The World According to ... LM_NET

"...dedicated to school library media specialists worldwide,
and to people involved with the school library media field." -LM_NET On the Web

I am the library girl geek who subscribed to this listserv before I was even accepted into a library degree program. I wanted to know what this family looked like. And I am thrilled to feel "at home" here. This is a community of teachers, professors, administrators, students, literaturers (it's a word) and of course librarians. In the short time I've been lurking around this Collective Brain I've been able to glean a better picture of what my world will be like when I *drum roll, please* run my own library. *APPLAUSE*

I think it's important that my blogging interests here search for up-to-date professional information, but this listserv dialogue is a fabulous resource of how the latest and greatest are actually viewed and applied in real life. So, in grand Letterman tradition, I present to you what I hope will be the weekly ...

LM_NET Top Ten

10. Digital Picture Frames

9. Why a book about Cuba was filed under Domestic and Family Violence

8. End-of-the-Year Readiness

• incentives to return loooong overdue books
• student summer reading lists
• teacher summer reading lists (I like this idea a lot)

7. Job Description/Interview Questions

• Recently some library aide and even librarian positions were being questioned as to their usefulness and were asked to, more or less, prove their worth, to which LM_NET responded with sample job descriptions from their respective areas and much poo-pooing of certain powers-that-be.
• Recent library school grads asked for helpful hints on interviewing. My favorite response was by Shonda Brisco, contributor to School Library Journal and a million other things school library media-related, when she suggest WE should be interviewing THEM.

6. Moral Support

5. Software Programs

• Follett, Mandarin, Destiny - hmmm, I may have to know these

4. Fix vs. Flexible Schedule

• this is an ongoing battle about how a librarian functions best - on a fixed schedule with rotating classes (not just for "story time," mind you) or a flexible schedule with open library hours and teacher collaboration
• Blue Skunk has a few words of wisdom on this topic

3. The most obscure book searches I've ever experienced

• I've seen desperate netters give just a main character's probable name and the correct book was miraculously unearthed or remembered or God-knows-what. I'm secretly jealous of such stores of book memory. Although I am proud to announce I correctly identified one as Z for Zachariah (Simon Pulse). Go me and my fourth grade addiction to dystopian novels.

2. LM_NET's own Top Ten

• reportedly one of the most interesting threads in a while, librarians worldwide reported on their top ten most checked-out books of the year. I wish I could link to the list - so many good titles (btw I can't link to LM_NET, copyright this and that)

1. (I've already used one drum roll, so how about ... ) *kazoo trill*

Pencil Sharpener Conundrum: Electric or Manual

*APPLAUSE*

Some repeat. Some resolve. All are appropriately headed. I love it. It's just too bad I joined post-scrotumgate.