Adopt a Book 27-28 Nov 2008

Click on photo above for slideshow

To boost our book collection, we have started a book drive with the parents. Adopt A Book kicked off today with our first group of visiting parents. Parents select titles they want to pay for from a booklist prepared by our Curriculum Coordinator, Suzy. This order will be put into Follett, our book provider, before 15 December so that we are eligible for a special discount (barcoding and MARC records are free).

A big thanks to our generous parents for increasing our collection.

EBSCOhost at ASP!

It turns out the school has an existing subscription to EBSCOhost for each grade level as well separate access accounts for parents and teachers. The school is part of the EBSCOhost consortium because it is an ASOMEX school. Although the school has had the subscription for three years, it has not really been used or promoted. EBSCOhost has several advantage for the school:

• qualitative and comprehensive articles and information that are both current and historical
  
• it has boosted our periodical collection from nothing to over 2000 (not all are full-text, but many are)
• several age-appropriate encyclopedias and dictionary
• increases our collection with reports, books and other primary sources
• gives our library a virtual 24/7 presence
  
• provides an authoritative, comprehensive and accessible online alternative to the Internet

Besides students, teachers who are doing their Buffalo State masters degree by distance at our school will now have quick access to current research articles for their studies from the educational databases in EBSCOhost.

Visit to ASF Monterrey

Click on school logo for slide show

The Destiny session ended around lunch so I spent the rest of the day in Monterrey visiting the two campuses of the American School Foundation of Monterrey (ASFM). In addition to the usual great ideas for library design, Beau Cain, the Librarian from the Middle/High School, highlighted the advantages for collection analysis from Titlewise, a component of Titlewave from Follett that will give you collection analysis information. This will provide useful data as evidence and arguments for library budgets and for the SACS accreditation team.

Destiny Training at AIM in Monterrey, Mexico

Click on logo to for slideshow

The school sent me to Monterrey for a three-day training session for Destiny, our library software, at the American Institute of Monterrey (AIM). Besides learning about all the benefits of Destiny's Library Manager and Textbook Manager, I had the opportunity to visit another school library and get more ideas for my own. Click on the AIM school logo above to view some of the photos from this visit.

Primary Students in the Library - Our First Visitors!

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The primary and preschool students visited the new library for the first time. All classes have been timetabled on a bi-weekly basis. This first week all classes had a quick tour of the library, review of expected library behaviour, and how to care for books. Afterwards, students borrowed books. For future library visits, storytime has been scheduled for the younger students and curriculum-related books will be organised for most classes with information literacy lessons.

Visit to American School Foundation (ASF) in Mexico City

Click on the photo for a slideshow of our ASF and Westhill visit

On Oct 13, Debby, my director in charge of the library and I, visited ASF and their four, yes, four libraries. Matt Borsage, the librarian of the upper library, spent four hours showing us around. It was a great learning and sharing experience. Thank you Matt for your generous spirit.

We learned many practical tips and ideas from this trip, including the proper and affordable process for plastic covering books, as well many useful contacts for furniture, signage and books.

We also visited Westhill Institute and looked at their primary, secondary and medical library. From Westhill, we learned that you could have strong, proper, steel shelving but also enhance it aesthetically with wood panelling on the edge. Luckily, the distributor for this is in Polanco and I will visit their showroom this week before ordering.

Library Inauguration

Click on photo for a slideshow of our developments

Unbelievably, three weeks after my arrival at the school, the library is now moved upstairs and functional. Students will start using the library next week, but more likely the following week.

The directors, board members and heads of school arrived around 9:30am. When they last saw the library, it was an empty room. Now we are ready for business.

There is still lots of work to do - weeding, getting Destiny up and running, ordering of library furniture, and the whole collection has to be re-cataloged.

Still, it has been a rewarding experience to see it working so soon.

BTW for those of you in the know, this is my second library I've moved and opened in three months.

Library Evaluation for SACS

I've been at the school now for almost 3 weeks and I feel we are making good progress with several advantages: financial support for library furniture and collection development, a good existing collection and much support from directors. I've been weeding like crazy. It's the typical disease of a library and school - don't throw anything out. As any good librarian knows, this is detrimental to the development and maintenance of a good library.

I met early on Friday morning with the SACS - OSI (Overall School Improvement) team. I've been working on a list of recommendations for the library based on its existing status. This will be useful in two ways: for the SACS accreditation team to see that we are reflecting on how we can improve the library over the next few years and for budgetary strategies to see where the money will be best spent. For all my recommendations, I have stated which SACS standards it pertains to.

At this point, it is very much a draft - I have been here for less than a month. The SACS OSI Coordinator will be emailed a copy, my director in charge of the library, Deb as well as the librarian, Tina, who came in Aug (before I arrived) to the school and wrote up a report based on this two day visit. Tina is well-versed with SACS Standards, being a professional librarian, as well as being the wife to the current SACS president.

After everyone has given their feedback, we should have a finalised version by mid-Oct. Andrew Sherman, our SACS contact is visiting the school at the end of November, to ensure we are on the right track for the April 2009 visit. We are aiming to review this Library Evaluation with him then, and if needed, revised it according to his evaluation.

Moving up in the world!

About two thirds of the library collection has now been moved from the old library to its new location. We still do not have any furniture or shelving, but we are able to sort out books and place them roughly in the area they belong.

Sorting the books will be quite the task. The books have no labels, have never been cataloged and there is no catalog system. Basically we don't have a clue what is in the collection or a method of tracking their circulation.

For now we are separating and color-coding them into 5 categories: pre-school and kindergarten (red), primary grades 1-3 (green), primary grades 4-6 (blue) and middle school grades 7-9 (yellow). Suzy, the curriculum coordinator, showed us the best way to sort the books according to vocabulary, visual graphics and content and I came up with an Color Coding Guide to document her criteria. For Scholastic materials, there is the RL level which is the recommended reading level of the text. Points 4 to 7 here on the Scholastic website give a comprehensive explanation of the different reading levels used by this publisher.

After sorting all the books by grades, we can start organising each book itself. Essentially every book must be cataloged. This is quite a daunting task, but with Destiny we could not be a better position to do so. It has extensive database of MARC records for both English and Spanish titles and most of our English titles come from Scholastic and Follet, the provider for Destiny. Excellent!!!

Visit to the State Library of Hidalgo

Click on the photo above for slideshow of our visit.

On Tuesday we visited the State Library of Hidalgo in Pachuca to get some ideas. It's a new library and we managed to get another contact for library furniture from them, Krueger International.

We are on the way!!

Hurray

Turns out the school has had Destiny for three years already but has never been used! The subscription just ran out at the end of last month but we can easily renew it. We also have Ebsco, the online magazine database, which means that we access to a hundreds of periodical titles and their full-text articles.

Gradually, we are moving the books upstairs. SACS has recommended that the new library be functional by the end of this month.

Know your Destiny

As mentioned already, the library has no OPAC so kids are just signing out books, handwritten, in a notebook. The conspicuous absence of a online library catalog coupled with the pressure of the SACS accreditation visit is a good opportunity to implement Destiny at the school.

Destiny has the following advantages:
- manage student borrowing records
- send/print/email overdue notices to students
- reduce duplication in ordering or shortages of books to ensure more effective use of budget
- help teachers and students independently access materials with online searching
- provide internet/remote 24/7 access and searching of library collection
- do annual inventory of collection regarding condition, use and location
- has a bilingual access (in Spanish and English)
- produce reports for directors and admin
- minimize lost materials
- reduce time in searching for books (provided we also physically organise the books well)
- reduce staff time in cataloging and processing books

In the last year at my previous school, I evaluated several OPACs and this definitely came out on top, more so for EA as it is in Mexico. Because of the school's proximity to the US and the availability of a Spanish language interface, Destiny is a real possibility. We are contacting the Follett rep for Mexico to give us a cost estimate.

First Week at Work

Layout Plan for New Library at ASP

Meeting My New Colleagues and Directors

I arrived in Pachuca to my new home on the Mexican Independence Day, 16 September 2008 and started at ASP on the 17^th. I meet my staff, Edit, a former primary teacher from the Spanish section, and Elsie, who is from Belize. I like to think of ourselves as The Three E-Migos (Elsie, Edith, Elaine) of the Library. Edith has been with ASP for many years while Elsie has just joined in August with her husband, Andre, who is a primary teacher for the English section. My new boss is Debra and the Curriculum Coordinator is Suzy, both of whom I will be working closely with to get the library ready for the SACS Accreditation visit in April 2009.

New Library on second floor (NL)

Old Library on the ground floor (GL)

Current Status of the ASP Library

On my first day at work, I found the original library on the ground floor (GL) had shrunked to half its size since I visited in July. It had been split into two, with one section being used as a classroom. The new library (NL) still was as I had left in July, completely unfurnished. Luckily a professional librarian who visited ASP on 19-21 Aug and gave a detailed report with suggestions for design and collection development. The NL is expected to have a “soft inauguration” by October 1, meaning it should be functional.

The online public access catalog system (OPAC) is not networked or accessible via the Internet , and for some inexplicable reason, has been removed from the GL . Students are signing out books, handwritten. The books have no labels. There is no classification system currently in use.

Furnishing and Design of the NL

On my first day, I met a office furniture vendor and we reviewed possibilities how to best set up the library. Afterwards, I came up with the following layout design. We will most likely meet other vendors to compare prices and styles but this is the basic idea.

Organising the Multiple Copies/Class Sets

Although there is an overwhelming amount of work to be done for the accreditation visit, the most obvious task at hand was organizing and removing the multiple copies that teachers use. This is advantageous for several reasons:

• this should clear about 50% or more of the books,
• give staff more work space (recorded sets will be moved into NL),
• provide an inventory of a large portion of the current collection
• allow teachers to search for class sets online with the internet
• reduce duplication
• provide the finance dept a better idea for future budget allocation for books

I used Librarything.com to do this. Advantageously, it automatically adds the Dewey Decimal Classification Code (DDC) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These two pieces of information will help us to organize the books both physically on the shelves and electronically on the OPAC. Although I initiated it, after some fine-tuning, I delegated this project to Elsie. Both Suzy and Debra agreed it was a worthwhile and useful endeavor for teachers and administration

DDC in Spanish – VIVA DDC EN ESPANOL!!!

Great news! There are tons of internet resources for DDC in Spanish online (bookmarks, signs, etc.) – not surprisingly, much of it from the U.S. Furthermore, Edith is attending library technician courses in Pachuca at a local college. I have asked her to find out if they offer any courses for cataloging in DDC. Debra and I have also planned a visit to the State Library in Pachuca to see how they classify and organize materials next Tuesday. I will start to ponder and list down questions for this visit.

In the beginning.....

RETHINK! Inspiring School Library Spaces by Dr. Susan La Marca

Hi! I'm Elaine Fong, a teacher-librarian and I've been hired by the American School of Pachuca (ASP) in Hidalgo, Mexico to build and prepare their School Library for a SACS accreditation visit in April 2009. On 8 July I will visit ASP and view the Library (or what there is of it). All I know at this point is that is about 4000 sq ft. Watch this blog as I will post photos and a possible floor plan. I start at ASP on 15 September.

After reviewing the SACS website, I came across the document for Accreditation Standards for Quality School in Latin America and Other International Regions. Of specific relevance to the Library, are the following:

• Standard 3: Teaching and Learning - 3.10 stipulates that the school provides a comprehensive information and media to support instructional programs and and curriculum
• Standard 3: Teaching and Learning - 3.11 all staff and students must have access to a comprehensive materials collections that supports curricular and instructional program
  
• Standard 5: Resources and Support - B9 states that educational or chief administrators must be employed with at least 3 years of experience, including librarians or media specialists
  
• Standard 5: Resources and Support - B10 states that a school the size of ASP (approximately 900 students) requires at least one library or media specialist
• Standard 5: Resources and Support - B21 a comprehensive and current collection of research materials in both print and electronic format be maintained to support learning and curriculum
• Standard 5: Resources and Support: 5.5 Budget sufficient resources to support its educational programs and implement plans for improvement

Some resources that will help me at ASP will be:

• RETHINK! Inspiring School Library Spaces by Dr. Susan La Marca
• Katie Day's (PYP TL at UWCSEA in Singapore) Wiki on Library Design
• Beth Gourley's (Head of Library at International School of Tianjin) Wiki on Library Design
  
• Designing Libraries UK