Librarians Thread! (No buns, please)

[Glynis]

Hey everyone, particularly anyone working in a school library. I need to find some articles on reading incentive programs that are being used in schools now. Programs could be AR, Book It!, Reading Counts, Lexile, or any others that are being used in schools to improve literacy. I've found some, but I'm not really happy with the articles I've found. I'm kind of limited on the articles that I can find via my computer, and I'm nowhere near a library where I could stop in and do some research. If anyone can get their hands on a copy of an article and email it to me, that would be wonderful. Or if you know of a journal article, pass the title, etc. along to me and I can have DH look for it while he's in the city for his job.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Philadisney]

I remember you! How are you?

i'm great! how are you doing? thanks again for your help on my thread. i am still looking into schools and considering getting an MLS - however all plans have been put on hold, as DBF is moving to Rome for 7 months to finish grad school, and we're not sure where he is going to end up once he returns to the US. He might have to go wherever he gets offered a job. Very uncertain times over here - I figure a year or so of learning about different options will help a lot once we've settled somewhere and I am able to make a decision. That's why I'm so glad I found this thread!

 

[harleyquinn]

Hey everyone, particularly anyone working in a school library. I need to find some articles on reading incentive programs that are being used in schools now. Programs could be AR, Book It!, Reading Counts, Lexile, or any others that are being used in schools to improve literacy. I've found some, but I'm not really happy with the articles I've found. I'm kind of limited on the articles that I can find via my computer, and I'm nowhere near a library where I could stop in and do some research. If anyone can get their hands on a copy of an article and email it to me, that would be wonderful. Or if you know of a journal article, pass the title, etc. along to me and I can have DH look for it while he's in the city for his job.

Thanks in advance.

Ahh. AR the bane of my exsistance...we had a discussion on pubyac recently about how we public librarians hate it with a passion. I'm unaware of any research articles though. I won't be at the library til Saturday, but I'll look some stuff up then.

Anyway, I had an awesome b-day today. One of my baby storytime mom's got me awesome chocolate covered pretzels and my mom sent me flowers and balloons, so all the kids have been awesome to me today. My assistants got me a cake and lots of other food to share with the rest of the staff. Best b-day in a while so far...now if DH can just get the job offer today it'll be perfect!

 

[jedi_librarian]

Just bumping! How is everyone doing? School librarians - I bet things are getting crazy now that the end of the school year is coming. What do you all do over the summer?

 

[newholidayx2]

End of June will be 8yrs fulltime working at our town library. I worked there a year before that parttime cataloging. Its great working only 1.5miles from home.
My job description has me on the desk doing circulation. However we've hired alot of parttimers since I started. They work the desk and I do the children's book cataloging.

 

[jedi_librarian]

End of June will be 8yrs fulltime working at our town library. I worked there a year before that parttime cataloging. Its great working only 1.5miles from home.
My job description has me on the desk doing circulation. However we've hired alot of parttimers since I started. They work the desk and I do the children's book cataloging.

Cool!
Are they getting ready for summer reading programs? I know we all are. I run the adults one. It's going to be a tropical theme this year, which should be fun!

 

[Scutapipig]

AR the bane of my exsistance...we had a discussion on pubyac recently about how we public librarians hate it with a passion.

Would you elaborate on this as to why its disliked?

My son is really struggling with the testing portion of AR at his school and I'm looking for answers as to why. He's always done well in the past, but now...eh. They have already adapted the tests to where he simply answers the question instead of choosing one of the multiple choice answers.

 

[harleyquinn]

Would you elaborate on this as to why its disliked?

My son is really struggling with the testing portion of AR at his school and I'm looking for answers as to why. He's always done well in the past, but now...eh. They have already adapted the tests to where he simply answers the question instead of choosing one of the multiple choice answers.

Sorry, I haven't been around here for a while.

Anyway, in my community we have 8 elementary schools with 8 different AR lists, so there is no way for me to mark each book (plus my admin wouldn't let me put one more sticker on anything anyway). It's incredibly hard for parent to come in and find books for their kids. I even retyped all the lists and put them into excel so they are searchable and I can order them by whatever I need.

Other than that, I really hate it when it is used past 2nd grade or so, because it forces kids to read only what's on the list. Some of the lists are woefully inadaquit. Some don't even have most award winners. Plus they are never current. So while Bobby and Susie love Junie B and have read all the books, the newest 5-6 of them aren't on the list. Each school can only buy so many tests each year, so they can't keep up.

There's more but I have to go. I'll PM you tomorrow. Maybe the problem is the books he is reading off the list. I might be able to help. I'm usually able to find something that they like, so they will pay more attention and do better on the test.

 

[Scutapipig]

Thank you so much for your input! My son has Down syndrome, so we do take that into consideration, but he is in the third grade and is reading at a third grade level, possibly a bit higher. His spelling words are also third grade level, but he is currently working on the sixth grade sight word list, so vocabulary isn't necessarily the issue, as much as comprehension is. I do believe we have exhausted the "Henry and Mudge" series, where he was initially scoring 100%, and now is scoring 20%. I tried a Dragon Slayers Academy book with him, and we read the chapters together, reviewed each chapter afterwards, and then reviewed the chapter again before starting the next one. He KNEW this book inside and out, but only scored 20% on the test. It was at this point we adapted the test to do away with the multiple choice options and just let him answer the question. He would always pick the first answer on multiple choice.

Now my daughter, also in the third grade, had to bust her behind last year to even get the minimum amount of "points" to earn her reward of the year end AR carnival. She was terribly afraid of taking the tests and it showed. Once we convinced her that we didn't care if she failed each test as long as she tried her best, she soared! This year, she's blowning the points out of the ballpark and scoring 100% on all her tests. She's also reading at a sixth grade level, so I can't imagine what her book choices are going to be when she hits the fourth grade and she's exhausted the choices in the sixth grade level to "challenge" her.

I personally dislike AR because I believe it places a tremendous amount of pressure on the children to achieve a required point value, and I think burnout starts to move in each month after having to "achieve" a certain point total each month. I am easy to please. I think daily homework of reading a certain number of minutes each night is reasonable, without the pressure of scoring with AR points each month.

Anyway, thank you for explaining your views. I wish you were our librarian! You're far nicer than the ones we have in our neighborhood! And it was nice to be able to vent a bit to someone who understands what I'm talking about when I say "AR". Thanks!

 

[newholidayx2]

Jedi - yes the childrens librarian is starting to get ready for summer reading. This summer its "Whats buzzin". We have a very very small young adult program. We need to get the kids ALOT more involved especially since DS is now a YA. We have never had an Adult reading program. Can you please elaborate more? Id love it if they had that here. What exactly are you doing? thanks much

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I am a children's librarian, and ah, summer reading programs! Our theme is "Snails, Tails, Paws and Claws" or something like that! But I am not involved in it this year, since I work only nights.

Sadly, I am still rethinking the whole career. When I got my MLS, I wanted to do more technical and computer-based things, but nope - only found jobs in children's. But I just was informed I am losing one of my library positions (I am a temp who works in various libraries) so even less money and hours now. Everything seems to dwindle into nothing. I enjoy working with the kids, I like the report/reference questions, but doing storytimes and programs and outreach absolutely does not interest me at all, and that is the meat of being a kid's librarian. Probably time to decide if I am staying in children's, or look for a new career .... again. I am seriously thinking of finding a non-library job soon, if I can't get more hours as a librarian.

Well, hope everyone else's library careers are thriving!

 

[Glynis]

Cool!
Are they getting ready for summer reading programs? I know we all are. I run the adults one. It's going to be a tropical theme this year, which should be fun!

What books are you recommending to go along with this theme?

I'm finishing my second semester of certification classes this week, so after Friday, I will be done until September. This has been a difficult semester, so I'll be glad when it's over. Come September, I'll take one class, and then all I need is one elective class, and student teaching. I'm pretty thrilled about it.

My summer will be taken up with volunteering at our local elementary school library. We have no community library, so the elementary library is open a couple of days a week for the community to come in for story time, and to check out books. I've developed a relationship with our librarian during this semester, so I volunteered to help out! My kids are thrilled as it means they get to hang out there one day a week reading or playing on the playground. Hey, it keeps them away from the TV.

 

[Glynis]

Thank you so much for your input! My son has Down syndrome, so we do take that into consideration, but he is in the third grade and is reading at a third grade level, possibly a bit higher. His spelling words are also third grade level, but he is currently working on the sixth grade sight word list, so vocabulary isn't necessarily the issue, as much as comprehension is. I do believe we have exhausted the "Henry and Mudge" series, where he was initially scoring 100%, and now is scoring 20%. I tried a Dragon Slayers Academy book with him, and we read the chapters together, reviewed each chapter afterwards, and then reviewed the chapter again before starting the next one. He KNEW this book inside and out, but only scored 20% on the test. It was at this point we adapted the test to do away with the multiple choice options and just let him answer the question. He would always pick the first answer on multiple choice.

Now my daughter, also in the third grade, had to bust her behind last year to even get the minimum amount of "points" to earn her reward of the year end AR carnival. She was terribly afraid of taking the tests and it showed. Once we convinced her that we didn't care if she failed each test as long as she tried her best, she soared! This year, she's blowning the points out of the ballpark and scoring 100% on all her tests. She's also reading at a sixth grade level, so I can't imagine what her book choices are going to be when she hits the fourth grade and she's exhausted the choices in the sixth grade level to "challenge" her.

I personally dislike AR because I believe it places a tremendous amount of pressure on the children to achieve a required point value, and I think burnout starts to move in each month after having to "achieve" a certain point total each month. I am easy to please. I think daily homework of reading a certain number of minutes each night is reasonable, without the pressure of scoring with AR points each month.

Anyway, thank you for explaining your views. I wish you were our librarian! You're far nicer than the ones we have in our neighborhood! And it was nice to be able to vent a bit to someone who understands what I'm talking about when I say "AR". Thanks!

I think it's interesting that so many schools are pushing the AR program. According to the research that I had to do for a class this semester, there have only been studies done that were funded by AR. No independant studies have been done. That said, I think we have to take their claims with a grain of salt. As a teacher I used AR and hated it, because my high school students found ways to manipulate the system, by cheating on the tests. Not reading the books, but getting answers from other students, etc.

I didn't like that kids felt they had to only read from the AR list. I wanted them to use the list as a jumping off point, but they just wanted to stick with the list so they could get points and win the prizes the principal offered. I really hated it!

 

[harleyquinn]

I personally dislike AR because I believe it places a tremendous amount of pressure on the children to achieve a required point value, and I think burnout starts to move in each month after having to "achieve" a certain point total each month. I am easy to please. I think daily homework of reading a certain number of minutes each night is reasonable, without the pressure of scoring with AR points each month.

Anyway, thank you for explaining your views. I wish you were our librarian! You're far nicer than the ones we have in our neighborhood! And it was nice to be able to vent a bit to someone who understands what I'm talking about when I say "AR". Thanks!

I'm glad your daughter is doing better. I totally agree with your burnout assessment. AR eventually strips most children of any desire to read at all. It's very frustrating.

The funny thing is with my schools each teacher uses AR in a different way. In a couple of the schools only 1 teacher uses the list at all. It's really strange.

Anyway, if I can ever help in anyway just PM me, or better yet send me an email.

BTW the SR theme is "Paws, Claws, Scales and Tails" Its so funny that you said Snails HugsForEeyore--that's what our PR person put on our summer flyers! I wonder how many children would get excited about snails!

On a serious note HugsForEeyore I wish you the best. Ohio has been the best state for libraries for a long time, but I fear the Dark Ages is soon approaching. Our legislators want to take all the funding away. It's very scary.

It's just said that when our circulation, program attendence, and people filling into the libraries numbers are at an all time high, the polititians think we're the place to get money from.

 

[jedi_librarian]

Jedi - yes the childrens librarian is starting to get ready for summer reading. This summer its "Whats buzzin". We have a very very small young adult program. We need to get the kids ALOT more involved especially since DS is now a YA. We have never had an Adult reading program. Can you please elaborate more? Id love it if they had that here. What exactly are you doing? thanks much

Sure! The Adult program is not nearly as elaborate as the Children's program. Basically what we do is - the Adults register for the program and they get a sign-up prize (some kind of trinket), and they get some list of suggested reads that may go with our theme. They have to read 6 books during the 8 week program. They can read ANY books (they're adults - we don't wanna make things more difficult for them that it needs to be). As they read each book and report it to us (we keep reading logs at the desk), they get a raffle ticket for the weekly drawings, and when they finish 6, the get an entry for the grand prize raffle. I think adults of all ages really enjoy it! The year before I started running the summer reading, we only had about 13 participants. When I took over, it jumped to 150!!! It's been popular ever since. Weekly drawing prizes are worth about $5.00 each. Grand prizes are about $30 each. It's not too bad. We have one for staff too, and they love it.

 

[jedi_librarian]

What books are you recommending to go along with this theme?

We don't have our reading lists yet but I'll be happy to pass them along to you once we do

 

[newholidayx2]

Jedi - 6 books in 8 weeks is ALOT of reading (especially when working a fulltime job!) I average about a book every two weeks. Do many adults read the 6?

 

[Crankyshank]

Jedi - 6 books in 8 weeks is ALOT of reading (especially when working a fulltime job!) I average about a book every two weeks. Do many adults read the 6?

I work full time and go to school part time and easily read 2-3 books a week.

 

[Glynis]

Sure! The Adult program is not nearly as elaborate as the Children's program. Basically what we do is - the Adults register for the program and they get a sign-up prize (some kind of trinket), and they get some list of suggested reads that may go with our theme. They have to read 6 books during the 8 week program. They can read ANY books (they're adults - we don't wanna make things more difficult for them that it needs to be). As they read each book and report it to us (we keep reading logs at the desk), they get a raffle ticket for the weekly drawings, and when they finish 6, the get an entry for the grand prize raffle. I think adults of all ages really enjoy it! The year before I started running the summer reading, we only had about 13 participants. When I took over, it jumped to 150!!! It's been popular ever since. Weekly drawing prizes are worth about $5.00 each. Grand prizes are about $30 each. It's not too bad. We have one for staff too, and they love it.

That sounds like a fun thing! I wish our libraries do that. The closest library to me is 25 miles away, so it makes getting there a bit difficult, but when I do, I go crazy checking out books!

 

[Glynis]

We don't have our reading lists yet but I'll be happy to pass them along to you once we do

Thanks so much! I love to have reading lists, to add to my own lists! Anyone, feel free to send along your reading lists and suggestions.