Week #6 - Ominous Messages

Spent a fair amount of time cataloging and processing this week. Not terribly inspiring from a student-learning perspective, but a necessary aspect of library life. The only reason we had so much to process was because the huge new book order came in, 202 titles. The process is streamlined in a way that I approve of: the aide does the bulk of the processing, leaving the librarian free to concentrate on students. We compare the arrivals to the invoice and download the MARC records, but that's really about it. Gives us the opportunity to review the new books and handle them without spending too much time on them. I spent some time uploading them onto the new books blog as well, which provides the students with a running tally of new materials, tagged by genre, so they know what's coming in, what they might find interesting (4.1.1, 4.1.7). 

The big excitement for the week involved a pretty ominous message found written on a bathroom wall. A date followed by a threat of violence is not something any educator ever wants to see. Thankfully it was just a prank, the culprit was identified and confessed to it about a half an hour after the message was found. Unfortunately, several students must have read the message before it was reported, because news of the threat showed up on some facebook pages, which spread some bad information like wildfire. Administration got bogged down with calls from angry or worried parents. It's amazing the power of social networks to spread information like that so quickly, even if it's misinformation. And students aren't even supposed to have their phones on them.

That alone initiates an interesting discussion, because the school policy is to confiscate a phone that is seen or heard. I suspect most teachers approve of this policy, but how many of these same teachers keep their own cell phones on their person all day, or possibly use them in front of students? The constant inter-connectivity of life and technology these days makes it really difficult for many of us to disconnect, especially teens. We like to think that, as adults, we know when it's appropriate to use our phones, but plenty of us do not. For that matter, how do you find opportunities to educate students on proper use of that kind of technology when there is a blanket ban? At the very least, the incident with the message did provide some good in that it created an obvious example to initiate a dialogue on proper use of phones and social networks (4.3.4). Even if the discussion is somewhat moot because the district is not interested in modifying the policy.

We're planning on starting inventory next week, so we spent a little time preparing the scanners. XHS recently purchased a new scanner from Follett, and it's pretty slick little machine. It connects to Wi-Fi and, once they upgrade to destiny, will interact with the system in real-time. I can see a lot of potential in the device for making the librarian mobile, able to move around the school and do some cool things in classrooms. Instead of making classrooms come to the library. I want one.