Indulging in My Librarian Fantasies

Longtime readers and real life friends (mostly) know that I have a not-so-secret fantasy about being a librarian. I love books, I love talking about books, I love librarians, and I love the politics of librarians. Real librarians are the front lines of progressive educators and defenders of the First Amendment and privacy.

But library school is not a realistic part of my future, and I suspect that I actually wouldn't enjoy the MLS process very much. So I'm content with being a vaguely wannabee librarian.

Then today, I went to the parent workday at Noah's school.

And one of the projects was reshelving and reorganizing the year-end messy little library. I started asking the parent coordinator questions about the library, the organization, etc.

Within 5 minutes, I found myself agreeing to be in charge of the library next year. I've declared my title as Chair of the Library Committee.

Within another 20 minutes, I'd recruited the other mom who was working on the library to be on the library committee, and gotten 2 names of other potential committee members from the parent coordinator. (Bonus: I'll finally get to meet at least one of the other 2 lesbian moms at the school, as she is one of those other 2 names.)

Students most likely to use this library are from age 3 through 5th grade. It's an urban public charter school with good test scores, but better in math than reading. Also it's a "parent run" school which means that I am pretty sure the collection development has been done entirely by people like me: opinionated parents who like to read. Actually, more by random donations from parents. Already today I rejected recommended for inclusion in our upcoming rummage sale 2 fuzz-covered toddler books and 2 books that make noise.

So school librarians, I have a question for you. Several, actually. Other people with opinions are also welcome to weigh in, of course, but I specifically hope for librarian expertise as well as opinion.

• What are the 2 or 3 most important things you think I should be thinking about as I try to manage this library?
• What are the 2 or 3 "must have" books/series for a very small school library? (Feel free to list more! Or to break down the list by age! Or to recommend fiction, non-fic, and reference books.)
• Is it a bad idea to repair books with clear packing tape? We have a lot of REALLY OLD and well-worn books. (By really old, I mean 10, 20, 30 years, maybe a few closer to 40. The school was founded in 1969.)

Comments

[Reno]

Ahem.

Are you equating "founded in 1969" with "REALLY OLD"?

Just wondering.

Also, by "very small" do you mean space limitations will keep it that way, or would book donations be welcome? Not that I am any better at mailing things than I have ever been, but every now and then I get my act together.

[Todd]

You should get in touch with Kirsten (Reed) Thompson, RKHS '85, and a long-time MPL librarian. A Google search turned up this interesting interview:
http://blog.mpl.org/nowatmpl/2008/07/strengthening_a_fragile_neighborhood_an_interview_with_librarian_kristen_thompson.html

[Jen (yup, another one)]

Reno, 1969 is ANCIENT for a library book. Dinosaur-like. Antediluvian. And if it's non fiction, should not be repaired. If it's fiction that still resonates today, repair is an option.

I will ponder the must have option, but definitely encourage families to pass on books their kids are done with, and keep an eye out at yard sales and thrift stores. I get a lot in pretty good condition this way.