So, the ever repeating cycle of a school year starts again.  This Librarian, after 24 years (is it really that long) is  already up and running welcoming old and new pupils and staff alike to the library.  The summer proved busy (yep, I am in during some of the holidays) with many jobs being done.

What does a School Librarian get up to when working during the school holidays?  Well, here is some of what is done:

• Shelf tidying
• Stocktake
• Processing new books
• LMS (Library Management System) maintenance
• Preparing S1 Library cards and adding pupils to LMS
• Checking class lists against LMS
• Annual report writing
• More shelf tidying
• Lesson preparation (Library & Information Literacy Skills)
• Cleaning up library files on server – getting rid of unused or superseded documents
• Clearing out emails (archiving where necessary)
• Book orders
• Preparing library guides for new pupils and new staff
• Activities prep (Running a beginners Dungeons & Dragons activity on Friday afternoon so help guides and characters made up – this work is also done at home in my own time)
• Sorting magazines and newspapers (The Orcadian) ensuring in date order and in correct file boxes
• Even more shelf tidying
• Plant care – yep, the plants (Spider plants; Dracenas; Yuccas; Begonias) have to be cared for too (the smaller ones get taken home for repotting)
• Statistics updates
• Logbook updates
• Notices and posters – updating and or printing out fresh ones
• Library Guiding – updating
• Preparing new computer logbooks and booking sheets
• Thinking up new ideas
• Long term planning
• Yet more shelf tidying – yes I have said that a few times, but there is a lot of it.
• etc.

So, we are now second week in and it doesn’t really feel like we have been away.  Fresh faces and our regulars are visiting the library during break times.  Computers, board games and Magic the Gathering are proving as popular as ever.

We are still fairly quiet during classtime, but a small number of 6th year have discovered that the library can be quite a good place to study during their ‘free’ periods – would like to maybe see more.  S1 and S2 classes have started to come for library periods where they will be doing library and information literacy skills as well as personal reading.  Next week, though is when it will get busier with the Geography Department starting their research projects – Europe for S1 and Earth Forces for S2.  This is when we will be really busy.

Time to prepare by putting the relevant book displays up, then!