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From: "PUBYAC: PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults and Children"
<pubyac@prairienet.org>
To: "PUBYAC: PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults and Children" <pubyac@prairienet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 9:40 AM
Subject: PUBYAC digest 744
PUBYAC Digest 744
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) Listproc problems
by "PUBYAC Moderator" <pyowner@pallasinc.com>
2) Re: dog who hatched from egg
by Mairi Ellen Quodomine <mquodom@mail.pratt.lib.md.us>
3) query: middle school novels with Greek mythology theme
by "Kelly Kowalchuk" <kkowalchuk@hotmail.com>
4) Re: Books you can sing
by Jean Nichols <jean@clarksville.org>
5) Career Day
by "Lisa Mulak" <lmulak@nssc.library.ns.ca>
6) re: Kentucky author
by "Arnie Naiman & Kathy Reid-Naiman" <kathyl@aci.on.ca>
7) Bolo tie craft....
by "Barbara Scott" <barbarascott@hotmail.com>
8) 10 Reasons a Library needs a Children's Librarian???
by Stephanie Stokes <stephanie@ssdesign.com>
9) stumper
by Donna Peasley <dpeasley@gateslibrary.org>
10) Stumper: learning disability
by Kerry Reed <kreed@wpld.alibrary.com>
11) Juvenile Collection Storage--Summary--LONG
by "Jeri Kladder" <JKLADDER@cml.lib.oh.us>
12) Family Storytelling Night
by Margaret Brannon <margaret.brannon@ci.high-point.nc.us>
13) Young Adult budget
by Melissa Bates <mbates@leaplibraries.org>
14) Stumper: 12 Days of Xmas with Monsters
by "Steven Engelfried" <sengelfried@ci.beaverton.or.us>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message-ID: <012d01c1eada$b823d250$6574a9cd@CLCHH18>
From: "PUBYAC Moderator" <pyowner@pallasinc.com>
To: "pubyac" <pubyac@prairienet.org>
Subject: Listproc problems
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 09:22:14 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
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charset="iso-8859-1"
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A PUBYAC address caused the entire Prairienet listserver program to crash
over the weekend (about 100 different lists). It is possible that some
messages sent Friday through Sunday may not have made it through. If you
posted a message and didn't see it here, please repost. Sorry for the
confusion.
Shannon VanHemert
PUBYAC Moderator
pyowner@pallasinc.com
------------------------------
From: Mairi Ellen Quodomine <mquodom@mail.pratt.lib.md.us>
To: pubyac@prairienet.org
Subject: Re: dog who hatched from egg
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:01 CDT
Hello all,
Thanks to everyone who answered my stumper about the dog who hatched from an
egg. The answer was
Fletcher who hatched from an egg/ Wende and Harry Devlin. It was orginally
published in 1969, but has been reissued and is now availible for purchase.
:)
Mairi Ellen Quodomine
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Children's Department
------------------------------
From: "Kelly Kowalchuk" <kkowalchuk@hotmail.com>
To: PUBYAC@prairienet.org
Subject: query: middle school novels with Greek mythology theme
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:07 CDT
Hello everyone,
I've recently had a request from a grade eight student--an avid reader--who
would like to read novels with a Greek mythology theme. The only one that
comes to my mind is Adele Geras's Troy. Has anyone other ideas?
Thanks for
your help.
Kelly Kowalchuk
Teacher-librarian
Port McNicoll Public School
Ontario, Canada
kkowalchuk@hotmail.com
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
------------------------------
From: Jean Nichols <jean@clarksville.org>
To: pubyac@prairienet.org
Subject: Re: Books you can sing
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:14 CDT
Dear Jennifer,
I just went to a workshop by Dr. Jean Feldman and we
practiced
singing nursery rhymes to the music of "Yankee Doodle," the theme from
the TV show, "Gilligan's Island" and (pardon me for this one,)
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall." Believe it or
not, they
worked wonderfully. I wouldn't ever have imagined...
Jean Nichols
Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library
Clarksville, TN
------------------------------
From: "Lisa Mulak" <lmulak@nssc.library.ns.ca>
To: <pubyac@prairienet.org>
Subject: Career Day
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:20 CDT
Hello,
I've been asked to talk about my career as a Children's Librarian at a local
elementary school. The talk will run for about 30 minutes- I've never done
this before- can anyone give me some suggestions on how to make it as
interesting as possible? The children will be anywhere from 5 to 9 year
olds. You can respond to me directly.
Thanks,
Lisa Mulak-MacPhee
Children's Librarian
Cape Breton Regional Library
------------------------------
From: "Arnie Naiman & Kathy Reid-Naiman" <kathyl@aci.on.ca>
To: "PUBYAC" <pubyac@prairienet.org>
Subject: re: Kentucky author
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:27 CDT
Thanks All for the quick responses. I should have been more specific though.
What I am really looking for is something appropriate for newborn to 4 years
old. A lot of what has been suggested seems to be for older than 4. Thanks
Kathy
*** New email: kathy@merriweather.ca
www.merriweather.ca
Merriweather Records Ltd.
109 Crawford Rose Dr.
Aurora, Ont.
L4G 4S1
------------------------------
From: "Barbara Scott" <barbarascott@hotmail.com>
To: OPLINLIST@EPICURUS.OPLIN.LIB.OH.US,
PUBYAC@prairienet.org
Subject: Bolo tie craft....
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:33 CDT
Anybody out there have a quick and easy, down and dirty bolo tie craft? I am
doing a Hank the Cowdog program this Saturday. I have found several on the
'net, but nothing that really thrills me.
You may reply directly to barbarascott@hotmail.com
Thanks in advance!
Barb Scott, Children's Librarian
Bucyrus Public Library
_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
------------------------------
From: Stephanie Stokes <stephanie@ssdesign.com>
To: pubyac@prairienet.org
Subject: 10 Reasons a Library needs a Children's Librarian???
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:40 CDT
Dear PUBYACers
I am looking to make a flyer for a library support
group who are lobbying for a "children's librarian".
Are there any resources on the web that may be useful??
OR if you have a comment or quote or thought -- please
share and I tally them and create one.
I will off course share will all.
Any help is much appreciated.
Stephanie Stokes, Prez
FRIENDS & FOUNDATIONS of California Libraries
11045 Wrightwood Place
Studio City, CA 91604
818-980-7476
------------------------------
From: Donna Peasley <dpeasley@gateslibrary.org>
To: "'pubyac@prairienet.org'"
<pubyac@prairienet.org>
Subject: stumper
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:47 CDT
I am passing this along for another librarian who has a patron looking for
this story. The patron is about 70 and read it to her children and would
like to read to her grandchildren. " It is the story of a little squirrel
who built a nest home and naughty squirrels came and pushed her out. She
went to live in a doll house and there were some tin soldiers there. They
went and kicked the naughty squirrels out of the nest." Any help will
be
appreciated!
Donna J. Peasley
Gates Public Library
dpeasly@gateslibrary.org
------------------------------
From: Kerry Reed <kreed@wpld.alibrary.com>
To: PUBYAC <pubyac@prairienet.org>
Subject: Stumper: learning disability
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:53 CDT
Hi
I did not see this go through the first time, I apologize if you're
receiving it again.
I have patron who is seeking 4th grade level biographies of adults who
have overcome a learning disability. So far my staff and I have only
been able to come up with Avi. Can anyone offer any suggestions?
--
Kerry Reed
Youth Services Librarian
Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District
KReed@wpld.alibrary.com
847/446-7220
"I've learned....
That no matter how serious your life requires you to be,
everyone needs a friend to act goofy with."
- Andy Rooney
------------------------------
From: "Jeri Kladder" <JKLADDER@cml.lib.oh.us>
To: <pubyac@prairienet.org>
Subject: Juvenile Collection Storage--Summary--LONG
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:39:59 CDT
Hi all, I'm sending on the responses I received about putting 1/3 of
our juvenile collection, about 50,000 volumes in storage. I'm attaching
it for those who have that capacity, and I'm cutting & pasting it for
those who do not.
Thanx to all who sent their wisdom and words of
encouragement.
Looks like we have till November to actually make the move so we have
time to "do it right". - jeri
***
Four years ago our library moved to a temporary location while we
underwent a grand renovation and expansion project. Our temporary space
was much smaller than our old space and so we had to place a number of
our books in temporary storage which was inaccessible during the
construction project which took two years. I based the decision for
moving a book into storage on the circulation, age, and condition of the
book (great time to pull those books covered with ugly black tape) and
whether we had duplicate copies. I would not recommend pulling duplicate
Seuss, Disney, etc., as they circulate so much. I took this as an
opportunity to weed the collection and pulled boxes and boxes of
out-dated non-fiction books.
Good luck. Cathy Sullivan Seblonka Youth Services Librarian
Peter
White Public Library 217 N. Front St. Marquette, MI 49855
(906)
228-9510 fax (906) 226-1783 e-mail: cathys@uproc.lib.mi.us
***
We store our winter holiday books in the basement and mark the catalog
"HOL." They're boxed up and inaccessible for most of the year,
and
sometimes that's a problem, but since the basement is used by lots of
people for lots of things, we figure we have a better chance of
actually having a collection come next fall if the books aren't
visible. But I do want to warn you about something that happened to us
some years ago. We used to have a collection marked "Storage" in the
basement of our library. It was accessible, you could find stuff, it
was great -- until the Friends of the Library accepted some sort of
moldy books for their book sale months later. The mold spread to the
collection and we lost 10,000 books. So if you have a similar situation
and you need to store stuff in the basement anywhere near where
relatively uncontrolled things like book sale books are stored, make
sure you check randomly and frequently for mold.
Paula Lefkowitz Parsippany (NJ) PL paulalef@aol.com
Don't worry - it's not so bad! We have a good portion of our juvenile
collection storage. We store all seasonal books there and only keep the
current season downstairs. Also, all holiday books that aren't currently
circulating. We regularly thin the shelves for duplicate and
triplicates that can go up when our shelves get crowded. Also, books
with some historical value, slightly dated illustrations, authors not
currently in vogue - but still requested now and then. Our circulation
system allows us to change the permanent location for books, so all our
storage books come up as STOJ for juvenile and STOA for adult. The
patrons know to ask and we will go up and get anything for them - or
send a page or student worker. The only thing to be aware of is our
storage area badly needs weeding because it gradually became a dumping
ground for things that probably should have been weeded in the first
place.
Let me know if you have any more questions. Also, our storage is
mostly picture books, easy books and fiction. Non fiction in storage is
the kiss of death - better to weed. Serena Butch- Schenectady Co. Public
scp_butch@sals.edu
***
I haven't done anything like you are contemplated but I have a few
thoughts that I will pass along. Perhaps you will have thought of all
of this already but on the chance that you haven't I thought it would be
worth a few minutes to pass them along. I'd be interested to hear how
you came to your decision to store a large part of your collection (if
you have the time). We have some storage space here but is mostly used
for back magazine issues, old and fragile local history materials and
that sort of thing.
1. What problems should we try to address in our selection of storage
items, access to stored items, changes in database software, etc. to
minimize disruption and maximize customer service? Make sure that
whatever you do you let people know of the change and have some simple
procedure for retrieval of items in place before you start offering
access to the stored material to the public. You should take into
account the physical characteristics of your storage space as one
consideration in selecting items to store (are the shelves a limited
height? Does the basement have different climate control than the rest
of the building? Will items be on shelves that are very high or low?).
Hopefully your automation software has the capability to do batch
changes so that you will be able to have your technical services people
wand barcodes and change things from "Children's Fiction" to
"Children's
Storage" by the cartload. This combined with an easy retrieval
process
will serve to maximize your customer service. I'm not sure how you
minimize disruption while moving 50K+ volumes but one stab at it would
be to move by section (picture books a-c, Dewey 001-005, etc.) and post
which sections that you are currently moving.
2. How would you make selections for storage? I would approach this
exactly like a weeding project (and, if you haven't, weed as you go).
Even as long as we've had library automation, many people still browse
physically rather than electronically. Books that aren't in your main
shelving are not going to be seen or used as much as those that people
can immediately see. Choose those things that already are used the
least, just as you would with weeding. Multiple copies, older
copyrights, less popular authors, smallest number of circs, in the worst
shape. Again, your automation should be able to help you out be
generating reports with some of these figures (certainly circ. info,
pub. dates and # of copies). If you are shooting for a specific number
such as 50,000 perhaps you could even generate reports of the 50,000
items with the least circs, oldest pub. dates, etc. For things like
popularity and physical condition you will have to actually consider
individual items rather than deal with them in bulk. Depending on the
staff time you have available, you may want to avoid any sort of
individual consideration and just create a report that satisfies your
conditions and send shelvers out to decimate the shelves.
Like I said, I don't know if any of this will be something that you
haven't already considered but hopefully it will be of some use. Good
luck and, if you have the chance, let me know how this situation came
about.
Eric Norton Head of Children's Services McMillan Memorial
Library Wisconsin Rapids WI 54494 715-423-1040 enorton@scls.lib.wi.us
***
I am a grad assistant and work at the Education and Social Science >
Library (ESSL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ESSL
houses the university's children's book collection (2nd largest in the
country!) Many, many, many of our books are in storage in the basement.
Some are even in storage in an off-site building. All the books are
>
still available for patrons to use, but it varies as to how they can get
them. The patron can search the online catalog and locate the book, and
the record indicates the book's location. The patron then comes to us
(grad assistants or librarians) with the call number and location. If
the books are just in the library's basement, we go get the books for
the patron. If they are in the off-site facility, the patron fills out
a card with the pertinent information about the book(s) and another
person will get the book when they make the daily run to the off-site
facility. This usually has a 24 hour turn-around time.
I know this is a solution for a large research university, but I
thought the idea might help you out. The main thing the university does
to facilitate use of the books in storage is make sure the location of
the books are clear and understandable in the online catalog. So maybe
you'll need to make a new location number or symbol in your catalog
records to alert patrons that the book is in storage. And then move all
those books.....
Hope this helps, Lisa Pinard GSLIS Graduate Student UIUC
***
I would put in storage any duplicate copies of titles. In addition I
would take off items that are seasonal, such as all the leaf books (if
leaf identification is an assignment in your community in fall as it is
in ours.) On the other hand, children DO like to read about holidays
outside of the season, in that I wouldn't remove ALL the Christmas books
in summer, but rotate some in and out to keep the shelves looking fresh
with new titles. I would also brainstorm on some way you can run a
report about HOW LONG the item had been in storage and try to rotate the
collection out to the shelves ever so often. If it has been in storage
too long and never checked out, I would guess it was time to weed it.
Good luck. We have lack of space problems as well in certain branches.
Blair B. Christolon, MLS Collection Development Prince
William
Public Library System 13083 Chinn Park Drive Prince William,
VA.
22192-5073 (703)792-6251 voice***(703)792-4875 fax
bchristolon@pwcgov.org <mailto:bchristolon@pwcgov.org>
***
We have a similar proportion of our youth collection in basement
storage. In fact, we have been weeding the whole thing, fiction, n-f
and holiday books for months, and we're almost finished.
Here's my advice for selecting items for storage: duplicates can go,
and in the case of having 12 frog books, send the oldest 3. Also, if
possible, weed anything you know doesn't circulate and isn't important-
it will do your collection no good taking up space in the basement.
Send older items which contain specific topics, such as strange
inventions. You know you'll need that item to answer an esoteric
question, but you know you won't need it more than twice a year.
Definitely keep anything which is "browsable", including as much
newish
fiction as possible.
You do yourselves no favors by keeping old (say pre 1990) non-fiction
in storage. They collect dust, take up space and your weeding project to
get rid of it all the next time you need to put stuff in storage will be
massive. Believe me, I know. I just finshed 3 months of weeding
non-fiction from storage that should have been chucked 20 years ago.
Our opacs have a field to show the status of an item: on shelf, due
00/00/00, damaged, withdrawn, or... in storage. So, people know when
something is in storage and they come to ask us to get it for them. Or,
they are confused trying to find storage, and end up at the information
desk asking us where to get the item. Either way, they end up at the
same place, especially if it's the perfect book for the project.
Actually, needing info desk assistance for this results in better books
for the patron because the librarian gets to intervene and recommend
other sources as well.
Anyway, I hope these notes help. Do write back if you need further
detail- I could go on all day. Happy moving! Happy weeding, if you can
manage some of that beforehand!
Heather Hamilton Youth Services Librarian Spring Garden Road
Memorial
Public Library 5381 Spring Garden Road Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3J 1E9
Tel: (902) 490-5765 Fax: (902) 490-5837
> e-mail: mahh1@nsh.library.ns.ca
http://www.halifax.library.ns.ca
***
There are a couple of ways to go with this. When we had to do something
similar during construction we arranged materials, adult materials in
this case as follows: 400s, 500s and 700s (these mainly because of size)
on a lower level, accessible to the able bodied but in an awkward
location. The 200s and biographies were in a staff only area and we ran
down for them, no browsing. Not the most patron friendly arrangement but
since we had installed 90" shelving as tightly as possible and kept at
least 1 copy of every book we owned available during a long building
project there weren't too many complaints, especially as other libraries
in our area just put chunks of the collection in storage assuming
someone else in the network would have copies for their patrons to
borrow. Honestly, I can't think of a single area of the children's
collection that doesn't come in for its fair share of use during the
course of the year so I'm not sure this will work.
Another approach would be to pull all duplicates (which is what we did
with the children's books with a runner to get an extra copy as needed)
this does mean that if these duplicates find their way back to the shelf
shelvers need to be on the look out for them to be pulled again. If your
system allows it could have a report printed of books that haven't
circulated since X date or less than X number of times and designate
them as storage. A side benefit, if you want to be a little Pollyannaish
(is that a word) about this approach is it gives you a good idea of what
isn't circulating heavily for weeding purposes. Be aware, however, that
unless your system is extremely efficient these lists will include quite
a few of what I call "ghosts" books no one has actually seen in years.
Not a bad thing as they should be cleaned out of the system but it will
slow you down.
Also take a Zen approach, if the collection is accessible if you have
made a mistake about what you put away you can always switch over what
is in storage. I had to do this as well. We have a Bookmobile and had a
small browsing collection at our main library site while the building
was being done but since our central children's collection couldn't be
expected to have enough books for three locations I had the branch
collection (we took over one of our branches during the construction)
accessible and would go down periodically and pull all the science fair
project books or Civil War or whatever the known big assignments were
during the year not to mention hundreds of summer reading books.
Don't forget that you will also be buying new books while you are under
construction, we were packed wall to wall and all over carts by the time
the construction was complete. Also anything that has you handling all
of your collection in a short amount of time always results in piles of
replacement candidates.
Almost forgot if your system allows for it changing the status (Dynix
term) of the items to Storage-Holds means that patrons can place a hold
on the item and it shows up on your regular pull for holds list. Also
make sure there is plenty of signage letting patrons know that these
items are
> available but that a staff member will have to get them. If htey are
off site determine a time frame for retrieval.
Good luck and jus keep thinking of the beautiful new space you will
have when it is all over. Frankly, the charm of being able to shelve
without shifting hasn't worn off even a year later.
Julie Rines jrines@ocln.org
***
I think the decisions are made based on how often the books circulates.
Our library still stamps books with due dates, so it's possible to
look at each book to see when it last circulated. I think books that
have not circulated within the last ten years are sent to storage (in
the basement). Once a book is in storage, it stays there. Every so
often, our storage area gets weeded, and those books that haven't
circulated within the last five to ten years are sent to the remote
storage facility. Since we're a large research library, we get lots of
old books too to add to the collection. Those books get cataloged for
the remote storage (off-site) facility right away and don't even make it
to the browsable shelves.
I know that when I catalog materials for our library, our MARC
records have a line for location. The ESSL has several codes, each one
different depending on where the book is to be shelved. We have
S-Collection (which is the publicly browsable area), S-Collection
storage (the basement storage), and S-Collection remote storage (the
off-site facility). Each place has a different number code which
translates into a location.
I can ask the Head of the ESSL exactly how this works, but the above is
generally true.
***
When we had to put things in storage due to lack of space, the first
things to go were the duplicates and triplicates in some instances.
Second were the items that were not checked out as much. Have you
already done a thorough weeding of your collection? That might cut down
on the number of items you put in storage too.
Tina Hager Youth Services Librarian Carrollton Public Library, TX
***
This will probably be obvious, but make sure your card catalog clearly
shows that the items are in storage. We were putting information in a
"note field" on our computer. Then we switched to a new style
card
catalog and the "note field" no longer showed up. We now put the
information after the call number. (We weren't dealing with items in
storage. The information was about items that were shelved in special
locations, e.g. all our Sesame Street books are shelved together
regardless of the author's name.)
As far as what goes in storage, obviously things like duplicates, older
titles. Some collections are definitely more "browsable" than
others.
I probably wouldn't store many picture books, fairy tale books,
biographies, sports books, for example. I would probably opt for
certain areas of nonfiction, but I am not a nonfiction reader so...
Good luck in your project (and you have my sympathy), Susan Dailey
librarian and author of A Storytime Year (www.susanmdailey.com)
Ossian
Branch Library, Ossian, Indiana 219-622-4691
mailto:obldailey@wellscolibrary.org>
***
My library has a significant children's collection in "secondary" also
in the basement. We have fairly easy access--usually takes about 2-4
minutes to get down the stairs, search and find, get back up--but the
public cannot browse it. All the items in storage have a collection code
that says "Ask at the Children's Desk" When someone comes up and asks
about it we know automatically it's in the basement. We basically have
two sections for simplicity--fiction and nonfiction. Fiction books
regardless of whether they are picture book or novels are all interfiled
since we always go down with a call number in hand it's not a problem.
People can still check out items we just have to get them for them. So
the circulation of the items is severely reduced but not completely
stopped. As far as what's down there...
back issues of magazines
those old series books that parents often want to reread but take up
lots of space on your shelf and aren't very attractive. (Bobsy Twins,
Tom Swift, etc.)
any books that are beginning to get fragile or have fallen out of
popularity but you don't want to get rid of for one reason or another
reference books that don't get used that often
SATA, poetry indexes, etc.
anthologies of things like folktales, poetry, short stories that may
get asked for but don't generally get picked up in browsing.
--extra copies of holiday books, old classics and award winners.
When I was first introduced to the idea of storage I didn't like it but
now I sort of do because it gives me a tool for keeping my browsing
collection current and pretty without getting rid of those older dustier
classics.
I hope this is helpful... ~jenniferbaker Fresno Co. Library
***
This is Ginny McKee and I have worked several places with books in
storage and it can work very well. Plan the space so that the
collections have ample space [our biggest problem was when a collection
was too big to fit and it had to jump somewhere else....].
I don't know how your circ system works, but find a way to put "store"
or some recognizable code in the record that will come up on the
terminal - this way it is clear to everyone.
1. What problems should we try to address in our selection of storage
items - move seasonal items -the Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Halloween
items to storage. They can nicely be arranged BY holiday and are easy
to locate when a patron asks for Christmas in July. Next move
duplicates that you may want to keep and those items with very few
circulations that you want to keep [for example, a Newbery winner that
isn't popular with your crowd but you want to keep just in case.]
access to stored items - at Providence, we would run up to the stacks to
retrieve the item, patrons were not permitted up.changes in database
software - I think this is my first suggestion - make it clear in the
catalog that these items are in storage.
2. How would you make selections for storage? - Seasonal, use [or
lack of] and items that you need to keep [local authors, books about...,
etc.] and don't get very much use. It is a system with lots of merit
when one needs to maintain but items are not popular....
Ginny McKee Children's Librarian South Brunswick, NJ
tobytonga@yahoo.com
***
About needing stuff from storage when everything normally on the
shelves has been circulated: in our library, the children's department
is located on the floor above the basement storage, so whoever is doing
reference at the children's information desk has to scoot down there to
get the materials a patron needs. So when the old frog books are needed,
they come out, and then they are put back in storage when they are
brought back. On a busy reference shift on a Tuesday evening (5-9pm,
when I handle the desk alone) I usually make 2 trips to storage to
retrieve items. They are sometimes fiction, sometimes picture books,
sometimes n-f, sometimes French books. It varies, but I know we don't
have to go running down there all day long.
Don't overlook your reference collection for answering weird questions.
Sometimes using the reference collection and photocopying a page or two
is just as satifying for a patron as having a book in hand, depending on
the topic. When time is of the essence, and there isn't much left on the
shelf to choose from, I always get the client looking in reference works
and then I slip down to the basement for a quick search for older stuff.
When they are waiting around doing nothing is when they get impatient.
Better to give them something to do, and reference works give
up-to-the-minute information which is good to have anyway, especially if
the basement search comes up with nothing good.
Here's one last thought on the issue of what to send to storage:
if you put something in storage and then find it comes out every month,
leave it up on the shelf. When the shelves get too crowded again, have
shelvers alert you to the tight spots. Then you or an assistant can look
the shelf over and pull some other things to go to storage. It isn't fun
to have part of the collection in another place, but you'll get used to
it.
I hope these notes are helpful- please feel free to write again!
Heather Heather Hamilton Youth Services Librarian
Spring Garden Road Memorial Public Library 5381 Spring Garden Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 1E9 Tel: (902) 490-5765 Fax: (902)
490-5837
e-mail: mahh1@nsh.library.ns.ca
http://www.halifax.library.ns.ca
***
I haven't done anything like you are contemplated but I have a few
thoughts that I will pass along. Perhaps you will have thought of all
of this already but on the chance that you haven't I thought it would be
worth a few minutes to pass them along. I'd be interested to hear how
you came to your decision to store a large part of your collection (if
you have the time). We have some storage space here but is mostly used
for back magazine issues, old and fragile local history materials and
that sort of thing.
1. What problems should we try to address in our selection of storage
items, access to stored items, changes in database software, etc. to
minimize disruption and maximize customer service? Make sure that
whatever you do you let people know of the change and have some simple
procedure for retrieval of items in place before you start offering
access to the stored material to the public. You should take into
account the physical characteristics of your storage space as one
consideration in selecting items to store (are the shelves a limited
height? Does the basement have different climate control than the rest
of the building? Will items be on shelves that are very high or
low?). Hopefully your automation software has the capability to do
batch changes so that you will be able to have your technical services
people wand barcodes and change things from "Children's Fiction" to
"Children's Storage" by the cartload. This combined with an easy
retrieval process will serve to maximize your customer service. I'm not
sure how you minimize disruption while moving 50K+ volumes but one stab
at it would be to move by section (picture books a-c, Dewey 001-005,
etc.) and post which sections that you are currently moving.
2. How would you make selections for storage? I would approach this
exactly like a weeding project (and, if you haven't, weed as you go).
Even as long as we've had library automation, many people still browse
physically rather than electronically. Books that aren't in your main
shelving are not going to be seen or used as much as those that people
can immediately see. Choose those things that already are used the
least, just as you would with weeding. Multiple copies, older
copyrights, less popular authors, smallest number of circs, in the worst
shape. Again, your automation should be able to help you out be
generating reports with some of these figures (certainly circ. info,
pub. dates and # of copies). If you are shooting for a specific number
such as 50,000 perhaps you could even generate reports of the 50,000
items with the least circs, oldest pub. dates, etc. For things like
popularity and physical condition you will have to actually consider
individual items rather than deal with them in bulk. Depending on the
staff time you have available, you may want to avoid any sort of
individual consideration and just create a report that satisfies your
conditions and send shelvers out to decimate the shelves.
Like I said, I don't know if any of this will be something that you
haven't already considered but hopefully it will be of some use. Good
luck and, if you have the chance, let me know how this situation came
about.
Eric Norton Head of Children's Services McMillan Memorial Library
Wisconsin Rapids WI 54494 715-423-1040 enorton@scls.lib.wi.us
***
It sounds like your library may be going through something similar to
ours, although we still don't know how much space we will have in a
temporary facility for two years or so while our Main Library is
demolished and expanded. I have been struggling with some of the same
questions, although we would not have any accessible storage. We can
have part of the collection in temporary quarters, and the rest will be
stored and not available. Here are some of my decisions, and the
reasons I made them.
1. I plan to make most of the picture book and easy to read books
available, since that is one of the most heavily used collections. I am
currently weeding the collection to replace old and worn copies as much
as possible. I may store some multiple copies which have limited
circulations, for instance taking no more than 3 or 4 copies of a title,
especially if our three branches also have copies.
2. For fiction, I may store some of the older titles that don't
circulate often and mostly take the very popular titles. Since we won't
be able to have classes come to the temporary facility for visits, we
won't be doing as many booktalks. Again, if the branches have copies,
we may limit extra copies of popular titles. We do have to consider
extra copies of titles that may be on the school district's summer
reading lists for middle schools, though. I haven't figured out how to
keep them available but not take up too much space during the rest of
the year.
3. For non-fiction, I have used some circulation statistics from our
automated system (Sirsi) to be able to back-up my decisions. For
instance, I would probably take limited titles from our extensive
collection of 398's and poetry and short stories. I would take most of
the 500's and 600's, and much of the 700's and 900's. In other areas, I
would pick and choose, depending on the subject, useage, etc. We are
also weeding these collections now, to prepare for closure in November
or December.
YA--we may interfile much of the non-fiction with the children's
non-fiction and mainly take the paperback fiction. Again, it depends on
the space we have in temporary quarters and if the Children's collection
is in a different location, which it looks like it may be.
I hope this helped somewhat. Good luck with your project.
Ellen Braby Coordinator of Youth Services Santa Monica Public
Library
***
If there was some way you could email the school district that you
serve and explain your dilemma and try to get quarterly school
assignments from them that might help. I know you are laughing at this
because school librarians have a hard enough time trying to get
information let alone a public librarian but it is worth a try. Maybe
the school librarians know what is going to be taught or you could try
the school district office.
I hope this information helps. If you have pages, maybe they could
help with the rotation process. It will also help if you have a lot of
carts for the shifting. Tina Hager
------------------------------
From: Margaret Brannon <margaret.brannon@ci.high-point.nc.us>
To: PUBYAC@prairienet.org
Subject: Family Storytelling Night
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:40:07 CDT
Sounds like a great idea!
Telling your own stories: for family and classroom storytelling, public
speaking, and personal journaling by Donald Davis (August House, 1993)
has a great introduction to storytelling and prompts to get people
thinking about family stories. Many of his most popular stories are tall
tales crafted from family incidents--Barking at a fox fur coat is a good
example.
The August House website (www.augusthouse.com)
features tips also.
Good luck with the program!
------------------------------
From: Melissa Bates <mbates@leaplibraries.org>
To: PUBYAC@prairienet.org
Subject: Young Adult budget
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:40:13 CDT
Hello. Cheshire Public Library, Cheshire CT (Population of town is 28,
543) is looking into creating a separate young adult book budget from our
existing Children's budget starting July 1, 2002. Do any other libraries
(comparable to the town of Cheshire's size) have separate YA book
budgets? If so, can you send me some figures? Do you break the YA
book
budget down in terms of paperbacks, hard cover fiction, non-fiction, and so
on? I'm not interested in AV Materials or periodicals because those are
ordered through different departments. Thanks in advance.
Please e-mail me directly: mbates@leaplibraries.org
Melissa Bates
Young Adult Librarian
Cheshire Public Library
Cheshire, CT
------------------------------
From: "Steven Engelfried" <sengelfried@ci.beaverton.or.us>
To: "PUBlic librarians serving Young Adults & Children"
Subject: Stumper: 12 Days of Xmas with Monsters
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 10:40:19 CDT
Our patron read a book in 1983 or earlier. It was a take off on the 12 =
Days of Christmas, using different monsters for each of the days. The =
monsters end up tearing the house apart. She remembers a scene with =
lizard-like things munching on the carpet. She thinks it started with =
the regular old Partridge in a Peartree, then went on to monsters. Does =
anyone know this book or author?
Steven Engelfried, Children's Division Librarian
Beaverton City Library
12375 SW 5th Street
Beaverton, OR 97005
503-526-2599 sengelfried@ci.beaverton.or.us
------------------------------
End of PUBYAC Digest 744
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