Library Annual Report 2012-2013
Edward Harris, Jr. Middle School Library
Highlights of the 2012-2013
- Presenting databases and Sacramento Public Library's Homework Support information to EHMS parents during September's Parent University.
- Hosting Rebecca Kwong, student library intern from San Jose State University’s library program.
- Readapalooza (November 7th) presented by EHMS Language Arts teachers and teacher librarian. This year we held the event in the EHMS multipurpose room. Elsie Mak from Sacramento Public Library also joined us. I had a table that advertised our services, our top readers and a drawing to be my Next Top Library Model for a Read poster.
- Banned Book Week Contest in September.
- Working with Elsie Mak from SPL to provide free access to SPL databases and register students for Reading is So Delicious, the SPL Summer Reading Program.
- Using Web 2.0 tools such as Animoto and Glogster with classes to add a technology aspect to student projects. (Check out our Research wiki at http://researchtrail.wikispaces.com to view student work samples!)
- Presenting Digital Learning to our staff during monthly staff meetings.
- Coordinating our Digital Citizenship Day on Thursday, February 21, 2013.
- Hosting African American History Night in coordination with MTHS Black Student Union and the MTHS Art Show in the library.
- Spring Scholastic Book Fair run by our volunteer Book Crew. Our successful fair allowed the library to purchase magazine subscriptions for 2013-2014 and more library books.
Our library is a center of learning and activity. This year we have enjoyed collaborations with community and staff to provide new services and events in the library. We continue to learn how to provide library services with a reduced staff. Special events that encourage and promote independent reading have suffered but our library usage is up. Two big library events continue to fall during textbook distribution and collection which made it difficult to celebrate Teens Read Week and Teen Tech Week when the library is closed. We continue to close on Thursdays to keep up with the paperwork aspect of our jobs and to do the work our library technicians used to do. The library staff appreciates the understanding and support of our administration, staff and students for allowing us this time.
Holocaust Days of Remembrance Display
"Stuffed" Mustang from the MTHS Spring Art Display
Poetry Month Display
Curriculum Highlights
Seventh-Grade Library Orientation: Getting to Know the Library
Seventh-grade library orientations were held through English Language Arts classes. The orientation covered general library use such as how to use the Destiny catalog, how to locate books, how to check-out library books and how to place holds on library books. Students learned the various sections of the library, how to reserve a computer and the expectations of behavior in the library. A new addition to the orientation was how to use our e-books.
Collaboration for Student Research
English Learning Language Arts classes taught by Eunice Cerezo participated in regular library lessons learning to use our databases and various forms of technology. Eighth-grade Language Arts classes (Daniella Hill, Christina Lawson and Tami Nelson) produced book trailers on their favorite books using Animoto. Classes (Daniella Hill, Jennifer Jenkins, Eunice Cerezo and Tami Nelson) returned later to conduct research on topics of the Holocaust and created glogs (interactive posters) on Glogster. Melinda Wong and Mrs. Kinney’s 7th-grade English Language Arts classes researched Colonization. Jeff Dresser’s Career Adventuring classes visited often to conduct research on careers and to use the computers to access Career Zone. AVID teachers, Meridith Grosso and Tracy Christopher Schilling visited the library to provide their students with a more in-depth Library orientation in the form of a scavenger hunt. Luis Corpuz’s 7th-grade Science classes visited the library for two research projects on Extinct Species and Viruses. Physical Education classes taught by Frances Mosley visited the library to research My Plate and healthy food choices. The 8th-grade Holocaust Research Project culminated with a second generation Holocaust survivor guest speaker in the library. Caren Zorman shared her father, Mark Rubin’s Holocaust story with three of our English classes in the library.
Eighth-grade Language Arts students
Caren Zorman
Eighth-grade Language Arts students
Book Talks
English Language Arts classes that participated in regular library visits and book talks included: David Baraza, Eunice Cerezo, Amy Cima, Tami Nelson, Christina Lawson, Melinda Wong, Daniella Hill, and Bridgette Bell’s classes. Dan Seymour’s ILS class visited the library every two weeks to check out independent reading books.
Class Visits and Usage Patterns
Visitation Data
Two hundred forty-eight classes visited the library this year. Usage is down by 58 classes from last year. I am unsure as to why usage is down. Usage was up last year and the school year was shortened. This year teachers have more available days but usage is down. I predict that this will change with implementation of Common Core standards. The Language Arts Department used the library the most (72%) which can be attributed to orientation, research projects, book talks and visits to select independent reading books. Science (12%), Career Adventuring (5%), Independent Living Skills (4%), Physical Education (3%), AVID (2%) and Workability (2%) rounded out the rest of the middle school usage for the year. Language Arts continues to utilize time in the library to research and use Web 2.0 presentation tools such as Glogster and Animoto for final projects. This year Frances Mosley brought her 8th-grade Physical Education classes in for the first time to access www.choosemyplate.gov for a unit on nutrition and fitness. I hope to have Mrs. Mosley’s classes back next year working on a expanded research assignment on nutrition and fitness. Although the History department contacted me regarding research time the actual visits did not come to fruition. I think available time may be the reason for that.
Circulation Statistics
Library Materials Circulation Statistics
Statistics on this page include usage by both MTHS and EHMS as we are a joint-use library.
This year over 21,409 library books were circulated. The 700-799 Dewey range saw the most circulation (3,778) in our non-fiction section, while fiction made up over 50% of our circulation. September, October and April were our biggest circulation months with August and December being our months of lowest circulation. E-books currently make up 1% of our circulation. It will be interesting to see if usage of e-books grows over the next few years. E-book circulation is down from last year a bit. We will need to promote this more to improve usage. Future Destiny upgrades may allow for mobile and tablet usage which should benefit some of our patrons who wish to access our materials from these types of devices.
This year we circulated 44,114 textbooks.
Below is a breakdown of our circulation by call number:
Call # # of circulations
000-099 177
100-199 89
200-299 149
300-399 837
400-499 133
500-599 249
600-699 399
700-799 4,092
800-899 216
900-999 745
92 1,423
FIC 11,558
PRO 791
VID/DVD 381
CD 9
e-books 254
On-line Database Statistics
The library subscribes to on-line databases which offer remote access from home as well as access in the library and on the school campus. This year we made some changes in what we offer to our students, staff and families. This year due to funding restraints we offered just EBSCOhost which has 7 databases. Students and their families can access our databases outside our library walls 24/7. We also formed a liaison with Sacramento Public Librarian, Elsie Mak. Ms. Mak brought us 64 e-cards to use with our students. This provided free access to other databases for our students while in the library.
EBSCOhost 15,882 sessions 140,831 searches
About Service
Our library opened at 7:45 a.m., this allowed middle school students an half hour of library time before the beginning of school. With a dismissal time of 2:45 p.m., EHMS students had an additional 45 minutes of time after school. Our library continues to close on Thursdays to provide time for the librarians to keep up with the administrative side of library management and to plan collaborative research lessons for visiting classes. This year, Annette Klein and I strived to present a technology lesson for our colleagues during one Thursday out of the month. We dubbed this day Technology Thursday.
Last year, I started presenting Digital Learning segments at our staff meetings which introduce our teachers to free technology they could use with students, for presentation, for information and for organization. I continued to work with James Ponder to keep our library webpage up-to-date and to add helpful websites to our Research Trail wiki. The high school provided EBSCO databases for all to use and we added more e-books to our collection. With passwords students have access to these resources beyond our library walls 24/7. Our liaison with Sacramento Public Library has given out students access to more databases. Teachers continue to bring their classes to the library to choose independent reading books and for research projects. Many teachers are embracing Web 2.0 presentation technology to enhance their teaching and to engage their students. This year I personally purchased a subscription to Glogster so our classes could continue to create electronic posters for their projects. Rebecca Kwong, our library intern, created digital tutorials showing our students how to conduct searches on our library catalog. She also conducts a survey of the students on both campuses to determine which social media they use. We hope to use this information in the future to promote the library and library events with our students.
We continued to notify parents and guardians of overdue materials with mailings sent in February and April. Other ways we notified students and families of outstanding library accounts were through report card holds and No Activities Lists.
School Loop was utilized this year to inform students and parents of textbook return times.
Staffing and Hours
Our library staffs one full-time teacher librarian for the middle school. The library is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 7:45 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The library is closed on Thursday. During textbook distribution the library is closed on the first day of term and only open at the textbook windows until the majority textbooks are distributed. During textbook collection the main library is closed but the textbook windows are open from 7:45 am until 3:25 pm. On Final days, the textbook windows stay open for one-half hour after school is dismissed.
Activities and Events
Mrs. Klein and I presented a brief orientation on our databases for parents attending Parent University on September 5th. I tried to present information about the SPL free databases but was presented with technical difficulties. In September we also celebrated Banned Book week.
This year, the English Language Arts department and library hosted a Family Reading Night called Readapalooza on November 7th. This event moved from the library to the multipurpose room to accommodate a larger crowd. I hosted a Library Information table that let families know of the services offered by the library. I also had a drawing for a chance to become Ms. White's Top Model which was an opportunity to be featured on a Library Read poster. Ms. Mak, from SPL, had a table next to mine which covered public library services.
During the month of February and March, our library was host to African American History displays and Art Displays. During Poetry Month in April, I encouraged the EHMS staff to participate in Guerilla Poetry by leaving poems in places on campus for other staff members to find and enjoy.
Our Spring Book Fair was held during the last week of April and the first week of May, and run by our volunteer Student Book Crew. We were worried if we would make our goal because the fair was scheduled the week after testing and we did not have as much time as we would have liked to promote it. We made our goal! With the money earned we were about keep our magazine subscriptions, add more books to the library and purchase more Book Crew t-shirts for uniforms. We used many different outlets to advertise our fair this year and we even sold items on-line.
Professional Accomplishments
I continued to serve on Library Leadership. We are working on the Library Plan and Library Media Teacher Evaluation.
The Secondary Library Professional Learning Network continues to thrive. This year Karin Ledford and I were able to offer participants step credit. This year we learned about Building a Web Presence, Creating and Presenting Online Book Trailers, Infographics, Twitter, Shmoop, Popplet, Symbaloo, NoodleTools, Cool Tools 4 School, Big Huge Labs, Fakebook, Marqueed, Plagiarism Game, Collaborize Classroom, Poll Everywhere, Timetoast and Remind 101. We plan to continue to offer these sessions as long as librarians are interested.
I continued following the Emerging Tech: Using Technology to Promote Your School Library group on edweb.net and attended webinars on various topics. I also took part in the School Library Journal’s Be the Change webinar series. (Notes and certificates are filed in my Library Portfolio.)
Goals
Goals for the 2013-2014 school year:
- Collaborate with others about how teacher librarians can support implementation of Common Core State Standards.
- Offer events to promote reading and the library.
- Educate staff about 21st Century Learning Skills and Web 2.0 tools that may be used to support learning.
- Continue to participate in webinars to expand knowledge.
- Continue to participate in the Professional Learning Network.
Monterey Trail High School/Edward Harris, Jr. Middle School Library
Email: swhite@egusd.net
Website: http://eharris.schoolloop.com/library
Location: 8661 Power Inn Road, Elk Grove, CA
Phone: (916) 688-0080