For over a year I posted at least weekly, usually twice a week on this blog. But now it has been a month! Unbelievable.

Every once in a while you get what I am going to call a “Job” year. Not job as in occupation. Job – long o sound – as in the biblical patriarch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(Bible)

 Actually, my life hasn’t been nearly as challenging as Job who lost his children, his servants, and his fortune within days.    But it has been one thing after another for a while on both a personal and professional level.

Hopefully by next week I can actually post a book review or two… but for now, let me use this forum to say how fortunate I am to work where I do.  My colleagues are the best, and during the tough times in life they are like family.  My biological family, my church family, and my work family… I am blessed… even in a Job Year.  Especially in a Job Year.

I supervise three library media centers in three elementary schools. All part of one district, the schools are 7-10 miles apart. I circulate between the three and am thankful for a full time aide at each building. The students deserve someone there full time. The faculty deserve someone there as a resource full time. And thankfully our district agrees.

In the 23 years I’ve been in the district two of my media centers have moved from minuscule spaces to areas designed just for them. I was able to collaborate on both spaces, especially on the one ten years ago where I was allowed to be involved in planning from the ground up.

So when there were rumors that there might be new construction at my third school I immediately began expressing my interest in collaborating early. I was working on my Master’s Degree at GSLIS at the time, so I made designing new space one of my projects in preparation: http://courseweb.lis.illinois.edu/~mbrandt3/LibraryDesign.1/indexhome.html

Unfortunately, with this new building there was no input from anyone who uses it. So we are left to make our beautiful new spaces as functional as possible. This is quite frustrating when you know that if ANYONE had asked “what do you need in the space?”, you could have made a huge difference. But as one of my colleagues said, “Suck it up, let it go, and make it work.” Good advice.

Bottom line – we went from almost 7,000 books and 20 computers shoved into one classroom sized space to a facilty the size of three classrooms. Here is what improved:
Student spaces were improved by 150%!

New tables

We can now seat 32 – a full class with a few seats left over!
The computer lab is separate from the “library” space.

Windows for leisure reading space

There are gorgeous windows which will be used as casual reading areas (as soon as we can order comfy chairs and rugs).

What didn’t improve:

We barely fit our collection on the shelving.  New media space should always allow room for growth.  We made a lateral move.

"circulation" desk

The architect designed the circulation desk and built it like a reception desk.  It is so high that we can’t supervise the room when we are seated behind it.  Worse, our fourth and fifth graders cannot see over.  There is one low area for circulating books.

The desk has a book return hole in it, but no depressable book truck to catch the books.  And the space is not standard so I can’t order one.

They provided zero space for storing equipment. 

The beautiful 24 feet of shelving behind our circulation desk has limited use because it is only 11 inches deep and open.

Bottom line…..

Do everything possible to collaborate on library renovations or building projects.  I did; but along with everyone else who should have been involved, for whatever reasons, there was no collaboration on this project.

So when all else fails….suck it up, let it go, make it work.  That’s what librarians do best, anyway, isn’t it?  We make it work!

And it is beautiful, isn’t it?  But libraries must be designed for function.

Deep cleansing breaths … I’m letting it go, I’m letting it go, I’m letting it go….

We are often so busy in library with the everyday business that we don’t make time to promote the wonderful resources we offer… and then we wonder why no one uses them.

Last year our district finally was able to purchase a subscription for K-12 to use the EBSCOhost online databases. Technical difficulties (ours, not EBSCO’s) kept us from making good use of it last year. So to promote the resource THIS year, our district’s professional librarians met in early August to write an “infomercial” to present to the faculty of the district. We spent a day writing and about half a day filming. To put the movie together we used Windows Movie Maker.  It comes with Windows and while the program has limitations, it is free and can get the message out.

Judge for yourselves…

EBSCOhost “infomercial”

We intend to present this at faculty meetings around the district!  The few teachers who have previewed it have totally enjoyed it so there is a good buzz going.

Of course, we will need to offer further training on using this product, but the purpose of our video was to inform, entertain, and entice them to use the subscription service.  We also plan to offer prizes this year, with teacher’s names being entered into a drawing each time they use this resource with their students. 

Now that’s the power of not one, not two, but three creative librarians!