Book Fairs

Next week is our school’s book fair, and I spent time speaking with Kelly about the process, and we set up the book fair space. She uses Scholastic, which is convenient because they have a representative who checks in with you during the whole process, and they provide many resources through their book fair website like checklists for before, during, and after. Scholastic packages the materials very efficiently in labeled boxes and even includes tablecloths and signs. The main book fair shelves are already pre-filled so all you have to do is open them up and pull the signs up from the back of the cart.

This is a picture of Scholastic carts with books on each shelf. Each cart has a sign above it advertising books. There are tables covered with a tablecloth in front of the carts for more book displays.
The silver carts open up to house the books that will be featured during the book fair. The signs above each cart were provided by Scholastic.
Boxes of books and materials from the Scholastic book fair
Here are some of the boxes that Scholastic sends materials in. They are labeled so that you can easily know what’s in each box.

The only downside is that you don’t get to choose the books you want in your book fair. You only select the level of books, and Scholastic chooses the actual books for you. For the profit you earn, you can choose to either receive it as cash (about half of the dollar amount you earned), Scholastic dollars (only to be used through Scholastic), or a combination of the two. Having Scholastic dollars is good when you want to buy book club books or add more books to your library, but cash is helpful when you want to provide programs or resources for your library that Scholastic does not offer.

Here are some tips that Kelly gave me for a successful book fair:

  • If possible, have an enclosed space to set up the fair. We have an old computer lab located in the library, so this is an ideal space for the book fair since you can control the amount of kids coming into and out of the space. They also have to pass the register on the way out, so it’s less likely that things will be taken.
    • Put the non-book items (erasers, bookmarks, markers, pens, etc.) on a poster by the register with prices listed. Then, students can point out what they want, and you don’t have them grabbing these things and walking off with them.
    • It also allows you to run regular library activities.
  • Promote your book fair through as many avenues as you can.
    • Invite teachers to preview the book fair ahead of time so they can see books to recommend to students.
      • Also, give out a teacher coupon or discount. This impacts your profits, but it helps you support each other.
    • Invite ELA teachers to bring their classes to the fair during the week.
    • Give book fair flyers to all homeroom teachers to pass out to students. This advertises the books that will be available. 
    • Play book trailers on the screens in the library, at the book fair, and on the morning announcements. Scholastic does a great job with its book trailers. 
    • Put banners up at all entrances so that students know the book fair is going on. Also, put signs around the car rider line for parents to see.
    • Post your Scholastic website to the school’s homepage so that anyone can shop online to support the school or set up their student’s eWallet.
  • Schedule your book fair at a time when other school events are going on, so there will be more foot traffic and a higher chance people will stop by the book fair. This is also convenient for your administration as they already have to be at the school and will be screening people with the metal detectors.
  • Ask for volunteers to help.
    • You’ll want parent volunteers to help run the registers during the day. This will get students back to class more quickly. Since they are handling money, you will want to make sure that they are trustworthy and vetted by the district.
    • Engage student volunteers to help put up book fair posters and bring flyers to teachers. Talk up the book fair with them so they can get their friends excited too. 

Happy Book Fair!

Picture of counter with books displayed and posters on wall.

Graphic novel table display

Discount book table display

Fun fact books display table

YALLFest Book Festival

I attended the YALLFest festival in Charleston, SC this weekend. YALLFest is an annual young adult book festival that features author signings and panels. Authors will talk about topics that are important to their genre. This is a free event that anyone can go to. They also have two keynote sessions that you can pay for, but they have limited seating. One thing I really like is that you can receive advanced copies of upcoming books.

Covers of Lost & Found by Mei Yu, Death Is My BFF by Katarina Tonks, Dead Endia The Divine Order by Hamish Steele, and Ethan Fairmont by Nick Brooks
Advanced copies of books that I received

I attended five panels this year instead of waiting in line for author signatures. Most of the panels were moderated by authors who wrote books about the topic being discussed, and they asked the panel authors different questions surrounding the discussion topic. Then, they tried to leave time at the end for audience questions. It was really cool to see the authors interact with one another and talk about their books and characters. You could tell how passionate they were about their work and how much they wanted readers to enjoy their stories.

The first panel I went to focused on giving people hope when they’re going through something difficult. One of the authors, Hannah Sawyerr, talked about her upcoming book, All the Fighting Parts, which is a novel in verse about the main character getting sexually assaulted by her well-liked and respected pastor. The story is based on some of the experiences that Hannah had. She talked about how writing was cathartic and she wanted readers who experienced something similar to know that they will be okay and will come out on the other side stronger than before. This was a very powerful message to the audience.

This is a picture with authors Ally Condie, Candice Iloh, Matt Mendez, Hannah Sawyerr, and Laura Nowlin.

This panel talked about writing about heavy topics and how they give their characters hope.

The next panel I attended was about creating romances in fantasy, and these authors were so engaging and hilarious in their responses. They talked about balancing the realistic nature of relationships with the fantasy elements of their characters having powers. The authors also talked about developing the love triangle trope in their books but making sure that the main character had a stable friendship that they could always rely on. I liked that they brought up how romantic relationships can come and go but supportive friendships were the most important.

This is a picture of authors Margaret Stohl, Melissa de la Cruz, Alex Aster, J. Elle, Angela Montoya, Stephanie Garber, and Jason June.
This panel talked about creating relationships in books and how they incorporated fantasy elements into their stories.

This third panel was one of the most informative and something important to the librarian community. All of the authors featured have had books banned somewhere in the United States. They talked about the reason they became authors was due to not having books that represented who they were when they were younger. I think it’s so important for all kids to see themselves as MAIN characters in books and that even though there are now more books of this nature, people are trying to take them off the shelves.

This is a picture of Chicago media specialist and authors Caleb Roehrig, Abdi Nazemian, Bethany Baptiste, Ryan La Sala, David Levithan, and Hannah Sawyerr.
This panel talked about the reasons why books are banned and gave statistics on SC bannings and legislature.

I was super excited about this panel because Cassandra Clare wrote one of my favorite series, The Mortal Instruments. The authors talked about the myths and folklore that influenced their writings. An interesting point they brought up was that the “monsters” in their stories are metaphors for things that people may not be able to defeat in their lives, but writers can have their characters triumph over these issues to give people hope.

This is a picture of authors Margaret Stohl, Leigh Bardugo, Cassandra Clare, Shelby Mahurin, Namina Forna, and Amelie Wen Zhao
This was a panel about creating fantasy worlds and what inspired these worlds.

The last panel was one of my favorites because I love a good mystery, and it was interesting to hear these authors talk about their writing process. They all talked about giving enough information at the beginning of the book to hint at who is responsible but doing it in a way that the reader doesn’t realize it until they get to that reveal.

This is a picture of author's Maureen Johnson, Joelle Wellington, Jessie Weaver, Gretchen McNeil, Britney Lewis, and Caleb Roehrig
This panel was all about writing mystery and suspense novels.

If you have never attended a book festival, I highly recommend that you do because you won’t be disappointed! Check out these websites: https://yallfest.org/ or https://www.yallwest.com/.

Making Research Interesting

Kelly, the media specialist that I’m shadowing, was presenting a research lesson for ELA classes because students were writing a persuasive speech on an issue of their choice. Research is not the most interesting topic for eighth graders since they have always had any type of information they want at their fingertips. They can type any topic or question that they want to know about into their phone Internet browser or in Google Chrome on their Chromebooks and receive thousands of resources in a matter of seconds. Many times, students just pick the first site, copy the information, and move on. Even though students know what plagiarism and copyright violations are at this age, it doesn’t register with them that paying attention to the sources they get information from is important.

For Kelly’s research lesson, she gave a great hook to gain their interest. She started talking about the research she did on Taylor Swift and gave factual information like Taylor was touring on her Eras Tour last year and is dating Travis Kelce, but she also gave misinformation like Taylor won 12 Academy Awards for her music and is 22 years old. Some of the students giggled with the incorrect information and some called her out that some of it wasn’t correct. Kelly had them explain what the incorrect information was and what she should have said. The point she was trying to make with them was that they needed to make sure they used credible sources and not just what popped up on Google.

Kelly did not discredit or shame the students who use Google to look up everything, but she cautioned them about the results that pop up and that they are not always necessarily the best or most credible source. Google can be a good starting point for finding information, but students need to fact-check that information across several sources to make sure it’s accurate. Then, she transitioned into talking about DISCUS with the students.

What I liked about Kelly’s lesson is that she did not just talk at the students; she involved them by asking them questions and having them complete turn and talks about the information before calling on tables to share their answers. Kelly had students read the information off of the slides and then she discussed more in-depth about the reasons why DISCUS is a better resource than Google. She emphasized that making sure a source is credible and fact-checked is extremely important when presenting information, especially trying to persuade someone about their topic. The students didn’t sit there passively learning; she involved them and wanted to know about how they research and why they use those sources.

Kelly used a lot of visuals in her presentation like screenshots, and she also modeled different ways to search through DISCUS. She featured two databases that deal specifically with persuasion, Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints and Point of View Reference Center. She did a sample search in these databases for animal experimentation and showed the students different ways to use the advanced search to find exactly what they were looking for.

Kelly was very knowledgeable about DISCUS, and I liked that she tailored the databases to the purpose of what students would be using them for. To know this, she met with the ELA teachers to get some information about the assignment the students would be using DISCUS for and then brainstormed the features of DISCUS that she wanted to cover with students. Kelly went back to the teachers with her ideas to make sure she was covering what the teachers wanted. I liked the collaboration between the media specialist and teachers, and I think it’s important to show that the library can benefit any subject area and can be used for more than just checking out books.

Ideas for Promoting Books

This past Monday, I attended a professional development day created by librarians and for librarians from several surrounding counties. They had four sessions with several presentations to choose from. Many of the sessions that I attended talked about different ways to promote books or resources for students that contain books. I thought these ideas were neat, and I wanted to share them in case anyone is looking for a different way to present books to students.
Two hands shaking with the following words around them: learning, experience, ability, growth, skills, training, competence, and knowledge.
geralt / Pixabay
Book Talk Podcasts
One session that I attended focused on students creating book talk podcasts. This was presented by Russ Conrath, who is a professor at Newberry College, and he works with a local school to create these. Students could pair up or work by themselves to create a book talk. They would write out a rough draft that included their first name (or pseudonym), the title of the book, and information about the main character, setting, plot, and conflict (without giving away the ending). During lunch, students could come in and record themselves in Flip and add background music. Professor Conrath would then create a mixtape in Flip to download and share on the school website, or he would import the videos into Podbean to share. He recommended Audacity to edit the audio if needed. I really like this idea of students creating book talk podcasts because they cared enough about a book that they wanted to recommend (or not recommend) it to peers. I think it's powerful for students to share books with each other and it means more coming from peers.
Picture of a microphone with sound waves behind it
Sasiepre / Pixabay
Virtual Book Tasting
Another session I attended was by Tenley Middleton, a high school media specialist, who talked about creating a virtual book tasting using Google Slides. On the main slide, Ms. Middleton put a picture of the book covers that she was featuring. When you click on the book cover, it takes you to another slide that contains a slide background related to the book, a book trailer from teachingbooks.net, a link to a book review, the book cover (linked to the book in Destiny), an excerpt from the book, and a link to the author's website. She has a slide for each book that is being featured in the book tasting. I really like this idea of having something that students can click on and find out important information about books that they may be interested in reading. This makes me think that you could create a different book tasting for each heritage month, book genres you want to promote, or special occasions. This would be an easy way for students to be exposed to the different books in the library, and it's helpful for your more visual learners.

Visual Book Shelf Example from Tenley Middleton

Book Databases on DISCUS
A third session I attended focused on DISCUS, and some of the book resources that they offer. I'm not sure if DISCUS is available in other states, but this is our state library online resource available to South Carolina residents. 

One database that I want to feature is NovelList Plus. Students can search for books, and when they find an interesting one, they can read a summary of the book, read reviews of the book, and see books that are similar. 

A book on the NovelList Plus database. It shows the cover of the book, a summary, and review.

Another database available to students is TeenBookCloud. It has audiobooks and eBooks (fiction, nonfiction, classics, graphic novels). The books that are available have the whole book, and the audiobook has a real person reading. They are adding books in, so the selection will grow. Students can browse books by genres within their age group. It even has classic novels that students have to read for English classes. When they open up the book, they have the option to make notes in it. This is a good option if the school library does not have a large selection of eBooks or audiobooks. The only potential downside to this database is that it may not hold a student's spot in the book if they exit out of the browser. 
Homepage of TeenBookCloud database
These sessions gave me some great ideas of promoting books, and I hope they're useful to you too!

To Genrefy or Not To Genrefy?

Genrefying books in a library is a hot topic among librarians, and many people have varying feelings on the matter. The library in the middle school I work at is in the process of genrefying the fiction books on the shelves. Our media specialist printed out our inventory of fiction books from Destiny and included the genres that are tagged in the printout. Kelly consulted with the high school media specialists since the high school library is genrified so that the featured genres are consistent between our two schools. We have ten genres that are color-coded:

  • Realistic Fiction (including Adventure) = grey
  • Novels in Verse = light pink
  • Horror = purple
  • Mystery/Thriller = red
  • Graphic Novels = dark green
  • Science Fiction/Dystopian = light green
  • Historical Fiction = orange
  • Sports Fiction = blue
  • Romance Fiction = dark pink
  • Fantasy = yellow

I have spent some time working with Kelly to help put the stickers on the books and check them off the master list. This is a work in progress since we started a year ago, and we may add adventure books as their own category since we held off on stickering those.

The Case Against Genrefying

In the article, “Genrify your Catalog, not your Collection!,” Leanne Ellis brings up some difficulties with genrified libraries due to the subjective views of classifying literature. Some books fall under multiple genres, so the media specialist has to make a judgment call on where to place them on the shelves. This means that in genrefied libraries, the same book could be found in different places instead of one easily accessible place by the author’s last name.

An issue may also arise if the media specialist leaves and the new librarian comes in and doesn’t understand the system, which was the experience of Ellis. It would be very difficult to help students find the books they want if you, yourself, do not know where they are located.

The Case for Genrefying

In the article, “The Switch to Genrefication,” Julia Torres talks about how genrefying her library increased circulation and allowed students to be independent while looking for books. Students were able to find books that interested them on their own and then branched out into similar genres. Having visual labels or colors allows any type of student access to the type of books they like without feeling frustrated for not being able to find something they like.

Having genrefied shelves also allowed Torres to see what types of books were popular, so she made sure to order books from that genre when placing orders. I never thought of this reason, but it is a quick visual for media specialists to see what genres their students are most interested in. This allows student input without having to poll students or run reports.

A Compromise?

Ellis recommends just putting color-coded stickers on the books but leaving them on their designated Dewey shelf. If a media specialist is intimidated by genrefying their fiction section, this may be a good compromise. You do not have to rearrange your library, but you can still help students easily find books that they are interested in based on the genre stickers (as long as the stickers are easily seen).

The most important part of this process is asking your students! If students are having a hard time finding books or most of their questions are about “Where are the _________ (dystopian, romance, funny, adventure, etc.) books,” then you may want to consider undertaking this endeavor for your patrons.

Resources

The Importance of Advocacy

Being in the library this week, Kelly explained the importance of advocating for the library. She explained that it is important to document everything that you do in the library to show people outside of the school how important the library is. She wanted me to understand how many people do not understand that the media center is used more than just to check out books.

One way of documenting how your patrons use the library is to take pictures of activities that you do in the library. Kelly keeps a PowerPoint and adds slides for every month with the different activities and lessons that have taken place in the library. She also includes any displays she sets up or any professional development that she participates in. This makes sense to me because my classes have all stressed the importance of showing why the library is essential to the school and students. She also displays these slides on the TVs that are inside the media center so everyone can see what has been going on.

Powerpoint logo
inspire-studio / Pixabay

Kelly also uses these slides to create her part of our district’s media specialist newsletter. The newsletter includes the number of patrons that have come through the media center and the different programs that have been put on or the teachers that have been collaborated with. Our school had an entry featured in the SCASL Winter magazine for the media center’s lunch program: https://www.flipsnack.com/scasleditor/scasl-messenger-winter-2022.html.

This week, one of our district leaders ended up reaching out to Kelly and asking her to put together information about what she has done in the media center this year. Kelly already had most of this information in her PowerPoint, so it did not take her long to get the information that was needed. This showed me that the district can request your information at any time, and if you already have a place where you keep it, it’s easy to access to advocate for your library.

It’s also important to include your patrons in your advocacy to give them ownership of the media center. Kelly does this by having media specialist helpers who can come in during homeroom, lunch, or after school. These helpers go through training to know how to check books in and out and how to shelve them. They also have a Google Classroom class with resources and helpful links posted.  Last year, students created a book club completely run by them and hosted meetings during lunch in the media center. Kelly helped to supply the books the students were interested in reading and gifted the students the books when they finished.

Book Club information from the 22-23 school year that was on our school website

I really liked the idea of bringing students in who may not normally visit the library by featuring themed lunch days. Monday is Makerspace Mondays where students can build with Legos, Strawbees, and more. Wednesday is Whispering Wednesday where students can get creative and participate in art activities. Students play bingo on Tuesdays and play board games on Thursdays. These activities help to show students that the library is a safe space where they can come and meet other students who have the same interests.

Bingo card with bingo balls
OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay

Our library also reaches out to parents through our ConnectEd phone system with special events that the library hosts. Parents are also always welcome to volunteer in the library or help with special events like the Scholastic Book Fair or Literacy Night.

While thinking about advocacy, I found some resources that explain the importance of advocating for your library and why you should support school libraries!

The Many Hats of a Media Specialist

I spent some time in the media center with my school media specialist, Kelly, this past Friday, and after watching her, I learned the many roles that the media specialist plays in a school.

  1. Media specialist: Kelly would check books out to students and check them in. She taught me how to do this, so I was checking students in and out. I liked this part because I got to use the scanner. It was easier than I thought it would be, but I had to make sure I was on the correct tab in Destiny.

    Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay
  2. Advisor: Kelly is also the yearbook advisor and teaches the yearbook class. When I was observing, she was teaching the students how to use the camera and sent them off with a checklist of the pictures she wanted them to practice taking.

    A student taking a picture with a digital camera
    PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay
  3. News Show Creator:  Kelly is in charge of putting together our news show for each morning. She enlisted the help of the yearbook students and taught them the program to use for the news show. Once the students had the show completed, she would double-check that they weren’t missing anything and would show them how to add graphics to make it more interesting.

    Two hands are holding an iPad recording
    MKag / Pixabay
  4. Classroom Supervisor: On Friday, we had several teachers out due to sickness, so the library had to house two different seventh grade classes. The tech coach was also in the library helping to supervise these classes, and each class was in a different section of the library. Kelly still had students coming in to return and check out books and the yearbook class was going on during one period, so there were technically three classes in the media center at one time. She had to keep track of all of these students and complete her normal duties.

    A teacher helping students
    RosZie / Pixabay
  5. School Leader: Kelly has a walky-talky that she needs to keep on her at all times because sometimes administration will request her to go cover a class or to come to the front office or to be aware of anything that is going on in the school.

    jeanvdmeulen / Pixabay

    Kelly explained to me that a media specialist has to be like Gumby because you have to be able to adapt and be flexible to what the administration needs you to do for the day on top of performing your regular duties within the media center. She said that you never know what type of day you are going to have because it is different every day.

    This is a picture of gumby.
    LisaRedfern / Pixabay

I knew that being a media specialist included more than just your library duties, but I didn’t realize how chaotic it could be. I was a little overwhelmed with everything going on in the library. Students were constantly coming up for help with checking out or asking to use the restroom or ones that had questions from her yearbook class. I don’t know how Kelly manages it all with just herself and her assistant since we have over 1,100 students in our school!