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.