Stiles Middle School 14/15
End of Year Report - Denae Gerik, Librarian
Library Program Overview
During the 14/15 school year, Stiles Library served 946 students and 88 faculty and staff members, which means we are growing and will continue to do so.
Some of our program highlights include:
- Supporting students and teachers in the learning and practice of evaluating and using information, copyright and research process
- Supporting students information literacy skills with lessons on how to search in Google
- Supporting students and teachers in digital citizenship with lesson to 6th grade about their digital footprint
- Promoting and providing reading and information resources in various formats to the whole school community, including OverDrive, our elibrary
- Promoting ethical use of information and academic honesty to students and teachers through lessons on paraphrasing and plagiarism
- Continuing a Lunch Bunch book club for 6,7 and 8th grade students
- Establishing a Manga club for 7th and 8th grade students
- Organizing a staff book club and EOY portfolio presentation using the tools we learned while reading Mindset by Carole Dweck
Library Budget Overview
In the 14/15 school year, Stiles Library received $11,949 which was an increase of $1,351 from the previous school year. In addition to the allocated budget, Stiles library received a $500 from PTA. Budget dollars were focused on the following:
- Purchase of digital e-books for all content areas
- Purchase & replacement of library materials
- Database subscriptions to support curriculum
- Lunch Bunch Book Club books
- Seating for students
Library Collection Information
There is a total of 12,879 materials in the Stiles Library collection. In the 14/15 school year, 334 library materials were weeded and discarded due to age and or damage. A total of 268 materials were added to the collection and 33 items were lost totaling in value of $526.00. In addition to the allocated library budget a $500 donation from the PTA was given to Stiles Library. These donations were used to purchase books for Lunch Bunch Book Club books. A breakdown of the collection is listed below:
Library Instruction & Book Circulation Overview
In the 14/15 school year, Mrs. Gerik saw an average of 60 class periods per month for 50 minutes of instruction. There was also a daily average of 171 independent visits during the school day. There was a 30% increase in the 7th grade book circulation compared to last years data. This is a huge success!
The breakdown of books checked out per grade level is below:
Library Databases, Ebooks & Libguide Usage Overview
Stiles Middle School Library annually purchases a variety of library databases to support curriculum and research needs of students and teachers. Libguides are also purchased to curate library materials, classroom lesson content,and information for students. We also have a subscription to NoodleTools, an online research citation tool. In addition to purchasing print books, we also purchase ebooks for students to access beyond school day hours. Below is a breakdown of what is purchased in each area and student/teacher usage information.
Library Programming, Events and Support
Spartan Library hosted several events through out the school year. Here are some of the highlights:
Literacy Programming/Incentives
- Diana Lopez Author Visit
- Rick Riordan Webcast
- Lonestar Book Trivia Contest
- Barnes Noble and Book Fair
- Lunch Bunch Book Club
- Manga Club
- Winter Book Fair
- Winter Break Reading Contest
- Summer Book Check Out
- Summer Reading 4 All Book Drive
- Candy Corn Guesstimation
8th Grade Book Club
Diana Lopez Author Visit
Amazing Race Library Resource Lesson
Digital Citizenship Lesson
8th Grade Lunch Bunch Book Club
Trillion Dollar Digital Footprint
Librarian-Led Support
- Staff Technology Support
- Led Professional Development Sessions with teachers on early release days
Professional Development
As a librarian, it is important to stay relevant with technology and new ideas in order to best support teachers and students. Here is a list of learning opportunities I had this year:
- Tech Camp - Texas Library Association Conference - learning focused on Web 2.0 tools, digital citizenship, Gaming in the library, Makerspaces, Google Apps for Education and Librarian as support for Administration
- Twitter Chats - participated in month #tlchats on topics such as collaboration, research, library promotions and reflecting on library practice.
- Professional Reading - books included Thanks for the Feedback, Mindset and Reading in the Wild
Reflection and Goals
The 14/15 year was a busy year. More teachers brought their classes to the library for lessons and technology support. All of 6th grade Science came down for a research lesson using Google Classroom. QUEST Independent Study utilized the library and allowed me to co-teach many important information literacy lessons, research skills, paraphrasing information and processing new learning. Classes came down to check out books and watch book trailers about new books to help students find their "hook book".
I organized a staff book club and portfolio implementation focusing on the book Mindset by Carole Deweck.
Goals for next year:
I would like to add Maker-Space/Gaming in the library to support instruction; I am going to observe the systems the FPMS has in place with Makerspaces.
I am going be part of the mLISD technology roll out next year, and will help support students and teachers with this new use of technology.
I would like to continue book club and host a few more literacy events through out the year. I would also like to offer another staff book club.
Excited for another year at FSMS,
Denae Gerik