50 books and counting...

Okay, somehow I have to find time to read 51 books for the Florida Teens Read committee. I'm on this committee, otherwise known as the "Fun" committee, which it is! The committee members are high school media specialists from around Florida who read lots and lots of teen books (and some adult) for the Florida Teens Read list. I am very happy and proud to be on this committee, although I do admit I have been remiss in my reading lately!

The books that we are reading now have already made the first cut. At our FAME conference we met to go through the original list and narrowed down the titles under consideration. Now, each book must be read a majority of the committee in order to be considered for our final list, which will be determined later in the school year. Which leaves me with a lot of reading.

The books are of many different genres and styles, which I'm enjoying. I have read several titles that I probably would never have picked up, and they are all good, although still not my favorites. It is great to be exposed to so many quality books for teens, and I want them all for the media center. Now, I'd better get back to my books...

Boot Camp by Todd Strasser

Garrett is in big trouble. Just because he feel in love with his teacher who is eight years older, his parents have sent him away to Harmony Lake, a boot camp for troubled teens in upstate New York. Forget all you've heard about boot camps, the reality is ten times worse.

Harmony Lake's purpose is to make kids obedient to their parents. Harmony Lake does this by stripiping away every right and dignity thier prisoners possess, and also by encouraging other kids to beat up the ones that don't conform. It's a brutal system, and it works. Garrett is finding out that nothing he does is right, and there is no faking compliance.

After being beaten repeatedly, put in Temporary Isolation too many times too count, and humiliated beyond belief, Garrett is wondering whether maybe, just maybe, he should think about giving in to these people. Otherwise he'll be here until he's eighteen, and that's several long years away.

But two inmantes have other ideas. Pauly and Sarah have been at Harmony Lake for almost two years, and although they've been beaten, their spirit is not broken. They've come up with a plan to escape. An incredibly stupid, risky plan. But the need Garrett's help. Is the freedom to be yourself worth the risk? Garrett isn't sure anymore, not after months of torture and brainwashing at Boot Camp.

Thank you to the School Advisory Council

The School Advisory Council voted on Tuesday night to donate just over $1000 to the Library Media Center to purchase new books and several playaway audio books. SAC has always been a great supporter of the LMC, and their help is greatly appreciated. I understand how difficult it is to fulfill many school requests with limited funds, and the committee went over each request in detail to determine where the funds could be used to benefit the school community the most. The money given to the media center is a huge boost to our budget and the students will enjoy the newest titles. Thanks to the support from the SAC and the teachers present.

Class book blog

I am very happy to be working with Ms. Pez and one of her English classes on a book blog. You can see it at http://www.pezbookgroup.blogspot.com. The students are answering questions about the different books they are reading. So far we have been having problems accessing the blog with the new school filters, but the studnets have been posting some good comments. I thing using blogs and other web 2.0 tools are a great way of engaging students. What do you think?

Teen Read Week

Come celebrate Teen Read Week, LOL @ Your Library! Regardless of what you may have heard, teens are still reading, and this week we celebrate that! The library media center has some great new books, including: What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones, the new Tolkien The Children of Hurin, Blue Bloods a new vampire series by Melissa De La Cruz, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a series about cars, and craft books on knitting, beading, and scrapbooking.

During Teen Read Week, teens are invited to go online and vote for their favorite books in the annual Teens' Top Ten poll at www.ala.org/teenstopten. This is the only national list sponsored by the American Library Association and their Young Adult division YALSA that is nominated and voted on by teens.

During Teen Read Week, the Environmental Academy and our Reading Coach sponsored an environmental literacy day with a guest speaker, Dr. Ellen Prager of the Aquarius Reef Project to speak to our students. An environmentally themed art show is currently displayed in the library media center.

Florida Teens Read 07-08

It's time again to read the Florida Teens Read list. This list of 15 books has a variety of genres, authors, themes etc. to appeal to everyone. The deal is, once you read a minimum of 3 books, you get to vote for your favorite in April. The winning author gets receives his/her award at the annual FAME conference for media specialists in October.

You can find more information at http://www.floridamedia.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=12

This year the fifteen titles are:

Hit the Road by Caroline Cooney, The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, Runner by Carl Deuker, Copper Sun by Sharon Draper, Rash by Pete Hautman, Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs, 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince? by Melissa Kantor, Sleeping Freshman Never Lie by David Lubar, Sold by Patricia McKormick, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Becoming Chloe (mature reader) by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Black and White (mature reader) by Paul Volponi, and Glass Castle (mature reader) by Jeannette Walls.

As for my predictions, sci fi/fantasy has always been popular and therefore I vote for Uglies. Just Listen is also extremely popular, and Sarah Dessen's books never remain on the shelf for long. We'll see if I'm right in May. Remember, my favorite usually never wins!

What's New: Playaways!

The newest device to entrance Hurricanes students is something called a Playaway. It is a small device that holds the audio of an entire book. No more changing Cds. At the end of last school year, the School Advisory Council donated some money to start a Playaway collection. This formed the basis of 25 titles, a combination of classics (Hamlet, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, the Odyssey) and more modern titles (The DaVinci Code, Outsiders, Water for Elephants). Out of the 25 titles, 15 have already been checked out.

Surprisingly, the classics seem to be very popular. Many students prefer to listen to these titles instead of reading them, and the English teachers are promoting reading and listening at the same time. Auditory learners prefer to listen as that makes it easier for them to visualize the story, and provides a good introduction to many books they probably wouldn't read otherwise. Several students have checked out the Playaways if they are going on a trip and they can listen on the plane or in the car.

Students provide their own earbuds/headphones, although we do have some available for students who need them. The device runs on a AAA battery, which we provide. Battery life tends to last for about 10 hours of listening time. Listeners can bookmark passages and chapters to come back to. Check-out time is 2 weeks, same as books, and can be renewed if needed.

Most students like the idea of the Playaways. And when I first showed them to the teachers, they were amazed at the idea of having iPod-like audio books in the Library Media Center. With new titles being released, more Playaways will soon join the original 25. Instead of seeing kids just listening to iPods, hopefully they will now be listening to quality literature too!

Hooked on Books Donates to the Media Center

The local bookstore, Hooked on Books, made a donation of $300 to both Coral Shores High School and Plantation Key School Media Centers. A percentage of sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the opening weekend made up the donation.

In the picture are Katie Regelmann, PKS, Penny Bower, Hooked On Books, and myself.

Thank you Hooked On Books!

Passwords

Please forgive the lateness of this post, I am ashamed to admit but I forgot my password to log on. That will teach me to change any settings at 6:30 in the morning after staying up all night to read Harry Potter #7. Can you say brain dead?

I know having lots of passwords is a way of life in the 21st century, but I think so is forgetting them all. A brief (unscientific) survey of several people in the media center shows that this is a wide spread problem. Several people keep notebooks with passwords, others have a file saved. Neither is a fool proof method. What happens if you lose your notebook or your file is hacked into? And using the same password for everything doesn't work either. Of course, to be perfectly safe, each password should be different with weird combinations of letters (lower and upper case), numbers, and symbols. Not only does that make it harder for criminals to steal your passwords, but it makes it virtually impossible for you to remember it. Or, at least it is hard for me. Maybe everyone else has a better memory.

Well, now that I'm back in with my blog, hopefully I'll remember to update it. There is lots going on this year in the media center to share with you.

Good luck remembering all your passwords!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows SPOILER ALERT!!!

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm not in tears at the moment, but I definitely was when a certain sweet person/creature died. There were some surprises, but many things were foreshadowed in the previous books. I think it is a fitting ending to the series, although I was worried that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were wandering around aimlessly. The book was definitely very bleak in tone, especially in the middle!

Neville didn't kill who I thought he would, but he was very instrumental in the last battle. I am trying not to say too much for those who haven't yet read it. I'm glad it ended as it did, although I would have liked more detail there. I'm also glad Harry found out the truth about Snape. All I know is that there is no way I could have been as brave as Harry. He is very noble, and loving, and a true hero.

Even though I'm tired I think I might start rereading it. Somehow I can't go to bed just yet. Of course, now that it's over, it's a matter of what happens now. I wanted the book to finish because I wanted to find out what was going to happen, but now the magic is over. For good, and forever. Thanks J.K. Rowling, it's been incredible.

Mischief managed.

Harry Potter

Okay, it's been forever since I've posted. Sorry, it has been summer vacation after all.

I have reread all the Harry Potter books, watched the movies (seen #5 two times), and I am now ready for the most amazing literature event, the release of Harry Potter #7, the Deathly Hallows. I will be dressing up and attending the party tonight. And then, my diet coke and chocolate are ready to keep me awake all night reading. I don't intend to fall asleep without knowing the answers to these two questions: Does Harry die? and is Snape good or bad?

My prediction is that Snape is really good, why else would he not kill Harry at the end of Book 6. But I do think that he will die, probably in saving Harry. I could be wrong, it has happened before, but... I also want Harry to live and get back with Ginny. I do have this awful feeling that J.K. Rowling might kill him off though. I have the kleenex ready just in case. My husband is hoping that I won't spoil the ending for him if he hears me crying.

I'm also betting on Neville to get Bellatrix Lestrange. He has a great line in the movie, when Bella asks him how his parents are he says that they're better now they are getting avenged. He has come a long way in the series, and I really want to see him grow up and become a force to be reckoned with. As for Hermione and Ron, they will FINALLY get together (although I really can't see what Hermione sees in Ron, I think her and Harry make a better couple but Harry does have Ginny). And hopefully the Dursleys will realize how mean they are to Harry and will regret it. I'm not sure what I wish for Draco, he did refrain from killing Dumbledore, but he is a huge git as Harry would put it. He may be redeemable but his father definitely isn't. And will Dobby have a role at the end? I hope so, I like Dobby.

In less than 10 hours I will have the book in my hand and I'll be starting to find the answers. It's been a great time reading about Harry's world. I really don't want it to end. Maybe if I keep rereading the books and rereading and rereading...

Stay tuned for the answers to my predictions. But don't check until you've read Book 7 yourself, because there will be spoilers! Until tomorrow!

Florida Teens Read Winner

The winner of the Florida Teens Read for 2006-2007 has been announced, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I haven't had a chance to read this novel yet, mainly because copies never stay on the shelf long enough for me to grab one! It (and the sequel, New Moon) have been extremely popular at our school.

The list for 2007-2008 has been posted at http://www.floridamedia.org/teensread/teensread.html
I've already read two of the titles, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and Sold by Patricia McCormick. I have my reading list for the summer now. How about you?

Superintendent's Ultimate Readers Award

We had our Superintendent's Ultimate Readers Award ceremony and breakfast on Friday. This award is for students who have read a minimum of 15 books from August to April. We had 50 students receive the award, and they read a grand total of 1255 books combined. Congratulations!

Superintendent Acevedo hand out the award certificates, and then we all were treated to a wonderful breakfast in the cafeteria. See, reading does pay off!

End of School Year

Well, we have less than a month until school year 2006-2007 is finished. Of course, that means inventory will be starting soon. Every year I say that if I stopped buying new books, I'd have less to inventory, but I keep adding new ones!

All books are due in by the 16th of May. If students have any obligations, they need to be taken care of before Prom this weekend. Inventory will be starting the week of May 21st, so we'll be closed to classes then. The computers will still be available and we'll remain open at lunch. Thanks for understanding.

73 days to HP7!

Countdown to Harry Potter

The local bookstores are selling Harry Potter #7. I will be attending the party at Hooked on Books in Islamorada, from 10pm until 12:01 when the book is distributed. Hooked on Books is also donating a portion of all proceeds from sales of HP and the Deathly Hallows over opening weekend to the Coral Shores Media Center. If you haven't yet purchased your copy, come get sorted and drink butterbeer at Hooked on Books!

79 days and counting...

National Library Week

I'm a little late to be posting seeing as National Library Week was last week. We celebrated with a trivia contest, which turned out to be a lot of fun. I posted the questions in the LMC window and also had them on the announcements. The week started off slow, but we had 45 students participate in Thursday's question. Way to go! The questions (and answers) are as follows:

1. What is the website address where our online resources (netTrekker, Britannica and the databases can be accessed? (www.keysresearch.net)
2. What is the title of the Coral Shores Media blog? (CSHS Hurricanes Media Bulletin. Points to everyone who is currently reading this!)
3. What was Mrs. Delgado's favorite book as a teenager? (Gone With The Wind. Thanks to everyone who said Harry Potter, but unfortunately I'm not that young)
4. What degree do you need to become a librarian? (Masters of Library Science)

Thanks to everyone who participated. Our daily winners were: Dustin, Alex, Ian, and Mimi, who each received a gift card to Cover to Cover books.

The trivia contest was popular, so we'll try to do something similar next year, and maybe add more contests in the future. Let me know your ideas.

...86 days and counting the hours...

Shameless self promotion

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share with you my latest article, this one was written for FMQ (Florida Media Quarterly), the magazine for Florida Association of Media in Education. http://www.floridamedia.org/fmq/fmq.html is the link, and the pdf file of the magazine is available at the bottom of the page. My article was on switching over to the secondary school, and tips a media specialist should know. Working in a high school is very different from elementary and middle. I like all the age groups, but working with teenagers definitely requires a different mindset! Read the article and let me know what you think.

Also, 93 days, 12 hours and 42 minutes to Harry Potter #7. I can't wait!

Age of our collection

I spent the remainder of my funds last week. And in the process, I learned something about our collection. Portions of it are very old! I thought I'd check the ancient history section to see what was currently on the shelves in order to determine how many new volumes to purchase. The majority of books were as old as I (if not older). So, I get distracted and decided to do some weeding. One hundred books later, the ancient history section and the rest of the 900s (history and geography) looked much better and needless to say, I purchased 2 new sets of ancient history instead of the one I was originally planning on.

Weeding is something that many library media need to do, but don't always make it a priority (myself included). To ensure a dynamic, relevant, attractive collection adding new titles and weeding old no longer appropriate titles is necessary. Our collection age is currently 1992. The majority of our students are younger than the average age of our books. Do you think this helps to make books interesting or worthwhile? And my school is not alone. Collection ages for some of the other schools in the Keys range from 1989 to 1994. It's not surprising that students are turning to technology because they think that books are obsolete if this is what they see in their schools.

As for Coral Shores, our science and social science sections are in very good shape, so I'll be looking through the arts, literature, and reference for outdated materials. My goal is to get our collection age younger than many of the students, although it may take several years of weeding and ordering new books for that to happen. At least the students will see more current, attractive, and accurate books on the shelves!

Testing

It is FCAT time. I can hear groans from teachers and students all around me. Although I am not a fan of standardized testing, I can see the need for assessment. But there seems to be continual testing! And of course, the media center is closed whenever there are tests. I joke that when this school was built they forgot to add testing rooms.

It is a compliment that the media center is used the most for testing because it is the most comfortable and inviting room, and students prefer testing in here. I also realize that the administration doesn't have much of a choice. I get displaced or teacher's classes get displaced. (Hence the need for specific testing rooms!). There just seem to be so many days of testing that force us to shut down. Students and teachers are upset because they cannot use the resources. Sometimes I feel that people don't realize the media center is a classroom too, one for the entire school. And when it is closed, the entire school is affected.

So, let's stop testing our students so much, and start promoting wonderful research projects and reading instead. I believe that will be more important in the real world.

Beka Cooper by Tamora Pierce

Tamora Pierce has done it again. She is the author of great fantasy novels with very strong female characters. The Alanna series is the first in the kingdom of Tortall, with Wild Magic, Protector of the Small, and the two Trickster books also based there. Beka Cooper Book One: Terrier is the first in a planned trilogy which takes place 200 years before Alanna in Corus, the capital city of Tortall. Beka is just starting her job as a Provost (similar to police) guard, otherwise known as Dogs. She is working in the Lower City; streets of slums and thievery. Assigned to two veteran Dogs, she is eager to learn all she can. Beka has a gift (or curse), she understands the spirits carried by pigeons, and the voices carried on the air by dust spinners. From them, she hears about mass murders and the unknown villain known only as the Shadow Snake. When the Dogs are unable to fully investigate, Beka knows that she cannot let the common people suffer, and joins forces with her new ruffian friends.

Pierce excells at creating heroic characters that are real. Beka makes mistakes and suffers from shyness, which hampers her ability to make friends and perform all duties of her job. The secondary characters lend needed humor to the book, and help carry the story along. There is a lot of action and enough magical elements for fantasy lovers. It was a treat to read about the early years of Tortall, and I'm looking forward to the next book

Filters

Before I begin, let me remind you of my liberal leanings here, so don't be too surprised when I come out against filters. Also remember, my students are highschoolers, I do believe some filters are appropriate for elementary students.

I not only write (or try to write) this blog, I also enjoy reading the many blogs that are out there about libraries, books, and technologies. Many of my colleaques provide links to wonderful resources that would be very helpful, if I could access them! There are some worthwhile vieos about technology and libraries on YouTube, but my district (or the state) blocks YouTube and other Web 2.0 sites. I am also unable to read some blogs, including my own last week! I tried to show a student this blog and he was going to help me upload a podcast, but it was blocked by Websense, the state filter. It was very frustrating, needless to say.

I agree that there is inappropriate material on the Internet. I also agree that many of our students should not be viewing this material. However, in the library at least, our job is to provide information. Many students have given up researching in here because they cannot find the information online that they need due to the filters. I have heard many students say that they will just do all their research at home, and then they want to fool around the rest of the class and distract their classmates who are actually working. We have the opportunity to educate our students on proper searching and evaluating of websites, but that opportunity is lost when many sites are blocked. Instead, we lose credibility with our students because we are not part of their world.

We also need to bring parents and the community on board. Many communities cooperate and teach street safety to children. It is time for us all to cooperate and teach online safety to our children and teenagers. We do not prevent children from playing in the park or going to the mall, instead we teach them not to talk to strangers and to look both ways before crossing the street. Let's do the same for online safety. I-Safe is a program our district is using (check out www.isafe.org ) which has many great resources for online safety. We need to trust our students for them to have trust in us.

The web is here to stay. There are many wonderful sites and tools for communication and collaboration available that are easily adapted for educational use. Let's learn how to do that, instead of refusing to see their value.

Thanks for listening.

Harry Potter 7

Harry Potter 7; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released on July 21st! I can hardly wait. A student came down to tell me the news yesterday at lunch. Everybody here knows that I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Maybe it's the Hogwarts banner hanging in the Media Center, the Harry Potter movie poster hanging in my office, the Harry Potter soundtrack I play occasionally, or the fact that I dressed up as Prof. McGonagall at Halloween.

The entire Harry watching community has been waiting to find out when the final book in the series was being released. The rumors were that it would be in July, which is also when the 5th movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, July 13) is coming out. We can get our HP fix all at once! The rumors are flying about who is going to be killed off, whether Snape is good or bad, if Harry is actually going to die! I feel that Voldemort definitely has to die, and I think Snape is another candidate there. I still think that he is acting as a double agent. And will Harry get back with Ginny? There are so many questions to be answered that #7 is going to be huge!

I haven't preordered it yet, although I received the email from Barnes and Noble. I have never been to a Harry Potter party at midnight when the book is released at a bookstore, and I would like to do that for once. With HP6, I had to wait until 2:00pm when the book was finally delivered. I could have read it twice over by then! I hope the Keys bookstores are doing something so I can start reading right at 12:01!

169 days and counting...

Awards

I have been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the Printz (Excellence in Literature Written for Young Adults) and the Alex (10 Best Adult Books that Appeal to Teen Audiences) which were announced at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting on Monday. I was hoping that the Book Thief by Marcus Zusak would win the Printz, and it recieved the honor award. The winner was American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang. John Green, An Abundance of Katherines; M.T.Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party; and Sonya Hartnett, Surrender, were the other recipients of Honor Awards. You can see the press release with the entire list of award winners at http://ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=146679

As this is my first year at a high school, I need to catch up on previous Printz winners. I am familiar with the authors, and have read several of the books, especially those that were also appropriate to middle school. This year, I enjoyed reading Octavian Nothing which is a book that makes the reader think about what freedom, liberty, and the right to an education really mean. And I loved the Book Thief. I have read it several times and cried each time. It is about a girl who goes to live with a poor foster family in Germany during World War II. She comes to understand the power of words and the will to fight against oppression. We have both of these titles in the library media center, and I am ordering the others. I'll let you know when they arrive!

Ordering new books

I just finished one of my favorite tasks as a school library media specialist, purchasing new titles. It's also extremely frustrating because I want every good book, and unfortunately my budget does not allow that.

Purchasing new books is a delicate juggling act. I try to balance the student's wishes for fun fiction with award winners and great literature. The curriculum needs must also be met with books available for research and class purposes. It doesn't help that book prices have skyrocketed. My history teachers need books on ancient civilizations and decades throughout American history. The average price of these books is $35 each. Ouch! Fiction prices have greatly increased too, thanks to the phenomenal success of Harry Potter at $29.95. So, the lack of funds greatly decreases my spending spree. Oh well, I don't have the shelf space available for every new book anyway.

I was able to order some new graphic novels and manga titles which will help my little graphic collection immensely. Manga fans are very passionate about their favorites, and everyday I hear requests for more. I added biographies of scientists and philosophers for my science and social studies teachers, and more general fiction. My huge nonfiction order will be finished shortly. I'm searching all the best book lists for great adult fiction titles for teenagers so I can add those titles as well. Once these titles come in, they will be on display so they can be easily seen and checked out. Can't wait!

The American Library Association is announcing the 2007 award winners on Mon., Jan. 22. Visit ala.org for more info. I am hoping that the Book Thief by Marcus Zusak will win the Printz, it is an amazing book.