We Can Hear the Announcements!

The latest of our innovations has been in the area of audio: We can now hear the announcements that are made throughout the day and we can hear them from any room in the library. Last year, in order to hear the bell between classes and the PA announcements, one had to be near the library door or actually standing in the hallway outside of our door. A special request was made last spring and we came into school in September with a new speaker on the wall above our door. This was a big help, as it allowed us to hear announcements that were being made throughout the day, and to hear the bells as well.

This would have been sufficient, except that it quickly became apparent that the HS Room was too far from the speaker to hear either, and so it was a regular occurrence that our hard-working HS independent study students would be so engrossed in their studies that they would miss the bell and end up needing a pass to their next period classes. Mr.Zuber came to our rescue again and arranged for another speaker to be installed in the HS Room, so the students and teachers who work back there could get to their next classes on time.

The SCS Library's Latest

School started, and the construction/renovations continued. Here are some of the latest newsy items...

...The bookshelves in our office space are in use

...the HS Room has been set up and decorated with our Picturing America exhibit showing the "B" side of the images. We received 40 images with Picturing America, but because they came as 20 double-sided posters we can only display 20 at a time. The "A" side images were previously on display, and now the "B" side are showing. We will switch them back around sometime in December.

...The new room has been set up as our HS Biography Room.

...We now have a PA system speaker in the Elementary Room which allows us to hear announcements and bells.

...We were privileged to host the last Faculty Fellowship meeting on October 1st in the HS Room. It was our gallery opening, an opportunity for faculty to get a close look at the Picturing America exhibit and teachers resources. Refreshments were served so teachers were able to peruse the gallery while sipping sparkling cider, and nibbling on grapes, cheese and crackers, and Milano cookies. It was a squeeze to get so many in such a small space, but an enjoyable time anyway.

...there is a new folder accessible to students and faculty when they access their SCS accounts. When they log in and get to their desktops, they can find a folder for SCS Library Shortcuts. The folder provides icons to get to the newschoolnotes page, the SCS website, the Picturing America resources, and this blog. Soon, we will be adding a link to the Alexandria Researcher, so that faculty and students will be able to access our database and search for materials in our collection even from outside of school.

Views of the Summer Library Construction

Time to Unwrap and Summer Progress

While we all went away for the summer vacation, the construction crew was hard at work all over the building. Part of their efforts were in the library as the photos here show. There is now a new entrance to the library, adding some square footage to our usable space, and a new rug in the High School Room. More improvements are in the works. Still to come: new rugs for the Elementary Room, some new bookshelves for the office and HS Room, and a new photocopier to replace our old one.

Construction can lead to dust, and in our case lots of it. The plastic sheeting helped reduce the amount of dust on the shelves and elsewhere, but there is still plenty around to clear away. Unwrapping and heavy duty cleaning is already underway in the Elementary Room. Since construction is still going on in the HS Room, with the installation of the baseboard moldings, we are starting in the Elementary Room. When the HS Room is ready, shelves will be put in place, and the rest of the cleaning and decorating will take place. Anyone looking for an opportunity to volunteer? We are welcoming helpers for Monday through Wednesday, Aug. 31st through September 2nd. If you can join us between the hours of 10 and 4 pm. Come join us!

Wrapping Things Up in the SCS Library

Library inventory was a big job. Despite a few set backs we persevered, and were able to get it all done before July. Mrs. Nunez, Miss Pedersen and I put in long hours for a solid week and thanks to tech support from Mr. Zuber we were able to finally scan in all the books and media items -- more than 17,000 in all. We had a terrific bunch of student helpers in Cappy, Gio, Rebekah A., Rebecca G, Sarah G., VJ, and Justin. A couple of parents pitched in in a fabulous way too -- thanks to Lori and Vinny Tunkel.

Wrapping Things Up in the SCS Library

Library Inventory with Miss Pedersen

Library Computers, Clean-up, and Inventory

It has been a whirlwind, this coming to the end of the school year, and with it, plenty has been happening in our library. Mr. Zuber has brought us another printer that will print much more quickly than our old one, and the library computers are set up. Students have been making use of them since their day of arrival, as secondary students have been in finishing assignments and doing research, and elementary students have been doing OPAC searches for books and answering the library weekly trivia questions.

Speaking of whirlwinds, the last few weeks have seen record numbers of students in to help out during their recess times. Last week especially they came through like a cleaning tornado -- taking down posters, dusting, vacuuming, reshelving books, covering books, and doing end-of-year room clean out for us. Thanks Ashley R., Anna, Kristina, Liz, Riya, Kayla, Andrew, Gavin, Rick, Julianna, Juliet, and Nadya. We are so proud of you!

Time finally has come for our end-of-year inventory. What is involved, one may wonder? Inventory means taking every book and AV item off the shelves to scan into the computer and verify that our computer records match up with the actual holdings of our library. Considering we have in the neighborhood of 18,000 items, and our library automation system tech support states it takes 2-3 seconds to scan in each item, we expect to spend 60-90 hours on the job. While in process, we are also doing repairs, discarding well-worn items, cleaning, and getting the library ready for its summer hibernation. It is a big job, but we believe it to be worth the extra effort, as we upgrade our computer records to better serve our school community. We are looking for volunteers: anyone interested in lending a hand with inventory during the weeks of June 22nd and June 29th, please let Miss Gleason know.

Mr. Zuber setting up new library computers

Labeling AV materials, reshelving HS non-fiction, new library computers, SnapGrades, and more!

It was time again to fill our patrons in on the latest and greatest of innovations in our library during the past month since our last post. The post title will clue you all in on the various newsy items I will discuss here. Early in April, I set about the task of reorganizing our High School non-fiction. We were short on space, and books were starting to get piled up horizontally on top of the shelved books in that area, so drastic measures were in order. One Friday, during a day of teacher in-service activities, I started moving things. If you have seen the video of Mrs. Nunez reorganizing the fiction shelves, you should have a good picture of what I was doing. It was time to make use of the very top shelves on the non-fiction side of the room so as to allow for space on each shelf. After a few days, we had our non-fiction books going right up to the ceiling, making for a bit of a collegiate-feel, and freeing things up so that there would be room on each shelf to shelve and add new books.

Our 3rd - 6th grade helpers along with Mrs. Nunez, have been up to the task of relabeling the AV materials. The row of educational videos are all exclusively spine labeled with their DDC numbers, and any other spine labels have been removed or covered to avoid confusion while searching. The other dvds and videos -- have been labeled alpabetically by title, old labels covered, and an additional letter label placed at the top for easy alphabetizing, reshelving, and searching.

They have also been doing computer checking with our OPAC against the more than a dozen shelves of books still to be previewed for consideration of being added to the library collection to see if there are any duplications.

9th grader, Noelle, has been busy reworking the biography section to alphabetize all biographies, Christian and non-Christian, so that anyone looking for a biography will see all their options. Christian bios are still clearly marked with a sticker on the spine.

Mrs. Nunez is working feverishly to process, process, process! We have hundreds of new and gently used books, videos and DVDs to add to the collection, and she works hard to keep getting the new things ready to go on the shelves quickly as more materials come in.

With the start of the third marking period, the SCS Library began using on-line gradebook SnapGrades for the elementary classes. Several of the secondary teachers have been piloting a test of the program, with good success, and SCS is moving toward implementing next year. Elementary parents and students now can log in to the SnapGrades website, and check on their library grades, and book checkout status. Specific information on logging in will be mailed home shortly. Secondary students and parents will be able to use the site to look up current information on book due dates, overdue books, and fines. Log in info has already been e-mailed to those currently utilizing SnapGrades, and a regular mailing with log-in info will be going out on Monday for all secondary students with books currently checked out.

Just today, our IT manager, Mr. Zuber was in to begin set up of the new library computers. The new machines are here, with 19 inch flat screen monitors, and some of the hardware is now in place, and loading of software applications will be taking place shortly. We are looking forward to having four new computers available for student use, and to upgrading the library staff computers for more efficient service to our school community.

Finally, we were recently awarded a grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The images of famous art work depicting our national heritage are currently on exhibit in the High School Room. This particular news item definitely warrants more blog coverage, and so more will be said about it at a later date.

Reorganizing the Audiovisuals and adding pictures to the SCS Library page

Our library has an aisle reserved for audiovisual materials. Here patrons can find videos, DVDs, audio tapes, and playaway books. One of our recent projects has been the reorganizing of those materials to make them easier for our patrons to find things. Currently, we are in the process of separating the educational videos (all coded with Dewey Decimal Classification -- DDC -- numbers and shelved in Dewey number order) and the general videos which will be shelved in alphabetical order by title. What will this mean for our patrons? If a staff member comes in looking for a DVD on some educational topic, he or she can use the OPAC search to find the DDC number and go to the AV Aisle, look on the left-hand side where those videos are listed in number order beginning with 000 in the upper left corner of the aisle and ending with 999 in the last shelf on the bottom far end of the shelves on the same side. Other DVDs/videos will be shelved on the right when standing at the computers and will have a letter at the top of the spine and call number at the bottom, example Superbook will have a large "S" at the top of the spine, and "DVD Sup" at the bottom. All biography videos will also be shelved together alphabetically and will be in a separate section at the far end of the "other" video aisle on the right hand side. This is a work in progress, and though the videos are already reshelved in this order, the labeling is not finished yet. Please be patient and bear with us as we complete the relabeling.

Another new library feature: photos on the SCS Library page! If you haven't seen them already, you will want to check the SCS website, log in and go the the Library page where new student pictures have been posted. We will be changing those pictures out regularly, so be sure to check back every week or so.

Clearing out the old to make room for the new...

Our "Teachers Help Yourselves" cart grows daily. It includes titles we have discarded from the library through the "weeding" process. The problem is that though the number of books keeps increasing, the cart doesn't grow with it. After several concerted efforts to get books in the hands of teachers -- and giving away a fair number -- we still had quite a few items that weren't going to good use. It was time to start fresh; to clean off the cart of those books that weren't going to be getting a good home around SCS, and make room for new giveaway titles still to come.

Enter our posse of helpers! Fifth graders Lizzie, Ashley R., Kayla, and Anna arrived today at recess time ready to volunteer to do some work. In a short amount of time, they had boxed up the entire cart to be donated to another ministry or non-profit organization that can make use of them.

We can't really say enough about our helpers. Third graders Daniella, Katherine, Mikayla, Christiana, Hannah, Danielle, Amy, Steven, Michael, Tabby, Emma, Noel, and Noelle, as well as fourth graders Cory, Julianna, and Juliet, other fifth graders Kristina, Julianna, Ashley B., Lauren, and Emily, and high school students Noelle, and Kristy have all worked hard to serve in the library at various times during the past few months shelving and stamping books, dusting and doing other things to cheerfully help where needed. We appreciate all our enthusiastic volunteers.

Getting warmer...warmer...and Interior Decorating

It wasn't long after the post regarding our furniture rearranging in the office that Eddie from the custodial staff came in to help us get those heavy pieces out of the way so that the whole wall of radiator could be unblocked. Immediately, there was a noticeable difference in our temperature, so much so that it is now a rare day that we turn on the space heaters in the HS Room. Before, turning on two space heaters was one of the first things that needed to be done in the the morning, and that extra heat only served to take the extreme chill out of the air. Now, all rooms are fairly comfortable even on the coldest days. Undoubtedly part of that comes from the fact that the construction area on the other side of our white wall has been enclosed in the last couple of months, and so our white wall is not an outside wall anymore.

The Elementary Room got a bit of a facelift a few weeks ago. Just before the February vacation, Miss Martin's class brought in dioramas that they had done in their research on animal habitats. They are on exhibit in various places around the Elementary Room, and will be here for about four more weeks if anyone is interested to take a look.

New Materials

Books, books, everywhere, books! It is a good thing to have plenty to read when you visit a library. One very nice thing about SCS is the generosity of our patrons and their parents. We have received donations of books over recent months and are doing our best to keep up with the processing of those and our new books. In fact, in the past few months we have added in excess of 800 new titles to our library. Part of that came through the purchase of materials with funds from our NYS library allocation (we receive a certain amount per child from the state for materials for the library), some through the recent Scholastic Book Fair, some with money from our library budget, as well as those previously mentioned donations from teachers, parents, and students. It is one of our goals to expand and update our offerings, and we have been weeding out items that are well-worn while we add new things that will be of benefit to the SCS community.

Did you know that in a addition to the HS and Elementary Rooms we have a Parent Collection for parents to check out as well as Professional Resources for teachers? We are working on adding to our foreign language materials. In a previous post we mentioned the addition of a set of Christian biographies in Spanish, and will soon add some resources in Korean. Keep checking in with us as new things are being added to the shelves daily.

SCS Library We Recommend Pizza Party with the Principal January 16, 2008

Click to Play

1st through 6th graders who were selected to come to the library for a special pizza luncheon with Mrs. Golden. 

Getting Warmer...

The colder the days, the colder it is in our library space. This is partly due to the fact that our white wall is right next to the construction site. After some discussion with Tim Barnes, and a few of the custodial staff members, we came to the conclusion that we might get more heat if we did some rearranging of furniture in the office. The west wall in the office is completely covered by a radiator, but that heat is currently blocked by the two bookshelves that go from floor to near the ceiling. Mrs. N and I spent some time in there today moving furniture to expose more of the heater. We were able to move some old bookshelves out since they weren't being used anyway, and shifted one of the big bookshelves to the north office wall, the one with the glass window in it. The custodians have promised to help to get the black file cabinet moved, and ultimately the other bookshelf as well, but so far it seems to be working. The office space is noticeably warmer, even with just half of the radiator exposed. If some of that heat seeps into the HS and Elementary Rooms it should be a big help.

Other good news: with this week's Scholastic Book Fair we have been able to get some new books for our library collection.

3 Steps Forward: We Have a Phone Now...!!!

What a day, What a day! Well, two days actually...progress occurred in the area of communications here in our library. It seems a good way to delineate these major improvements would be to outline the three steps forward in improving our tech capabilities in the library:

Step 1: We have a phone now! Sometime last year, because of the construction going on beyond the white wall in the HS Room, the phone line was cut to the library. Because there is also no cell service in our part of the building, we have been without any phone to communicate with the staff here in-house or with the outside world. That meant being creative when needing to communicate: walking around to speak to people in person instead of calling their extensions, going to another room to make phone calls (usually the Teachers Room or Mr. Contes' office), leaving notes in mailboxes, relaying messages through others, or using IM on facebook since we could get internet on two of our computers. As of yesterday, our phone has been hooked up in the office and we can make and receive inside and outside calls! Our extension is on the intercom list, but in case you don't have one, try us at x.608.

Step 2: I can access the internet from my laptop in the library. While enjoying the new library office phone, I noticing that the phone jack in the office had a jack for ethernet. While attempting to plug my laptop's ethernet cord in, I found it didn't work. Bob Z.said that was a simple fix -- he needed to turn that on for us -- and he did that today.

Step 3: I can plug my laptop in at my desk! Time spent using a laptop at one' desk is limited by access to electrical power of some sort. Batteries are limited, and so I found that using my laptop at my desk was going to become a problem. Until about 4 pm today, I didn't have outlet access to plug the laptop in at my desk. The nearest outlet to my desk -- a power strip just on the other side of the door in the HS Room -- is not working for some reason, and the next nearest outlet was about 15 feet away just on the other side of the door. An extension cord across the floor would be a tripping hazard, so another solution was needed. Again, Bob Z. came through: he got a 25 ft. extension cord from Vinny in the Custodian's office and to minimize the eyesore that draping wires can create, neatly and discreetly hooked it up so that it would go up and over the door frame, behind the bookshelf next to my desk, and have the plug coming up just in front of my desk. Now there is electrical outlet access from the Library Office desk, and no one has to step on any wires.

What's next? We look forward to seeing the set up of our new library computers. We will fill you in as that step unfolds.