I can't imagine having limited space in the library as some of the people mentioned in their discussion posts. I would not have been able to make as many changes as I have this year with limited space. Tomorrow, I am ordering 30 brand new work stations to replace the 30 computers I have in my compuetr lab. I also need to order more cameras. Teachers and students are needing to borrow a lot of tech equipment for their assignments. I just bar coded two more Gateway Tablets for teacher signout today and two Sea Note laptops which include Kurzweil and Dragon Speak for our 1701 students. I have four LCD carts with VHS/DVD players that go out every day even though almost every teacher in our school has an LCD player in their room. I get called to classrooms to help set up or trouble shoot if needed. The two mobile labs also get signed out for every block.Furthermore, at least two and three classes sign up for the library each block. We have student drop-ins; our fiction and non-fiction has a high circulation rate. A library which has limited space just would not do for this amount of traffic.
Weeding
I have weeded over 1100 books this year. Last year, I went to the four closing Junior Secondary schools and selected resources for my library. Most of the selection included grade 8 material because we did not have any resources for that grade. I did choose a lot of material for the research projects that I remembered for thw grade 9 and 10s. Any doubles of the year 2000 and better, I sent to a secondary school in MacKenzie because they do not have a very big budget. I discarded a lot of books depending on the year of publication, such as dating, teen pregnancy, and surrogate motherhood--very outdated and which probably includes misinformation now. Books that were stained and in poor shape were discarded. Once the items are taken from the shelves, I do a double check to make sure that they are not getting used. I do this for books that will most likely be used for the history/ social studies' lessons. I do not get rid of that much literature either. I have not discarded very much fiction at all. We can call the DRC and get them to run a list of books that have not been signed out in the last five years (that will happen when I get time). One mistake I made at the beginning of the year was to discard videos from the 1980s and 1990s. The reason I say this was a mistake is because the teachers say that it is better to have something rather than nothing and even though the styles are outdated on the characters, the concepts are still the same. This is the next area that I will be working on to improve. I need to order more up-to-date DVDs for enhanced learning. I have also learned that teachers want to keep books around in case they want to use them, so it is not always entirely a good idea to ask for their input. Also, I know that it is important to have a replacement book before depleting a resource. For example, I was going to discard two very old books about beavers; however, I know that that topic is on the Environmental Education project, so I can't discard until I get something new.
I also like the way the library looks after a good weeding--all shiny and new.
Note about the course: I appreciated reading all the posts. I learned so much and I have many valuable Internet links. I wished I had taken this course sooner to help me with the organizational learning curve I went through last year. The activities were so relevant; I used the ideas as fast as I was learning them. Thank you Cathie for all your input in extending our knowledge. I enjoyed this class very much!
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