on if you give a librarian a library…

How’re your weeks going? The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur. I’m kinda exhausted!

“Why are you exhausted?” you ask?

Well, thanks for asking! I’m exhausted because I’ve been living library life like a character in the Laura Numeroff book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Cover image of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
  • If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk…
    • When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask you for a straw…
      • When he’s finished, he’s likely to ask for a napkin…

Here’s my kind of crazy tale of, If You Give a Librarian a Library…

A few years ago, we gave birth to a library that lived in our elementary building. At the time we weren’t offering any services or library access to our K-2 scholars and teachers so we found a spot in the elementary building, bought books that Kindergarten through 2nd grade humans might love, and and opened for business! I wrote about it here: on new things for a new year…

Our little K-2 remote library collection eventually grew to 8 overflowing trucks, but we eventually ran out of space.

Fast forward 5 years and our amazing little library has outgrown its space. Basically, by the time that our young scholars reach the end of 2nd grade, they’ve just about read their way through the tiny collection and space constraints just would not allow us to continue to build out the collection as needed. Last semester we had the seemingly simple thought, “Hey, let’s have the K-2 classes come up to Kawaiaha’o Library! We’ll be able to continue to build out the K-2 collection and our strong readers will have access to things that they’ll love! It’s going to be so AMAZING!!!”

Me, on the inside at the time…

Aaaaauuuggghhh!!!

Our little idea has somehow turned into an epic cascade of problem-solving that involves:

  • Librarians painting a back room that was once a librarian’s office, that became a study room, then became a conference room, then became a closet, then became a swing space for material from our Archives when there was a construction project, and most recently has housed furniture that needed to be stored in order to allow for social distancing in classrooms. What will become the K-2 library room now has a lovely light blue wall! Honestly, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but I’m pretty stoked at how much less dungeon-like the room feels simply by painting the wall light blue instead of our (kinda depressing) standard institutional grey! 🤣
Adds #HowToPaint to the list of skills that I was not told I would need to develop when I was in library school…
  • My staff weeding and removing 2500 books in our HS oriented nonfiction collection that just has not seen much use in the last few years.
Boxed and ready to go to the Friends of the Library!
Deaccessioning in progress.
Having books on every cart and every available surface in the library gives me anxiety.
  • Shifting and reconfiguring all of the stacks in our nonfiction collection to make them more accessible to 3rd-5th grade sized humans…
  • Boxing significant parts of our middle fiction collection to empty shelving so that facilities crews can move shelves to new places over the summer.
  • Facilities Management Services crews coming in to move shelving and stacks around within our space to help us create age “zones” for our collection.
  • Delivering about 2000ish of the 2500 weeded books to our public library system’s Friends of the Library warehouse 250 books at a time (because that’s how many boxes can fit in a Hyundai Sonata…).
Hello, Friends of the Library!
  • Pushing all of the book trucks up the hill from our elementary building to their new home in the “big library” up on the hill.

Pushing a fully loaded book truck uphill is a surprisingly good workout. On one trip I was huffing and puffing my way up the hill past some students and I hear, “Whoa! good butt workout Mr. Wee!!!” 🤣🤣🤣

To which I had to reply, “I’m old and I don’t do Crossfit sled pushing. Don’t just stand there telling dad jokes, help me push!!!” 🤣🤣🤣

My kids thought I was hilarious, but by the time they were ready to help me push I was at the top of the hill. #Teenagers #Sigh 🤣🤣🤣

I know I sound really, really grumpy (because I am) as this process unfolds, but I know that I will be happy with the result next August when we have everything put back together and we’re up and running. In our last meeting with our K-2 classes I offhandedly mentioned, “This is our last time seeing you here in our mini-library space because next year we’ll get to see all of our K-2 classes in the big library up on the hill!!!”

Oh my goodness!!! The number of faculty/staff parents who have told me in passing in the hall, “My child is SOOOOOOOOO excited that they get to go to Kawaiaha’o Library next year!!!” has been a wonderful surprise.

Surprises like learning how excited young students are to get to borrow books and just come to “the big library” make every bit of the sweat and effort worth all of the sweat and effort! I know I’ll be happy with the outcome in the end, but you know, when you’re in the middle of the process, sometimes you just have to write to your AISL friends to complain. That’s library life… 🤣🤣🤣

Gotta run, another student needs help printing. In the midst of all of this we set up a new printing work flow to make it easier for students to print from their school iPads and personal devices. What i’ve learned from watching numerous middle school and frosh students attempt to tap on the screen of our desktop iMacs is that “how to use a computer mouse” has become a legacy skill!!! 😳😳😳 #IFeelSoOld

But that’s a post for another time!

Happy summer, all!

4 thoughts on “on if you give a librarian a library…

  1. Love, love, love this! Will you kindly share pictures at the beginning of the school year on how you created “zones” for groupings of kids? In a few years I’ll be moving to a new library space and will have to reconfigure for 5th-12th grades.
    As always, your posts are enlightening, entertaining, and chock full of info. Thanks David!

  2. This is an incredible amount of work! I’m amazed by how you never shy away from a challenge – and how amazing it’s going to be for your whole school community. Your creative innovation is an inspiration 🙂

  3. I am eternally grateful that I learned right at the beginning of my library career that you can NEVER move just one book. It always leads to a ‘project’ 🙂

    And you know you can always complain to your AISL friends. We feel your pain. But wow! – this will be spectacular when it is finished!

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