Pinterest for the Library

So many teachers are starting to use Pinterest to get ideas for the classroom.  I started using it several years ago, when it was in beta, so I know how huge it can be to curate and find ideas.  It got me thinking that maybe using Pinterest could also be a great tool for the library.  I decided to create a Pinterest account for the Library and share the information with the students and teachers at my school.  What a great tool for everyone.

I decided the key was to create boards that were based on our genre selections in the Library as well as tools we could use in the library.  We are adding boards left and right featuring titles, displays and specific genre.

I love using the boards to organize things.  I am hoping our students and teachers also refer to the site to see what we have available.  I am going to spend a large amount of my summer and snow cancellation days building the boards so they are easy to use and meet my needs.  I also made a lot of posters and advertisements to put around the school and let everyone know what we have been doing.  Let's hope we see an influx of people using the tool to help them out.

To check out either of my Pinterest boards, you can go here:  Library  or Personal

Our themes so far this year

My assistant and I have been constantly trying to create new and innovative ideas to get kids to the media center and to get them motivated to read.  We were fortunate enough to be able to get some buy in from the kids for a few of the programs we thought about doing.   We have started hitting this goal hard this year because we were finding a lot of great titles but not a lot of kids enjoying the books like we felt they should.  We spent some time collaborating and talking to a few kids and searching our Pinterest account and got some fantastic ideas.

First off, we started doing monthly themes with displays. We had done boards and posted covers and ideas but never created a specific display to go with it.  We also didn't have a blog or a site that we updated often with things.  Secondly, we have had some release themes.  (Some of our Seniors even welcomed House of Hades by Rick Riordan by wearing togas.)

In August and September, we had a ReadBox with books that have hit the screen (both big and televisions) and saw several titles, young and old fly off the shelves.    We put together the display and a bulletin board to match.  It was neat to see kids coming in and gravitating to a display that had some new titles.

The second full month of school was October so we hit the Zombie theme head on.  We made a cryptic bulletin board loaded with visuals of titles and creepy things.  Our school had a special zombie program where kids tried to turn others into zombies.  It fit perfectly with our theme and we even saw a few students go die hard and dress in Zombie clothes and makeup for Halloween. (Only those who had been turned wore the clothes, however.)

We rolled into November with a theme for males- we thought of No Shave November and decided to pull titles that boys would enjoy and place them on the shelves.  We made a catchy theme and added a selection of titles to the spindle.  We decided to shorten November because my assistant and I have a love for Dr. Who.

With that in mind, we decided to end November and roll into December with a Time Traveling Theme. We have found a large amount of Historical Fiction and Time Travel genre that don't circulate, so we pulled several from those genres and are building our own Tardis with some Daleks and Weeping Angels for display.  We decided the theme would be a tribute to the debut of the next season of Dr. Who which starts tomorrow. (Photos to come, as we have designed and built our Tardis, but it is unfair to display it before the actual date.)

We have some great ideas for things to come. Keep checking back as we will be adding more of our ideas soon.

An update on my library

In February of 2012, I started shifting the library from a traditional, Dewey Centered system to a more genre specific place.  After three semesters of research, one box of labels and a lot of tape, we are done.  We now have categories with the Dewey built in. Each fiction book has been placed in a genre section, categorized in our system with all of the other categories the titles fit into included. (We discovered some books covered many categories, but there was always just one that fit best, so we placed it there and then tagged other categories as well.)

For our non fiction books, each has a specific category label with a letter tag.  We sort them by their old fashioned Dewey number or alphabetically, depending on the category. (Geography, for example is sorted alphabetically by country instead of Dewey- mainly because a lot of our Dewey tags were all over the planet and didn't make sense.)  We also redid the layout of the library to assure more visibility and provide students more spaces to work, socialize, and research.

We moved a lot of furniture.  I spent several extra days in this summer shifting shelving units and carts of books.  Thank goodness we had a few rainy days and the college boy hired to mow was stuck inside, as he was my knight in shining armor, moving books, cases, and shelves from one spot to the next.

I reorganized tables so we have small learning pods now where kids can work together in small groups.  I still have my information areas as well.  Two televisions (which I won with a grant) play all day in areas where kids sit and hang out. We have our coffee shop running daily from 7:30-2 serving drinks and snacks.  Kids come in, buy a drink and lounge in our social zone or at a table where they can work and drink drinks.

We are a 1:1 school, but I placed a few desktop computers in random spots so kids can do work.  I envision a book trailer challenge happening or booktalk videos. I want the space to be for the kids.  I want the kids to come to the library and enjoy their time and not feel like it is a chore to be there.  I want the library to be the center of the school, as it should be!

More about our Genre Based library

Y'all are probably tired of my discussion about the genre based library and I promise, I am about done.  I just wanted to show everyone what we decided to do with our History books.   If everyone elses' library is like mine, the History section takes up most of your non fiction.  Most of the teachers and kids who come in to use bound resources want history books. We decided to make the search easier.

Aside from adding categories to our books, as many of you are hearing me talk about a lot, we decided to also include a time stamp.   We made color coded labels for different eras.  Our era decision was based on the number of books we had.  For example, We have a lot of books that cover the decades in the 1900s but a lot less that cover the era before Christ, so, we mixed a lot of years.  We are labeling each book with the color coded labels (we just used an address label template, filled each label with a lot of text and printed it on colored paper).   When kids come in looking for a specific era, we can share the color coded label with them and say... look for this label.   If they come in looking for a specific situation (like the Revolutionary War) we can guide them to that specific area.

Yes, it took a lot of time.  Yes, it took a lot of energy and brainstorming.  Yes, I have gotten some slack from veteran teachers and librarians who think Dewey is God.  Yes, I have people questioning what I have done.  I don't care. Because it my eyes, I am doing this for kids and for that, it is worth it.

An update on the Genre Shift/ Book Store Model

I decided to take a few minutes this week and update my readers about the Book Store Model/ Genrefication we are doing in my school library.  We are about 60 percent done with the non fiction section and I am already seeing a lot of benefits from the change. I am also seeing a lot of criticism.  Justifiably, I did this to help kids.  When a student comes to the media center, they need information and they need it fast. They are no longer given time with the Common Core Standards and the many assessments they need to do each year to spend hours in the media center roaming the stacks looking for books.  They also aren't effectively trained to use the catalog because doing so with a whole class setting doesn't happen. There just isn't enough time.  So we decided to move away from the classical setup of a library and shift ourselves into the new millennium.  A place where patrons can find things easier and staff can be more organized.  We have spent a lot of time talking and planning.  We are also spending a lot of time walking through the library and physically observing the things we have.  I am finding on a frequent basis that our collection is lacking and we are in need of newer things. I am also learning about what our kids are needing.

My critics feel I am not teaching kids the necessary library skills.  They comment that I am taking the lazy way out of running a library.  I disagree. Schools today don't have time to teach library skills the way they used to.  I get maybe five minutes per class to show them skills because the Common Core Standards require so much to get done.  I do a lot of one on one or very small group training.  It isn't uncommon to walk into the library and see two or three kids looking over my shoulder taking notes about a database or about the catalog.  Or, me making a quick training video and sending it them on email so they can learn it on their own. I am not lazy about this, I am efficient. I am not avoiding teaching them library skills, they learn skills, they just don't look for numbers developed 110 years ago, they look for categories.   When they leave my school, go to college or to the real world, they will do the same thing they do here, ask a librarian.  I hear adults at the public library asking for help all the time, how is my way any different?

Since I started this implementation, the kids are checking out Non-Fiction titles they never even glanced at before.  We label each section with a different sticker.  The kids see the sticker and it pops out at them.  They are pulling things based on what they see. They are reading books now that haven't been checked out in 5 or 6 years because of the location; the genre; or the area they see it. It is AWESOME!  If you are a school librarian and finding kids not using the library because there is no time in the day or because their teachers are rushing them in and out to meet the standards, look into it.  It is an awful lot of work, but the end result is so rewarding!

I am always willing to answer questions about the process.  I have been trying to establish a photo log of the process as well.  You can see my genre library dropbox and get an idea of how things are being developed as well as some ideas of the process we take.  Feel free to borrow ideas and email me if you ever have questions.

Because of Thanksgiving and the fact that Friday, I am taking a much deserved rest and shopping, I will not have a second post this week.  Look for more CLEAR posts after the holiday.