CCA Library Log

Library is flourishing so blogmaster is moving on...

2006-10-16T09:06:00.000-05:00

The CCA Library has come such a long way in 3 years - look at the photos in the last posting! Carol and her team of Linda, Leslie, Bev, Jamie, Ramona and Peter have worked hard and smart to bring the library to this place. Carol is now the on-site librarian and main cataloguer. My part from the beginning was to bring the mini-assortment of books that CCA had and turn it into the makings of a library that could make its way to accreditation. Right now there is enough "library" to have as a base from which to begin improvements for accreditation. So I , blogmaster and library builder will move on to other adventures. So as of this posting, this blog is ending. Blessings on you all at Community Christian Academy, Lowell MA
Winifred Flint, MLS

The librarian in her new habitat...

2006-10-04T07:16:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Our librarian Carol here is helping a student - on her knees as usual. She is also shown managing the library's catalog. Across from her desk are bins full of books waiting to be catalogued - about 400. An eighth grader - Sam- comes in to help with this never ending process - as 2 parents from the PTO - Linda and Leslie.

New library now has study areas...

2006-10-04T07:05:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The big brown table is a great addition to the library - there had been no place to lay out reference books for study in the old location. It also provides an area for classroom instruction in the library (one of the many requirements of for full accreditation with ACSI). Note also our first quiet study area - surrounded by cataoguing bins - but still a private area for a bit of reading.

The new larger library is now open!

2006-10-04T06:58:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Librarian is in San Francisco....

2006-09-10T18:15:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

I'm working....Really...Until the end of September. So I have not yet seen the complete library - otherwise you'd be seeing it too. I am taking a sabbatical where I organize all that I've learned at CCA and am putting it together to help the Christian school movement in general... i also hope to visit some other Christian urban schools out here - always looking to learn form those who have gone before us.

san fran is full of energy, creativity and life- not to mention the best food in the world - sourdough bread and king crab. and this guy reading in the street really happens around here all the time-so many things make me laugh out here.

WOW! The library is doubling in size!

2006-08-18T11:59:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

We are moving to an area between the cafeteria and computer room - great visibility. We will have a door to the computer room which will bring us that much closer to ACSI accreditaiton. Access to technology greatly increases our knowledge base and gives an opportunity to train students on efficient and ethical searching (this is a bit more in the future) . Right know the most exciting development will be room for study tables - so students can actually use the library to examine reference books that can't leave the library or to study or to do homework. The librarian in charge this year - Carol- will be in charge of moving the books and of course she already has a plan - she is so efficient. The following are photos of the new library being built. The men pictured are Pastor Najem on the left and Chris O'Neil on the right. Chris is the one doing almost all the physical labor. - blessings on you Chris!

"Left Behind" - the great and not so great...

2006-07-23T10:09:00.000-05:00

Our mystery reader here has chosen an item from the incredibly popular Left Behind series as his favorite read. This extensive series makes a colorful splash on our shelves - catching the eye of anyone who walks in. Students are drawn by both the visuals and the exciting events experienced by Christians like themselves. A particularly great feature of this series is the way it gives both parents and children a point of conversation - both reading and enjoying the same book- excellent for family bonding and 0f course - building better reading skills. And cliff hanger endings leave the reader hardly able to wait the for the next installment...music to a librarian's ears. We have a limited selection of books that might interest a middle-schooler so this is a very popular series. This series does raise a few difficulties, though, that are addressed in the audio post.

Why "Captain Underpants" is important

2006-05-16T17:08:00.000-05:00

oye - how they love these books - normally we wouldn't take time to repair cheap paperbacks but in this case we do - there is fear of a small riot if this series were to go missing...

and our Mystery Reader says this is his favorite book - could it be Elvis?!

God is sparing the library from this...

2006-05-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Even though areas a few streets away from the school are under water - we are still dry...I was particularly concerned because we are partially in a basement...but so far - so good...

shelving - a summary of needs

2006-05-06T15:53:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

See the recent posts for details of shelving needed for each type of book. There are various arrangments possible but one that makes sense is:

use bookcases with 4 shelves - 36" wide
this will require 2 for fiction/non-fiction/bio and reference
this will require 3 bookcases for easy readers and picture books - easy readers on top two shelves and picture books on bottom two shelves (technically picture books require one more shelf but we will ignore that for now...)

this adds up to 5 bookshelves, 36" wide with 4 bookshelves
typically these are 9 to 12 inches in depth

lacking enough wall apace 2 sets of bookcases could be put back to back

this must be the ugliest shelving in the world...

2006-05-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA
It is used shelving from college libraries that are upgrading. http://www.booksforlibraries.com sells them for cheap if you are going by shelf inch/dollar and they can carry a lot of weight. It's not the most appropriate for a school library but it could work for some of our books. Materials for teachers could go on the top shelves as could the books we are still in the midst of processing (getting into the catalog etc.) Non-fiction and Reference - typically hardcover and thus more heavy would be a good match for these shelves. One disadvantage is their height and bulk which would dominate a room unless placed wisely- we certainly wouldn't want it blocking our precious New England sun!

more shelving for picture books - another example

2006-05-06T14:32:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The idea here is the old record bins - remember those? Imagine those replaced with coloful dish bins and then filled with picture books...the shelves would still need to be somewhat high. (this photo is of product ironwood glacier media browser from demco.com)

more shelving - picture books

2006-05-06T14:19:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

This is an example of the space needed for picture books. Note that there is plenty of room to flip through the books and that there are several shelf dividers to help keep books upright. The height of the shelves is also taller. This demo has about 25 books per shelf - we have about a 100 donated picture books in the queue which means we will need about 4 of these type shelves to store them. Our current shelf of picture books is jammed 100 to a shelf - so we should get 3 more shelves just to store those properly. This adds up to 7 picture book shelves that need to be purchased to fill our current needs. (this photo is of product Lov'n wood oxford picture-book shelving from demco.com) It is possible that some of this need can be met with clever use of shelf dividers on some of our larger width metal shelves.

Giraffes are very welcome at our library...

2006-04-27T17:13:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

They might have a hard time fitting in the door but they look great next to it! This mural was painted on the sly by our art teacher, Mrs. Russell, who came in on a Friday afternoon and Saturday - her days off - just to surprise the staff in the library. She also thoughtlfully left some of the book spines blank so we could choose our own titles - check back here to see what we choose....THANKS, MRS. R!!!!

2006-04-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

A Tremendous Book Has Moved...

2006-04-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy, Lowell, MA

It was old - 1983- and the reading level was far above most of our students but the illustrations made it so valuable to us. "Brother against Brother: The War Begins" was part of a Time-Life Series and had the most compelling photos, and posters of the Civil War in our collection. The detailed paintings of slave auctions breaking up families highlighted how art can illuminate injustice; the photos of scars on disobedient slaves are graphic depictions of evil and the military identification photos help us understand how the common person can get caught up in institutional sin....but the majority of pages were slipping away from the binding simply making it impossible to circulate anymore...so now it will have a special home in Reference where it will be used under the watchful eye of staff.

Normally one does not announce such a move , but as a matter of respect to the subject matter such an announcement needed to be made.

A Physical Description of Our Library

2006-03-31T12:11:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The room is 12 x 20 ft with 10 ft ceilings. It is located on the first floor that is half basement which explains why we look UP to see the ground outside.

We have a great location inside the school because all students must pass us on the way to the lunchroom. And the school copier is only steps away.

Team members here are: Carol at the desk wrestling with the computer catalog; Jamie shelving and re-shelving - a never ending job; and Ramona, double checking spine labels on our newly processed Human Body books - what a coup that was! The little one in orange (Emily) appears to be giving a lesson in something to an intrigued Stephanie.

What our library looks like when fully staffed...

2006-03-31T09:33:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The best aspect of our physical space is the row of windows on the wall opposite the door into the library. A sunny treat during grey New England winters. As you can see though , we are a bit cramped for space. Our largest flat space for processing books is the space Carol is using. (Carol is our main staffer for the library)

On our list of must haves is at least one large study table for students to study at and where they can use reference materials (and of ocurse we would use it for book processing when no students are around,,,)

In the top picture there are 3 adults and their 3 preschoolers (I including me in the doorway taking the picture. ) As you can see, we can handle a "crowd" of about 3 students in additon to who is already shown.

My favorite decoration is the poster of 3 crosses from a variety of tradtions... totally by accident placed above some of our Bible resources.

Did you ever leave the baby on top of the car?

2006-03-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

That's how I feel this week...when we realized we have NO Bibles or concordances in the library...Granted we live off donations - but you'd think we would have noticed this....It has been in the back of my head since the beginning but somehow at some point it just must have fallen out...But CBD Warehouse sale to the rescue! If you live anywhere near Boston - you must check out their GIGANTIC quarterly sale. Our main library staff have graciously offered to jump into the fray at the next sale with some of their precious PTO dollars to rectify our embarrassing situation. These are our selections; the emphasis is on NIV because that is the most common in the church/school community. We have the list prioritized - if we can only get two - that's more than we have now...

Hello Bev D. (2:30 on Tues march 14 2006)

2006-03-14T14:25:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

I had a friend emergency and can't be there in person, but I did want to refresh you on catalog entry -particularly with our new body books. I will be in and out this
afterernoon but do try and call my number in the front of the logbook. I will just give you some hints about specific fields that might make things go faster. I am blogging this because getting thru the phone system is iffy...

See our Tower of Health!

2006-03-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Have you ever seen anything so healthy?! These are all courtesy of an Amazon gift certificate from Mrs. Berman - a good friend of CCA. She put no strings on her gift so I chose to increase our collection on the human body - at the middle school reading level.

We were able to get about 20 books - mostly used hardbound - for about $220 - great value for the money. There was considerable time though spent in selecting the books and then making the purchases through the used book mechanism of Amazon.

As I write this post, the books are still in processing - that means waiting to be put into the catalog but this batch is on top of the queue...

I focused on three subject areas: systems of the body, genetics, and diseases. I also focused exclusively on books for circulation - none for reference. This is backwards from typical library practice - "fill in reference first" but since we have no place for kids to study the reference books in the library - it makes better sense to get them books they can remove from the library.

Being new to the topic and its resources I needed to find the best authors/publishers..I didn't automatically know them like I know other resources. The following part of this post will be of most interest to other book selectors for tiny school libraries. I will first describe how I used some expensive tools still available to me, but then I will share how to do it on cheap.

My first task was to find out who the big names were- who were the publishers, series, and authors active in these subject areas. I did this by going to various sources and noting how many times I saw them...it became obvious because I kept seeing the same names. Through my Alumane connection to Simmons College I still have access to 2 databases Worldcat and BooksInPrint that cut this job down to size quickly. Worldcat lists the holdings of most libraries in North America, etc which allows me to see, for example, the most held book on the circulatory system for juvenile readers across the U.S. - mostly in public libraries. Scanning the list of the top 10 books on this subject yields hints about a prolific author, an interesting series and a popular publisher.

Few of these are recent - since these are the most held books - they are likely to have some age on them - so I go to my source that will tell me the most recent and even forthcoming books by these authors, publishers or additions to series - BooksInPrint. These tell me recent editions, publishers current in the subject and adding to series. But since I will be buying used at Amazon - I will likely not have access to the very newest - but its good to know the options in order to put the quality of the offerings into perspective.

I now have a list of potentials in a certain subject - but need to have more of an idea of their contents. Because of their popularity with librarians, I'm 99% sure they are scientifically accurate and well written for the audience but I want to doublecheck the reading level required plus see that certain hot topics are handled in the way that the school is comfortable with. I can't examine these in person so I am going to need to rely on other sources.

For science works I always check SB&F - Science Books and Films Online (45$/yr); these are detailed reviews written from a secular viewpoint but yet very useful in assessing the worldview within a certain book. They are also excellent for pointing out scientific inaccuracies. They may not have the exact book - but there is a good chance they will have something by that author or publisher - still useful for comparison.

I also check Christian Library Journal (20$/yr) - it is hit or miss that they will even have much of the subject matter but if they do - its a valuable review.

I also mine the catalog of my local public library. Many libraries now link from the book's record right to professional review journals full of reviews written from a librarian's perspective. That means it is not intended to sell you something or grind an axe but tell you if the book does what it intends to. Usually these are fairly lengthy.

Amazon is a also a source for reviews...the editorial reviews are the most immeditately useful...but the readers' reviews can provide valuable insight - sometimes in ways that the writer did not intend. And there is some concern that Amazon does not post all the negative reviews it gets - which leads to a skewing of the results.

Here is On The Cheap
1) find out what other schools are holding by tapping into their online catalog
a) the largest Christian schools in your area - this will tell you "safe" books
b) the most expensive private schools in your area - this will tell you most scientifically reliable and the most well respected

2) find out the most held books on a certain subject by going into the online catalog in a large library system such as Chicago, Los Angelos, Queens - it doesn't have to be one near you - it just
has to be one that has many branches.

3) at your public library or the ones above - check out the links to reviews

4) check the reviews at Amazon

A library table or a camel?

2006-03-10T11:29:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

Sometimes I do get frustrated with our lack of resources and our backlog of books to catalog and our small space and our lack of a library table for kids to sit at to study.....But then something comes along to help put it into perspective...At least we have a stable space and compared to these folks we have an embarrassment of riches....You've heard of book mobiles - how about using camels instead?

Shamu and Mickey aren't enough??!!

2006-02-24T17:56:00.000-05:00

Community Christian Academy Library, Lowell MA

The school to the left and linked here is in Orlando Florida and has the most library items I have seen in a Christian school library - 23,000. And I am totally digging their library website. http://tfaroyals.org/AcademicExcellence/LibraryServices.htm