March 29 -- Final Steps of the Planning Process

After reading chapters 7-9 of our text and listening to the presentation by Karen Lowe, what thoughts do you have as you work through the final planning process? Granted. Funds are tight. What creative ways can you think of to enhance/develop your collection without guaranteed funds? How are you going to be ready when money IS available?

What About Dewey? (optional)

What are your thoughts about keeping or getting rid of the Dewey Decimal System in your school library? Elementary? Middle School? High School? All of them?

Going thru my shelf list...

Holy cow!  If I removed everything from my high school Dewey section that was published before 1990, I might have a dozen books left!!!  Seriously, though, the elementary Dewey is in pretty good shape, but the high school section is a disaster.  I knew this when I took over the job; the previous librarian had told me she didn't have time to weed & update it.  Plus, her background was elementary ed.  It was also interesting to see how much fiction we have compared to Follett & Wilson suggested levels - WAY more than they think we should have.  I know the elem. fiction & easy books need to be weeded, but will try to get to that at some point.  Right now I really just want to focus on the HS Dewey, and try to get more HS students (and teachers) to use that section.  Our school is working on curriculum mapping, and I'll be asking teachers for recommendations in the next few weeks, as we begin thinking of spring ordering for our curriculum.

January 19 -- Shelflist Story

Please share a story from your work with your shelflist. No judgment here! We all have them.


My own story: In one of my elementary libraries I found a book about a career (I think veterinarian) dated 1952.

Collaborative Work Time

Who did you meet with during your three-hour work time? What time(s) did you meet? How did you meet? How did it go? What did you learn?

February 2 -- Curriculum Match

• Describe how you are matching the collection to your building curriculum and/or the Iowa Core Curriculum. (i.e. Discuss how you are documenting the gaps and identifying and prioritizing the needs.)

January 5, 2012 -- Introduce Yourself

Get to know other people in your class! Briefly introduce yourself by giving your name, school district(s), and grades served. You may also want to share how long you've been at your district and why you decided to take this course.