Manga Day

I had booked a Manga artist, but they had to cancel on me. I booked another, but I had to cancel them due to a disagreement over terms. So I decided to go for it alone! We had some Japanese food (Miso soup, rice crackers and Japanese sweets) which the students enjoyed trying (as you can see by the empty plates!).

We had a quiz on Japan, a quiz about Naruto, access to internet, reading and drawing. It was a lovely session, and the students who took part all produced something, and it gave them a chance to meet other fans of manga.

I hope to have an actual artist in next year.

World Cup Library Display

A quick display we put up for the World Cup. It has a range of fiction and non-fiction as well as our library quiz.

Don't judge a book by its cover

This is new display on my desk. The books are wrapped up in neon paper, with their barcode typed on the front and a few key words to give a few clues about the book.

They have been very popular! The rule is if you take a book, you open it at home (although many can't wait that long!), give it a good go, and come back and tell me about it. Anyone who does that gets entered into a prize draw.

Read a Movie, Watch a Book

Again, a poor quality photo, apologies. Just a basic display about books becoming films. The writing at the bottom of the display says, 'People have spent millions of pounds turning these stories into films. They must be good books.'

Rainbow front facing books

Again, another photo showing how I try and use all the space I can to display front facing books. It also shows how much we love using colour coding in our displays. These books are in rainbow order going around our computer area.

Library Display in a Classroom

A teacher agreed to letting me put up a library display in her room. Apologies for the poor picture quality.
It is an EAL/SEN room and the teacher has a lot of bright displays that focus on vocabulary.

This display has the word 'Library' in 12 languages, as well as photos of multi-cultural readers. It has the library timetables and what you can borrow.

The teacher was very happy with it, and really felt it fitted with the rest of her displays.

Visit to Peckham Library

My line manager recommended that I visit Peckham library, as a new library in a deprived area, so that I could reflect upon how they reach their target market (which is similar to our target market).

I took this photo as I approached the building, which certainly stands out! I'm not sure how well this style of building will 'age', as I don't exactly feel it is beautiful, but time will tell!

They use a lot of front facing books, in the same way that I try to.

It felt a little like they had spent so much on the actual building, they didn't have much left for the interior. It felt very much like any other library I have visited in the last 20 years.

It was busy, so I tried to notice how people were using the space. Many of the tables had people working on their laptops, with some people reading.

The children's library was sectioned off in a glass-walled room, so the noise didn't infiltrate the rest of the library.

Authors/Writers Visiting The Library

I have recently had two visits (and I have three more to come before the end of the year). I have been motivated by other librarians talking about how great the visitors they have had. I wanted to help create a buzz about the library and literacy.

Visits aren't cheap - from about £300-£500 in my experiences so far, so I don't think its unreasonable to have high expectations of the day.

Our first visit was a Slam Poet, recommended to me by another school librarian. I had thought it would be just the thing to excite some of our non-library users. His performances were great but the workshop activity was too challenging (I would struggle to write a poem unaided on demand!). There was even a fight that broke out during this time, which is what can happen when students are no longer engaged and have time to get themselves into trouble. Overall I was disappointed.

The second visit was a storyteller. He worked harder at engaging them compared to the poet, but a lot of it went over the students heads. The older Gifted and Talented group seemed to really enjoy it, but the other groups didn't seem that impressed.

So far, I wouldn't re-book either, the first as the activity wasn't structured enough and the second because it just didn't suit the majority of my students.

I am hoping the next three will be more rewarding for the kids involved!

Small moments

I have had a week off from work, and we have had half term so it had been two weeks since I had seen the kids. I had a few lovely moments, that too often we let slip by without appreciating.

1) A 6th form asked where I had been, told me they had missed me (missed having someone to argue with - said with a grin!)

2) One of my student librarians who didn't use to ever read had a great discussion with me about a book series we have both been devouring. I remember the girl who said she didn't really read, and she seems so different to the girl recommending another book to me. As an aside, we have been loving The Hunger Games, and are struggling to find anything else that matches it.

3) I recommended a book to a student, and we had a great discussion about Islam and honour killings. Reminded me that books have the power to open our/their minds to things outside of their direct experience.

Holocaust Library Display

This was a request from a teacher, to go with a unit of work they were teaching, but it also coincided with Holocaust Day. This was made by my Library Assistant, and is just a spare book trolley we use for display.

Connect 4 Championship in the Library!

During the last week of term we hosted a Connect 4 Championship. We have puzzles and games available at lunchtimes, and I had noticed how popular our Connect 4 was. Students had to sign up in advance, and there were certificates for every contestant (getting bigger the further they got!).

It was the first competition we ran without an actual prize, and we were astounded with its success. We had many students wanting to sign up on the day, and they were all good sportman about it all.

I have since bought more Connect 4s for use at lunchtime. I think it is popular as it is quick, requires next to no skill to take part (although can use skill to win more!) and is quick to set up and clear away.

Baby steps to creating a reading community

Now that the library is more or less 'set-up' and stable, I am working on ideas to allow the bug of reading to spread (if only it spread as easily as a cold!).

To create a shared reading experience I wanted to try and get tutors reading aloud during form time. Ideally I would aim for them to be all reading the same book. The first stumbling block was to consider which text. We have vertical form groups, which means that each form has students from each year (from year 7 to 6th form). The book needs to use language that is easy enough to allow year 7s access, but a theme/plot that is interesting enough to grab the 6th formers.

I chose 'Once' by Morris Gleitzman, which is a book I read this year and adored. The language is accurately childlike, but follows the tragic story of a Jewish child during WWII.

I emailed staff, asking for volunteers who were feeling brave enough to trial reading aloud. I was surprised by the response. I had expected a couple, but actually got 11 at last count. I didn't have enough copies, I had about 6, so the other teachers have had other texts. I did use Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo for some, and other teachers had a request for a theme (one philosophy teacher wanted a philosophy text to read during class).

I hope that it is a success (we haven't really started yet due to the snow!), and can hopefully look to roll it out with other staff later.