Picking over the bones: cheap library furniture

Sad though it is to have two major Australian bricks'n'mortar bookshop chains closing (Angus & Robertson and Borders), I noted the other day at the store nearest me that they are selling off a lot of shopfittings, including perspex book holders, wire folding book holders, storage cubes and slatwall, that could be useful for libraries.

I got some perspex book holders (five linked units) for $10.  The wooden storage cubes were $40, the slatwall $100 for a large section (which would suit the end of a shelving run, for example).  Little hinged wire bookstands $2.

Don't know what your local store may have/may have left, but it's an opportunity to obtain some decent quality used bookstore/ library furnishings at bargain prices. (I said hello to the other local TL who happened to be in the shop at the same time...!)

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 60: Cheap Bookmarks Week (Monday)

We hand out a bookmark with every student loan at our library, for all sorts of reasons.  Because kids like to know what page they're on.  To make it easy for students to know what page they're on without bending book corners (to make it easy for them to do the right thing).  As a freebie.  As a promotional item promoting the library and our current theme.  Because we can.

If you follow the tag for bookmarks on this blog, you'll find a bunch of the ones we've made using Publisher and coloured cardboard (click here or over on the tag cloud on the right on the word 'bookmarks').

With a limited budget (but a confetti-style approach to bookmarks) I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive and clever ways to create fun bookmarks.  By and large, I don't go for laminated-precious, but ones we can hand out with generosity and enthusiasm: so they need to be inexpensive.

One thing we're about in the library is facts and information.  So, get yourself one of these:

...which isn't a tricky find in an op shop/garage sale for a couple of dollars.  Study the pages:

and realise that the column widths line up on either side of the page (in this edition: check if you have a different year's edition).  A bit of guillotine work slicing along the space between the columns and you have hundreds of bookmarks for less than five dollars.  Bargain!  Fun facts and information which the kids enjoy (and which can be tied into a wider library promotional theme if you wish).  The columns lining up means you can read front and back, and if a pic gets sliced, oh well - read the current entry in the current copy of the Guinness Book of Records, waiting for you at your school library!

Here's another facty-book find with equally good potential:

That one cost me a whole four dollars at an op shop.  Thick and full of bookmark potential, hundreds more for very little money.


Tune in tomorrow for another cheap bookmark idea. 

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries

Rick Riordan's new book: sneak peek chapter

If your Rick Riordan fans who loved Percy Jackson have kept going with the Kane Chronicles (Red Pyramid is out, Throne of Fire is out soon) they may like to get hold of sneak peek of Throne of Fire via Amazon.  At time of writing (these things change, so don't get cranky if the freebie is gone!) you can preorder a Kindle e-book edition of "The Throne of Fire Chapter Sneak Peek" for $0 (not $18.99) and it will be delivered on May 3, 2011. 

You don't need a Kindle e-reader to read it, you can read Kindle-formatted books via iPhone app, on your PC/Mac etc - the page has links to these.

Here's the link!

Great chance to offer your students a freebie by a popular YA author.

Cheers

Ruth

Image source: Amazon, as per link above.

A free sci-fi e-story (still!): Boojum

So this morning I had a conversation with an English teacher who wanted to plug his senior English class into the many science fiction options in our fiction section...

And I remembered as well this blog entry from two years ago:

A while ago I read the anthology of pirate stories, Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer: they've edited a number of anthologies in the fantasy/steampunk genres, generally pitched at an adult audience (which isn't to say the stories aren't good for kids, but is to say that the anthologies aren't constructed to eliminate that which might not be considered by some suitable for an adolescent audience).


My favourite story in this anthology, without a doubt, was Boojum by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. Black Alice is a space pirate, not a wet pirate, on a ship that is a creature (a boojum); it's a clever clever tale with a twist. It was one I lent to senior Extension English students to look at as an idea of how a longer short piece of writing might be constructed (since a number of them were writing prose fiction for their major works).

And tootling around on Google in the hols, I discovered that of all the pirate stories in all the world, this one is available online (as described in this blog entry) as an e-story pdf, Hurrah! Click here to read BOOJUM!


It has a couple of bits of contextual coarse language in it, so if that's a concern for you read it first before sharing with kids (read it anyway, just because it's good). It's high school level in its ideas, rather than primary school. But if you're looking for an e-example of a story to share, try this.

Knowing I'd blogged about it here on Skerricks, I went back to the entry and you know what?  The link still works!  So if you didn't read/use it then, or had forgotten about it, here's a reminder of a spiffing story.  You can save a copy of the pdf, too...

Cheers

Ruth

Image source: the story's pdf.

Read the new Twilight novella about Bree Tanner FREE for the next month

Toddle on over to http://www.breetanner.com/ to read this novella free until 5 July 2010. (According to this SMH article).

Don't forget to advise the Twilightery at your school.  I blogged about this at the start of the term, but figured you'd appreciate a reminder.  There will also be a hardback version for sale, is the information I have.

Cheers

Ruth

PS I'm scheduling this to publish on Skerricks on 8 June to accommodate the time difference between here and the US. 

Trees on special! Holiday Borrowing! Easter!

If you remember these trees and thought, hmmm, maybe.... a white tree could be just the jim-dandy thing I'm looking for to spruce up that corner of my library...

They're on special now, as Easter grows closer.  30% off at Bed Bath 'n' Table.

So are these eggy necklaces (well, restring 'em on hat elastic and you have a necklace!).  I'll be wearing mine for the rest of the term.

And next week we'll go into Holiday Borrowing mode (which is why I wear the necklace), with just two weeks left of this term.  Must find those Easter decorations I bought last year after Easter at 50% off...

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 53: Signage: Welcome to fiction

Here's the fiction section one recent afternoon, at the end of the day.  A class has just been in for reading and borrowing, which explains the books on the table.  I'm always pleased to see them disarranged like this, not neatly as I set them out at the start of the period, because it means they've been looked at, picked over, and, for some, borrowed.  (That's why I didn't tidy them before taking the photo - the 'birdseed' caught some 'birds', ha!).  The array put out depends on the class/year group and if the teacher is focusing on a particular genre or topic.

I wanted to improve that back wall.  The Harry Potter hanging cubes were looking a bit faded from being there for a couple of years, and I still had a couple of Welcome signs from a foray to Reverse Garbage - the same aqua style as that in the reading retreat downstairs, near the library entrance foyer.  Took them home for a wash (as they used to be street signs, hanging in Sydney streets with traffic and weather and so forth) and one of my school assistants sewed hanging sleeves on the back top of each.  Two dowel rods, a couple of hooks...

Better, I think.  I like the message for our library users, and the repetition of it.

I utterly understand that this was a lucky find, and you may not be able to have exactly the same banners.  But they are makeable, with fabric; or you could use preprimed canvases, such as those we've used for our major area signs.  And keep your eyes open for things with library potential, because there are lots to be found, in places like Reverse Garbage, and op shops, and garage sales, and things you see in other libraries, and the world all around.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL good ideas for school libraries

Bargain planners (for my mentee kids)

One of my Visible Teacher Librarian roles in the school is to mentor senior students.  At my school, all senior students, and all teaching staff, are offered the opportunity to participate in this program.  How you work with your student/s is up to you (most people take on one or two students).  Since I elected to take three Year 11 students last year, and was requested by four, I took the four, but decided I needed to be more systematic in working with them - especially, to see them all together for regular meetings, so this extra involves one period per cycle, not four.  I also thought the synergy of the group, sharing their own ups and downs, would benefit them.

The topics we've covered have been partly decided by me (based on what's going on in the general school timetable, eg. exams) and partly from student suggestions - how do I do this? get organised? work out a study plan? etc.  I've also shared my worksheets on the school intranet so other staff can use them with their mentees if they wish

Planning and organisation have been consistent themes.  My first meeting with my now Year 12 group (I've farewelled my last year's HSC mentees and have not yet acquired this year's Year 11's, although I've had two students approach me so far...) is today.  I was so pleased, yesterday, to happen on this bargain at Smiggle (a shop full of funky mad stationery - they have physical shops and a website).

A year planner is a great tool for students to have in their room at home, and this one from Smiggle, reasonable at its original price of $4.95, but better still at its current bargain price of $2.50, is just the ticket.  I bought some (of course!).  You can (fingers crossed) find them at your local Smiggle shop (they were available online here but have sold out).  Might also be handy if you want a library year planner (I use the teachers' credit union freebie in my office, as it has NSW government school terms/hols etc).  If you miss out this year, worth remembering for next year.

I was going to fossick about online for a year planner for them, but that would have to be printed on A4 and put together, so this (which has some colour) is excellent.  We will be sitting down with various coloured highlighters and pencils and the assessment schedule, so each student will make this planner their own.  Then they'll have to take a photo of it on a wall at their home, just to show me that it's doing its Visible job...

Cheers

Ruth

50% off e-books (less than an hour more today)

SmartBitchesTrashyBooks has an e-book discount coupon that's valid still for just under another hour.  50% off at AllRomanceebooks.com and Omnilit.com. 

The rules: You will receive 50% off on all titles purchased on AllRomanceeBooks.com and OmniLit.com through this weekend if they use the code SBTBARe1.


The discount will only appear once the code is entered in the shopping cart and the “Calculate Discount” button is selected. This offer expires at midnight 31 January 2010, 11:59 PM Mountain Standard Time.


Before you start sniffing, (if you do start sniffing), think on this:

Evernight by Claudia Gray $6.99 -50%
1000 Art Journal Pages $29.99 -50%

1000 Artist Trading Cards $29.99 -50%
A bunch of graphic/comic novels

There's fiction, bodice-ripping if you want that, but plenty else if you don't, and nonfiction too.  Haven't yet read Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series (on which the TV series True Blood is based?).  Buy one or more.  Dead Until Dark is the first in the series ($6.99- 50%).

All prices in $US, but the exchange rate is pretty good for the AUD right now, it's hovering around 90c.

There are various formats available for various titles, but most I've looked at seem to include a secure Adobe format which should be readable through Acrobat Reader (check the site FAQs for answers to your own particular questions on this), so you don't need an e-reader or iPhone, a computer will do - desktop, laptop, netbook, whatever.

If you haven't tried an e-book at all, or only a plain vanilla free download from somewhere like Project Gutenberg, why not try one from here?  You can try a novel for under $5.  What about being an art teacher and being able to fling open a page of the artist trading cards book (which weighs a bit in the real world, with its quality paper to reproduce the images)?

Cheers

Ruth

Free e-books from The Book Depository

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Read all about it here.

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS. We've started Christmas decorating in the school  library, and I'll show you some photos soon, as a couple of things are still In Progress...

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A free e-story: Boojum

A while ago I read the anthology of pirate stories, Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer: they've edited a number of anthologies in the fantasy/steampunk genres, generally pitched at an adult audience (which isn't to say the stories aren't good for kids, but is to say that the anthologies aren't constructed to eliminate that which might not be considered by some suitable for an adolescent audience).

My favourite story in this anthology, without a doubt, was Boojum by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear.  Black Alice is a space pirate, not a wet pirate, on a ship that is a creature (a boojum); it's a clever clever tale with a twist.  It was one I lent to senior Extension English students to look at as an idea of how a longer short piece of writing might be constructed (since a number of them were writing prose fiction for their major works).

And tootling around on Google in the hols, I discovered that of all the pirate stories in all the world, this one is available online (as described in this blog entry) as an e-story pdf,  Hurrah!  Click here to read BOOJUM!

It has a couple of bits of contextual coarse language in it, so if that's a concern for you read it first before sharing with kids (read it anyway, just because it's good).  It's high school level in its ideas, rather than primary school.  But if you're looking for an e-example of a story to share, try this.

Cheers

Ruth

Sale bargain alert - Borders in Sydney city

There's a whole bunch of rebuilding going on in the Pitt/Castlereagh St area of Sydney, and due to that Borders bookshop in Skygarden is closing on 15 May (it will take two years for the site redevelopment there to be done).  Apologies if you're not a Sydneysider, but if you are, AND a teacher librarian, you might be interested in these from the sale tables at Borders:

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They had multiple copies of each.  Pirateology worked out at $5.50, Alex Rider at under $6 and the manga drawing book at under $10.  I haven't photographed the lovely $100 book about Anne Frank's house that was 75% off, because, heck, that wouldn't be fair since I nabbed the only copy I saw.... sorry!!  There are 75% off tables, and tables with already reduced books with another 50% off.  And a number of full price categories with 25% off.

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Not worth a special visit to the city, but if you are there, well, this is a heads-up.  It's just this Borders shop that's closing, and because of the redevelopment.

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I'm going back into blog silence to savour the last few days of these holidays - enjoy!  I did go into school and got some painting done - tune in here when school is back to find out more...

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Cheers, Ruth

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