And we’re off!

Another year starts, and I'm not at all prepared. Because we're a multi-division department, scheduling pre-class department meetings is impossible, and there are a few other things preventing us from actually moving forward. I hope to get there soon. Still, it hasn't been all bad. For example, we were able to process all our new…

All the things

I was just in a conversation with the number of other librarians, two of whom are brand-new to their schools. Both talked about “doing all the things” in their new space and I worry about that -- you can’t do all the things in every place, you’ll burn out. It also ignores the reality on…

Roadblocks

There was a great comment on my post If I were in charge, in which the question "what roadblocks prevent you from trying this out?" How long do you have? Seriously, this is one of the realities of independent school librarianship (and probably public school librarians will also agree): faculty do not always feel the…

Kindness

Don't you love it when there's something you've been mulling over and the universe responds without being prompted? What I've been thinking about is "kindness" and lo and behold, Sunday was Mr. Rodger's Birthday. His vibe must have been influencing things. Sunday was also the night my book club met, and last month's book was…

If I were in charge

Over the years that I've worked with students on research, I've had the opportunity to think about how to do it right. Now, these aren't unique observations or things we wish students could do/teachers wouldn't do, they're just 30+ years of thoughts that if I were in charge would be put in place. Example? The…

Change my mind

Here we are, starting 2022 in much the same way as we started 2021. And in another month it'll have been two years since we started to worry about COVID and thinking about how it would affect our students and program. Then came "crisis teaching"... and endless Zoom meetings planning for the upcoming year. Now…

Past their best by dates

As we've been doing a (I hope) final pass on the collection, we're noticing a lot of books that are just past their "best by" dates and having to determine if they should stay on the shelf until something new comes along, keep them anyway, or remove them and try to replace. This isn't the…

Making progress

We've had a successful first week, and to be honest I'm surprised and pleased. When we walked out on the 10th I didn't think we'd get here but, well... whew! Every year we try to do something for the faculty as a welcome back to the school year thing. This year, we decided just to…

The students are here! The students are here!

Of course we're excited to see the new students (and by "new" I mean anyone in the Class of 2023, Class of 2024 and Class of 2025, since we've barely got to know 2023 and have never met the other two classes). The same applies to all the new faculty. But... Over the summer, the…

Tracking the year

Tuesday, Karen left a comment on my post about the Big Picture: Hi Laura, I have been exploring different TL blogs as I start on this journey in my career. I have taught in many guises and never really needed to explain what I need to exist in a school, and am now beginning to…