I have had the chance to work in the library with five classes so far. Three have been history and two have been science.
Working with high school students isn't too different than college age students; I do find that the demo or intro in the beginning of the session is less important, at least I think, than working one on one with students. I have only tried a speaking-only intro, so maybe next class I'll do an actual demo and see how that goes.
Working one-on-one has been very great! I love helping students find books, figure out Proquest, and even use the copier! A handful of students in each class do not use my services, but I don't press if it seems like they are content in their researching. After all, I was the last person to ask for a librarian's help in all of my schooling!
Being in a small school has a great benefit that I think I've mentioned before: the ability to track projects and email new things as they come by to the students who need them. Being able to be an active helper/guide throughout a project is pretty amazing. Faculty at my school recognize the importance of research skills and often set aside multiple blocks of time for the projects. I am luck to be in a school that values research and the library so much!
Today I visited a class that had worked in the library a few times. They did analytical biographies on people from the progressive era from Ida B. Wells to J.P. Morgan. In class today, the project culminated in a two hour + round table discussion on issues (I sat in on 25 minutes of the group talking about immigration). The students spoke as their biography subjects. It was great! A nice way to have class presentations without the pain of each student going up to the front of the class and doing a solo 5-7 minute spiel. I was really glad to see all of the research paying off, and I appreciated being invited by the history teacher (the head of her department)!
"The Dictionary of the History of Ideas"
We have this in print (falling apart from low use, sadly)
The good news is that is also available online:
http://etext.virginia.edu/DicHist/dict.html
My sister sent this to me last week.
A neat tool to keep track of books and have a personal catalog online. Similar to LibraryThing.
I set up a group on good reads for my high school. It may be a neat tool for the book club at the very least. I could also see it being implemented on a class level to share books for projects.
We subscribed to ARTStor in September. It will support Art History, but I think it will be good for the history and English departments as well.
We also got Janson's history of Art on DVD! Super neat.
The art department makes a mini-library in one of the art rooms for the term (or year?) with magazines, books, and videos. there are pros and cons to having a mini-library. The biggest pro is that the items get used a lot! The biggest con is that I miss out on teaching the art students how to conduct research. I wonder if there is a way to reconcile this con? I am not sure the art faculty would ever give up the mini-library and I am not sure that's what I want either...
Ideas?
Sometime in September I had my first class visit to the library. A sophomore history class came in and I stumbled through the library orientation. I am not typically a nervous person, but somehow a group of fifteen year old students and my supervisor (substituting for the teacher that day) made my experience speaking in front of groups turn into mush.
Once the students started researching, though, I found my comfort zone. One of my favorite parts of librarianship is working one-on-one with students. I love figuring out what source will work, explaining how to use the catalog, finding that perfect book, and leading students on what i hope is an exciting research journey. I hope my excitement for research rubs off on them!
Since that day in September I've had more classes come in and gotten better at the initial library orientation. At least once a week the students from that sophomore history class come in and I've been able to follow their research. This class has been one of great importance for me, especially as a new librarian and new to working with teenagers. I find myself feeling very lucky that I work in a school with really thoughtful students who do, at seems, seem genuinely excited about finding information!
I have been putting off starting a blog for a few months. Having just begun my new career as a high school librarian, I was eager to chronicle my new duties in a blog. it has been really busy, though!
At six weeks into the school year, I am finally ready to do some thinking, posting, and reflecting. Look for ideas, books, and projects here.
The details:
- I am a high school librarian (previously an academic librarian)
- I am the only librarian at a small (345 enrollment) independent high school in SF
- The library has roughly 10,000 books (which I am weeding like a madwoman)
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Vox Librarians Updated: 11 hours ago
