Saturday 26 January 2013

Wow, what a day! If you think Librarians stamp books out all day, think again and read this.

It makes me laugh when people assume that as a librarian I have a really 'nice' job. By 'nice' they think that I sit in a room full of books and stamp a few out. Well if you could have followed me around today you would not think that ever again. I would hope that you would be surprised and even impressed at what I did today.....

The day started with two presentations to 200, yr 13 students,  on plagiarism, referencing  and why they should use their school library before going to Uni.  I was really surprised that as a visitor from Schools' Library Service I was left to do this presentation on my own. I do work quite a lot in the school but I'm not a teacher so I was expecting a member of staff to stay. Anyway I'm please to say that it seemed to go well. They were quiet, listened and laughed at the appropriate times and I even got a clap at the end. Two students even waited till the end and came and asked if I could talk them through referencing properly....result!

I then had to go to one of my primary schools for a quick visit as I have been helping them refurbish their library. They have moved from a really small room to a lovely large room that can hold a class at a time. We have bought new shelving and done a complete stock check which is the cumulation of several months negotiation and planning. It looks wonderful and I'm very proud of it.  We are planning to open it to the school next week so there were yet more small issues that needed resolving. I left the teacher with library responsibility TLR feeling ready for nex week which was good.

Then on to another primary school who have a large number of student helpers. The TLR wanted me to talk to them about how well they were doing and ask if they were having any problems.....there are always issues so we talked them through and sorted them out. We have a visiting publishers rep coming in February so we asked them if they had any recommendations for books......the list is huge:)

My next stop was to an infant school to read stories to a yr 2 class, where I was introducing the Red House books to them. We read two today and I will go back next week and read the other two. I will get them to vote and as the winner will already have been announce I will tell them who won. It was a shame that I did not get better organised as last year we had time to get them to join in the online voting. I will make a note for the end of December to organise buying the books for next year. They really enjoyed it and I love reading stories to that age group.

A colleague who has just started visiting schools had come to watch me do the class needed training on how to use Junior Librarian, the school library catalogue, and also on using the VLE, It's learning. The next hour was spent talking her through various programmes and how they work. We were just about finished when we were asked to join the teaching staff in the Staffroom as they were celebrating. We went in to find ourselves being given a glass of champagne and cake......the reason was one of the teachers had been granted a 15 yr licence and was able to stay in Guernsey. A very unusual event!

Anyone reading this thinking about librarianship should know that I love what I do and every day is different. Not every day is as full on as it was today but there is always something different going on. Our SLS is going under a review next week and the future is very uncertain, it would be devastating if we had to make big chamges but  SLS's are facing closure everywhere. I hope they see what we are doing and  don't decide to judge us by figures,  that they take into account the difference we are making in children's lives. Non of our secondary schools have qualified librarians in post and we make sure they have the professional support that they need. It's going to be a stressful, busy week next week......watch this space.

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