The holidays have come and gone in a whirlwind, and we’re gearing up for some serious research in the winter months!  The book fair in November was a rousing success, with over $3,000 in Scholastic dollars generated to purchase additional library materials.  We’re looking forward to the spring book fair in April, which may coincide with our second annual Read-A-Thon!  More on that later, though!

This month we’re working with eighth graders as they research societal issues.  We’re also talking to 6th graders about sources of information about their community, in the context of their Project Citizen research.  Later, we’ll also do a lesson on evaluating online sources of information – an all-important topic in the digital age.  Spanish classes learned about the Epiphany celebration in the library.  We’re also super excited to see what the 8th graders have come up with during the National History Day expo next week!

Meanwhile, I’m working on bringing useful information from the library’s resources over to the website, and finalizing this year’s book orders.  We have a lot of great new fiction on the way, including a lot of books students have requested like the Monster High and Sisters Grimm series (and yes, TP, I ordered the sequel to Joseph!).  We’re also purchasing new technology and poetry books, as well as some non-fiction that will support common core standards, and some badly needed new picture books.  All that means a lot of sorting through reviews as I work to squeeze as many books as we can out of the library budget!  Students can look forward to shipments of new books arriving in February and March – just in time for Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America.

Speaking of reading, here’s a great article about the role of school libraries in today’s changing information landscape!  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yohuru-williams/sense-and-sensibility-why_b_6409076.html