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February, 2008
“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”
The ongoing budget crunch once again has me asking parents to help teach our kids proper care of school resources. Funding is tight, likely to get tighter, and by being careful with library materials we can extend the 'shelf-life' of a book or magazine. So, just as a reminder---pack library books carefully in backpacks, please don't dog-ear pages, use bookmarks. We'll gladly give students some nifty bookmarks rather than see evidence of other forms of holding one's place which result in cracked spines and broken bindings.
We have some great magazines that are very popular to circulate too, but we can't circulate them if they come back without covers or are returned in tatters.
We're the ultimate recycle machine: borrow and return. Please help us maintain our collection.
Thanks so much,
Clare O'Neill
December, 2007
Greetings from the Middle School Libraries
Greetings from the library! We'd like to thank the wonderful volunteers who helped with the very successful Book Fair last month. Besides offering a terrific selection of reading materials ---and we know that a broad reading selection boosts every student's reading ability---teachers had the opportunity to have wishes fulfilled. Great thanks to the MSPTO for their efforts.
Clare O'Neill, Librarian
September, 2007
Greetings from the Middle School Libraries
Both libraries are up and running, with classes visiting and about a thousand items in circulation. We have some great new books, and more on the way! This might be a good time to remind everyone how our libraries operate. Books circulate for 3 weeks at a time, and can be renewed. Borrowers must have their items in hand in order to renew, unlike the public libraries. Magazines circulate for two weeks at a time. We do not circulate our newest issues but they can be read in the libraries.
This year for the first time, Mrs. Iannacci and I are faced with a very large amount of items that were not returned at the end of last year. We are allowing students with overdue accounts to check out one time at the beginning of the year. However, this grace period will be over shortly. If students still owe us items from previous school years, they will not have library privileges until items are returned or the accounts have been cleared.
At the beginning of each school year when I talk to classes I stress that the Middle School Libraries are charged with providing reading materials for all levels of readers and many different interests of our nearly 1,000 students and 150 staff members.
Whether the book might be from the Princess Diaries series or the Alex Rider series there may very well be books that make a student uncomfortable or their parents uncomfortable. I tell students in that case to put the books back, and find something else. We literally have thousands of books. HOWEVER ---and this is very important at this level---just because a book isn’t right for one student does not mean it can’t be right for another. That said, there are still books that I have to tell students they should either look for at their public libraries or bookstores.
We welcome volunteers and hope that parents realize that volunteering in the MS Libraries is a pretty non-threatening way to be in your child’s school.
Have a good read!
Clare O’Neill
Cindy Iannacci
Actually, that doesn’t sound as nice as I’d like. How about Release of the Bibliophiles? At this time of the year, I sadly tell the students and staff that we are coming to a close in Circulation. Our “Allie Allie In Free” date is June 8th, although we no doubt will do overnight check-outs to those students finishing end of the year projects. We sympathize with them especially since the libraries use during May’s three weeks of MCAS means limited chances for students and staff to use the library. After MCAS are over, we are a very popular place to be. There are research classes, Groton Public Library booktalks by Mrs. Gay Kulvete and meetings galore. Not to mention there are also displays of art work, molecules from 8th grade and social studies projects from 5th grade!
Final overdue notices will go home to borrowers who still owe us books. Please be aware that if your 8th grader owes us materials, that will remain on his or her account at GDRHS and there will be no borrowing there until the account is rectified. We would always much rather have the material than the money and cheerfully give refunds if the missing object should mysteriously re-appear over the summer.
Lastly, I would like to thank Lynette Fisher and the MSPO for the terrific and constant support of the libraries. The two book fairs are monumental in raising support for the libraries AND for the reading interest in our school community. Mary Lou Hopun came aboard this year to help with the Book Fairs and I am exceptionally grateful for her energy and expertise. We also had the help of Maureen Allen, Shirley Happell, Cindy Royal, Amy Schembechler, Lyda Budrys, Karen Harte, Maureen Scnalon, Ruth Stevens, Claire Liliedahl, Lisa O’Neill, Janet Sheffield, Laurie Ovenden, Barbara Donovan, Bo Murphy, Karen Fritzman, Julie Marston, Mary Lou Lynam, Nancy Slaney, Patti Walter, Helen Dzwonek, Laura Yanchenko, Patti Spooner, Marianne Mattison, Karen Lofgren, Marie Sebastyn and Terry Smolka. The Middle School staff and students thank you so much!
Finally, we have to steady library volunteers who are Mrs. Patti Walter and Mrs. Cindy Holmes. Thank you both for the great help in the MS Libraries.
Clare O’Neill
Cindy Iannacci
Why is the Middle School Library different from other libraries?
Hmmmm…..good question. The challenges we face in the Middle School library differ in book selection, number of patrons (library-speak for who may borrow items) and budget.
Let’s look at those first two bits. In our Middle School, we have approximately 100 staff members, 975 students and about 20 community members that are considered patrons. Within those lines, our borrowers’ ages range from around age 10 to age 80.
As you might imagine, the levels of reading proficiency vary greatly as well. Some of our students are reading at a 1st grade level. Some are reading at a college level. Providing materials for these patrons is not necessarily a problem. Problems arise from the content they are reading.
Just as there are some homes where children are in bed by 8PM, there are other homes where bedtime might be later. Some homes have strict rules about television viewing in what is watched and for how long, other homes have an anything goes policy, and ALL these children go to our school. Similarly, some parents may not have a problem with their middle school aged child reading The Da Vinci Code (which by the way is not on the shelves of the MS libraries) while others may be perfectly fine with that reading choice. As a librarian, I take book selection very seriously. There are some books on the shelves in the MS North library that some may question. These books have been carefully reviewed and for the most part read by me to make sure they are appropriate for the readers here. A perfect example would be The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares. We have the first three books and they are widely read. However, the fourth book recently came out and while I read it and thought it was a good read, I decided it is not a Middle School book. I’ll be sending it to the High School.
Those other books still on the shelf, well they will probably still be on the shelf. At the beginning of every school year, I make a point of telling students while they are in the library (and parents by way of the newsletter) that if a book makes you uncomfortable or you think it will make your parent uncomfortable, please put it back! We literally have thousands of other choices. Just because a book may not be right for you, doesn’t mean it won’t be right for the student next to you.
Finally, a word about budgets. Four years ago, the book budget for the Middle School library was $12,000.00. We then had the renovation and expansion and had money for that, but the regular budget was cut to $6,000 where it remains today, in spite of having a much larger school and an added grade. We also are short staffed. This is not a plea for more money or more staff even though both those things would be wonderful and are needed. This is just an acknowledgement that Mrs. Iannacci and I work very hard with what we have to provide great library service. We both love what we do.
This year, I have been able to teach most of the 7th grade some great library and research skills. In the future the hope is that with more resources we can reach every grade.
Clare O’Neill
Library Notes: The care and feeding of library materials
At this point in the year, a student’s typical back pack is probably stuffed. Before the break, there were Project Mitten related things stuffed in there, holiday things stuffed in there, and changeable weather meant that clothing often was stuffed in there as well. All of this ‘stuffing’ takes its toll on the things that were in there as well, --- agenda books, textbooks, school supplies and library items. The situation in lockers is similar as well, but many teachers do a routine locker clean out just before the holiday break.
We have seen fairly new hardcover books return without covers, magazines returned in shreds, paperback books curled in curious positions and falling apart. At least three books a day are repaired in the library after their return.
And now I know I’m going to sound like a typical librarian,----please be gentle with our
books! If a student is reading a book, please encourage them to use a bookmark instead of the practice of folding down a page corner. To ‘dog ear’ a page damages a book. If you must dog ear, let it be a book that belongs to an individual, not a shared collection. If a student can’t find a bookmark, our date due cards always are available in the book pocket and make a pretty good bookmark.
Many of the books in our collection that are favorites are now out of print, and expensive to replace. Please help us maintain our collection with gentle and careful use.
Thank you!
Clare O’Neill
“I never took that out!” We hear that all the time in the library. Sometimes, it is true. We are short staffed and make mistakes. We no longer have students sign cards as they do in the high school but may have to revert to that. We also understand that sometimes things happen - a book gets accidentally left on a bus, or even a jet - and students still need to borrow a book for a project. If we have made allowances, please have your student make every effort to return the school’s valuable resources.
June 9th is our final due date. For special circumstances, we will still allow teachers and students to borrow books after that date. As lockers and backpacks get lighter and cleaner towards the end of the school year, please keep your eyes open for our books and magazines! For 8th graders, items left on their accounts will remain there at the high school, where the staff is much less forgiving.
We have some amazing readers at the MS Libraries, eager and enthusiastic. Our staff is no different. There is such a thrill for the library staff when they put the right book in the right hands at the right time. We pride ourselves on knowing our book collection and helping everyone in our school community.
We’d like to thank Ms. Fisher and Ms. Ring for their incredible support of the library for the last three years. They have been most valuable running the Scholastic Book Fair which directly supports the library, allowing us to have funds to buy the latest Lemony Snicket books, or the hot off the press Eldest by Christopher Paolini.
Also receiving our heartfelt thanks are Ms. Folger, Ms. Holmes, Ms. March, Ms. Walter, and Ms. Hourani, all terrific library volunteers, and the wonderful MS secretaries who support us.
No more borrowing privileges. That’s what the stamped message says. At this time of year students start to see those words appear on notices sent to homerooms, AND to their homes. Here’s how it happens. A student borrows a book for three weeks, or a magazine for two weeks and it travels to a variety of places - their homerooms, lockers, buses and home. Sometimes the items migrate to interesting places, like the cafeteria. Each Monday, overdue notices are generated and a student with an overdue item will receive a message sent to their homeroom. Every morning during school announcements, students are reminded that books are due, and that if they haven’t returned or renewed it they may have lost borrowing privileges. After the student’s item has been overdue for three notice periods, they then receive a letter at home.
Now, we do get visits from students who insist they have returned the item in question, and we visit the shelves to see if we can locate the book. It HAS happened that books get back on the shelf without being checked in, so we are quite willing to check. Many times too, the book is returned but hasn’t been checked in before the overdue notices are generated. If for some reason, the item is truly lost or damaged beyond usefulness, we do ask payment for the item. On the chance that it miraculously reappears, we gladly refund the money. We would always much rather have the book or magazine.
Our students are great readers! Since the beginning of school, over 3,600 items have been checked out or renewed from both libraries, that’s roughly 4 books per student. Mrs. Iannacci and Mrs. Underwood each have their share of enthusiastic readers and we work hard to honor requests, whether it’s the Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket, or Eldest by Christopher Paolini, two favorites.
The MSPO will be helping the library out by running the Scholastic Book Fair. As we tell the students, the proceeds from the book fair have long helped the library purchase items they might not normally have, like the great laminating machine or the big screen TV in the South Library. Please know that we appreciate all the help!
“Greetings and salutations,” to quote Charlotte, a favorite character from literature. The MS library is a far-reaching facility, having branches in both buildings. Mrs. Cindy Iannacci and Mrs. Clare Underwood run the two facilities and want to provide you with information regarding library practices.
First of all, please know that while it is one big ‘collection’, the two different places offer distinctly different holdings. The South Library is very much geared more toward the 5th grade and its needs while the North library holds resources, — books, magazines and so forth — for 8th grade curriculum support. Both collections support 6th and 7th grade, and items are often shifted around to accommodate teachers and readers.
The librarians work very closely with the teachers to help support the curriculum and to support special projects. Whether it is finding thirty more historical fiction books having to do with the Revolutionary War, or materials to support the research of the biomes, or get new magazines our patrons want to read, our librarians love to be part of the entire school’s reading experiences.
The books in each collection have been chosen to suit the enormous variety of reading levels, tastes and curriculum needs. The students are reminded on their first trip to the library that while a book on the shelf may not be to their liking, or their parents’, it doesn’t mean that the book is inappropriate for the collection, merely for that student. We have thousands of choices and they are encouraged to find something else.
Our books circulate for three weeks at a time. Magazines circulate for two weeks at a time. Students have a limit of five items at a time. After a book becomes overdue, notices are sent to the homeroom. After three weeks of homeroom notices, a message is sent home. Usually at this time, the student has lost borrowing privileges until the book is returned or we receive replacement money. Always, we would MUCH rather have the book back than get the replacement costs. Unlike the public libraries, we can only renew a book if the student has it in hand, and not over the phone or merely by student request.
We love volunteers! If you have some time and would like to learn how to shelve or repair books, please consider spending some time with us!