I run a middle school library but I'M NOT A LIBRARIAN! Sure, I'd love to work with a teacher librarian, media specialist or whatever a credentialed person is called in your neck of the woods. The reality is, I don't see that happening in my district. I don't even know when elementary or middle schools in my district had librarians. What we do have are some hard-working people, working full-time (and then some!) to give students the best library experience we can.
I've wanted to be a librarian since I was 5, but that job option wasn't encouraged by the feisty and feminist (don't tell the Pope!) nuns who taught me in high school. So I majored in International Environmental Studies, got another degree in Public Health, and spent 9 years working in three wildly different bookstores to pay my way. A short stint working for a governmental agency, a change of coasts, marriage, baby, and finally, volunteer hours in the school library. When the library technician retired, I knew the job had to be mine. Luckily the principal agreed. I'm finishing my 10th year as a library media technician, and third in middle school. That's 1922 days, and I've probably loved 1907 of them (I endure textbook collection, but there's nothing to love about it. But wait-- this year I had five student helpers and they were awesome kids I wouldn't have the pleasure of getting to know better if I wasn't collecting textbooks. So I loved 1912 of them.)
I was born to work in a library. Everything about libraries makes intuitive sense to me. I love the Dewey Decimal System! And shelving! And reading aloud! And book talking! I don't like silverfish. That's the only downside to libraries. Why do silverfish like books so much?
If you're still reading, there are a few more things you should know. I overuse words like awesome and amazing, as well as the exclamation point. That's how I talk, too. I just think a lot of library, book, and tech-related things are amazing, and a lot of the people involved in those things are awesome. I am old enough to be amazed that I can virtually hang out with library people from around the world.
I'll be writing about what goes on in my library, what I'd like to do in the future, and how I'm incorporating those shiny things I find that other library folks have so generously shared. I'm a little snarky, and more than a bit subversive when it comes to the library, so anything I write here in no way reflects the policies of my school or district. My frustrations with budget and technology limits may make it sound like I'm not happy with the powers that be, but I'm well aware they'd be happy to shower my library with books and technology if they had the money! I doubt the people who make those decisions will read this blog, but I like them, I really like them!
One of the awesome librarians I follow on Twitter, Nikki D. Robertson, recently said that blogging was important, because while you might think everyone else knows what you know, there just might be something you can share that helps someone else. (If you're not following Nikki, you should be!) So I'll be blogging--on the fly, because there's not a lot more time in the day to do this--and I hope someone finds something useful, or at least shiny, here.
I've wanted to be a librarian since I was 5, but that job option wasn't encouraged by the feisty and feminist (don't tell the Pope!) nuns who taught me in high school. So I majored in International Environmental Studies, got another degree in Public Health, and spent 9 years working in three wildly different bookstores to pay my way. A short stint working for a governmental agency, a change of coasts, marriage, baby, and finally, volunteer hours in the school library. When the library technician retired, I knew the job had to be mine. Luckily the principal agreed. I'm finishing my 10th year as a library media technician, and third in middle school. That's 1922 days, and I've probably loved 1907 of them (I endure textbook collection, but there's nothing to love about it. But wait-- this year I had five student helpers and they were awesome kids I wouldn't have the pleasure of getting to know better if I wasn't collecting textbooks. So I loved 1912 of them.)
I was born to work in a library. Everything about libraries makes intuitive sense to me. I love the Dewey Decimal System! And shelving! And reading aloud! And book talking! I don't like silverfish. That's the only downside to libraries. Why do silverfish like books so much?
If you're still reading, there are a few more things you should know. I overuse words like awesome and amazing, as well as the exclamation point. That's how I talk, too. I just think a lot of library, book, and tech-related things are amazing, and a lot of the people involved in those things are awesome. I am old enough to be amazed that I can virtually hang out with library people from around the world.
I'll be writing about what goes on in my library, what I'd like to do in the future, and how I'm incorporating those shiny things I find that other library folks have so generously shared. I'm a little snarky, and more than a bit subversive when it comes to the library, so anything I write here in no way reflects the policies of my school or district. My frustrations with budget and technology limits may make it sound like I'm not happy with the powers that be, but I'm well aware they'd be happy to shower my library with books and technology if they had the money! I doubt the people who make those decisions will read this blog, but I like them, I really like them!
One of the awesome librarians I follow on Twitter, Nikki D. Robertson, recently said that blogging was important, because while you might think everyone else knows what you know, there just might be something you can share that helps someone else. (If you're not following Nikki, you should be!) So I'll be blogging--on the fly, because there's not a lot more time in the day to do this--and I hope someone finds something useful, or at least shiny, here.