One of my student helpers last semester was so smart and terrific that I miss her terribly, now that her schedule is full with calculus and physics and she can’t volunteer. Today she came by during after-school hours, to say she’ll volunteer once a week after school when she doesn’t have tutoring sessions. I hope I can help her get a job for the summer at her local library. What a nice way to end my day.

The morning was hectic with extra activity. A history teacher or two put together a research packet on the Harlem Renaissance. They came up with several work-stations for the students to learn about different aspects of life at that time. The kids went from one station to the next. For example, they looked at and analyzed art by Jacob Lawrence and tried their own drawings. They read about party “etiquette” of the time, and learned how to dance the Charleston. I helped out with a Biography station; showed them some relevant collections, as well as Current Biography, which we have going back to 1941. All of the activities helped focus them on the time period, and the theme of self-identity. I brought home the packet for my husband to borrow/reshape for his Gatsby unit.
I seem to be the only library blog that has this many mentions of “the Charleston,” but I’m not certain.

Been working really hard on getting the automation system (book-checking-out!) functional. At the moment, this means operating in two systems at once. (Using cards, on the one hand, and also the checkout function on the computer on the other.) So doing twice the work.
It turns out that the student id cards are constantly being lost and regenerated, each time with a new barcode. If I want to use a student barcode, I need to match it to a more stable, student-connected number. This means printing out my very own labels and maybe giving out library cards, as well. Ah, a new expense for my school. (Labels are pricey, outside of the business world.) Yes, for a moment I am nostalgic for the old days of admin assistant work, where figuring out the proper label alignment required planning, and a few ruined pages of labels would not stress me out. Oh, and a computer tech at our beck and call to fix the printer whenever there was a problem. Hmmm. Yeah, but, tech issues aside, I’d never trade it back!

I was inspired to write this song to share with you. If you squint a little at the screen, I sound just like a certain Grammy Award-winning singer. Go ahead, sing along.
(Dedicated to public library staffs everywhere, and to N__ Jones and J__ Harris, all of whom I admire.)

Stalking the Seven-Day Book Shelves
or
(Don’t Know Why) It Didn’t Come

I’m waiting near the book displays.
Don’t know why it didn’t come.
It’s like a year, not seven days.
Don’t know why it didn’t come.
Don’t know why it didn’t come.

You’re overdue; the due date’s past.
I’m not sure if I can last.
‘Stead of coming back on time
You’ll be sorry. I’ll get mine.

My need to read is true.
I have to have the new
Bestseller.

The ladies at the check-out desk
Fear that I’m a safety risk.
Librarians who feel my pain
Know my death would be humane.

My need to read is true.
I have to have the new
Bestseller.

You’ve had my book a day too long.
Don’t know why you haven’t come.
Did no one teach you right from wrong?
You will know you should’ve come.
You will know you should’ve come.
I’ll make you wish that you had come.

...

Me again: so, should I hit the conference circuit, or what?

I have such a headache from various big-picture things (the building management, the poor heating system, the political situation we find ourselves in) that I'm hardly noticing all of the good stuff happening in the library here.

For instance, the buzz of activity has been building all week since the winter break ended. Students have been working on research, and homework, and summer internship applications. I've had several great conversations with teachers about upcoming projects, which we are finding innovative ways to design.

A theme seems to be developing---a cross-curriculum, many-teacher study of the Harlem Renaissance. So far, kids have been looking at Jacob Lawrence images (online at the Whitney museum site) and looking up poetry by Langston Hughes. I just found a gorgeous book of Lawrence's paintings with Walter Dean Myers text, called Toussaint L'ouverture. (A good example of why "picture books" belong in libraries of all levels. Another subject for me to make a list of, sometime.)

Also, I've made strides in the automation process. I spent all morning talking to tech support people. Of course, the phone that allows outgoing calls is back in our office. Of course, of course, there is no computer in our office. So I had to drop the phone on my colleague's desk (as the cord doesn't reach to my desk), run out to the circulation area to perform steps on the computer, take notes, and run back to get more help. If they had called me back, I could have picked up the main phone and been nearer to the terminal. But, when people try to call this school, they invariably get a busy signal for the first few attempts, which tries their patience. Rather than gamble with that, I just ran back and forth.

When I finally made it home, I put my feet up and went back to my "independent reading" book---not an assignment, but rather, something I will enjoy it for the rest of the evening.