Saturday, August 30, 2008

Parent's Breakfast


This is the third year we've had a parent's breakfast. If I do say so myself, it was the best year yet. I'm not sure exactly what the difference was, but librarians and parents were deep in conversation for the entire hour. The first year was reminiscent of a high school dance - librarians and parents awkwardly standing in separate groups. This year, Susan wondered if she should even interrupt and give her welcome. My initial advisor training left me feeling completely overwhelmed and unprepared for the task. Ha ha! It turns out, I did learn something and was able to answer all kinds of questions from parents about classes, withdrawal, writing requirements, etc. Very satisfying! The librarian in the picture is Stephanie, head of the Art and Music Library. One of her students came up with the original idea for our t-shirt. Marc translated the idea into the actual design. Very sharp.

Presidential Jeopardy


Day one of freshman orientation. Students and their parents have to sit in their cars waiting to move into the dorms. While they're waiting, they have a big bag of information to look through. We always include a handout with a piece of candy taped to it (so ours stands out from all the other paper...) This year the theme for orientation was board games. Our invitation to the parent's breakfast on Tuesday had a candy land theme. On the other side of the handout Lisa made a presidential jeopardy game. They can call the reference desk and enter a contest to win a flash drive. We don't get a lot of calls, but we hope they see the invitation and maybe the game helps pass the time for those trapped in the car.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Book Cart Drill Team


Last week was a shocking one for Cynthia. She learned about the fall out shelter, pornography, and last, but not least, book cart drill teams. There are two camps. Those who think the book cart drill teams are silly (Susan and Stanley). Those who think the book cart drill teams are FABULOUS and go out of their way to watch the competition at ALA (Katie). I wonder which camp Cynthia will fall into?!

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

The Newbery Project

This is going to be fun. Kathy found a group of people who are reading all the Newbery Award winning books. I am onboard! I've randomly read 14 so far. (I'm not counting books I read as a kid and can't remember anything about like "Johnny Tremain".)

  1. The Higher Power of Lucky - Sweet story with a happy ending. My favorite kind.
  2. Criss Cross - Hmmmmm. Read it twice and appreciated it more the second time.
  3. The Tale of Despereaux - Started very strong, but petered out...
  4. Holes - very scary. I had to keep telling myself it was only a book.
  5. Maniac Magee - My first Spineli book. No wonder kids love him.
  6. Sarah, Plain and Tall - The words in this book are beautiful.
  7. The Westing Game - This is a fantastic book. Of course I couldn't figure out the mystery.
  8. Bridge to Terabithia - Oh boy, I didn't see THAT coming.
  9. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Loved this book!!! What a surprising plot line.
  10. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Another great one.
  11. A Wrinkle in Time - Can you believe I had never read this book before? Fantastic.
  12. Onion John - Sweet and sad at the same time.
  13. The Twenty-One Balloons - Liked the premise, but found the book a little boring.
  14. Caddie Woodlawn - I remembered liking this book as a kid and it held up after all these years.
I'm going to take a systematic approach and start with the first winner in 1922 and work my way to the present. Here we go with "The Story of Mankind" by Hendrik Willem van Loon! I wonder how long it will take me to read the remaining 72 books?