New Library Strategies

Rachel ShanklesLakeside High School

Hot Springs, AR

What change?

FRAMEWORKS

Lit Labs

Top Three Dangers for Libraries in the Digital Age• Danger 1: The growing digitization and portability of information.• Danger 2: Fundamental changes in the nature and sources of information.• Danger 3: The need for new skills for workers in a global economy

Top Seven Opportunities for Libraries in the Digital Age• I. An opportunity to improve our physical facilities• II. An opportunity to truly educate• III. An opportunity to remain information “experts.”• IV. An opportunity to be team players• V. An opportunity to become a push institution• VI. An opportunity to diversify, offer non-traditional services to our patrons• VII. An opportunity to help close the digital and generational divides• BONUS OPPORTUNITY: An opportunity to grow our own professional

abilities.

Why Do We Have to Change?

How do we change?• Weed, Weed, Weed• Update facility to make modern, attractive, comfortable• Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate• Sponsor book clubs, events, programming• Find funding sources• Find freebies for programming• Make sure you are included in literacy push• Get partners on board to become an integral and central part

of the education of each child• If you are busy doing all of this, you can’t possibly be on bus

duty or lunch duty in the cafeteria when you have things going on in the library. . . You become a stakeholder in testing with the new frameworks

Literacy Push• Partner with your Literacy coach• Find out the released items and reinforce them in your

classes or talks• If your school does Lit Lab—work with them to find books

and try to go to the training yourself• Research shows that to get the upper level kids to read the

library has to be updated and modern looking with lots of new books that are displayed; books of all levels of readers, all interests

• And have comfortable seating so they can sit and read• To let them know you have “new” stuff, you do programs

to get them into the library to see the new books and furniture

• Design a distinctive look for your library area; rearrange; throw out that card catalog or make it a table; add rugs, curtains, modernize anything that looks like it’s old school

Why Weed?

• You say your numbers will be too low for state report. Then they will have to buy you more won’t they?

• Statistics show students do not want to touch or look at old, yellowed books and certainly don’t want to check them out and read them

• Statistics also show the new library should have new books and look more like a ‘book store’

• Some even sell coffee but we try to make ours ‘smell’ like coffee or popcorn at times

Weed, then what?

• Donate your old books, sell them to teachers and students for a quarter a piece or throw away ( I know it hurts your soul)

• Replace with paperbacks you get from Scholastic Book Fair participation if that is the only way

• Empty shelves make for great display space so buy those little book easels and show off your new books and they will fly out of the library

• So after weeding, purchase new fiction first, and then Display, Display, Display

Collaborate• We have frameworks that bisect with some other

areas and you can certainly collaborate with English on most of those strands

• One strand has to do with reading charts & graphs and that would mean working with the math department

• One SLE has to do with AR history• Let’s talk about collaboration ideas —English, Art,

Foreign language, history, science• In Elementary you might work with GT, Reading

teacher, Science teachers, English teacher• Jr High teaches the most AR History so hit that with

them

Collaboration with History

Our most successful was a Black History Month Film Festival in February; we showed 13 to 15 min. movie clips about LR Central and the Elaine Race Riots (Ark. History)

We gave out small quiz at end each time and the history teachers received the papers from us and gave extra credit for their attendance. Too crowded so we repeated each one twice and during parent conference night. We served popcorn.

Collaborations - English The library sponsors 5 to 7 poetry contests based on the

curriculum of the high school English classes. Each teacher picks a genre of poetry that they will teach and we sponsor the overall contest . We usually have sonnet, haiku, cinquain, free and blank verse, and narrative verse. We have 24 line limit. Any student can enter any contest but their own teacher requires they enter the one she teaches. We give prizes, certificates, take photos for the local paper and try to get the poems published. Every Wed in April we have poetry readings with a mic set up in the library. One week it is original works of teachers or students then we invite guests from community then announce our winners and they get to read their winning poems

Collaboration – the arts

• Color and B&W and photo essay contest each year in January and winners are entered in AAIM categories in February;we announce it all Dec and due in Jan.

• Ask an advanced art class to hand draw profiles of famous black Americans on your bulletin board for Black History Month; give them list of suggestions and they research and come up with a profile they can draw in black and gray

Collaboration - Math• One year we gave the math teachers surveys during

Multiculture Month with questions like “Were you born in Arkansas?” “What do you consider your cultural heritage a)Caucasian American b)African American c)Asian d)Hispanic e)other? Were your parents born in the USA?

• Then we asked that their students graph the info into charts that we could hang outside the library that month.

• They were colorful and laminated and worked well• This year we will have a tessellation drawing contest

with the math department

Collaborations – Science• Collaboration with Science Dept by inviting speaker

for AP Environmental Science on algae growth and containment in area lakes and what research is being done by the college

• Last year author Andrea Campbell who has written Forensics books- $75 for 2 hours

• Andrea Campbell <campbell@arkansas.net>• http://www.andreacampbell.com • http://www.the-CSI-effect.com • http://www.thecsieffect.blogspot.com

Book ClubsFunding• Scholastic Literacy Partners***• Scholastic Book Fairs• Dover Paperbacks• Local businesses sponsor a title• Do a fundraiserParticipation• Girls or Boys group; teachers or parents or business leaders do a book; kids pick or

you pick the titles• Have more than one group at a time for them to pick from and get some help from

the Literacy coach or Reading teachers/Lit teachersTime Restraints• At lunch• Before or after school• Evenings a local restaurants or public librarySuggested Titles:• http://aaimlibrarywiki.wikispaces.com• On the wiki see lists of jr and sr high book clubs from many cities for 3 years

Events

Take out a sheet of paper and write down as many events you can see going on in the PhotoStory you are going to watch.

Write down any questions you want to ask.Costs, Time, When, Speakers, EQ involved, etc.Then we will discuss the lists you have and get

some more programming ideas to share from our group.

You can sponsor contests every month

Monthly Promotion Ideas

Use monthly themes – “Aloha, Welcome Back” or “Elvis@thelibrary” for August

Luau for Open house, all teachers wear Hawaiian shirts, give leis to everyone, fruit treat in library

We decorate as much as possible each month, ordering items from Oriental Trading and other inexpensive places

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September

Banned Books Week – we wear jail garb once or twice

Book Jackets copied from Internet of most commonly banned books in past and present and a book display with bars around them

Costumes

Guest Speakers

Http://aaimlibrarywiki.wikispaces.comLists and contact info for free guest speakers and list of programs

Rachel Miller does a program on History in our Backyard and one on Haunted Arkansas

Ark Hist Preservation - Free Classroom PresentationsThe AHPP Education Outreach Coordinator is available on a limited basis to

visit 3rd-12th grade classes, homeschool groups, scout troops and other organizations.

Contact us now to reserve your presentation! Call (501) 324-9880 or email educationoutreach@arkansasheritage.org

Take the Last Train to Clarksville: Arkansas's Historic Depots and Railroad History

Arkansas's Haunted Historic Sites (this program is changed every school year)

From Slavery to Central High School (this program features National Register of Historic Places associated with slavery, segregation and the Civil Rights

Movement within Arkansas)

Historic Architecture in Arkansas

History in Your Backyard  (This program can be tailored to a specific community)

History Happened in Arkansas?  Arkansas's National Historic LandmarksLaw and Order on the Western Frontier: Fort Smith National Historic Site Mysteries of the Mound Builders: Parkin and Toltec Archeological Sites

Rohwer:  Japanese-American Internment in Arkansas

Contact info for Arkansas Historic Preservation Programs

Rachel M. MillerEducation Outreach CoordinatorArkansas Historic Preservation ProgramEmail:RachelM@arkansasheritage.org

CONTESTS• Jelly beans in jar• Poetry Contests in collaboration with English Classes-

April is Poetry Month• Photo Hoaxes in collaboration with EAST• Photo Contest for all (AAIM Media Festival entries

due in early Feb.)• Most Admired Teacher Contest (April or May)• Favorite Christmas Movie Contest• Video contest during Teen Tech Week (April)• Tesselation poster contest with Math Dept

Money Makers• Tissue flowers made and sold for 50 cents each with a poem

tied to them; sold on Valentine’s; we always make over $50• Most Admired Teacher Contest – Each April for the entire

month they can come in and vote for 25 cents per vote; we chart the votes on a large graph in the hall; the winner gets book purchased and dedicated to them and photo in paper and we usually make $200

• Recycling ink and toner cartridges and cell phones thru Greenschools is our main money maker

• We write small grants like Weyerhauser or PTO or school wide grants for $300 or so

• One jr high has a photographer come in for those dress photos

• One elemen. Librarian told me she made $5000 on a book fair

Funding• WalMart – all of them in your area every year• Weyerhauser Mini grant• AR Humanities Grant• AM Lib Assoc Grants- like We the People, Great Stories, or

Picturing America• Thomson Gale TEAMS Award of money for collaboration• Dollar General Grant• PTA/PTO• Get permission to sell things to make some cash to do

programming or to redecorate• I sell votes, tee shirts, flash drives, notecards, tissue roses• Have a book fair to raise some funds - I have 2

Freebies

• What is the best freebie you have gotten for your library?

• List of free speakers and free programs on my wiki• Internet Predators, Internet Safety for Middle School

up from AR Attorney General’s Office• AR Historic Preservation does many free programs• Butler Center of CALS in LR does many free programs

on AR history and Encyclopedia of AR• Some AR authors will speak for a very low fee that is

affordable, especially local ones—if you just ask

Frameworks

• Have you printed out a copy?• Do you have the grade templates?• Develop a Pacing Guide this year using your

plan book• Make sure the Principal and teachers know

you now have Frameworks you must teach• Open dialogue with them about

when/where/how• Plan and collaborate

Frameworks• Check them off as you teach them• Use highlighter to color the SLE on the right of

the template• You can develop your own template too• What do you foresee needing help with on the

frameworks?• Ask someone to come to one of your coop

meetings to discuss the frameworks and give you some time to develop pacing guides

You’ve come a long way, Baby!• Libraries, they are a changin’.• We can change or be replaced with clerks• If we do what we need to do, our library programs

will be integral to the overall school curriculum. • If we have programming going on, we can’t be on

bus or lunch duty outside the library ,can we?• Then our library funding should increase for books

and technology• With a little PR work (do invest in a digital camera)

everyone will see how hard you are working to change the climate of the library.

I will be happy to help you in the future with any of the topics we have discussed today. Come visit my library.

Rachel Shankles, LMSLHS – Hot Spgs501-262-1530 school501-624-7138 home501-276-4949 cell shankles@cablelynx.comRachel_Shankles@LS1.dsc.k12.ar.us