Summary of What I Learned Over All

Throughout my practicum I gained experience in various areas of librarianship.  Some of the tasks that I completed were as follows:

-Created posters
-Laminated teacher's requests
-Withdrew students from Destiny and Accelerated Reader
-Ordered supplies for repairs
-Cataloging-Added copies of books to Destiny, created and printed barcodes (as well as trouble-shoot and make inquiry with tech support), affixing labels and barcodes to books, affixing AR color-coded stickers
-Teaching-Substitute teacher for library (emphasis on classroom mangement)
-Utilized Mimio board in instruction
-Public Speaking, Outreach-Special speaker for women's hygiene for 3rd-5th grade
-Created a vodcast of how to use Destiny for finding books
-Selected books on Mackin
-Provided bibliographic assistance
-Observed inventory practices
-Deleted books from system after weeding
-Checked to see if new AR tests have been created for books that were purchased without one
-Changed the pad on the Ellison machine
-Changed the film roll on the Double Roll Laminator
-Changed the paper on the Poster Maker

Week of April 22

The librarian told students that today is Earth Day.  She informed the students about the protective layer that shields us from the sun, the Ozone Layer, and let them know that it is being destroyed by pollution.    Pollution is caused by the population growth, more trash, and industrial pollution.  Some animals are becoming extinct or on the verge, which means they are dying out.  She is really good at simplifying a topic for the students.  She also uses personal anecdotes.  Such as when she let them know that years ago when she was a girl, they didn't have landfills, they put the trash into gullys and burned it in the country.  She let students know about Gaylord Nelson, who in 1969, changed laws to protect what goes into our air and water.  Then she highlighted various ways students can help the Earth.  1.) Recycling-to make something new out of a used product 2.) Bike Riding- protects the Earth from gases released by vehicles 3.) Energy Efficient Cars- use electricity and not gas 4.) Wind Energy- windmills used to create electricity 5.) Plant Trees- trees take out bad air and release good air.

Some other suggestions she made were to turn off lights when not in use, turn off games, and shut doors of refrigerators to keep cool air in.  She taught students a new word--ponder.  She explained that they would need to ponder what was being done in a color sheet she gave them (think about).  On the color sheet, people were doing things to help the Earth on Earth Day. 

Ms. Hinton will often times receive funds from students to pay for lost items.  These deposits must be periodically taken to the office to deposit in the bank.  She says keeping a receipt book is crucial.  When a lost book is found, the receipt book will help her to make refunds promptly.

For example, a book came back after having been lost and paid for on December 15, 2011.  The money needed to be refunded so we searched through her old receipt books for info and money paid.  She told me that we cannot take checks from parents, only cash  and that money is refunded in check format only.  She indicated that it takes quite a long time to get checks in from school district.

Some little tips she gave me for the printers, is that in order to save ink and revitalize a cartridge that seems to be running out, you take it out and shake it, then put it back in and voila, back to printing with full ink.

She taught be how to create posters.  This time I was able to print some on my own.  First I placed the item to be enlarged face down on the scanner, press the scan to button 3 times then press scan button.  Continue scanning if more than one item needs to scanned in a series until done.  She told me to leave a little white around the poster while cropping, then auto adjest it and click yes twice.  Go to properties and remove margins to save paper.

Week of April 1-8

This week Ms. Hinton focused on Living and Non-Living.  She read books to the students that talked about this topic.  She asked the kids if we breathe? eat? move? change or grow?  If yes to all then we a Living.  She talked about plants and how they move to sunlight and make their own food.  She also talked about places where people live such as a city, the rural area, or small towns. 

I did not have much time in the classroom this week, due to substitute teaching.  I came in an hour everyday I subbed.

Week of March 25-29

This week Ms. Hinton instructed me on how to process books.  She writes the barcode number on inside of all books, in case the cover is ever missing on a book.  The checkout log shows the barcode number on books missing it.  That way if you know who had the book, you can check to see which book was checked out.  It is important to check to make sure the correct cover is on books.  If not, it is necessary to take action. Either return to company or delete from collection.  Some of the books were bought even though there was not an AR test for them at them time.  Now that they have a test, AR stickers needed to be added to the books.  Specifically, the Obama books.

We learned about pre-processing and such in LIS 408 recently.  Even if someone does the processing for you, you must pre-process by providing the vendor specs for your library such as Sears or LCSH, automation system, barcode number range, position of barcode, and how you want the call numbers to be labeled.  There is usually a cost per item for processing to make items shelf-ready.  But the advantage is that all you have to do is put marks of ownership on them. (Pace, personal communication, April 8).

Ms. Hinton says she likes Follet better than Mackin for ordering books. I didn't get a chance to work with Follet, however, I did work with Mackin one week.  She had me to order books based on the list of books the faculty requested.  It was a slightly confusing site.  It provided, however, a key for determining what the abbreviations mean. 

Ms. Hinton informed me that she would be preparing a folder with information about reboxing and replacing damaged books.  I have yet to receive that information, but I plan to ask her soon.  She also told me that she will be printing out directions for how to print AR labels and barcodes.  She explained the new AR test components to her classes and to me.  She says that from now on there will be more than one question on the page as students take the test and that there will be added vocabulary tests.

To add a copy of a book to the system, first put the barcode on the book close to the spine, vertically to allow for ease during inventory, then click on Barcode under Catalog on Destiny and click edit to change barcode.  Look for the book with no copies, and click add copy, then enter new barcode number and the price of the book.  She let me do this to several books until I was a pro.  I enjoyed this week. 

Week of March 4-8th

This week I worked on my vodcast project for LIS 491- which is an instruction course.  I had some complications getting camstudio to work on a particular computer in the library for several weeks. So, the tech people assisted me.  We found a microphone and headset and I was able to do it well finally.  I ended up getting 100 percent on that project where I demonstrated how to use Destiny Catalog to search for and select books to check out at the library media center.

Ms. Hinton told me about the Ellison machine and how to work it, and change the pad on the machine.  She said if it has already been used on one side previously, then it doesn't last as long as if it is a new pad.  She taught me how to use the tools to clean out some of the places where paper builds up on the cutters, such as the ghost's face, the pumpkin's face, and the tornado. Used the awl to get the extra paper out.

She taught me how to make posters.  You select the large printer, select paper size E, landscape or portrait depending on the poster, fit to page, and select print. 

I learned about Glog, a site for creating webpages based on a template.  It seemed like a great site to create.  The teachers at my school love to create posters for the walls, classrooms, calendars and events.  My book says that huge posters can be made using this machine for parent-teacher association night, high school sports events, or banners for a school store that lists the items and prices available (Morris, 433).

Week of February 17-23

Ms. Hinton read a book about Presidency.  She told the students about the importance of checking the copyright date on a non-fiction book.  She noted that the book was printed before the last election.  It was eleven years old.  So she indicated that some of the information in the book is dated, but it was only one piece of information that had changed, so she decided to keep the book for now.
This correlates to what I am learning about weeding in my Media Center course.  We learned that the term weeding means the same thing in library terms as it does in gardening terms; to "eliminate unsuitable or unwanted".  I probably would have weeded out that library book.  But she fully explained to the students that that date was the only thing outdated in the book.

In one of my goals, I had stated that I wanted to weed the collection by 30% in the next 5 years.  However, Dr. Haynes said that it would be difficult to measure whether or not the goal had been met in terms of percentages.  Our textbook says that it is recommended that "5 percent of a collection should be weeded each year (Morris, 451)."  So, perhaps I was a little far fetched in my percentages. The book also mentions that the weeding process is often unique to each library media center due to differences in curriculum, student population, and teaching method (Morris, 451).  I did want to repair a certain percentage of books as well.  The book says, "be aware that it is impractical to keep everything (Morris, 451)."

So, I need to ask Ms. Hinton her process of discarding weeded books.  She had mentioned something about sending them to classes after they had been removed from the collection.  I had mentioned to her, that I would like to repair some of the books if I stay there.  So, Ms. Hinton was able to order me a few repair supplies for next year.  I am kind of worried about being able to apply for the job, due to the fact that I do not have enough money to pay off tuition at this point.  Budgeting problems and other expenses have made it difficult for me save the necessary money to pay school off as promptly as I had hoped.  So, I am faced with the opportunity to possibly shadow someone next school year in hopes to keep my experience up-to-date and take note of any changes in management, or possible shadow at another school.  Of course, I will have to have my bill paid off before I can do so. 

Week of February 10th-16th

I observed Ms. Hinton’s class for the week.  She read Clifford’s First Valentine’s Day by Normal Bridwell and Franklin’s Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois.  After reading the books, she had made a color sheet of her African Dwarf frogs; Flipper and Flopper (class pets) that she allowed the kids to color.  She informed the students that she has had them for four years and she hadn’t expected them to live even one year.  She told them her regiment for feeding them was only a pinch, on Monday and Friday.

I subbed for Ms. Hinton this week and the focus was on President’s Day.  So, I kind of followed her example about ad libbing while reading.  I let student’s know about President Lincoln and George Washington.  I was able to use a visual aid to show the students the timeline.  So, they learned that George Washington was the first President and Lincoln was the 16^th.  They checked out books and colored a sheet with President George Washington on one side and a word find on the other.  Discipline problems were very few in the lower grades this time.  The Principal had come in to observe me and said he liked what I was doing with the Kindergarteners and that I did well managing them.

She informed me of setting ZPD’s for students.  She said that the Star Reading test is given by teachers once at the first of the year, the middle of the year, and at the end of the year.  She believes it’s best taken in the computer lab with a proctor, rather than in the individual classrooms where teachers might be influenced to help students.  The way students are added to Destiny is by lunch numbers and homerooms. 

 

She checks Renaissance everyday to make sure no kids are locked out of the AR tests.  She indicated the importance of saving everything that you change on Renaissance in order for changes to take effect.  One of her guidelines was do not delete a class without unenrolling students first.  To unenroll past students:

1. Go to students

2. Edit multiple school enrollments

3. Select student’s name

4. Check unenroll and Apply

I learned these steps by doing on the computer. I unenrolled about 40 students whose names were never removed from my school, even though those students had gone on to 6^th grade.

 

One thing I really enjoyed this week was watching Ms. Hinton teacher reasoning, inference, sportsmanship, probability, and deeper thinking skills using an online game version of Tic Tac Toe.  She really got the kids to think.  It was evident when a student didn’t think through their moves, however.  But I believe the class as a whole benefitted from the experience and learned to think things through.

Lessons Learned

I learned this week that cognitivist theory is best used when teaching concepts and procedures.  I can use this information to help prepare my students for success at the beginning of the year.  Ms. Hinton has already taught and reinforced many procedures in her classroom. I took note of these this week.  She has a procedure for coming in the classroom (kids drop books in basket and sit at assigned seats).  She has a procedure for getting their library card and checking out books (she scans their card to see if they owe any books and determines how many books they can check out if any). She has a procedure for checking out books (She sets the timer and they must return to her checkout line by the time the timer goes off).   When it is time to go, the teacher waves her hand good-bye to the students and they prepare themselves to go by standing up and pushing in their chair.  They wait behind their chair to be dismissed. All these procedures have been rehearsed.  Even then, some students fail to do what is expected of them.  Perhaps I can come up with mnemonics or a song of some sort to teach them the procedure.  Like, “Wave goodbye, time to rise, push in your seat, I’ll see you next week blue table (red, black, green, etc.)”  This is just an idea.  And it might only work for the younger kids, not sure.  She also had classroom rules.  And one set of rules I didn’t know anything about at first: Tie your shoes, comb your hair, and use the restroom before you come in.  I need to get the complete list of things that she said. I am going from memory on this.

Some of the tasks I did were calling out library card names, checking out the books to the students, and running the laminating machine.  I learned that in case of emergency, the machine can go backward to release perhaps an article of clothing that gets caught.  I also learned to keep my fingers away from the hot film.  She showed me a burn from the time she didn’t do so. 

We sat down and talked again about what learning experiences I needed to have in the practicum.  She had forgotten about the checklist for the supervisor. So, I made sure she took a copy of it home to review and we talked about how we can apply the skills to my experience in the school library.  One thing we talked about was periodical management.    She suggested that I might consider ordering online periodicals to allow access in the individual classrooms.  She uses EBSCO to order print copies of the periodicals.  She said that you have to send a guess on the price of the subscription to central office, and then they pay the invoice when it is received from the company.  There is no backorder of resources.  She gave me the information on how to renew periodical subscriptions.

I observed her lessons as well.  Ms. Hinton gave a recap of last week by asking students if they had done their homework.  Their assignment was to watch the news on Saturday (Ground Hog Day) and report to her whether or not the groundhog saw his shadow.  Students didn’t show much evidence of having done the assignment, yet she called on students to give their thoughts on whether or not he had done so.  She told them, that no, he did not see his shadow, which meant that there was to be an early spring.  She told them that the only way to be sure would be to follow the weather report for the next 6 weeks to determine if the groundhog was accurate.  He has only a 39% success rate—which was not very good.

She proceeded to talk about the month of February.  Most of her information was lecture style at first.  She informed them that February is the shortest month with only 28 days this year, but that for the shortest month, there’s a lot going on in it.  She said that they had Groundhog Day, and Valentine’s is coming up, as well as President’s Day on Feb. 18^th.  She used active learning, by asking them to feel on their wrist for their pulse.  She asked them if they felt that, they nodded yes.  She told them that the pulse is the heart beat and that their veins pumps blood, food, oxygen, and waste throughout the body. February is Heart Health Month when they will learn about exercise and eating good. She also told them that February is Black History Month, and provided a plug about classification when she told them that a biography is a true story about a real person. 

February is also Dental Health month.  She informed students that the only bone we actually can see on a person are their teeth.  She had a cut out of a tooth and showed them that the top was called the crown and the bottom, the root which cannot be seen because it is in the gum.  She told the students that teeth have different jobs; to tear, to grind, etc.  The school has a dentist visit this month to check students’ teeth.  She let them know that a dentist only works with teeth and helps to keep teeth healthy.

                I was very impressed at the wide range of knowledge my supervisor contained within.  I wondered if I would be as effective as her in telling about the things that I know, or would I have to read a book first to become more knowledgeable about a particular subject matter.  She went on to say that no two people have the same set of teeth or fingerprints.  She did mention many things I knew about, but wasn’t sure I could recall for a lecture.   She mentioned forensics to the students by telling them about a burn victim who was identified by her teeth that matched with her dental records.

She wanted to get across to the kids that if they take care of their teeth, they can last a lifetime, but if they don’t, they might need false teeth called dentures.  She had pulled several books on the subject of teeth and she did really short book talks on them. 

She went over with the students how to find their particular book read on the AR reading site.  She said that she had two books with similar titles and in order to ensure that the correct book comes up, they must look at the sticker on the inside upper left hand corner of the book and type in the quiz number.  To make sure they are taking the English [En] and not the Spanish [Sp] version.  Also, they learned that if the wrong test comes up, they tell the computer, “Do not want to take the test.”  She does not want the students to bring the book back until they have taken the AR test on it.  I was unsure of this at first because I was telling the students to bring the books back even if they haven’t taken the test, so I could recheck it out to them. 

The last class was fifth grade and they had not had much time on the unit she taught on the “Good Ole Days.”  So Ms. Hinton gathered several objects together.  She had a set of items that she wanted the students to match up to another set of items on the table.  Each group got one or two items.  They were to discuss what it was and which item it should be matched with.  Most of the items were foreign to the students, such as the crochet needle, the corn cob, the oil can, and the bottle opener, as well as the juice opener.  The two items properly matched up were the aspirin bottle with the medicine bottles, and the negatives with the photo.  The corn cob was intended to be matched with the toilet paper roll because in the good ole days people used a corn cob as their tissue.  And much later they used Sears Roebuck catalogs.   The oil can (looked like it was the one used on Tin Man), was to be matched with the modern can of household oil.  The crochet needle was to be matched with the yarn.  And the bottle opener was to be matched with a can of corn.  This was a great active learner activity, which was kinesthetic, visual, and engaging.  I think that there are ways I can incorporate matching games with artifacts as well.  My strengths lay in poetry, written word, art, music, Spanish and I can say goodnight in many different language, and the beach.  I once did an artifact activity in history class and we had to tell about a person’s life from things like playbills, and tickets, and rocks, etc.  I still remember that activity till this day.  I have a feeling the students at my school will not soon forget what they learned either.

Last week

Ms. Hinton is out for a couple of days. Ms. Heidelberg willfully steps in!

My week began with more subbing. I feel that Monday was the best day I had in the classroom. I tried to use certain protocol with the kids to guide them on proper behavior. I learned that being a librarian takes more innovation and consistency than I was at first aware of. When Ms. Hinton returned we found the past budgets in the form of purchase orders for the past 3 years. At home, I went through them and logged important distributors and purchases. In one of my classes, I learned that it is important when beginning to prepare a budget, that one consult past budgets of the previous three years. I found this very helpful because I am hoping to create a one year budget and a five year plan for LIS 408. Another thing I did this week was get informed on how to shelve the books in the school library properly. I learned that there are three types of red labeled books: Non-fiction, Chapter books, and easy books. I needed to know this information and I am thankful she took time to share it with me. Friday, I learned how to heat the laminating machine and operate it. I felt this was very valuable because that is one thing I didn't know how to do but always wanted to know. I do, however, remember learning how to use the laminator at the Laurel-Jones County Public Library, but I needed a refresher. The next thing I am hoping to learn is how to use the Poster-maker. There are many technical aspects of the job that I will need to know.

I plan on creating a virtual tour of the library or instruction on how to use the online catalog soon. This would be for my LIS 491 course. I will be working on this next week. The technical assistant will be assisting me on using Cam studio once my PowerPoint is completed.

I created some goals and objectives for the library. I will be working on these this week too, in order to hone in on what I actually hope to accomplish in the library. This is part of my five year and one year plan.

 

Goal #1: to increase collaboration with teachers on assignments and units.

 

Objectives:

-offer books, resources for units if given advanced notice

-create forms for teachers

-make sure there are books based on Mississippi 2011 Social Studies & 2010 Science

Curriculum Frameworks per grade level

-obtain materials

-create pathways for units

-notify teachers

 

Evaluation: survey teachers on usage of pathways and resources in creating lessons, etc.

 

Goal #2: Increase student/teacher knowledge of how to find resources in library using card catalog.

 

Objectives:

-install online catalog in each classroom (find out how much money it would cost to do it and budget it).

-provide instruction on how to use catalog (podcasts)

-continue to add color when new books are added to the collection to ensure that books can be found by students

-practice searching for books (scavenger hunt in small groups)

Evaluation: How often do teachers and students come to the library to search for a book they have chosen to read from the catalog?

 

Goal #3: Increase student evaluation and application of information through writing.

 

Objectives:

-use writing to evaluate sources

-Students practice letter writing- write to authors about how they enjoyed a book

-teach correspondence (teach city/state)

-write about parts of book: table of contents, index, etc. and which is best to find which piece of information and why.

 

Evaluation:

Improved testing scores, better handwriting, grammar, etc.

 

Goal #4: Improve various classification areas by adding new books to collection over period of time.

 

Objectives:

-perform a curriculum mapping of whole school

-establish the content, assessments and skills taught by each teacher

-take data from mapping and select books to add certain number of books per Dewey Classification that needs improvement

-appropriate budget for books

 

Evaluation:

Run a snapshot of library collection holdings per classification level.

 

Teaching experience this week

My supervisor has been out for 3 days.  These are the chronicles of some experiences I had during these days.  I have been reading the storybook: A Chair for my Mother by Vera B. Williams. I had students guess how much money one of the meidum sized jars would hold.  Mrs. Hinton had told me $195.00. Then, I asked the students to look at the large glass jar and imagine it was full of nickels, dimes, and quarters.  "What would you buy with the money? I asked.  "Don't tell us aloud, keep it to yourself."  We talked about armchairs and I showed them various examples of armchairs, backless chairs, and dinner chairs.  The students drew a picture of what they wanted to buy on the back of the word find and then commenced to work on finding the vocabulary words.  I also made allowance for the students who returned their books to check books out with their library cards.

Yesterday a student was disruptive, talkative, and dancing when he was supposed to be following explicit directions. So I asked him to go to the wall and face it. That didn't accomplish what it was supposed to because the student was distracted by things on the wall and turned around to the things on my desk. So, I asked him to sit down. And when he continued to get out of his seat and dance to entertain the class, I gave him a blank sheet of paper and the rules for care of the library books, as well as the classroom rules for him to copy along with a pencil. He grumbled and pouted and then broke his pencil tip, so I told him it was too bad. Basically, I believed he broke it on purpose. So, I told him, if he didn't begin to do the assignment, I would notify the assistant principal. He didn't want that, but continued to grumble and say he was not going to do it. So, I called her cell phone and told her the situation. She told me she would be right down. Now, the reason I called her, is to show everyone else who had the bad behavior bug, to chill out and fall in line—which was the result, when she arrived. The students listened up when she left and the student got to work on his assignment with the sharpened pencil she gave him. She asked to see his work after class was over. If I needed her again, she informed him that his parents would be contacted. He did his work, even staying after class was completed to finish. I told him to go on to class and that I would get it to her—which I did at my first free moment. When he was getting ready to leave, I asked him if he behaved like that for his regular classroom teacher. He said, "no". I said, "Why did you behave like that today?" he told me it was because other people were messing with him. I told him, "You cannot allow other people to determine your behavior. Or make you get in trouble.  Did the others get in trouble?" I asked.  He said, "no".   I said, " You are in trouble all by yourself. It is you who makes the decisions for yourself, not other students. Do you know the rules of the classroom?" He said, "yes". I said, "Next time, I hope you will follow them." He said, "okay". He seemed to be sorry for his behavior and determined to do better next time. I try to do pep talks when there might be the benefit of the doubt that I missed in punishment. That way we come to an understanding and they leave with good feelings about themselves and the possibility of better behavior next time.  I also I want to show concern for them and still be one of their favorite teachers.

When I did a countdown just after the bell rang for them to bring me their books, I got a quicker and better response from the kids by the time I reached one. No stragglers. When I didn't do the countdown, I had several stragglers and had to repeat myself over and over again.

When I used the term vocabulary words, something went off in their heads, but I don't think they knew why they had vocabulary words until they recieved their word find. So, a better introduction to the topic and the need to learn the vocabulary words is called for next time.

When I compliment the way that many are sitting, others follow suit. When I give students a task to help me with, they respond more readily to other instruction.  Sometimes I will allow the student who asks if they can help me to assist me nowadays with passing out papers, collecting pencils, etc.. I used to tell them not to ask me or they won't get chosen. That might result in hurt feelings. So, now the first volunteer who doesn't disrupt the whole class, is chosen to help.

By letting the students know that as long as their behavior is exemplary they can play a game, monitoring their behavior, making an assessment and rewarding accordingly, I can let the particular group of students know that when they get out of hand, their privilege will get taken away. Encourage them by saying, next time, show me better behavior and we will play the game.

Next week on Monday, she will be out again, and there will be no sub notes.  I am looking forward to planning my own lesson for that day if she deems it acceptable.  We stay in close contact even when she is out, so that if I have any concerns she is there for me.

Oak Park Elementary Library Practicum Experience

I learned many tips about library management my first day at Oak Park. Ms. Hinton informed me that it is best not to place books straight as a ruler on the shelves, but rather to stagger them a little to prevent kids from tearing the tops of the book spines if they are too tightly packed on the shelves. I also learned a quick technique for repairing books that have been written on; Sandpaper removes writing on the sides of books.

I asked Ms. Hinton if she has ever had any censorship issues or challenges. She told me of a few. I was happy to learn about these real-life instances and encouraged to use a similar scenario if not the same one to demonstrate an attempt to censor library materials or restrict access and explain how the Library Bill of Rights relates to the challenge. After I write my paper, I will attempt to share my findings here on my blog.

On my first day, I told Ms. Hinton about my experience in book repair. She encouraged me to order some supplies with which to repair books for next year. She allowed me to send in my approval form for the practicum this morning, just before both of us were called to duty as proctors for the Snapshot exam. They needed everybody they could get, so I was ushered into a classroom to proctor. I was however, able to complete the requisition form before retiring for the day.

On my second day, we worked on locating a school library mission statement for Oak Park. I was able to observe Ms. Hinton teaching a lesson and to complete my video introduction for LIS 491 and upload it.

What I learned from the whole experience of creating a video, is that nobody is perfect, but practice just might help you better prepare. Now, I knew what I was going to say, I had it written down, but I didn’t have anything too much like a teleprompter to make it look as though I'm looking in the camera. So, that is why I am many times looking down. I have learned that when I give my oral reports and lessons to the class, I need to have in mind exactly what I am going to say, and how long I am going to say it. Preferably, I should memorize or outline it to aide in memory. I perform poetry quite well and all, especially audio, but this type of on the spot timing, etc. was not simple. While trying to record this, I had the problem of using too many words and running over the allotted 60-90 seconds. My first time was 4 minutes. My second time was 2 minutes. This time, by writing out what I was going to say and encapsulating it into 1 minute 15 seconds I was able to make the mark, but may have fallen short for not improvising it.

Friday I spend 2 hours with Ms. Hinton going over protocol for daily running of the library. She informed me first of how to do the magazines. She instructed me that I can barcode them if desired. The books from Masonite must be checked out to teachers at the beginning of the year and returned to the library at the end of the year. Another great tip she gave me was to not use teacher's names to label items, but rather use they room number for identification. The room number can be used for check-outs too. Only teacher's can check out reference materials.

She told me that she tries to stay away from paperbacks and that I probably should too, unless, with my repairing and preservation skills, I want to undergo the time-consuming task of putting protective plastic covers on them.

Apparently, the library is the hub for times when teacher's printers are not working. Each ink cartridge costs $200. It is a lot! However, each cartridge makes up to 7,000 copies.

I learned so many exciting things in just these three days, but this is only a sample of what I took in. For more information on my practicum please tune right here next Sunday.

Children's Art Festival

Last week the museum held it's annual Art Festival for children. It was a really great time. They had various craft booths such as beading, watercolor over oil pastels, and a mural. I worked one of the craft tables. "Funny Jumping Frogs!" We helped the kids choose a favorite color of paper, a light green or dark green frog, and helped them glue googly eyes, a red curly tongue, and fold the frog to where he was hopping off the page. Most of the kids and parents came up asking, "now what do we do, here?" So, we just took them through the steps. We let them work from which ever end they wanted. The kids had fun coloring their frogs and backgrounds with oil pastels. I really had a great time working this booth for three hours. We did hundreds of frogs! But it was a nice weather day and not too exhausting. I really enjoyed the opportunity to work with kids. I would say things like, "are you ready to make your frog jump?" and "that's clever" as well as, "would you like me to do it, or would you like to glue it?" Some of the kids were more independent than others, and some more detail oriented than others. Others, still were more creative and did things like create mutant frogs, with space ships in the background. Others did patterns that reveled tie-dye, and abstract art. I got a message from the public library about 30 minutes away from me that told me that were interested in having me volunteer in their children's department, especially for the summer. I am enthused about this. I am devising a way to get there and saving up my money for the mandatory background check. They refund the money after your first 10 hours at the library. I am also interested in joining the Friends of the Library at my local library which meets once a month. I am thinking about it, but we'll see. Thanks for taking the time out to read this blog. I hope I have many more exciting things to share with you.

My Personal Research

As of current, I am now trying to engage in some form of personal research to stay informed on my field. One thing I intend to do for sure next month, is to become a member of ALA. I have been wanting to for a while, but haven't set aside the necessary funds yet. I have to decide which specialization I want to go with. What I am doing today, consists of exploring Magnolia through my public library access and selecting two book journals that will be of use to me in discovering what is new in the book industry. I have selected Library Journal and Booklist. This ought to keep me current in my field so that when or if I get a library position I desire, I will know how to use these selection tools to my advantage. A typical subscription to these magazine may be from 157 to 200 some odd dollars. Money I can save by going to the "Professional Development Collection" of Ebsco host. I haven't taken the time to sit down and actually read any of this yet. Hopefully I can come up with a schedule that will help me divvy up my time daily for this activity. Another thing I am doing is requesting books at my public library through ILL so I can check them out before purchasing them. Included were lots of books on programming for public libraries and outreach. I also plan to order from Amazon some books that were actually only a couple of cents. If I order up to $25 dollars worth of books, the shipping is free! Currently, my public library personnel states that there is not much volunteer work available. The Children's Librarian told me she will let me know as it approaches, if she will need any assistance for the Summer Reading Program. It seems so difficult to get a position, even as a volunteer somewhere these days. And everyone wants you to be a student at the University in order to get on. I have now been out of school for two years. And have no job.

New Library: Lauren Rogers Museum of Art Library

A month ago I began working at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art's Library and Archives department with Brianna Barnard. To date, I have been involved in a number of projects there. First, I selected a specified number of archived postcards to preserve. A project that took 5 hours to complete. Next, I filed art mailings from various sources in the vertical file system by artist. After completing this, I embarked on a project that involved recording the date and title of old newspaper holdings in the library on an excel spreadsheet. The newspapers were very brittle and it took care to handle these. The purpose of this project is to later, discover which of our newspapers have been preserved in microfilm at the Department of Mississippi Archives. Our next endeavor, will be to separate out those newspapers that have yet to be microfilmed and attempting to keep them in a condition that will be conducive to transferring them to microfilm. I shelved a few books. And am now writing Annotated Bibliographies for the European Art Books so that they can be conformed to our new classification system for books of the same artist to be together on the shelves. This requires, at times, splitting up series of books that may have at one time been in a set. The Bibliography will also assist with the process of checking cataloging files for accuracy. The library uses Dublin Core and Past Perfect Museum Software both of which I will need to get acquainted with. At present, I am reading Metadata, a textbook for schemes relating to Dublin Core, etc. All this being said, I am enjoying my new position as volunteer library assistant and hope that this opens doors for me in the future!

Final Week

This is my final week doing my practicum with the Laurel-Jones County Library. Last week I read to the tots and provided a craft for them to create. Things went really well. I did a little ad libbing and had great participation, especially from the first group (day care) of kids. Jill said the things that I need to work on will come more naturally with time.

I got a little taste of cataloging when I went to technical services and watched one of the employees proofing DVDs. I did not get a chance to try my hand at it, but I got a look at how to do it.

Today, I helped Jessine with the magazines. She began by entering the issues of the magazines into the computer. She put stops on the magazines that will not circulate. She put barcodes and activated the magazines that will circulate. We switched out the old magazines for the newly processed ones on the magazine rack. The one's that were not going to be available for checkout were placed on the free rack. She also taught me how she processes new books.

Collection Development

http://www.baker-taylor.com/I got to work on some weeding for the library. I looked at the circulation logs for certain books and determined if they were MUSTIE and if they had circulated enough within a five year time period.

Today Jill explained how the library orders books. She began by having me read the article by Christie that was in the Laurel Leader Call (Sunday). She wrote about how the books go from receiving to the shelves and urged patrons to be patient when expecting books from their favorite authors and best seller lists. I read the Collection Development Policy of the Laurel-Jones County Library.

I was told that the distributor for the library is Baker and Taylor. They use standing orders for fiction and children's series books. The program is called Automatically Yours. The librarian selects which books on the master list to get. They must make sure books and audios are not duplicated. Jill had me check Polaris to check for duplicates. I only found one. Together, we filled the order online and printed a list for the acquisitions department.

Today, I brought my brand new copy of my book, Phenomenally Me to Ms. Carolyn and Mrs. Breland. They had me sign it and filled out a purchase order form for it. They purchased my copy from me and will cut me a check. I was impressed with the speed of which they began processing it. When it gets finished processing, we will put a plastic cover on it to keep it nice as long as possible. I am excited!

Jill gave me a procedure of package receiving and processing to look over. We will discuss this next week. I am glad to be learning about new things, but it seems like I had to wait till the end to get to this point. Collection development was the thing I was most interested in learning about from the beginning.

Jill also told me how she prepares the brochures on collection holdings in the library. She is changing how they do the brochures so that there are sub-genres included. This is designed to help the patrons better find something suited to their tastes. Alot to take in all at once.

Next week I will do my presentation of the Night to totally tots. I will be reading three books that I got from the curriculum materials center. I plan on practicing my delivery prior to that day.

Week after Summer Reading

The week after the Summer Reading Program ended, I resumed my work in the Reference section. I shifted the rest of the books. I made a cheat sheet for determining when files for internet usage would be pulled. When minors reach the age of 18, their files are pulled. I began creating my craft for my totally tots reading project. I decided the kids would create a night sky that can be hung on a door. It has a moon, foil and construction paper stars and is tied with yarn.

I can't wait to learn about other aspects of the library this month. I did not work Monday, due to the holiday. Jill was not at work today, so I just did the projects that we had been working on.

End of Summer Reading Program

Whew! Summer Reading is over. It culminated with a fun day for the kids that included prizes for reading throughout the month, a large blow up water slide, cookies, and bean bag toss. I was placed in charge of the grand prize for reading- which was choice of a brand new book. When we went outside, I was placed in charge of the bean bag toss. I had two girls helping me run this station. While Kerri was getting wet on the slide, I was giving prizes to those who won the bean bag toss. A problem came up when a huge gust of wind sent most things on my cart flying into the bushes. When people had finished helping me gather my things, I noticed that parents included- had helped themselves to the prizes. I reorganized the cart and continued with the tosses. But I had kids lying about winning and just trying to help themselves to the prizes. This was very disconcerting. Through the experience I learned that you have to be really strict with kids on rules. It was getting out of hand mainly because if no one was behind them, I allowed kids to continue to try to take turns at making the bean bags. We had a consolation prize, but the kids were getting confused by my helpers as to whether or not they were recieving a prize from the cart or a prize from the consolation treasure chest. The main thing to keep in mind is that the kids were there to have fun. So, I tried not to read too much into it.

The following day, we had an outdoor, water day for the tots. We had colored construction paper and paint brushes dipped in a water bowl that the kids could paint on. They also had a table where they mixed dyes to make different colors to use on their paintings. There were also two kiddie pools. Most of the kids belonged to a day care. The day was successful and I helped move chairs and tables.

Repairs

Yesterday I helped move books from one shelf to another, our continued project from last month. Then I went upstairs with Kari to learn how to do some repairs. We melted glue for spinal repairs, glued separated pages together, and made plastic covers. I was somewhat familiar with the covers and gluing from when I worked in the USM preservation department. She has a lot of work on her hands and she is the only person who does repairs in the library. I think I would really like to work in repairs or preservation/conservation. You get to spend a lot of meditative time and not so much team work is necessary.

Reflection, Gulf Coast Museum and Totally Tots

In reflection, it may seem at first glance that it is a piece of cake to be a Children's Librarian. However, I realize that much preparation has to be made. Last week, I was asked to be a puppeteer the day of the puppet show. I had to regretfully decline the offer. I didn't feel prepared. Jill became the narrator only because someone did not show up. I have to learn to be more spontaneous and prepared for dilemmas. Dealing with kids requires one to think on their toes. Sometimes you have to make things up or come up with ideas on the spot.

A representative from the Gulf Coast Museum came to talk about pirates on Monday. She did an activity with the kids where they had to listen to rhymes that describe a certain pirate flag and identify it. We had 147 books to pass out for the kids to use as tables to mark on their papers. We passed out that many crayons and papers. Then she did an artifacts game with them with things found in Mississippi like clothespins, leather, screws, and buttons. They had to identify what the artifact could have been used for as apposed to what is used for today. She had some control issues because some of the kids were not doing what they were supposed to do in the big group. However, she had much better behaved groups in the 3:30pm and 6pm sessions.

For tots this week we did Summer. Jill read books about the beach, etc. The project was a paper plate center sun with colorful cut out hands as rays.

My project in the next two weeks is to come up with a theme for totally tots story time, books to read, and a craft to do for July. I am excited, but I have yet to come up with a viable theme. My first thought was the Jabberwocky. Then, I had the idea of dandelions, but there aren't many children's books with color illustrations about dandelions. I am thinking about books on being yourself- Like Mumble Bear (my childhood favorite). I guess we will see soon what I come up with.