Library 101: A Handbook for the School Library Media Specialist

by Claire Gatrell Stephens and Patricia Franklin

Book Overview

This well organized handbook is a must have for new and inexperienced school librarians as they open new schools or take on that first job. It will also serve as a source of information for library... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591583241
• ISBN13: 9781591583240
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.4" x 10.7"

Customer Reviews

great no problems

great no problems... i'm a media specialist and this book has helped me connect my lessons to spec info-literacy standards, etc

Library 101

Library 101 is a well rounded book about management of school libraries. We are using it for our textbook and it covers the important points of school librarianship. I am glad our instructor chose Library 101 as our textbook for the class.

At last! I found a great source book!

Confessions from a school librarian. My name is Miss Judy. I work in a small Catholic school library. This is my fourth year. Previously, I spent four years in a high school library. I knew what I was doing because I had been a high school English teacher for many years before that and knew how to talk to high school students. But little children and middle school kids? I never had my own personal children, so working with the little ones was really scary at first. And middle school? I had always heard about that age group. And it's all true!! When the principal (also new to the school) showed me the library, I thought: Warehouse. Dingy, dull, no personality, just dusty books on dusty shelves. There are two rooms: the main room housing most of the collection and the smaller, darker, dirtier room with biographies and reference books. The summer I was hired, I sponged the main room sky blue, leaving what resembles sketchy white clouds peering through the blue. I put up posters, brought in plants which struggled through the heat of the poorly working, dripping air-conditioner. I cleaned every single one of the children's picture books. I added bright rugs. It looked better! The next summer I painted the walls of the smaller room a pale pink, added flowery border, put in carpet, painted the cabinets a matching pink and added decorations suitable for children. I moved all the children's books into this room and the references into the main room. I set up a separate VHS tape and DVD library next to the children's books. Then began weeding and automation. After two and one half years, I will finish by May. As I cleaned, repaired, discarded, and properly processed books for automation, I probably discarded 15 boxes of books--worn out, dirty, ripped, yellowed pages, outdated. During all this time, classes continued to come to the library. What I am confessing is that I have struggled to teach meaningful lessons to these children. I have never been happy with anything I have done and feel inadequate. I searched everywhere looking for books and lesson plans, websites. I was not happy with anything I found. I used things from each source, but I wanted something that I could turn to again and again. As an English teacher, my mind never stopped at creating interesting and meaningful lessons, but library stuff? I can't seem to wrap my mind around Dewey and dictionaries and book care and check-out procedures and overdue books and so on. Until yesterday when "Library 101: A Handbook for the School Library Media Specialist" came in the mail. I have poured through this book in the last 24 hours. It is my dream come true!! I have highlighted and checked websites and started jotting ideas to use next year. This is exactly what I have been looking for. The book is organized and just chock full of tips and ideas and lists and other resources. I am agog with joy! There is no need for me to break down the organization of the book. The first reviewer did a thorou

Excellent Resource

If you are entering the school library media specialist field or if you are thinking about it, Library 101: A Handbook for the School Library Media Specialist by Claire Gatrell Stephens and Patricia Franklin is a great resource to guide you through your new job. This handbook provides detailed information about the responsibilities and expectations associated with a school library media specialist position. It explores many aspects of the job such as collection development, budgets, processing books, teaching classes, and managing equipment. A school library media specialists wears many hats and Library 101 covers all of them. The authors, Claire Gatrell Stephens and Patricia Franklin put their expertise and love of their jobs into this book. Both are National Board Certified school library media specialists and work at high school Library Media Centers in Florida. They both had the opportunity to open up new Library Media Centers in new schools, giving them insight into the essential needs of a LMC from the ground up. Neither started their careers as school library media specialists, but they found their way into the Library Media Center and haven't looked back. Library 101: A Handbook for the School Library Media Specialist is organized into four parts, Day to Day Basics; The Media Specialist as Teacher Collaborator; Long-term Vision - Managing Your Collection; and Part 4 - Equipping Your Library Media Center. It is a well-organized book with clearly designated chapters and sub chapters as shown in the table of contents. The authors utilize tables and sidebars well. The reader gains a lot of insight from the sidebars, which include tips from other Media Specialists, sample lesson plans, surveys, guidelines, and other helpful tidbits. Black and white photographs, computer screen shots, and scanned documents are interspersed throughout the book and provide a good visuals for the reader. The layout of the book is nicely done; the fonts are easy to read and the text is broken up by the sidebars, tables, and pictures. The Appendices at the end of the book include a listing of National Level Professional Organizations, State Professional Organizations, Helpful Resources, Awards and Prizes, as well as a Glossary of Library Terms. The authors explore many topics relevant to new School Library Media Specialist. In Part I, The Day to Day Basics - some of the more helpful topics were Teaching and Learning, Establishing Circulation Policies, Media Management Systems- using your software and handling textbooks are subtopics. The debate between Fixed or Flex scheduling is discussed in Chapter 5 - Scheduling: Philosophy and Practicality. Two sidebars written by library media specialists offer differing views on flex and fixed scheduling and why it works for them. Chapter 6 looks at Staffing Your Library Media Center while Chapter 7 Arranges Your Media Center, looking at furniture, computers, shelving, and decorating. Part II - The Media Specialist as Teac

Library 101: A Handbook for the School Library Media Specialist

I need this book for a class. It is very infomative. My favororite part of the book are the boxes containing the tips from veteran media specialists on things that you can do as a media specialist to increase student achievement and increase teacher collaboration in your library.