House of Hades

is here. Get your name on the waiting list for Rick Riordan's latest!

Oh, the shame!

So. here's a trend that's probably long overdue: librarians anonymously confessing their secret library sins. Might surprise you - children's librarians who don't like Harry Potter. Shushing librarians who get caught talking so loud the patrons shush THEM. Otherwise upstanding souls who eat in the stacks. Librarians with books so overdue they're not allowed to check things out anymore. See? We're just like you.

So . . . what's my particular sin? What dark secret lurks in the 200s of my heart? I'LL NEVER TELL, although I will admit a couple of things on my bedside table might be a day or two overdue. Gawk at the infractions of my fellows instead on this Tumblr of library confessionals. (Also, I do have a public library card, for the record. Also one to Ringling College and to the University of South Florida. Maybe my secret is that I'm a library-card addict?)

Popping up just for you!

It's Pop-Up Library Day, and I've already had my first customer. I also already have a wait-list for House of Hades which arrived fresh in the mail this morning. It's on a one-week checkout and there are four people on the list already, so step right up and make your wishes known.

Library to go

The library is experimenting with bringing the books to you - just like an old-fashioned bookmobile, but more hyperlocal - it's Pop-Up Library time! This week during middle school lunch the library will have a cart of hot titles and a barcode scanner ready to go in a corner of the cafeteria. Step right up, choose a favorite, and off you go with your prize.

The most wonderful time of the year

It's not Christmas - it's Halloween of course! No one loves Halloween more than Miss Mandel. To that end, this year I decorated. This is actually a little out of character for me - I don't usually "decorate" per se as much as I just find books in a certain category and make a nice display: banned books, cookbooks for Thanksgiving, basketball books for March Madness, you get the idea. This is for two reasons - I don't like to spend book money on decorations, and I always feel like people might not want to take the books if it means poking around in my nice tabletop display.

This year I found the perfect solution to both problems: I spent $2 on fake cobwebs and I made displays that are very easy to take apart. Books are arranged by genre: vampires here, ghosts there, witches over yonder, generally scar books down that way. Come in and check them out before I take them all home and read them myself!

Ha! Made you look!

For all of you who are visiting the blog for the first time, since I just pointed it out to you during 9th and 10th grade database training - hi! Thanks for stopping by.

In the weeks to come I'll be sharing a new and improved Reference Question of the Fortnight contest, a completely new contest related to Banned Book Week, advice on our ebook collection, how to create bibliographies and citations in our databases, and other great stuff. So keep coming back - if I know you're reading, I'll be sure and keep the quality coming.

Upcycled

As you know, to fit into our smashingly renovated new interior, I removed, or "weeded," as we say, about 2000 books from the library collection. Many of these were duplicates or were things that I have replaced with electronic versions - if you want the whole story, try this. In any case, I've frequently been asked where old books go when their time is up. Some of them were given to interested faculty and students, some came home with me, many were sent to needy schools in developing parts of the world to help other learners. Some did not find a natural home . . . until now! Mr. Madres' 3-D art class used some of the remaining books in innovative ways, including taking the pages and rolling them into components for sculptures like the one seen here. Come visit these old books in their new guises - maybe you'll be inspired to make your own creations.