School is well under way. The children are enjoying the library and I'm enjoying them. I think about a new blog entry every day. I have lots of ideas about what to write, but the time to sit down and do it is more elusive.
I have gotten lots done in the library. I'm nearly finished making sure all the shelves are in order and going through a much-needed "weeding" process. It's something librarians should do on a regular basis. There's even a Weed-of-the Month website to help people who have trouble being discriminating. It is similar to weeding a garden; you get rid of the outdated, erroneous, tattered, uncirculating books to make room for the up-to-date, attractive and popular titles.
In our case, it's even more necessary. Our shelves were very nearly full! Our volunteer shelvers know what I'm talking about.
I decided that none of our preschool through 6-grade students were likely to check out "A Reporter's Life," by Walter Cronkite, or "The First Book of the West Indies," copyright, 1956. I hadn't been able to bring myself to pull the latter because remarkably it's written by the poet Langston Hughes. I still couldn't completely get rid of it; it's sitting on my desk, just no longer on the shelves or in our computer system.
Now there is a little more room on the shelves, but more importantly, it's a better collection for our kids, with our thousands of wonderful books a bit easier to locate.
I want to remind you all that The Seabury Library has a wish list on Amazon.com. If you want to find a book for your child to donate to the library on his or her birthday, that's a great place to look. Many of the books are listed in response to curriculum needs; others are simply wonderful books our kids will enjoy. There's a link to the wish list at the right.
Also, if you shop at Amazon, you can help the library by getting there through the portal at right. It doesn't have to be books for Seabury; it can be clothes or electronics or any other personal purchases. If you get there from this page, the library gets a percentage of whatever you spend. The percentage varies, depending on the item. Gift certificates give us one of the biggest profits. I've used the link for everything I've bought at Amazon for my family since I signed us up for the the Associate program and so have a couple of other people. We've earned enough in credits to buy several books.
Thanks in advance and I'll be back here soon. I'd love to answer any questions you have about books and reading. The other day someone asked me in person about a good list of books for a 5-year-old who's reading as well as a 10-year-old but isn't ready for the content contained in a "fifth-grade" book. I think I'll turn that into a blog entry.
Anyone have questions like that? Put them in the comment field and I'll work on answers.
Talk to you soon
