Student self-checkout

Lucy and Ethel believe strongly in letting students take ownership of their library experience. Once I got Ethel as my full time assistant, we started letting the students scan their own books. I know some of you do this, and do this at an even more advanced level than we do (more on that later). Picture Lucy, or Ethel, behind the desk. Student comes up, gives us their number. We type it in our Follett Circ Plus. Student then scans book (or books). We hit print for the receipt. We type in any passwords necessary for any overrides (like if the book is on hold, and we are letting it go, etc.). The students really like this--especially if they are in a large group. Believe it or not, when we get a whole class in to check out, it is faster if they scan the books themselves. Now, we'd love to have comments from some of you who take this to a higher level--having students type in their own numbers and scan, etc. How is that set up in your libraries? We are switching to Destiny by late spring (wish us luck), and wonder if this offers us even more possibilities here. Let us know your thoughts in our comments section!

Yet another genealogy project--oh my!

I really like to collaborate with teachers--my library professor, Dr. Bucher, drummed collaboration and public relations into our brains and I took it as gospel!!! But, Lucy is going to be honest--there are times, when a teacher comes to me with a collaborative project--that I cringe (inwardly). This is one of those times. One of my favorite teachers approached me last week and asked me to talk to her students about one of my passions--genealogy. You may be asking yourself ,if Lucy is so passionate about genealogy, why did she cringe? Well, I am going to be honest. As a very amateur genealogist (really no more than a baby in the big world of genealogy), I have some problems with this type of activity at a high school. I worry about the child who doesn't know his or her father or mother, but listens as others can recite generations of their family. I worry that they will unearth family secrets no one wants dug up (hey, Lucy did this with her own family genealogy). Famous quote from my aunt: "why don't you let those dead people rest". I worry that they will get sidetracked by the myriad of overwhelming resources on the net, and get drawn down the wrong lineage line.

I have worked on a collaborative project of genealogy before with another teacher at my school. I will try to dig up the publisher document we made to go with the unit, and attach it to this post. I even talked our Gale rep into letting us have Ancestry free for one month.

So here is what happened--our students are so young, that they must go back many, many generations before they could even begin to find someone related to them on Ancestry. Most had no names past a grandparent--and some didn't even have that. Now remember, most public records start in 1930 and go backward in time. My grandmothers were in their adulthood at that time--but for most children today, we are talking great-great grandparents or further. Many would hit on a name in a town where they thought their family came from, but were frustrated because we couldn't prove the relationship. Few have access to courthouse records to get back that far--etc., etc. To me, the activity promoted sloppy genealogy at best.

Yes, there were some positives--they actually talked to the elders of their families, they learned what they could about their families, and it gave them a sense of appreciation of older people, their ancestors, and history.

So weigh the negatives and the positives before doing a genealogy project. If you choose to work with a teacher on this, I did find some nifty interactive sites that I think will work well with today's students. I am going to use MyHeritage with these students tomorrow.

Here are the sites I found:

http://www.myheritage.com/

http://www.geni.com/

http://www.werelate.org/

http://www.familylink.com/

http://www.famiva.com/

http://www.genetree.com/

Remember, we told you we'd be honest! Wish Ethel and I luck when we do our genealogy talk tomorrow!

What are Lucy and Ethel doing in the land of blogs?

First, who are Lucy and Ethel? My name is Mary Simmons (aka Lucy), and I have worked as a library media specialist in Virginia and then North Carolina for around 20 years. I have been at all levels--elementary, middle, and high school. My co-author is Beth O'Briant (aka Ethel), and she is my library assistant (as well as my neighbor and good friend). I got my B.A. in history at the University of Richmond, then took what seemed like one-million library classes at ODU, where I received my masters degree. I was very well schooled there to always remember PR, PR, PR (public relations) no matter the level I served. Beth is the creative genius at the library--and together, we are always plotting and scheming new ways to entice students into the media center (that is where folks started calling us Lucy and Ethel--and because we are kind of zany!)

We want to tell you what this blog is..and what it isn't. This blog is not a site where we will wax poetic in educational mumbo-jumbo about the grand scheme of all things library related. Our sole purpose is to share with other high school library personnel practical ideas we have used to bring high school students to our media center. They don't always come in to check out a book--but we both strongly believe if we ever once lure them in, and they visit us often, we will eventually connect a book or magazine with that student--even if it takes us years! We believe our library is for our students--and we try to keep in mind what will make them comfortable. We want our kids to come to the library--even if it is just to be their refuge from the larger world of a big high school. We want them to have fun, read, and maybe just learn something in the process.

We want this blog to be a forum for sharing ideas -- if you have tried something that worked to bring students in to the media center--let us know!

Remember, not all of our ideas may work for you in your situation--but we hope you can find something we do that may work for you! If you have a problem that you'd like us to help you solve--we'll be glad to try and help you solve it!