeding again. Incidentally, weeding has nothing to do with the care and uptake of any potted plants you may have in your library and everything to do with getting old, outdated, falling-apart, possibly now historical artefacts of books off the shelf.
I havene't yet said anything about some of the treasures I pulled off the shelf at the school I was at last month, have I? Watch this space for some positively absurd, and in some cases scary examples of why regular collection maintenance includes taking books OFF the shelf as well as buying new ones. As well as a vague recounting of my weekend and why Anna's tarot cards were all about our washing machine, what I've been reading lately, and other such thrills.
I would no doubt ramble on for many page more right now about all of the above but that would be tedious to actually read all at once. And I'm dead tired and need to go crawl into bed with my girl. Hate early mornings. Blah.
