January...Time to Regroup and to Go Forward

This entry is actually from a week ago...I never found time to post. I have been joking that the last few days, which have been slow, (thank God), have been me in my own small think tank. Having down time really allows the mind to go places and think of all the possibilities. I also started my library management class on Thursday and it will provide me the opportunity to revise/revisit all of our policies and procedures for the media center. That is about where I need to be..I had the old folder on my desk waiting for this...nothing like a school assignment to ensure something gets finished! Also, ListenNJ has started to take off a bit here with a few faculty members who recognize the convenience of having audio books on their MP3 players for shopping, walking/exercise, and in the car. I have at least two on mine right now and alternate when one bores me or is inappropriate for the moment--like trying to get through Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. I don't know quite what to do with it and it has entered my dream life--strange doctor types like Dr. Finch, ugh! Might not actually finish it.

Today our after-school tutoring program will start with teachers from our high school and student volunteers from TCNJ. I am so excited about what this program could do and who it could serve...though I am realistic that it will take time to get it running. The program will target students who have parents with limited English skills, those who are unnable to find an appropriate study environment, and those who need help in more than one subject area. We are also going to work with teachers who discover early on that students are falling behind in the research process and could catch up with the help of the librarian and tutors in that subject area. We hope to catch some of our students who have transferred into the district from other schools who may not have been adequately prepared for our requirements, especially our term paper proficiencies.

(This part is from last week)
It’s been a long time…I have thought some entries, but since there is no technology to get what’s been in my head onto the blog without my speaking it or typing it, it hasn’t found its way here yet. (Even if it does exist, I don’t like the idea of mind probes.) Finally, we have reached finals and the end of the first semester, so there is a moment to write something. So here’s my update.

I just finished The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean and it was so good! It was announced as The Michael Printz Award winner for this year, and since I never read the award winners until way after, I thought I’d snap it up for a change. How to sum it up? Adèle Geras in her review of The White Darkness wrote that “reading Geraldine McCaughrean is like being on a spiral staircase. You move down and down and it gets darker and darker, but somehow you're traveling towards some kind of light.” And that is exactly what it felt like to finish the book last night. You simultaneously experience Sym’s freedom and entrapment and it is terrifying. When I turned out the light, I felt like I was suffocating—immediately I found myself imagining being stranded in Antarctica with my two children trying to figure out how I would keep them alive. Enough panic ensued that I found myself out of my bed, kissing them goodnight again. It was strange and eerie, but I felt pride that a book labeled YA could make my 36 year old self feel so many different emotions. After adding some extra blankets and thinking about a heat wave, I was able to drift off to sleep. Here’s a review of the book at Teen Reads: http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/0060890355.asp .

I have been starting to work on a collaboration with other librarians, including the youth librarian at the Ewing Branch of the Mercer County Library and a librarian at TCNJ, who is interested in helping me expose high school seniors to the college library. I have been advertising to students three ways that the school and public library can work together to help students with their work. 1) Carry your MCL card to school and we can place books on hold via the MCL website 2) Use ListenNJ to download audiobooks onto MP3 players (if they don’t like reading, they may prefer listening—also it doesn’t make you feel sick in the car to listen to an audio book) and 3) Use the statewide online reference service of Q&A NJ or IM with a MCL librarian if they need help after hours. Next fall, I plan to have the Ewing Youth Librarian come to our Back to School Night to talk to parents about some of the ways they can improve their research/study habits by knowing how they can utilize both libraries to their fullest.