It's Almost Time: Unveiling the Updates to Our Library

I'm officially back on the clock on Thursday this week, but I've continued to spend some time in the library daily since last week, fine-tuning areas and updating to-do lists in the hopes that I can avoid feeling overwhelmed and underprepared during six days of professional development.  The update to the space and its contents has been an oh-so-necessary and herculean task, but the results have been worth it.

Sections of the collection are located in more easily accessible areas and are easier to find with signage and logical visual starting points.  For instance, tall bookcases against one wall of the library still house fiction for upper grades, but used to start on the far left, top shelf, with authors whose last names begin with "O." Now they begin with "A" and run the length of the taller bookshelves to "P, "then return along the same path in lower bookcases facing the taller ones beginning with "Q" and ending at "Z".  Junior biographies, junior non-fiction, junior fiction and picture books are all located near the circulation desk, and the outdated yet still possibly relevant reference section has been brought up from the unused rear of the library closer to the entrance, where students can get their hands on dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases and the like.  Every section has about a hand's width of open space on each shelf allowing for growth and ease in reshelving, and I know which sections could stand some additions when I start purchasing books to build the collection. 

The new area rugs, kites suspended from the ceiling, bulletin board displays, signage and plants have really brightened the space up and made it seem inviting rather than imposing and bland.  Reusing items found in the library in new ways will give returning staff and students that feeling of familiarity, too.  Couches and beanbags have been arranged throughout the room and there are three areas large enough for instructional activities to take place, simultaneously, if wanted. The professional library, once packed with outdated audio/visual equipment, equipment carts, book carts, twenty-year-old never used magazines, oversized cardboard book fair props, and whatever overflow other staff members didn't want in their classrooms or workrooms, is now fully accessible, organized, and able to be used as a tornado shelter if and when necessary. 

The area that serves as my office and book room has also been updated after a thorough gutting and shifting of oversized cabinetry.  Paperwork with confidential information, books that need to be repaired or processed, and essentials for library displays can now be kept away from the circulation desk and out of reach and sight of students and patrons.  The room provides some "me" space, too, even though it's not quite finished as of this post.  I still need to find a tall locking file cabinet that holds legal-sized folders for the activities and lessons that I will be creating and teaching.  For now, I have some black milk crates stacked on the floor for file storage.

I added signage to the professional library and updated the library's map yesterday, making both staff and student versions to help with collection and safety navigation. And I also started my first draft of a weekly lesson plan template after our principal let us know our instructional, lunch, intervention, and prep times. I'm looking forward to being able to start more of the administrative tasks and building the muscle memory that will come from using Follett Destiny regularly.  Checking items in, out, doing searches, creating barcode class lists, and familiarizing myself with the bells and whistles that are used the most often are where I'm feeling the neediest, simply due to lack of experience.  

As a veteran instructor, I understand our state standards, grade level curricula and student expectations.  As a long-time colleague in a new role (I'm at the same school in the same district I joined fourteen years ago), I'll be adapting to sharing my instructional space on a much larger scale.  Teachers and staff have always been welcome as visitors, guests, and co-teachers in my kindergarten classroom in the past, but have never joined me en masse!  As the librarian, I very much want to promote our library and have it put to good use by students, staff, and families, and yet...it is also my instructional space.  My fingers are crossed that my adaptation will happen quickly with few, if any hiccups and that any changes I have made or will make will be welcomed and respected by our school family.