Some Light Summer Reading

This is me. This is me with a box. This is me with the box filled with books to read over the summer.

This is me enjoying some light summer reading. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.


A successful librarian is one who can recommend books to patrons. The best way to do that is to know your collection well. I truly wish I had enough time to read every book in the Library Media Center, but the thirty-five I'm taking home with me over break will be a good start.

Our avid readers here at HHS are very much like me. They have favored genres and authors, but are always happy to try something new. Here are a few of the titles I'm looking forward to-

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber- When Perry gets stuck taking a geeky foreign exchange student to prom, her secret spy mission takes the night in a direction he never imagined.

The Smile by Donna Jo Napoli- The story of Elisabetta, the young woman who inspired the Mona Lisa.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer- Part Cinderella, Part Cyborg. What's not to love there?

The Sophomore Switch by Abby McDonald- Two college girls, one at Oxford and one at UC Santa Barbara, switch schools for a semester.

Hero by Perry Moore- When the family business is being a Super Hero, what choice do you have but to be one too?

How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain- I have no idea what this book is about, I just love the title.

I've also grabbed some Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessen books, a few Dystopian dramas and of course at least one Zombie Apocalypse tale (I can't resist those).

In a way I envy teens. The Young Adult book market  is vastly different than when I was in high school. The choices are amazing, the narratives are smart and sophisticated and the characters are ones kids relate to.  There's never been a better time to have your nose stuck in a book!

Happy Reading this summer!

Going Digital Without Getting Dizzy

I spent the weekend at the Missouri Writer's Guild Conference and had a wonderful time. As both Library Support Staff and an emerging writer, I've followed the rise of digital books with equal measures of interest and unease.

One session of the conference I enjoyed was Jane Friedman's on the impact of Google, FaceBook, Amazon and Apple on a writer's career. It's important to remember that whatever happens to writers will eventually affect a library. Digital lending (and its pricing) is a hot topic between libraries and publishers right now. The rise of e-readers (Kindle and Nook) and Tablets (iPad and Android offerings) is pushing demand for digital materials to own or rent.

Jane said one thing that surprised me. Apparently, pundits are divided on whether tablets are here to stay. Looking at tech use here on the HHS campus, tablets are the least owned personal devices our students have. The iPads are popular at lunch and get used everyday, but few kids own one. I see e-readers now and then, but the number one device students own is a smartphone, followed by a laptop. Reading on either of those devices, while possible, isn't always desirable. In my own life, I rarely use my iPad, I prefer a real book or my laptop for long projects.

What does this all have to do with us in the Media Center? Will the district ever go digital?

Public libraries will always adopt new technologies before school libraries, their infrastructure is better designed for change and so are their patrons. Patron demand weights heavily on planning and implementing new policies. At this point in time, we aren't seeing a heavy demand for digital books from students. Until tablets or e-readers are as commonly owned as a mobile phone or home computers I don't expect that to change. Our resources are best used acquiring new fiction and updating systems and software the kids use here in the Media Center.

It often feels like the digital revolution is moving so fast it's hard to keep up. Yes and no. It is here, it will stay, but the speed at which you adopt to it is yours to set. In many ways it's never been a better time to be a writer and a reader. Some things to keep in mind-

1- The more options authors have for releasing material, the more choices (often at lower price points) readers have.
2- Most platforms support digital lending or downloads to every device on the market, which also keeps choice and pricing options in the hands of consumers.
3- Device options keep getting better.
4- Support for your devices is strong. Most public libraries offer free classes on digital lending.
5- Pick your pace. I started with a Kindle app on my iPhone and have graduated to both Nook and Kindle apps on my iPad. You don't necessarily have purchase a new device to try e-books.
6- We're watching! Here in the LMC, we're following all the trends and information and deciding how best to keep up, run from or adopt the latest services or devices that help our students. Feel free to ask us questions.
7- Print books will be around for a long time. There will be fewer to buy, but the medium will not become extinct.

I'm curious to know what devices you use. Have you bought something new in the last six months? Thinking about a change? Let me know about it!

National Library Week

Believe it or not this week is National Library Week. Librarians across the country are being showered with praise, thanks and gifts (we are quite fond of chocolate here in the LMC). And while we had every opportunity to purchase posters advertising National Library Week, or promote it through web and daily announcements, Ms. Orest and I are just too darn busy to stop and celebrate. She's preparing for presentations next week, students had AIMS testing this week and of course it took me several days of deep concentration to come up with today's blog post topic.

See what I mean?

I have a strong suspicion that very few school libraries are celebrating.  Like us, they have too much going on. That isn't to say public libraries coast through the day, but in general adult patrons are more independent. The idea behind National Library Week isn't merely to show appreciation for  dedicated staff (though I can certainly get behind that!) but to also highlight all the services libraries provide to patrons.

In short, the public needs to know what we do all day.

Homework Help- Finding students research books or websites. Print and formatting assistance for English papers (those are very long days for us as everyone waits until the last minute to print their paper here at school). Technology and Library education presentations- how to use the library and our equipment.

Hostess with the Mostest!- Classes come into the LMC almost every day, some times multiple ones from different departments on the same day. Occasionally we double book due to high demand.  Classes will use laptops for a variety of tasks (the foreign language classes conjugate verbs on a special website). Sometimes the LMC is so popular we have to send people away.

Hand holding- Not literally, but everyday there is a crisis of some kind- document won't print, file won't open, BFF stopped speaking to someone. The LMC is an area of respite for many students. They study, they hang out with friends, they play on the Wii (not during class time) and they share their lives with us. We get updates on sports, college acceptance, prom status and much more.

Hand it over- Books that is. Finding books the kids need still, even in the digital age, occupies a nice chunk of time here in the LMC.

An official National Library Week celebration would have been nice, but we do get ample thanks and appreciation every day from students and staff.

But not much chocolate.

Spring Fever Hits HHS

There were a few times last week where I thought I was on the set on AMC's zombie drama Walking Dead. No one, it seemed, was quite ready to be back on campus after Spring Break. I don't recall feeling that way after Winter Break in January. Perhaps because leaving the busyness of the holiday season felt like such a relief!

This week has been better. Now that I work on a high school campus I've learned something I didn't know before- senioritis is contagious! The warm weather has all us distracted and daydreaming about our summer plans. Spring also brings college notification letters. It's been both exciting and difficult to see our HHS seniors get a yes or a no from the campus they've dreamed of attending.

Prom is on the horizon and the expectancy for it is building. We had one romantic prom proposal in the Media Center already. (She said yes.)

And while the school year is coming to an end, the seniors are on the edge of a new beginning and I find the energy swirling around so infectious! Life is a series of stops and starts, journeys and destinations, rewards and challenges. I don't think you can be around these kids and not reflect on new possibilities in your own life.

For me here in the Media Center, I've been thinking about how much Ms. Orest and I have accomplished this year, our first together, and what we hope to do more of in the next school year.  The perception of the library as a dead zone has changed and the kids are figuring out all the new things they can do here. We are busy as ever as we head toward the end of school and some days I'm exhausted.

So if I stop talking about books in favor of brains, proceed with caution.

Starving for THE HUNGER GAMES

Rabid. Famished. Feral.

Anticipation for the first film based on Suzanne Collins' incredible trilogy has reached critical mass. Libraries across the country are struggling to meet demand for the books (including the Horizon Library Media Center) while watercooler conversations are singularly focused on the series. No matter your age, chances are you've heard about the series and have considered reading it or lost a weekend while you did (that's what happened to me).

We haven't seen anything like this since the Harry Potter days.

What? What about the Twilight series? How could I skip mentioning it? Easy- for all its popularity (and controversy) Twilight never crossed gender lines. The frantic TwiHard fans often seen on the news consisted of teen/tween girls and their cougar moms. None of the rare Y chromosome folks ever wanted to be captured on film.

Like the Harry Potter books, the Hunger Games series grabbed the interest of kids, teens and adults of both sexes. How does an author mange that? Good writing helps of course, which J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins demonstrated, but it's more than that. In both series the kids (teens really) are the heroes but they are surrounded by adults who are presented as flawed, fabulous and occasionally fatal. The honest depiction of adults on each side of the good/evil axis draws readers of all ages and genders in. The adults don't sugar coat and patronize the kids, nor do they rescue  them. They aid, support or interfere depending on their desires, but the kids ultimately have to do the hard work to achieve their reward or survival.

Harry Potter and Katniss appeal equally to girls and boys which, in my opinion is the true feat the authors achieved. Readers want and need a character they can believe in and root for as a protagonist. As a writer myself, I've heard a lot about how I'm supposed to convey a universal truth about the human experience. What could be more universal than having a character who has less than those around him or her, who wants more than life has offered so far and is who is willing to risk anything for the greater good?

Our boy readers here at Horizon have loved The Hunger Games, perhaps a bit more than Harry Potter since hand-to-hand combat is generally more exciting to read than a wizards' duel. A few have expressed that it felt odd at first to be in a girls' head, but they got over it quickly.

The adult readers here on campus are all drawn to the fast pace of the books and the cruelty of the regime that runs the Hunger Games. For parents it's difficult to imagine a world where you're required to enter your children in a game til the death as tribute to the government.

What's most exciting to me about the success and excitement surrounding the books and upcoming film is that we're all talking- kids and adults. Kids to adults, adults to kids, everyone to anyone who will listen.

Communication is the key to sustaining relationships and succeeding in life. Great stories (even fictional ones) have the ability to connect us not only to our imagination, but to each other. If you haven't read  The Hunger Games yet, I encourage you to. For those of you who have, I'll see you in line at the midnight premiere!

Talking Shh.....

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week we had AIMS testing in the morning. The sophomores came in to test and the rest of the students came in later. For us in the LMC, that meant a quiet morning and I have to say, I liked it.

It used to be that silence was golden in a library. The enforcement of that rule created the stereotype for the librarian as a curmudgeon. When I worked for the Scottsdale Public Library in 2004, it was adjusting to the noise of the 21st. Century- cell phones. I saw staff struggling to accept the new octave level. Over time as cell phone use increased and expanded into smart phone use, noise seemed to be less of an issue because the new threat was Starbucks cups.

Here at HHS a similar transformation has occurred. Before school, during lunch and after school, the LMC is fairly noisy. When classes come in, we encourage them to talk and move around. Occasionally we have to ask a group to turn their volume down, but that's rare. Noise isn't too much of a problem, but pace is. When we get busy, Ms. Orest and I can barely keep up.

The LMC is open for forty hours a week- non-stop you see. We have no prep time, no down time, no days off where we're closed for inventory. It's a good thing to be such a vital part of day-to-day campus and we adore our students, but those two quiet mornings this week brought me back in time to my own childhood library memories. The library was always a calm, peaceful place for me.

I'm not sure anyone would call the LMC calm or peaceful but I wouldn't have a it any other way. I feel recharged from our quiet mornings this week, which is good since we are booked for classes almost every day leading up to Spring Break.

I don't get to Shh... students very often but that's not a bad thing. No curmudgeons here!

Let There Be Books!

Our first ever Horizon Scholastic Book Fair was held February 9-14 here in the Media Center. On Monday, February 13, we moved the fair down to the gym lobby for the shopping convenience of our parents who attended Parent/Teacher conferences that evening. I'm happy to report that the event was a great success for us.

Why a book fair? Why now?

The real real question is, why not? As I've reported, we have avid readers here at Horizon. Given the economic situation in the district and the country, funding for new materials is challenging. A book fair is a great way to provide a service to our school community and earn free books for the library. Scholastic makes it easy to participate as well. In fact, Scholastic went above and beyond to work with us. Not only did they support our mission, to offer great books to our students, with fundraising as a secondary goal, they customized the books in the cases for our community. Our Scholastic team- Paige, Kristy and Rhonda, answered my questions, offered tips and advice and encouraged our efforts from start to finish.

Here's a brief look at the impact of the Book Fair-

Big Smiles- The typical response of students when they saw the Book Fair was one of elation. I heard some squeals, a few "Oh Boys!" and more than a handful of kids jumped up and down. Both girls and boys responded that way. Almost everyone reminisced about the book fairs they attended in grade school. Everyone has asked if it will be back next year. (Yes!)

Lookie-Loos- Foot traffic in the Media Center increased because of the Book Fair. I saw many first timers in the LMC, both as students and staff. One of our goals is to increase awareness that we are here. The Book Fair provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase what the LMC has to offer. The perception today is that kids don't read and libraries are an antiquated institutions. While I don't agree with that at all, I do believe it's part of my job to change that perception. The visibility the Book Fair brought to the LMC was invaluable.

Let's Talk About- Books, favorite authors and series oh my! The students loved lingering through the book cases and discussing all the titles. They would talk to me, their friends and other shoppers with enthusiasm.  One of the main reasons I wanted the fair was for this kind of free exchange with my student patrons. There are dozens of sites I can go on to research what teenagers want to read, but those are a poor substitute for a live book experience. I witnessed first hand the choices the kids made, which authors they sought first and whom they didn't. I took notes on genre trends (realistic fiction is a welcome respite from the intensity of all the dsytopian fare). When it came time to pick titles for the LMC, I knew exactly which ones would be gobbled up by the students. Only through browsing with real books can this kind of interaction occur. 

Houston, We Have Readers!- Our Book Fair customers were evenly divided between boys and girls. This didn't surprise me since I check books out to our students all day, but I want to point this statistic out to those who insist that boys mainly play video games. In fact, the boy gaming crowd who uses the Wii before/after school and during lunch are all among my regular readers. Also split almost evenly, the purchases of realistic and genre fiction, with fantasy/dystopian slightly ahead of the realistic titles.

What Now?- In terms of sales by traditional Scholastic standards, our sales were meager. However, through Scholastic's generous reward and incentive program we earned about forty-five new books for the LMC. Ms. Orest and I consider the Book Fair a huge success and we're thrilled that Scholastic is willing to work with us again next year.

What I want everyone to take away from our Book Fair Experience is this- reading is alive and well here on the Horizon campus and if you host a Scholastic Book Fair, they will come!