Medium Vol.32 #3 Arrives in today's mail!

The Medium arrived today. The focus was Be the Link - For Student Success. I'm always in awe of the work that Alice, the editor, does to make each issue happen. I enjoyed browsing through the articles: Information about Puget Sound Council, small schools, T-L's part in K-12 education, Spokane moms, and more! I especially liked the article from our youngest correspondent (Sarah's baby). I was also reminded that I need to register for October's Joint Conference.

Destiny Training

My district, Edmonds, will be using Follett's Destiny circulation system beginning this year. We are saying so long to Winnebago! Yesterday and today half of use attended training (the other 1/2 train next week). We learned how to complete basic tasks and set up patron & material types. We also learned about the many reports we can print.
I think that my students and staff will like this new system. I especially like how lists can be created by myself and teachers and then shared with users. I'm also excited about having one search so students can search not only our catalog, but also our purchased data bases. It was fun to see many of my fellow librarians and meet some of the newer librarians in the district.
Now the challenge is to make everything work!

PSC May Meeting

I went to the May Meeting of the Puget Sound Council for the Review of Children's Literature at the UW-Bothell Library. We met at our old meeting room on the 2nd floor of the library because the Chair learned that the university was charging a custodial fee for the other space we've been using this year. I turned in 10 of my book reviews and I heard some great reviews and I will add some of the titles to my "buy" list. I shared the news from Edmonds during announcement time and a discussion ensued about issues in Northshore and Federal Way. I love this supportive community.

Edmonds District Librarian Meeting @ MW K-8

The librarians of the district met at Maplewood K-8 School this afternoon. John was our host. The meeting was faced paced. People shared information about the proposed library cuts that were eventually dropped. There was some sharing about how we needed to come together to prevent cuts in future years. We talked about tying our work to the new certification competencies. We also talked about effective communication with administration.
Other topics of the meeting included: district technology help, upcoming conversion to a Destiny circulation, electronic lockers for student work, CBA work with technology and strategies to thrive during the spring post-WASL research season.

CLP District Librarians Study Group @ TP K-8

The librarians participating in the Collaborative Literacy Project study group met today at Jenny's library at Terrace Park K-8 School. We talked about the chapters in "Strategies the Work" about determining importance in text, summarizing, and synthesizing. Ideas for lessons that develop these skills were shared. We also added 2002 & 2003 WCCPBA titles to our list of books that fit the various strategies. I'm looking forward to next month's meeting!

Great News about Edmonds Librarians

We learned this afternoon that the district is backing off of its plan to make the 6 smallest elementary schools have 1/2 time teacher-librarians. This is truly wonderful news. The smallest school (under 200 FTE) librarian will be .6, our district library services coordinator will be reduced to .5. So while the news is great, there are still going to be some cuts.
I know that there was a groundswell of community support for libraries. Parents from schools all over the district (not just the 6) email board members, district officials, and legislators. Librarians were working on educating their principals and other district staff. People at the IMD were working on educating district budget officials on the importance of full-time librarians.
Many people are still planning on attending tomorrow night's school board meeting and the librarians will be presenting an informational packet to the board.

First Ever Shoreline-Edmonds Librarian Social

After work today, a group of school librarians met at Scott's Bar & Grill on the snowy King/Snohomish County line. There were 4 from Shoreline and 5 from Edmonds, which is pretty good since Joanna & I decided to try this earlier this week. No agenda, we just had a social time. We talked about the proposed Edmonds cuts and how they can support our efforts to stop them. We learned about how each of our districts operates and we also learned about some good Chinese restaurants in Seattle. Some of us talked about how we might get a "friends of school libraries" organization started. It was a good time and we're thinking of doing this again in May/June.