New Library Strategies Rachel Shankles Lakeside High School Hot Springs, AR

What change? Blend of Print and NonPrint Resources Print How to get the students to use the books? What to do about old collections? Non Print Learning about new technology in order to teach it FRAMEWORKS Lit Labs

Top Three Dangers for Libraries in the Digital Age Danger 1: The growing digitization and portability of information. Danger 2: Fundamental changes in the nature and sources of information. Danger 3: The need for new skills for workers in a global economy Top Seven Opportunities for Libraries in the Digital Age I. An opportunity to improve our physical facilities II. An opportunity to truly educate III. An opportunity to remain information “experts.” IV. An opportunity to be team players V. An opportunity to become a push institution VI. An opportunity to diversify, offer non-traditional services to our patrons VII. An opportunity to help close the digital and generational divides BONUS OPPORTUNITY: An opportunity to grow our own professional abilities. Why Do We Have to Change?

How do we change? Weed, Weed, Weed Update facility to make modern, attractive, comfortable Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate Sponsor book clubs, events, programming Find funding sources Find freebies for programming Make sure you are included in literacy push Get partners on board to become an integral and central part of the education of each child If you are busy doing all of this, you can’t possibly be on bus duty or lunch duty in the cafeteria when you have things going on in the library... You become a stakeholder in testing with the new frameworks

Literacy Push Partner with your Literacy coach Find out the released items and reinforce them in your classes or talks If your school does Lit Lab—work with them to find books and try to go to the training yourself Research shows that to get the upper level kids to read the library has to be updated and modern looking with lots of new books that are displayed; books of all levels of readers, all interests And have comfortable seating so they can sit and read To let them know you have “new” stuff, you do programs to get them into the library to see the new books and furniture Design a distinctive look for your library area; rearrange; throw out that card catalog or make it a table; add rugs, curtains, modernize anything that looks like it’s old school

Why Weed? You say your numbers will be too low for state report. Then they will have to buy you more won’t they? Statistics show students do not want to touch or look at old, yellowed books and certainly don’t want to check them out and read them Statistics also show the new library should have new books and look more like a ‘book store’ Some even sell coffee but we try to make ours ‘smell’ like coffee or popcorn at times

Weed, then what? Donate your old books, sell them to teachers and students for a quarter a piece or throw away ( I know it hurts your soul) Replace with paperbacks you get from Scholastic Book Fair participation if that is the only way Empty shelves make for great display space so buy those little book easels and show off your new books and they will fly out of the library So after weeding, purchase new fiction first, and then Display, Display, Display

Collaborate We have frameworks that bisect with some other areas and you can certainly collaborate with English on most of those strands One strand has to do with reading charts & graphs and that would mean working with the math department One SLE has to do with AR history Let’s talk about collaboration ideas —English, Art, Foreign language, history, science In Elementary you might work with GT, Reading teacher, Science teachers, English teacher Jr High teaches the most AR History so hit that with them

Collaboration with History Our most successful was a Black History Month Film Festival in February; we showed 13 to 15 min. movie clips about LR Central and the Elaine Race Riots (Ark. History) We gave out small quiz at end each time and the history teachers received the papers from us and gave extra credit for their attendance. Too crowded so we repeated each one twice and during parent conference night. We served popcorn.

Collaborations - English The library sponsors 5 to 7 poetry contests based on the curriculum of the high school English classes. Each teacher picks a genre of poetry that they will teach and we sponsor the overall contest. We usually have sonnet, haiku, cinquain, free and blank verse, and narrative verse. We have 24 line limit. Any student can enter any contest but their own teacher requires they enter the one she teaches. We give prizes, certificates, take photos for the local paper and try to get the poems published. Every Wed in April we have poetry readings with a mic set up in the library. One week it is original works of teachers or students then we invite guests from community then announce our winners and they get to read their winning poems

Collaboration – the arts Color and B&W and photo essay contest each year in January and winners are entered in AAIM categories in February;we announce it all Dec and due in Jan. Ask an advanced art class to hand draw profiles of famous black Americans on your bulletin board for Black History Month; give them list of suggestions and they research and come up with a profile they can draw in black and gray

Collaboration - Math One year we gave the math teachers surveys during Multiculture Month with questions like “Were you born in Arkansas?” “What do you consider your cultural heritage a)Caucasian American b)African American c)Asian d)Hispanic e)other? Were your parents born in the USA? Then we asked that their students graph the info into charts that we could hang outside the library that month. They were colorful and laminated and worked well This year we will have a tessellation drawing contest with the math department

Collaborations – Science Collaboration with Science Dept by inviting speaker for AP Environmental Science on algae growth and containment in area lakes and what research is being done by the college Last year author Andrea Campbell who has written Forensics books- $75 for 2 hours Andrea Campbell

Book Clubs Funding Scholastic Literacy Partners*** Scholastic Book Fairs Dover Paperbacks Local businesses sponsor a title Do a fundraiser Participation Girls or Boys group; teachers or parents or business leaders do a book; kids pick or you pick the titles Have more than one group at a time for them to pick from and get some help from the Literacy coach or Reading teachers/Lit teachers Time Restraints At lunch Before or after school Evenings a local restaurants or public library Suggested Titles: On the wiki see lists of jr and sr high book clubs from many cities for 3 years

Events Take out a sheet of paper and write down as many events you can see going on in the PhotoStory you are going to watch. Write down any questions you want to ask. Costs, Time, When, Speakers, EQ involved, etc. Then we will discuss the lists you have and get some more programming ideas to share from our group. You can sponsor contests every month

Monthly Promotion Ideas Use monthly themes – “Aloha, Welcome Back” or for August Luau for Open house, all teachers wear Hawaiian shirts, give leis to everyone, fruit treat in library We decorate as much as possible each month, ordering items from Oriental Trading and other inexpensive places

AUGUSTAUGUST 2006

September Banned Books Week – we wear jail garb once or twice Book Jackets copied from Internet of most commonly banned books in past and present and a book display with bars around them

Costumes

Guest Speakers Lists and contact info for free guest speakers and list of programs Rachel Miller does a program on History in our Backyard and one on Haunted Arkansas

Ark Hist Preservation - Free Classroom Presentations The AHPP Education Outreach Coordinator is available on a limited basis to visit 3rd-12th grade classes, homeschool groups, scout troops and other organizations. Contact us now to reserve your presentation! Call (501) or Take the Last Train to Clarksville: Arkansas's Historic Depots and Railroad History Arkansas's Haunted Historic Sites (this program is changed every school year) From Slavery to Central High School (this program features National Register of Historic Places associated with slavery, segregation and the Civil Rights Movement within Arkansas) Historic Architecture in Arkansas History in Your Backyard (This program can be tailored to a specific community) History Happened in Arkansas? Arkansas's National Historic Landmarks Law and Order on the Western Frontier: Fort Smith National Historic Site Mysteries of the Mound Builders: Parkin and Toltec Archeological Sites Rohwer: Japanese-American Internment in Arkansas

Contact info for Arkansas Historic Preservation Programs Rachel M. Miller Education Outreach Coordinator Arkansas Historic Preservation Program rg

CONTESTS Jelly beans in jar Poetry Contests in collaboration with English Classes- April is Poetry Month Photo Hoaxes in collaboration with EAST Photo Contest for all (AAIM Media Festival entries due in early Feb.) Most Admired Teacher Contest (April or May) Favorite Christmas Movie Contest Video contest during Teen Tech Week (April) Tesselation poster contest with Math Dept

Money Makers Tissue flowers made and sold for 50 cents each with a poem tied to them; sold on Valentine’s; we always make over $50 Most Admired Teacher Contest – Each April for the entire month they can come in and vote for 25 cents per vote; we chart the votes on a large graph in the hall; the winner gets book purchased and dedicated to them and photo in paper and we usually make $200 Recycling ink and toner cartridges and cell phones thru Greenschools is our main money maker We write small grants like Weyerhauser or PTO or school wide grants for $300 or so One jr high has a photographer come in for those dress photos One elemen. Librarian told me she made $5000 on a book fair

Funding WalMart – all of them in your area every year Weyerhauser Mini grant AR Humanities Grant AM Lib Assoc Grants- like We the People, Great Stories, or Picturing America Thomson Gale TEAMS Award of money for collaboration Dollar General Grant PTA/PTO Get permission to sell things to make some cash to do programming or to redecorate I sell votes, tee shirts, flash drives, notecards, tissue roses Have a book fair to raise some funds - I have 2

Freebies What is the best freebie you have gotten for your library? List of free speakers and free programs on my wiki Internet Predators, Internet Safety for Middle School up from AR Attorney General’s Office AR Historic Preservation does many free programs Butler Center of CALS in LR does many free programs on AR history and Encyclopedia of AR Some AR authors will speak for a very low fee that is affordable, especially local ones—if you just ask

Frameworks Have you printed out a copy? Do you have the grade templates? Develop a Pacing Guide this year using your plan book Make sure the Principal and teachers know you now have Frameworks you must teach Open dialogue with them about when/where/how Plan and collaborate

Frameworks Check them off as you teach them Use highlighter to color the SLE on the right of the template You can develop your own template too What do you foresee needing help with on the frameworks? Ask someone to come to one of your coop meetings to discuss the frameworks and give you some time to develop pacing guides

You’ve come a long way, Baby! Libraries, they are a changin’. We can change or be replaced with clerks If we do what we need to do, our library programs will be integral to the overall school curriculum. If we have programming going on, we can’t be on bus or lunch duty outside the library,can we? Then our library funding should increase for books and technology With a little PR work (do invest in a digital camera) everyone will see how hard you are working to change the climate of the library.

I will be happy to help you in the future with any of the topics we have discussed today. Come visit my library. Rachel Shankles, LMS LHS – Hot Spgs school home cell