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Libraries and Liberty
1. Reading Levels
For my regular collection books, if I do know the Guided reading level, I enter it in the 521 filed. 521a is the GR letter and 521b is the term " Guided Reading Level." Hopefully, it is already in a purchased MARC record. As far as our shared library (GR textbooks/trade books), we purchase the F and P book to level the library. Of course, not all are there. Many of the companies have started to list the GRL online too. I search where I can. However, adding GRL to the regular MARC records is not a priority. I do it when I have time!
The question is as follows: Are you dealing with the issue of assigning guided reading levels to your collection? a) If so, how do you deal with cataloging, costs of obtaining records, method of adding searchable levels to your catalog records?
Pru—
I have leveled my library by Lexile. You can access their database for free and Follett and PermaBound also have lexile levels. My aide added the 521 field and I used colored dots on the call number label to indicate the reading level by hundreds. The actual lexile level in written on the pocket. Students can search for their lexile level by typing in the number with an L after it (ex. 570L). It took some time, but not as much as I thought it would. I printed the shelf list, fiction only, by authors last name, wrote the lexile numbers on the list, then did the work. This was not required of me. I am trying to be proactive and get the MS/HS to buy into having students tested and allow them to read at their level for their outside reading books.
Mary Jo—
We haven't dealt with guided reading yet in our library.
Jane—
Will be more of an issue for Downsville when we start the 100 Book Challenge. I will use their software to assign reading levels for existing records. As new materials are being put into the system, our Follett records have this info in them. When you search in OPALS by "anywhere" by reading level, ex. 4.5, OPALS displays all titles in your collection having that reading level...
Barb G.—
We are not assigning levels, so far.
Bruce—
No to guided reading; it is handled through the reading specialists.
Kathleen—
We would very much like to add lexile levels to our catalog. We would use the 521 field: subfield a: Lexile # subfield b: the word "Lexile". As of yet, Harry Chan has not made this a searchable field, but Ron said he would keep suggesting it. We would like to use the months of May and June, when our library is closed for renovations, to add the subfields to our titles. We have some contracting money available to consider paying for lexile levels that aren't easily found through lexile.com. It would be great if the union catalog could add lexile levels as well. :-)
Carolyn—
In our library we shelve about 1,000 books by reading level and we also provide rotating classroom libraries for classrooms of leveled books. This is an area of very high circulation for us and has increased the use of the library and, most importantly, the involvement of the library in the language arts curriculum. Opals does not do a good job of including levels in their mark record display. This information is available, but I don't think they feel it is important to include it. I have been talking to Ron about his, but I'm not sure that he understands exactly why this is so important to us.
I use my CCCD funds to by easy readers and have been able to boost our collection is this area with those funds. We are also talking with teachers at grade level meetings about collections of books for "guided reading" which are collections of books for small group reading and is encouraged in our new language arts program, Literacy be Design. We have a lot of questions!
What is the role of the library in this area? Typically the guided reading books are shelved in a separate room and organized by level for the teachers to use in their reading classes. I think that we can do a much better job at selecting the books for "guided reading". The books that the company recommends and SELLS to schools are awful. This is material that has not been reviewed and is really just bad basal readers. If we get involved in book selection, then should we get involved the processing and distribution of those books from the reading rooms? I think it is very important for the library to be involved in the selection of high quality literature for the classroom, but we are all struggling (in a very friendly way) with what that looks like.
As a cousin of mine once said about money, money is always there but the pockets change; it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money.--Gertrude Stein
Funding your organization can be done any number of ways: waiting on money from above, and / or creating alternative streams.Your goal should be to tap into the various “pockets” holding the money and to move it into the places you choose most appropriate.
Key to this concept is diversifying funding streams.At this point it would be worth your while to actually chart out, Inspiration software or some free open source tool from the web could be used, all of the streams carrying money that come into your library.New York State’s money stream may not be quite as reliable in the future as it has in the past.Thus your school district may also not be able to provide what you need and have grown to expect.Chart out your streams then set forth to create a plan for adding to and diversifying your inputs.
Kudos and well done to Sue at Otselic Valley for receiving notice of funding, $5,000.00 from the Lowe’s Toolbox grant to help fund the renovation of her library.Congratulations and keep up the good work.She has been quietly working at gaining some acumen in grant writing and hence project management once that funding has been received.
If you can find ways to keep shifting money from a full pocket to your empty one, your funding streams will have grown and you will have taken significant steps toward becoming the necessary and invaluable “Indispensable Librarian” who is able to keep their job while rising in status in the school district.
The year 2010 does not have to be different from the one we are now leaving behind.Work can be work; school can be school and kids can and will be kids as usual.We can paddle along the same braided channels of wishes, hopes and almosts, and once again, pan back to this moment at year’s end and see that once again—nothing much changed.Or, we can start afresh.
Resolutions are just that, words said, promises made and hopes often gone unrealized.Although cliché, the Nike logo “Just Do It” could be our mantra for the upcoming, some might say impending year.Perhaps it is time to do more, to complain less, to move firmly and purposively in the direction that you want to be headed and to truly make a difference in the lives of the students you serve.
