I also used Excel because of its ease. Originally, I started out with an author column, but deleted it in interest of getting done in time. (I found out in May we were getting a bookroom and I selected, ordered, checked in, organized, shelved, etc. before school started in August). Since that time, I have regretted deleting the author column. It is more important to have the author at the upper levels, but it's handy to have when you needed it.) I created multiple columns for "tags" such as "diaries" and "Civil War" and "mentor texts" and "fiction" so it could be sorted (filtered) in multiple ways. This was 5 years ago, so I'd hopefully do some work with Google docs now. Ours has columns for level (which I ended putting in the far left column, had to experiment a bit), title, publisher, (used to include copyright, now don't necessarily), and content and genre information. Initially, I included word count (as do Fountas and Pinnell) but abandoned that because it wasn't appearing to be profitable. Each teacher has a notebook with the inventory, which hasn't proven to be profitable across the board; most people prefer to just search the database. Or, often, to have me search the database. Some teachers used their notebook inventory, though, to highlight books and take notes for their future info. With Excel, you can search by level and content and get the books listed alphabetically. It's just pretty handy. I also have a notebook with the most current inventories in the leveled library. Those are used fairly often, but not as often as the online database. I have a section in the notebooks with books by level, one with books by title, one with books by content, one with professional books, one with media, one with big books, one with collections and kits, etc.
Our books are shelved by level. The books are banded together by title and placed in a tub labeled with the location, such as A-3, which would mean books at Fountas and Pinnell's A level, in the 3rd tub of level A. We tried different solutions. While plastic bags are handy for teachers (and don't rot like rubber bands), they slip and slide and are just a royal pain. The tubs are color coded by level, so if you grab a red tub, you know it'll be a Level L, etc. The shelves where the tubs sit are also labeled with a large bold label, such as C-5. By having the books in tubs, it's easy for a teacher to check out an entire tub, which happens most often in the early primary grades, rarely above level H or so. We have formica chips with teachers' names on them to leave on the shelf where a tub goes, so if a teacher takes an entire tub, it's easy for everyone else to see where those books are without having to paw through the checkout notebook. A tub will, of course, be checked out longer than individual titles. Our checkout notebook is divided by teachers' names. The columns are: level of book, title of book, location of book (such as L-4), number of books checked out, and number of books checked back in. The first year, I also had a comment section so the teachers could note what they wanted to remember, but only 2 teachers commented, so I lost that column. By the way, we also went back and forth with how to mark the books, so that they would be really easy to reshelve. Dots peel off, Sharpie rubs off eventually. But we are now doing all Sharpie marking (such as L-1) and asking teachers to re-Sharpie if it's almost rubbed off. That makes it very fast to reshelve because the location is right on the book. All you have to do is rubber band and stick back in the tub. We've had varied luck with reshelving smaller numbers of books, as opposed to all books of a title. Some teachers are very conscientious about finding the other copies of the book, rubber banding them together, and returning to tub. Unfortunately, some teachers just kind of look at the M-1 or whatever and kind of toss whatever they have in the tub. Two columns that are absolutely necessary is the # of books out and the # of books in. Often teachers will think they've brought all the books back and find out that they're missing 1 or 2 copies of a title. It's easier to look if less time has gone by. It's important to note that not all the books checked out in our leveled library are for guided reading. Some of them are, of course. Some of the mid- to upper-levels are checked out for literature circles. Some are for individual choice during a unit such as Space or Rocks and Minerals or Colonial Times. And many are checked out for book boxes a la Sharon Taberski. I will say, we probably have a much higher per-pupil ratio of titles than some schools do. I was able to negotiate some really good deals when I ordered $60,000 worth of books. So we have enough titles to use for book boxes as well as guided reading. The teachers simply checks books out at a child's independent level for book boxes. Of course, that use is what results in temporarily lost books the most, so that's when it helps if a teacher starts digging at point of check-in rather than months later. Our big books are not housed in our leveled library. Our inventory is split six ways and the starting location for the big books is listed in our inventory. At the end of the year, the big books are all returned to where they started, but through the year, they are pretty fluid, floating among several classrooms. I check out the professional books in a different notebook just for my personal preference. Either they are checked out by me to the teacher (if I happen to be around at the time) or the teacher leaves a sticky note with what she's taken, and I record it in my notebook. I'm basically the only person that writes in that notebook and it's right on my desk at all times. In reality, most of the time people check out professional books when I'm there because they want to ask for my recommendations or opinions. We have no time limit on any materials we have, but if the length of keeping something causes a problem for someone else, we address it with the people involved. When I get to my other computer, I have a pix or two of the leveled library shelves and I'll post it. What would be so much simpler and better is if the books could be barcoded, but we were hurrying at the initial setup and now we have no money to buy the stuff. I can't remember what the system is called that people on list often used but I think Michele T. from Iowa first posted about it. I should also mention that our classroom books are in baskets facing front as is often presented in this list serv. (Great pix on Beth Newingham's site) They are put into baskets using a method logical to the children and guided by the teacher. What a difference an arrangement makes! I use the same book placement arrangement in the leveled library through about Q when I ran out of tubs, and I can tell you that the teachers HATE it when it changes to typical spine out arrangement. It's so much harder to examine the books quickly to see what you need. At earlier levels, you can just flip through the titles quickly because the books are all facing you. I have examples of my forms on my other computer, but I don't think they'd be a big thrill for anyone. You basically all have different needs and can create your own forms to meet those needs. I did write this, though, so you'd see some of the right steps and the wrong steps we took in our journey. I can also tell you that the shelving issue is always a tightrope walk. If the literacy coaches (or any one person) are the only ones that re-shelves, it's a burden for them, and isn't the best use of their time. But if the lit coach is really hard-nosed and never helps someone out with re-shelving (or pulling, for that matter), it will seem like too much of an inconvenience for the busy classroom teachers and they will be far less likely to use the resources to their fullest. The other issue I haven't figured out how to deal with is a way to get busy teachers to "browse" the books so they best know what we have and can use the resources. I have been pretty rigid about pulling books because I truly don't know what would be good for their particular needs. "Grab a bunch of L books, will ya?" just doesn't work well for anyone. But even when I "make" them pull their own books, everyone cruises in at 100 miles an hour and quickly and efficiently grabs what they need (usually what they've used before) and is out without ever seeing the things that might be even better. I've tried various things like scheduling each grade level for a 7:00 to 8:00 Muffin Open House or demonstrating how I pull books for The Revolutionary War to the fifth grade teachers, but nothing has seemed to work well enough to suit me. I'm sure there are title after title that have never been used. That also happens when the science or social studies curricula change. Books the 4th grade once needed on 6 Native American tribes are not used as often when their curriculum has changed to using only 2 tribes with a strict compare and contrast between those 2. The other leveled library problem with books we have is probably universal. It is REALLY hard to find upper level books that are written for elementary (not middle school) readers. I carefully selected a lot of fiction our second year, going through reviews, etc. and ended up with several books inappropriate for most of our readers. And it's an especially expensive mistake when you buy 8 books instead of 1, like you would in a classroom. I wish someone like Choice Literacy would collect a bib of titles written at high levels, but for younger children. I don't really have the expertise or time to do it. The last thing I wanted to say about our leveled library is that it's disproportionately nonfiction. That's partly because we have lots of multiple copies of fiction housed in classrooms, and partially because when people requested materials the first year we established the library, they often requested them by content units, and those were often science and social studies. When the money dried up to add books, I wasn't able to continue adding in fiction to make it a better balance of books. I'm sure this is a lot more than you wanted to know. So...now I'll answer the one question. We use Excel! Bev On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 3:14 PM, EDWARD JACKSON <[email protected]> wrote: > > I used excel spreadsheet (Micosoft Word). We also linked the nonfiction to > content standard threads, so if you were looking to support unit study, you > could search by content standard. Here is the trick. Set up you page for a > spreadsheet as you normally would, labeling each column, setting width and > so on. Then highlight that first row across the top, where all your headings > are, and go to tools. Under tools, click on auto filter. It will now allow > you to organize all data using filters it establishes automatically. You > can, for example, narrow it to one level and the do a second search by > author or by content standard. Easy. > > > Lori Jackson M.Ed.Reading Specialist > Broken Bow, NE > > > > > > > > Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 12:11:00 -0400 > > From: [email protected] > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] ***SPAM*** RE: Book Room > > > > "I had developed a searchable data base by publisher, series, author, > > etc." > > > > What program did you use for the database? Thanks! > > > > Kendra Carroll > > > > > > Email Disclaimer: Please be advised that the contents of this message > > and any reply may be subject to disclosure under North Carolina law. > > This communication is for use by the intended recipient and contains > > information that may be privileged, confidential, or copyrighted under > > applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby > > formally notified that any use, copying, or distribution of this > > communication, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. Please > > advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete this message > > and any attachments without retaining a copy. This communication does > > not constitute consent to the use of sender's contact information for > > direct marketing purposes or for transfers of data to third parties. > > -----Original Message----- > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mosaic mailing list > > [email protected] > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > -- "There is nothing so unequal as equal treatment of unequals." Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
