The OLD Top Shelf

Last week, someone on TLC (the Texas librarians’ listserv) requested some ideas for book displays. Stella Gonzalez of San Antonio replied with a great and lengthy list of themes for book displays. Rita Wynn of Highland Park ISD posted some additional ideas geared specifically toward secondary libraries. I know that some of you have your student library workers create book displays each month. You might help them out and share these ideas with them. Do you have other displays that your readers enjoy? Post them in the comments!

Display Ideas:
Award winning books

Books build brains

Never judge a book by its movie — Books that have been made into movies

Bored? Read.

Caution: readers at work. – career books

Cookbooks with placemats, utensils, plates, pots, etc.

Craft & hobby books with items.

Don’t bug me, I’m reading — insects

Don’t drop the ball on books – sports books and balls

(also “A great book is always a slam dunk”)

Explore new frontiers—read! — explorers and explorations

Fee-fi-fo-fum – fairy tales

Get a clue – mystery books

Get wild and read – animal books

Get wrapped in reading – mummies

Go for the gold: Read! (during Olympics)

Joust read – medieval, Arthurian

Just read.

Library books and bytes – computer books & items

Libraries: linking tradition and technology

Read if you know what’s good for you – health books

Teacher’s photos of pets…pet books

Teacher’s photos of summer travel…country books & maps

Teacher silhouettes (use overhead)…holding favorite book

Teddy bears with books of bears (non-fiction and bear fiction)

“Transform yourselves” books & caterpillar/butterfly

Who’s Who – year beginning – pictures of admin & teachers.

Banned Books:

Books banned in Texas (from ACLU by year)

Books banned worldwide

Spring:

Books in Bloom: A Garden of Genres

Garden of reading, help your imagination grow

The Library: a garden for the mind

The Library: fertile ground for great ideas

Libraries grow good readers

Libraries: where ideas/readers bloom/blossom

He who has a garden and a library wants for nothing – Cicero

Spring into books

Summer:

Beat the heat—read!

Fall:

Fall into a good book

Fall under the spell of a good book

Good books are a harvest of good ideas

Welcome back (books plus school articles)

Give thanks for great books!

Winter:

Books are Cool – penguins, snowmen

Chill out and read

A reading wonderland

Christmas around the world

Halloween:

Treat yourself to a good book

Favorite literary characters made with pumpkins (real or paper)

Reading is a “monstrous” adventure

Scare up a good book

Valentine’s Day:

Books we love. Hearts with person’s pic and book title.

Love comes in many languages — hearts and language dictionaries

Patriotic:

Free to read

Biographies/Special Interest:

Make your mark in the world (varied bios)

Women’s History & Biographies of women

Native Americans

Hispanic Heritage Month

Black American Month

National Poetry Month (April)

Camouflaged non-fiction (Girl, Interrupted; Seabiscuit; Not Without my Daughter; In Cold Blood; James Herriott books, etc.)

Chick Lit

Adventure stories

Dragons

Oldies but Goodies

A school librarian is a manager; 60% of a manager’s job is resolving conflict. It is very important that school librarians are skilled at conflict resolution.

The same behavioral expectations apply to volunteers as to other staff members.

Retention and Recruitment of New Librarians
Julie suggests writing a paradigm shift from the classroom teacher to librarian (Three things that are different) to share with teachers.
Bring prospective librarians to TLA.

Julie Todaro, presenter
Dean, Library Services
Austin Community College

Julie shared many tips about staying legal while dealing with personnel. It was interesting to note that HIPAA regulations do not allow employers to create a file of emergency medical information for employees anymore. If an employee has a medical condition that an emergency worker would need to know about if the employee is incapacitated, the information should be kept in their wallets or a certain desk drawer that the employer knows about. Also, discussing an employee’s medical condition in his absence is illegal as well. Even telling other workers in the office the medical reasons that another worker is taking time off is illegal. If the information comes from the person, it is not a violation, but third-hand, it is.

Kristin Dawson, librarian at Motley Elementary, was recently honored by the Mesquite City Council. She was given a plaque commemorating her service to the Mesquite Municipal Library Advisory Board for the past six years.

Kristin recommends this volunteer opportunity and encourages librarians looking for a place to serve to consider it. If you have questions about what is involved, contact Kristin or other board members, Sandra Eckstein (PHS) and Karen Allen (HHS).

If you’re ready to volunteer, call John Williams, Director of the Mesquite Public Library, at 972-216-6220. There are several spots open. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month at the Main Library.

from TOURBUS Volume 12, Number 19 — 28 Nov 2006
Tourbus Home — http://www.InternetTourbus.com

Audience: All college admission test takers
——————————————-

With the college entrance exams just around the corner for millions of
students,… let me put in a plug for number2.com, a free, online test preparation site
that will help you prepare for the ACT, SAT, and, yes, even the GRE.
You can find number2.com at

http://number2.com

Number2.com offers an in-depth vocabulary builder that remembers the
words you missed, tutorials for each subject area covered on the test,
adaptive quizzes whose questions get more difficult the better you do,
and extensive tips and strategies that will help you perform [or
guess] better on the test. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen so
far, as was Consumer Reports who wrote in their September 2006 issue
that

Testers thought Number2.com, a free site with no time limit, was
as helpful as Kaplan and Princeton Review (not affiliated with
the university), which charge $399 for limited-time access.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/y7o62g

I’ve been playing around with blogs for a year or so without really knowing what I was doing. After attending Tammy Rushing’s blogging class today (offered through district staff development) I have a much better understanding of how a blog can be used to communicate and share information. I’m going to update it much more frequently and use it to share lots of stuff with you. Please try to check it often, so you’re not left out of the loop!