Memories of Mr Drybones

The last two days have been spent tying up some loose ends:

1. Plastic book covers arrived - Got all the remaining fiction processed and boxed up. Another thing off the "pending" list.

2. Samples arrived for blinds - Got the colour confirmed ("Custard" much to the Business Manager's horror!)

3. Schools Library Service Phoned- My Peters Book order has arrived (excellent service as I placed my order a week ago!) and SLS are providing us with boxes to house the fiction stock in for the temporary library

4. Held the first Carnegie shadowing meeting - The students were full of enthusiasm and genuinely interested in the books

5. Paints confirmed - we're going for cream, yellow and electra (which the students seem to like the name of. For those uninitiated with the BS colour chart it's light blue)

6. Full size human skeleton borrowed from Science Department - This is for the "skeleton" library service I will be running for six weeks. I'm sure this will bring back memories of my last job where I had 5 wonderful years running a library in a primary school, as we had a resident skeleton called Mr Drybones... I'd arrive at work and he'd be in various positions in the library, just like the one below:

Take a Break, Have a Normal Conversation

With all this planning and preparation, it has been pleasant to be back to some normality today. I hosted a meeting for a couple of friends/colleagues to discuss the way forward with a library website that we are responsible for (www.cilipeoe.org.uk). How refreshing it was to also talk about normal everyday things and to exchange further ideas and give inspiration for the future about our respective libraries and roles. At least now I'll go in fresh tomorrow ready to tackle the Carnegie shadowing with my Year 9 group...

The Plan is Coming Together

I've managed to get a fair bit sorted out today, so the plan is coming together. The groundsmen were hard at work when I arrived at 8am and had finished everything by 10.30am, which was right on schedule - so the Courtyard is ready to have the trellis, plants and table, chairs and bench added (we've decided on aluminium due to it being more robust than wood - I have fears of a pupil carving their name - or the name of this week's particular love interest - into the wood).


When I started thinking about how the library should look, which was around 6 months ago, and what direction we should be going in, with a a few colleagues I made a few visits to other libraries in the area that had recently been refurbished. We concluded what we observed was good practice and functional. We then visited Felixstowe Public Library and I was totally blown away from the impact, which my colleagues also felt - and decided we really needed our library to have the "wow" factor and to be slightly different from the school libraries we visited (this was part of my brief to the library design companies - only one of them actually listened. Guess which one got the contract?). One of the highlights of the visit to Felixstowe LIbrary was the graphic signage - which instantly inspires and we now feel that this will be the "icing on the cake" for our library, showing motivated students reading and enjoying books. And as such, we're having three graphic end panels for the shelving. Today the photographer came in and took various shots that will be enlarged and mounted when the new shelving is in place.

I have done my best to make sure the photos won't date: the pupils are in the new school uniform, that hopefully won't change for another twenty years, and they are reading books where the covers aren't seen or they're books that have something on which would not date such as books with visual chemical reactions on the front cover. We're a Science Specialist School after all!

It has also been confirmed where the skeleton library service will be (which will consist of: a PC, printer, fiction stock, a few reference titles, couple of chairs and table and me!) and where the non-fiction stock will be stored - a secure classroom. We're also acquiring packing boxes for the non-fiction from a very kind school who have also had a new library (tip - always network with fellow librarians and it will pay dividends. Believe me on that one) so I have arranged to collect these next week.

The benches will be removed at the end of the week and I removed the potential hanging cord aka the washing line this afternoon!

See the "before" picture here.

Wishlist

In order to highlight the impending refurbishment to parents, and to encouragement their involvement, I've created an Amazon wishlist where items can be purchased and posted directly into school - I've gone for the whole spectrum of prices, from £3.99 to £399. I suppose its a 21st century version of the "donate a book" scheme. We'll add the traditional name plates to indicate who has given the item. (If anyone reading this has an urge to buy a book, please send an e-mail indicating what you have bought and what you'd like on the nameplate). So far the interest has been good, but we'll know once the next newsletter goes out with a double page spread about the library telling parents what the new features will be (listening post, more space, improved PCs, increased shelving etc etc), a plan and a few pictures of the furniture. The physical work of getting the place cleared will start in exactly two weeks' time, so not long now until lift off...

Work has started on clearing the Courtyard - the husband of the Head of Art and his cousin kindly came in and rescued some plants before the groundsman are in tomorrow...