Friday, January 18, 2008

Thing #4 Register your blog

As a matter of housekeeping, I'm all registered to play.

As an aside, today marks my first day in the library. I couldn't be more excited. I've been waiting for this day for as long as I can remember. I got my MLIS years ago, but as things go, life happened and I got caught up in corporate America for many, many years.

For the last year and a half, I've been teaching reading to students who are 2 or more grade levels behind. In most cases, the students are averaging 5 grade levels below their actual grade (this is high school, by the way). It's very rewarding to see progress in these kids, but I only have a chance to impact about 35 kids a year. I hope by moving into the library, I'm able to make a more broad-reaching impact at my school.

If you are reading this and have any advice for me as I start down this path, please feel free to comment. I know that there are others like me out there who may benefit from the sage advice of the more seasoned librarians out and about in the world.

1 comment:

VWB said...

Congratulations! It is going to be a wonderful and wild ride!

My first piece of advice...slow down! You will want to be all things to all people all the time...and you won't be able to do that. You will need a priority list to guide you.

Having said that, and when the time is right to add this to your "list"...look for unconventional ways to get people in the library or to be of service to them. I am talking mostly about those folks who don't think they need the services of a librarian/library. The others will come because of your books, materials, programs, ATMOSPHERE (make it a good one--open, few rules)and YOU! But there will be a few that you will have to hook in different ways. Watch for & listen to what they need.

I have been doing this for 30 years and it has been a blast 99.999% of the time. I wish you the same!