Happy New Year!

I didn’t have the faintest idea about what I should write about this month. Among this month’s topic possibilities that are pertinent to none of the rest of you:

• Sleep Number Beds – I got a Sleep Number Bed. It is a ridiculous amount of money for, basically, an air bed, but OMG worth every penny…
• Family and Brain Drain – My niece and her husband who had lived in Honolulu after finishing graduate school returned to Columbus, OH where they met and bought a beautiful 3000 square foot home in a good school district in Columbus for the price of a fixer upper one bedroom condo in Honolulu. Uncle Dave is both thrilled for them and a little heartbroken at the same time.
• The Theory of Winter Relativity – We have not had a “bomb cyclone” here in Honolulu, but our students are walking around with parkas and scarves because, you know, it’s winter and some of our daytime highs have been as appallingly low as 74 degrees. Kids aren’t wearing knit caps this week because those only come out when it is 72 or below. We’re not without reason, people…

So anyway, while trying to come up with something to write about when I have to post “next week Wednesday,” I realized that this post actually has to go out on Wednesday, January 10th. Also known as tomorrow!!! So here we are!

Ta-da!

As the new year dawns, I find myself most excited about two things that might be pertinent to the rest of you:

Embedded Librarianship – Way back in 2016, Katie Archambault shared an awesome post about her efforts aimed at Personalizing the Library/Research Experience for her students by employing a model of embedded librarianship. It’s taken me a lot longer than hoped to follow her lead, but this semester we will be endeavoring to embed research instruction into three sections of a Junior/Senior English course on the Literature of War and four sections of Junior/Senior IB Global Politics. Teachers of both courses have scheduled their classes into the library for at least one 85 minute block period per week and on those days we will have an opportunities to do both mini-lessons and to schedule individual research appointments and provide personalized research support in 10-15 minute blocks. It is the first opportunity we have had to work with our upper level students that might venture beyond the typical “help them with databases” boilerplate lesson so I am excited to see where our students take us in this pilot!

Unto Us a Library Is Born! – After a LONG gestation. My colleague, Nicole, and I have given birth to a beautiful bouncing baby library! She is currently tiny and a little bit undersized by some measures coming in at about 750+ volumes (and a rather robust few hundred pounds), but she is being well fed and continues to grow at a good clip every month!

Mid-Pacific has a long history as a 7th-12th school, but became a PK-12 school in 2004 when a merger with Epiphany Elementary School was completed. Over time, library services were expanded in the main library for students in grades 3-12, but a model of robust classroom libraries was employed in grades K-2. A year ago, Nicole and I started library services with our Kindergarten classes on two book trucks that we rolled into classrooms. This year, we will continue with K class and will be expanding services to our 4 1st/2nd grade combo classes as well. The collection needed to accommodate the classes made continuing to move the trucks into classrooms for lessons impractical so our wonderful Elementary Principal carved out space where the collection can be housed and where we will deliver our library lessons. The sign on the door still says, “Conference Room,” but just between us… In my mind, it’s now the “K-2 Library.”

In an age where libraries everywhere seem to continually need to work to preserve their spaces for use as libraries, I feel completely blessed to work at a school where people at all levels are helping us find ways to make books, digital resources, and library instruction available to students!

Sometimes I complain about stuff, but the reality is that I work for an incredibly supportive team of administrators and with an incredibly supportive faculty! The School President along with the Elementary, Middle, and High School Principals are all “library people” so if I’m ever complaining even a little, please remind me of that wonderful truth!

We’re a PK-12 school. We service students in 3-12 in our main library, but haven’t had a K-2 lending collection until Monday of this week!

This is our new baby! Our K-2 library (sometimes known as the Elementary School Conference Room), is currently tiny at just over 750 volumes and a few hundred pounds, but she is being nourished well and will continue to grow! We couldn’t be more excited about the new addition to our library family!

And just in case you ever wondered, a fully loaded book truck builds up a LOT of momentum when you’re rolling it down the hill from the main library to the elementary campus!

A tiny librarian rolls a fully loaded book truck down a steep hill. You just don’t see that everyday. Believe me, it is very entertaining! I probably should have helped but I was trying to get a good picture because, you know, I have priorities. Hahaha!

Happy New Year, all!

May 2018 bring with it new eyes, new attitudes, new books, and lots of new library adventures to all! I’d SO love to hear about all that is new (and if it’s “new to you” it is, indeed, “new!”) in your libraries, so please hit comment and share!