KAYLEEN REUSSER ROARS FOR LIBRARIES

Welcome to Library Lions interviews. Author and Librarian Kayleen Reusser  has stopped by this month to share her children’s books and her Library Love with us. Take it away Kayleen!

I’ve written 11 non-fiction children’s books with traditional publishers (Mitchell Lane and Purple Toad Publishing).

 

 

I also work as a school librarian. I’ll be visiting Library Lions again in the future to share about my work at the Bluffton Middle School library. I love to help students find books to love!

A Lion’s Pride of Programs
In an effort to encourage students to get excited about reading I’ve put snakes on my head to the mortification of my 3 adult children!

 

 

 

Many students like Greek mythology because of Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief. I capitalized on that concept and sewed rubber snakes to a ball cap, donned a long, flowing gown and presented myself as Medusa! I didn't write about her, but she was the only one – and the weirdest one!) – I could think of to capture their attention! This type of program works especially well with Grades 1-3. Grade 4 students seem to think it’s hokey but they listened well as I spoke. I’ve presented it to nearly a dozen schools, hoping students will realize how fun reading can be!

 

 

 

Check here for more about school visits and speaking appearances 

Library Love When You Were a Cub
Growing up, I went to the library every week and checked out 3-5 books which I couldn't wait to read. My mother was a teacher and she taught us to appreciate books. I read every chance I got even upside down in a chair! (Don't ask me why—I don't know!) That habit of visiting libraries and valuing their content is still with me today!

More Library Love (An Author’s View)
Even though much research material is available online, I still use library materials when writing a book. This was especially true when I was researching my 3 Greek gods books – Hades, Hephaestus, Hermes—I had to use original sources—Iliad, etc. They were available as classic sources from Google Books, but I checked out all of these from the library and had to cite them. Heavy books!

 

Author’s Roar
Funding for libraries, especially school libraries, is currently under threat. As an author, what are your thoughts about that? 

When book funds are decreased, it’s easy to complain. It happened to me so I know. I tried to re-arrange books differently so it might look to students like we had ‘new books’. This worked out well as I created new collections of mysteries, biographies, etc. Creativity is our best weapon!

Kayleen trying two tasty recipes (papaya mango smoothie, and Cuban sandwich) from her book Now You're Cooking: Cuban Cookbook 

 

A Roar For Fellow Librarians  
Melissa Thompson is the elementary school librarian at Bluffton Elementary School, the one elementary school in my corporation (we have one elementary, middle, high school). I was surprised when she showed me the display she had made of my books at her school! After I spoke to that school’s students, so many asked her for my books that she decided to put them together on a book shelf. Today, BES students recognize me in the community and ask me about my books. I appreciate Melissa’s support!

 

Library Lion’s Roar: ONE LAST BIG ROAR
It is fun to mesh my talents as an author with my job as a school librarian. It seems like a losing battle competing against technology. My biggest challenge is convincing students video games will never help them achieve goals in life. They need to READ to SUCCEED! (Medusa’s tag line)

Let’s Link Up

Blog: http://www.KayleenR.com 

Website: http://www.KayleenR.com 

Facebook: Kayleen Reusser

Twitter: @kjreusser

Pinterest: Kayleen Reusser


Thank you, Kayleen for your terrific interview!

Love Libraries? Give a Roar in “Comments” below.

Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot. The calendar for 2015 is currently wide open J

Note to Authors: If you’re interested in Roaring for Libraries on this blog, contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot. 

 

 

 

AUTHOR, GINGER WADSWORTH ROARS FOR LIBRARIES

Happy July! Author Ginger Wadsworth has agreed to swing by to share her books and her Library Love with us here on Library Lions. Take it away Ginger.

 

Ginger at Yosemite National Park. Half Dome in the background.

Hello! My name is Ginger Wadsworth, and my newest book is Yosemite’s Songster: One Coyote’s Story, illustrated by Dan San Souci and published by the Yosemite Conservancy. 

Yosemite’s Songster just won the Spur Award in Storytelling from the Western Writers of America. Dan and I are teaming up for the second title in the series! 

Besides being a nonfiction author, I am a sister, wife, mother, grandmother, cousin, aunt, and a friend.  My favorite things to do: read, walk, body surf, enjoy nature, garden with California native plants, bird watch, go to the library, travel, hang out with family and friends, collect information, cook, and did I mention I like to read?  I live in Northern California with my husband, Bill, our three dogs (Oreo, Scout and Willa), our chickens (Egg-O-Land Farm), and rooms full of books . . . too many to count!

 

Library Love When You Were a Cub

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need," Cicero

 

Ginger getting ready for Brownie Camp, 2^nd grade

Going to our local library was a regular family activity. I remember walking along the low brick wall edging the building, up the steps, and inside to the children’s room on the left.  Tall stacks invited me to search for the perfect titles, usually about horses or dogs. We always lugged home armfuls of books. Every night, my father read library books to my two brothers and me before we headed off to bed.

 

After my parents said goodnight and closed my bedroom door, I scurried beneath my 4-poster bed with my flashlight, pillow, and a book to read. And I wonder why I’ve been wearing glasses since the fourth grade. J

“Libraries raised me.” ― Ray Bradbury

More Library Love
I write nonfiction for young readers, so I always begin my research at my local library.

Ginger at her local public library, Orinda, CA

Google is great, but there is nothing better than perusing a real book. I usually start by reading the back matter, where a treasure trove of information waits . . . where/how the author did research, the individuals that he/she contacted, and a bibliography of titles for further reading. I’ve traveled around the United States to do research in libraries in Yosemite National Park, the Beinecke Library at Yale University, the Bancroft Library at the University of California/Berkeley, Herbert Hoover’s Presidential Library, and many more. Each spot is different, and I feel so lucky to “work” in one of these amazing edifices.

 

 

Author’s Roar
Funding for libraries, especially school libraries, is currently under threat. As an author, what are your thoughts about that?

“When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that the door is closing and that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.” ― Isaac Asimov

This quote pretty sums up my feelings!  The only way I know how to help is to suggest that you join your local Friends of the Library group. I did, and now I’m actually a board member. There is a smorgasbord of ways to volunteer from sorting donating books to working at a monthly Friends book sale. I’ve written the Friend’s newsletter and found speakers for various programs. For the past twenty years, I’ve also run and helped judge our Friend’s creative writing contest for local high school students. I currently participate in the Paws toRead program. Along the way I’ve met some totally dedicated library folks and our universal goal is to serve our library, i.e. our readers and our community, and to make sure the building is open, staff is in place, and a plethora of books, etc. is ready!

 

At a library with my golden retriever, Willa. Children learning about the summer reading program.

 

A Lion’s Pride of Programs
With Lin Look from the Orinda (California) Library, I helped start the first Paws to Read in our county. Now there are programs in many other local libraries. Elementary schools are also initiating similar afterschool reading sessions. Children in grades K-5 sign up to read out loud to a trained therapy dog.

Nicholas reading to Willa in Orinda Public Library, taken by Michelle Bea (his mother) and used with permission.

Children get to practice their reading and hang out with a dog. It’s a win-win situation for everyone, and it’s actually part of a national program called R.E.A.D.  With my golden retriever, Willa, I have been doing this for eight years. We visit three public libraries and two afterschool programs. Willa can’t wait to prance into the library in her yellow vest that denotes that she is working.

We’re affiliated with arfnet, a local animal rescue foundation. I hand out Willa’s business card to each reader. Many children have read to her; she even has her own little fan club!  My goal as a writer is to put books—any good books—in the hands of children. And to have them be able to read!! What could be more perfect than at the library with a trained, gentle therapy dog lounging beside a young reader! 

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”  ― Maya Angelou

Roar For Librarians
I’m going to ROAR for Lin Look, Youth Services at Orinda Library, part of the Contra Costa County, California library system. 

 

Willa with Youth Services Librarian, Lin Look, from the Orinda, CA public library.

I just spent several days with her at our local elementary schools, helping her introduce the countywide, summer reading program and prizes our many libraries are offering young readers.  I won’t go into all the details of what she does, but as you can probably imagine, she wears multiple hats as she works with toddlers on up! 

"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better." Barack Obama (Keynote Address, ALA Conference, 2005).

ONE LAST ROAR
"A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them." - Lemony Snicket

I love this quote in so many ways because this describes how I feel about my community library AND about my library in my home.  Or should I say my home, which is actually a library.  You get the picture . . . books everywhere!!

Let’s Link Up
http://www.gingerwadsworth.com

http://www.facebook.com/ginger.wadsworth

Thanks for the interview, Ginger!

Love Libraries? Give a Roar in “Comments” below.

Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot. The calendar for 2015 is currently wide open J

Note to Authors: If you’re interested in Roaring for Libraries on this blog, contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot. 

 

 

 

AUTHOR AIMEE REID SHARES LIBRARY LOVE

Welcome to Library Lions interviews. Author Aimee Reid is stopping by LL this month to share her  books and her Library Love.  

Aimee is a mom, children's author, former teacher, avid reader, and library lover. Her book, Mama's Day with Little Gray is published by Random House Children's Books. Aimee's next book, Welcome to the World, will release from the Nancy Paulsen imprint of Penguin Random House.

 

School Visit

Library Love When I was a Cub
Thanks to the wonderful Beginners Books series from Random House and regular storytimes at home, I was reading when I entered Kindergarten. My teacher discovered this about me when she noticed me squatting by the classroom shelves, turning pages and moving my lips. She asked me to read the books to her, which I did. At first, she thought I had memorized them. Gradually, she realized that I had read all of the books in our classroom library.

[Beginners Books from Random House]

My teacher called home and arranged to take me to the bigger school library so that I could pick out more books to read. Wow! I clearly remember looking up, up, up at the tall shelves filled with books of every size and description. "How many books can I take out?" I shyly asked. "As many as you like, dear," was the answer. I'll always be grateful to that teacher for noticing my appetite for books and feeding it.

 

More Library Love
From the moment my first book sold, I knew that I wanted to have my book launch in a library. I wanted to throw a party to which everyone was welcome. I wanted to celebrate all that is good about connecting children with books. And my wonderful local library system said yes!  

We had a wonderful time! Friends new and old enjoyed music from a local children's musician. We read and made crafts and sang and rejoiced. So many people came to enjoy the fun that we couldn't all fit in the room at once! No matter— we ran two programs so everyone could be included. This spirit of offering welcome to all is a key reason why I love libraries. 

 

Author's Roar
Libraries are equalizers. As a former teacher, I have at times been keenly aware of the disparity between the high level of resources--computers, books, and enrichment opportunities--available to some students from their homes versus the restricted supports available to others. I was proud to be a part of a public education system that offered learning for all regardless of socio-economic status. I can tell you this: books and access to knowledge are essential. We need to make certain that all students can readily find the resources they need to thrive. What better way to do this than to keep school libraries healthy and pay librarians to be the expert guides our children need? I am proud to roar out my support for libraries.

 

A Lion's Pride of Programs

  NYPL Lion

Libraries are places of discovery and opportunity. I enjoyed taking my children to story times when they were younger. Now that I am a children's author, I love visiting libraries. My visits are highly interactive. After all, I learned from those wonderful librarians who entertained my children!

At a recent library visit, the children and I moved like elephants and chanted elephant poems. We got creative with elephant crafts and tried on elephant tattoos. The children (and the adults) loved meeting Mama Gray and Little Gray in the form of my wonderful Folkmanis puppets. Finally, we read my story together. What a rich time of connecting to story and to one another.   

 

Let's Link Up

Aimee's blog, Good Books to Share, celebrates the good that sharing children's books brings to the world. Follow along to gain inside information from children's authors and illustrators and hear about how sharing children's books has changed people's lives for good.

Website: http://www.aimeereidbooks.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aimeereidauthor

Twitter: @AimeeEReid

Thank you, Aimee for sharing your books and your library love with us.

Love Libraries? Give a Roar in “Comments” below.

Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot. The calendar for 2015 is currently wide open J

Note to Authors: If you’re interested in Roaring for Libraries on this blog, contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot. 

 

MAUREEN MCQUERRY LIBRARY LOVE

Welcome to Library Lions interviews. Author Maureen McQuerry has stopped by to share her newest book and her Library Love. Take it away Maureen!
 

I write YA and MG novels that have a mythical bent. If someone were to ask me what my books have in common, I might say this: they end up wandering into the mythic woods. Even though the times and settings and premises are very different, there’s always a touch of magical realism For many years I taught high and middle school and worked closely with librarians who spend their days championing reading. And I’ve discovered that there’s a library in each of my books! I didn’t plan that out and it took a reader to point it out to me!

The Peculiars features Mr. Beasley’s amazing library in Zephyr house based on the real library of J.S. Walker

In Beyond the Door, one of the main characters Julian, is a mild mannered librarian by day but something quite different in another guise (no spoilers here!) My current WIP progress features the awesome Seattle library as the future headquarters for the Intelligence community. Libraries must run very deep in my subconscious.

Book Launch Event for Beyond the Door with Morris Dancers


Library Love When You Were a Cub
Libraries were places of refuge for me. I loved the smell when I walked in the door. I loved the quiet. I loved the fact that I could leave with an armload of books and live in different places through different characters until my books were overdue. And they always were. But there was one special librarian who always greeted me with a smile and waived the fee. He loved to talk to me about what I was reading.

More Library Love
The librarians I know and visit with today work hard to spread the love of reading to all students. One of my favorite author events is Cavalcade of Authors. Librarian Michelle Lane organizes an event that allows 1,000 students to spend the day with 16 authors and attend outstanding workshops.

Signing books at Cavalcade of Authors

A Lion’s Pride of Programs
I visit schools where libraries are the heart of the school, place students go to connect with books and with each other, to talk about ideas, and explore subjects that interest them. Reduced funding for libraries means limiting students’ chances to imagine, explore, learn and connect.

Recently I asked several groups of middle school students how they choose the next book they want to read. The most common answer? My librarian.

School librarians know the latest titles but more importantly, they know their students and can make recommendations on based on a student’s interest. Often school librarians are the ones who alert teachers about my books and invite me to come and share.

Students are my favorite audience. They ask the best questions. One of my favorite activities with students is taking an idea and then extending it by asking what if just like authors do. I offer workshops on creating conflict and tension, and story structure and character arcs.

Hooray for ALA!
ALA 2013 in Anaheim was a chance to meet hundreds of librarians face to face, sign books and thanks them for what they do for authors, teachers and students.

Let’s Link

Website: www.maureenmcquerry.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maureen.mcquerry   Twitter:@maureenmcquerry

Thank you, Maureen, for your terrific interview!

Love Libraries? Give a Roar in “Comments” below.

Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot.

 

SCHOOL LIBRARIANS SHINE!

Welcome to Library Lions interviews Raising a Roar for libraries and the outstanding librarians serving youth in schools and public libraries across the U.S. Please Roar today’s guest, Librarian Rebecca Moore.

 

Photo of Rebecca taken by house where LM Montgomery lived

I am one of three librarians at The Overlake School in Redmond, Washington. We are a 5th-12^th grade coed independent school and all 520 students share the library, which has 20,000 print volumes, 1,300 eBooks, 40 databases, 17 camcorders and still cameras, 75 print magazines, and 56 computers.

 We use LibGuides software to organize the Library website. The library is heavily used all day long; we average 472 student visits a day, and frequently we have upwards of 100 students using our space at one time!

 

Battle of the Books photo

I focus mainly on the middle school and have a 6^th grade homeroom. Except for an eight-session orientation class for the 5^th grade, academic classes are flexibly scheduled. We work closely with teachers and students on research assignments, putting together collections of print and electronic resources for projects and teaching research skills. We are also particularly proud of introducing NoodleTools citation software across all grades. In addition, we run a vibrant extracurricular middle school program, with a large fiction section, booktalks, contests, clubs, and a literary magazine.

 

6th Graders after booktalk

The Skinny
I love working with the students, whether it be helping them find resources for a project, helping them choose a great book to read, or laughing at their entry in the annual Bad Writing Contest. I love surrounding them with an atmosphere of learning and literature, where it’s not only okay to enjoy research, reading, and writing, but it’s also fun! And of course, I get to read the books as well.

 

Photos of 7^th grade Fantasy Book Dioramas

I also enjoy going to conferences with other school librarians and learning what they do in their libraries, and talking about all the new developments, technologies, programs, books, issues, etc. that affect all our libraries. The community of independent school librarians is an energetic and collaborative one; you can always find someone to help you with any issue, whether it’s figuring out what book a student is looking for (“It was blue, and had a girl in Paris with a magic elevator or something…”), or getting opinions on the latest method for delivering eBooks to students and faculty. We call our AISL (Association of Independent School Librarians) and ISS (Independent Schools Section of the American Library Association) listservs our “collective brain,” and often consult them.

Being part of the Overlake School community is also a huge benefit of my job. I am so fortunate to work in a beautiful, tree-filled setting, with intelligent and thoughtful students and faculty. I love walking around campus and recognizing everyone I meet, attending school concerts and plays, and participating in programs like field trips, grade-level retreats, and Project Week.

In my project, which I co-teach with the 8^th grade English teacher, students write and illustrate a picture book in a week.

 

I love the opportunities to get to know students and staff outside the library, and to feel fully integrated into the community.

A Mighty Roar!
School libraries are a vital and underappreciated link in a student’s education. As the universe of information continues to grow exponentially, the need for the ability to find, comprehend, and credit high-quality, relevant information will also grow. Librarians and library programs exist to help students and teachers master these skills, and learn how to adapt and apply them even when schooldays lie far behind them. School libraries also strive to imbue students with a love of books and reading, which studies have shown not only aid in academic achievement, but offer lifelong benefits as well. Libraries celebrate information and stories in whatever form they occur, and offer the navigation tools necessary to take full advantage of them.

A Lion’s Pride of Programs 

We have so many middle school contests and activities it’s hard to choose! We do a Bad Writing contest, a literary character smackdown,

 

MS boys' Smackdown poster

Six-Word Memoirs, Book Title Hangman, Battle of the Books, The Hoot literary magazine,

 

The Photo Finish contest

The Bookfair with books supplied by the University Bookstore, the Book Stacking contest,

 

 

Story in a Tweet, Food Haiku, Book Spine Poetry, the Green/Gold Readathon, Author Visits and more. Something special for 2012-14 is my chairing the Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School committee for VOYA library magazine, with which Overlake students help out by reading and commenting on books nominated for the list. Several of their comments will make the final list published in the magazine.

One thing of which we are particularly proud is that we use the credit we earn from books sold at the Bookfair to purchase books for our sister schools in Cambodia and Uruguay.

Student groups from Overlake travel to these schools every year, alternating between the countries, and take the books to build libraries in the schools. It’s a real point of pride for the Library that we can do something to support the school’s efforts to make the world a better place for the students in Cambodia and Uruguay.

Readers Roar

“The Overlake library Is a great place to read or do homework and if you don't have any homework it provides a fun place to hang out with friends.” –Michael, 6^th grade

“The library in my opinion is the best place at Overlake. I mean, it’s got hundreds of books in all subjects, from fantasy to science-fiction, and its store of non-fiction books is amazing. Besides that, it has tons of computers that you can play games on and do homework, and is home to the school counselors who are probably the nicest people on campus, and the learning recourses office, home to Fernando the guinea pig, who is quite sweet. Altogether, the library is a great place for homework and relaxing.” –Anna, 6^th grade

“Reading is like blending into another world, breathing in adventure, danger, romance galore!! It's an amazing expedition across the universe, sitting in your own hands.” –Elizabeth, 6^th grade

“In the library you can get homework help, socialize with friends, read from an grandiose selection of books, and play computer games. The library is filled with amazing books, but what makes the library great is the three magnificent librarians that can help you find anything from Ancient Egypt to modern day mathematics.” –Alan, 5^th grade

“I thought there was no escape from reality—books proved me wrong.” –Nina, 8^th

Library Laughs

So many funny things happen here it’s hard to choose! There was the time we looked up at our clerestory windows (at least 15 feet up), and saw a ninja stealing along the roofline—we later learned that students were making a video. Then there was the time I heard guitar playing outside and went out to find a student playing the guitar—also on the roof! Another student smuggled an amp into a study room under the mistaken impression that the room was soundproof. It wasn’t. Then there was the girl who had come up with an elaborate scheme to invite a boy to Tolo, which involved the librarians playing along.

One of the most entertaining events occurs on the Roman holiday of Lupercalia, when Latin students wrap themselves in (sometimes flowered) sheet togas, and run through the buildings whacking people with leather belts to encourage fertility. Nothing brings a middle schooler out of his shell like free license to whap (lightly) an upper schooler with a belt while shouting at the top of his lungs in the library!

However, I have to say that the funniest occurrence was the time the seniors decided to create the world’s tiniest flash dance club in our 10’ x 12’ group study room. The strobe light, music, blacked-out windows, packed bodies gyrating . . .  librarians arrived on the run just as the smoke machine activated the fire alarms, sending the whole school scrambling into an emergency fire drill in the pouring rain.

Book Brag: What three books are hot this year? Why?

House of Hades by Rick Riordan. Riordan is, hands down, the most popular writer for middle schoolers these days. His books have an irresistible combination of action, adventure, fantasy, humor, suspense, mystery, and a large cast of characters who each have their own unique personality and issues, so that readers really care about what happens to them. The books also have roots in worlds already familiar to students—the modern world, and classic mythology—which also helps readers connect with the books. Few authors have Riordan’s ability to combine humor and seriousness with the right balance: J.K. Rowling, Jonathan Stroud, Brandon Mull, Angie Sage, and John Stephens are some others who get it right. As to why this particular book is popular, it’s the most recent entry in Riordan’s series about Percy Jackson and his friends, and the most recent book is always in demand!

Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Our bookfair took place on the same day that Allegiant was released, and I had girls panting at the door before school started, waiting to get their hands on the third volume of this astronomically popular YA-level dystopia. The series started with Divergent, about to be released as a movie, and continued with Insurgent. Dystopias, while having peaked last year, are still immensely popular with teens. The Divergent series combines sympathetic characters with action, adventure, danger, and of course, teens having to survive their world.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio. This award-winning story of Auggie, born with severe facial deformities and attending school for the first time in fifth grade, has been gaining popularity year by year as it strikes a chord with students, parents, and teachers alike. While few students have Auggie’s particular difficulties, almost all have experienced the unkindness of others at school, the betrayal of friends, and the need for family support. Parents and faculty love the book for how it illustrates the need to look beyond the visual and the need for kindness, and Auggie’s story often finds a place in classroom curricula and bedtime reading. From the number of students who have let me know how much they loved the book and how much they learned from it, I know it’s been a great addition to middle school fiction.

Author! Author!  Describe the perfect author visit from a librarian’s point of view.

This year we invited Janet Lee Carey and Kenneth Oppel to our school. We will have Neal Shusterman visit next spring.

I think the key to a great author visit is choosing the right author for the visit. You need someone who is both a great writer for middle schoolers—humor, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and action adventure are the most popular genres—and a great presenter both in small classes and large auditoriums.

Good communication, attention to detail, and punctuality is also key on both ends. We want to make sure we know beforehand what technology the author needs, to have the schedule set, and to have the myriad other details well in hand to avoid that last minute panic!

Our greatest success has been with authors who can hold students’ attention, particularly when speaking to the whole middle school. It takes lots of energy and humor, and a polished presentation that also feels natural. Students love to be included in the presentation in some way, whether as volunteers for something or just having their questions answered. Most of our successful presentations have also included the author telling about themselves as middle schoolers (with embarrassing photos), and how that younger self connects to their current self as a writer. It’s also important to talk about the books, to get students excited about them, particularly as we always have books available for purchase and signing.

Overall, it’s important to have an author who enjoys presenting to and interacting with students, respects them as readers and people, and answers their questions seriously. We have been extremely lucky to have had wonderful author visits, and anticipate many more in the future!

ONE LAST ROAR

One aspect of the Library program that particularly excites us is how teachers and students currently utilize our databases and eBooks.  Some teachers, especially in the history and science departments, are moving away from traditional text books and now use the databases and eBooks to fill in.  Our roar is that the Library had those resources in place so that when the teachers and students needed them, we had the sources readily available. As an example, our ABC-Clio Ancient World History database racked up 19,850 searches this fall; an increase from 7,717 last fall.  It thrills us to see teachers and students adopting and utilizing our resources. 

An anticipatory roar is that the Library is moving closer to becoming a true Learning Commons, with more flexible spaces for students and teachers to spread out and work on projects, and an ever-increasing collection of resources. As the school moves towards BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), we hope that losing our banks of student computers will add to our flexible space.

Let’s Link

Overlake Library Blog   

Overlake Library Website

 

Thank you, Rebecca for your terrific interview!

Love Libraries? Give a Roar in “Comments” below.

Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Contact Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an interview slot.