Recently I heard the song “White Privilege II” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (play it before you read…) and using the lyrics as inspiration I started thinking about this blog post. But the one thing the American dream fails to… Read More ›
weeding
The Questions Your Collection Provokes
My son is at an age when he wants the same book read over and over again. I love doing so with books that have a voice, rhyme, or best of all, humor. Titles like Sun: One in a Billion… Read More ›
Inviting and Safe Libraries
Have you heard the old proverb about the moth being drawn to a flame? That’s me, but I’m drawn to disorder. Crazy, right! Having a deep need to reorganize the messy things in life is both a blessing and a… Read More ›
To Weed or Not to Weed…
I am a lover and collector of books. I still have some treasured books from my childhood that I refuse to part with. When I was getting my Master’s in School Librarianship at Longwood University, I shuddered when I discovered… Read More ›
Weeding without Controversy: Part Two – The Process
Mapping your library A starting point to organize and begin a massive weeding project is to get a feel for the physical space. Some may want to use a computer to draw out the shelving to scale to understand how… Read More ›
Weeding without Controversy: Part One – Why Weed?
The Librarian Who Hates Books Earlier this year my daughter came home from school to tell me about a controversy at her school. The school librarians weeded the collection, and some students became so offended that they took to social… Read More ›
Best Practices in Curation
The Key Commitment of school librarians within the AASL Shared Foundation of Curate is defined in the AASL Standards as “making meaning for oneself and others by collecting, organizing, and sharing resources of personal relevance” (AASL, 2018, p. 94). I… Read More ›
To Weed or Not to Weed?
I’m sure that every librarian at some point has questioned whether to weed a particular book, but what about an entire section? Just a couple of weeks ago I became the librarian at a school that was opened in 1979;… Read More ›
How are school libraries like an ice cream shop?
Think about the last time you walked into an ice cream shop. You may have seen customers browse through the dozens of flavors, looking for what will satisfy them that day. Maybe some opted for two scoops of opposing flavors,… Read More ›
Inspire students with nonfiction!
After a recent weeding bonanza where we tossed late 80s and early 90s versions of teen self-help and how-to guides, we decided to reinvest in those areas and create a Get Inspired subcollection featuring a wider variety of topics our… Read More ›