KASL

Weeding

Helpful Links

SUNLINK Links for Media Specialists
Weeding the Library Collection
Texas State Library and Archives Commission Cycle of Service
Guidelines for Weeding your Collection
Weeding the School Library

Some advice from the list that you may not have considered:

1. Please be very, very careful about this procedure. It may cause all sorts of trouble for you. Your patrons (students, parents, fellow teacher, administration) do not understand the weeding process as well as professional librarians. Believe it or not I have heard of librarians being fired because the administration thought they acted irresponsibly. I hope you have been keeping your administration informed as you worked through this process.

So, make sure you have in print your guidelines for weeding -- i.e., fiction book over 10 years old, not a classic, has not been checked out in 5 years, etc.

Remember these books were purchased with taxpayer funds. Since you have so many, is there a jobber who deals in used books that will purchase them from you to return funds to the school district. You usually can't throw them in the trash as the janitorial staff will be up in arms.

2. If you decide to sell discarded books online, I would choose a third party to post them. I've read horror stories where educators were indicted for selling school property and accused of keeping the profits. I cleared it first with my administration.

Download Disposal of Weeded, Discarded, and Unwanted Books by the Friends of Colorado Libraries below.
Download weeding_LP.pdf

Summer Reading and Writing from National Council of Teachers of English Stem the "Slide"

Even though the school doors close for the summer, we don't want our students to let their brains lie fallow until school starts again in the fall. NCTE's Teaching Resource Collection on Summer Reading and Learning provides resources to help students, parents, and teachers keep the learning going until the fall.

Bill Martin, Jr. Picture Book Award

2008-2009 Nominations
Kansas Reading Association

Big Bad Wolves at School
Written by: Stephen Krensky
Illustrated by: Brad Sneed
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing - 2007

The Cheese
Written by: Margie Palatini
Illustrated by: Steve Johnson and Lou Francher
Harper Collins Publisher - 2007

The End
Written by: David LaRochelle
Illustrated by: Richard Egielski
Arthur A. Levine Books - 2007

Fred Stays With Me
Written by: Nancy Coffelt
Illustrated by: Trisha Tusa
Little, Brown and Company - 2007

How To Get a Gorilla Out of Your Bathtub
Written by: John Hall
Illustrated by: Stephen Gilpen
White Stone Books - 2006

Library Mouse
Written by: Daniel Kirk
Illustrated by: Daniel Kirk
Abrams Books for Young Readers 2007

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight
Became an Inventor
Written by: Emily Arnold McCully
Illustrated by: Emily Arnold McCully
Farrar, Straus and Giroux - 2006

Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf
Written by: Judy Sierra
Illustrated by: J. Otto Seibold
Alfred A Knopf - 2007

The Perfect Nest
Written by: Catherine Friend
Illustrated by: John Manders
Candlewick Press - 2007

Pest Fest
Written by: Julia Durango
Illustrated by: Kurt Cyrus
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing – 2007

Rock, Brock and the Savings Shock
Written by: Sheila Bair
Illustrated by: Barry Gott
Albert Whitman and Company – 2006

White is for Blueberry
Written by: George Shannon
Illustrated by: Laura Dronzek
Greenwillow - 2005

2008 Collaborative School Library Media Award

Congratulations to Ronda Hassig and Kathy Hill of Harmony Middle School in Overland Park for winning the 2008 Collaborative School Library Media Award from AASL. Established in 2000, the $2,500 AASL Collaborative School Library Media Award recognizes and encourages collaboration and partnerships between school library media specialists and teachers in meeting goals outlined in Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning through joint planning of a program, unit or event in support of the curriculum and using media center resources. Ronda and Kathy will receive the award at the AASL Awards Luncheon during the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Hassig and Hill collaborated on a project, "A Small World—Technology Connecting Kids to Kids," involving students in a problem-solving model to identify a world problem to research and look for viable solutions. In student groups, classmates work together to create a public service announcement. In the first year of the project, Hassig sent the PSAs to the United Nations, which subsequently posted them on the UN Web site. Harmony Middle School student Candice Tarver wrote, "When I look back, I remember how [my topic] affected me. I try to find ways to support my topic in everyday life."

"Ronda and Kathy have created and implemented the project for the past two years, and the public service announcements just get better every year. There are three other middle schools in our district that are implementing this research unit because of Ronda and Kathy…This project is a global collaboration. It's an alliance that involves our Harmony community, including parents, school board, administration and ultimately the world." said Harmony Middle School Principal Sheila Birrane Albers.

For the complete news release, go to ALA's website. For a better look at the photos, just click on them.

Kathy Hill assists a student.

Ronda Hassig instructs students.

Pearls Before Swine

Click on the graphic to make it bigger.

Census Data

Enter your ZIP code to see U.S. Census data and comparisons with neighboring ZIPs.

Kansas Environment 2008

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Division of Environment has published the KANSAS ENVIRONMENT 2008 report. The report was developed to foster discussion and examination of environmental issues in the state. The 17 page report provides a status of air, land, and water issues as they relate to the programs administered by KDHE.

The report is available on the KDHE Web site. If you would like to obtain a printed copy, please contact KDHE Division of Environment at 785-291-3092.

Today's Library

Go to the following site, scroll down to "Today's Library" and enjoy.

http://henrico.k12.va.us/hcpstv/archive.html

Book Jacket Screen Savers

For the terminals in the library, I have created a "screen saver" of selected book jackets or book covers.

First, I went through the collection and made a list of selected titles. Then I selected the internet book vendor with the best, biggest, and easiest book image to lift or download. I picked the book vendor "Booksamillion" (provides a larger image/jpeg than Amazon or others).

I created both a 'fiction" folder and a "non-fiction" folder. At the website, I simply bring up the book image, lift it, and place it in the appropriate folder. I then installed the folders as screen savers on my terminals alternating between fiction and non-fiction. The book image changes every few seconds.

Besides a colorful alternative to either a black screen or generic screen savers, the "book" screen saver advertises and promotes specific books from the collection. Of course, the variety of screen saver folders is unlimited: titles within a genre, titles on specific subjects/topics, and etc. Arkansas City High School Library

Website for Adolescent Literacy- AdLit.org

AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers.