2015: The Year in Review

Happy New Year! To ring in 2016, I thought we'd take a look back at library statistics for 2015; check it out:

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Other statistics that you may find interesting. . . 

• The collection totals 7,577 copies.
• More than 650 patrons from around the district and in the building checked out 7,772 items.
• The top ten titles were checked out a total of 314 times.
• More than 30 titles were put on hold in the last year. The top three titles requested were Monument 14, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, and The Eleventh Plague.

Happy 2016, and here's to more great books and reading!

November Library Displays

With Thanksgiving around the corner, we decided to add an interactive library display:

Students write their names on their "turkeys," along with a book for which they are thankful. They even get to add faces and legs to their turkeys!

The other new library display is inspired by a recent post on Pinterest from the group Epic Reads. They pictured several "shadow" books with the phrase "What we read in the shadows." Here's our inspired display:

Using Destiny Quest to Promote Reading

All of our DCG libraries use the Destiny library management system which allows students to create a personal account. Once logged in, users can access Destiny Quest, allows users to do a variety of things:

• search the catalog.

• manage virtual bookshelves.

• view their accounts.

• send and receive friend requests.

• make book recommendations.

• and, write book reviews.

Recently, 6th and 7th graders reviewed the options that Destiny Quest offers, and they have the opportunity to recommend books and write book reviews. These reviews now appear in our catalog and allow students to see what others have to say about the books in our collection.

Students wrote down web address and username/password information in their planners so they would be able to access Destiny Quest in study hall or at home. All they need is a device that can access the Internet. Why not check the catalog to read the reviews that they're writing? Maybe you'll find a book that others have recommended as a great read!

Banned Books Week 2015

The American Library Association recognizes Banned Books Week every fall, and this year we do so from September 27 - October 3.

According to the ALA's website, there is a clear difference between challenging a book or banning a book:

The Office of Intellectual Freedom tracks the books challenged in a year's time, and the following books were the top 10 most frequently challenged titles in 2014:

To recognize Banned Books Week and to bring the topic to students' attentions, we have two library displays that have sparked great questions and conversations with students.

Are you talking with your students about Banned Books Week? Have you had conversations about your rights related to reading? Maybe you've even noticed that you've read a challenged or banned book! 

New Library Display

We're featuring a new library display in our two-sided display case at the entrance to the library--check it out!

We featured our top 9 titles--all of them Iowa Teen Award nominees--along with items from Starbucks to find out if anyone was "thirsty for a good book."

Promoting the Iowa Teen Award Titles, Part II

With the Iowa Teen Award nominees ThingLink presentation ready to share, students in 6th and 7th grade reading classes visited the library over the first two weeks of school to learn more about the 15 titles featured this year. (See post below.) After talking about the book nomination process, students received a handout to use to record their thinking about the books.

You can access the entire handout HERE.

Students then had most of a class period to watch book trailers and read book-related content or visit author websites to learn more about the nominees. After three full days of classes visiting the library, every single title is checked out, and some titles now have a double-digit number of holds on them! Students definitely are interested in talking about and reading the books from this year's list!

Check out the ThingLink presentation in the post below and consider which of the titles might interest you. We'd love to have you stop by the library to check out one of them!

Promoting the Iowa Teen Award Titles

Each year we celebrate and promote the Iowa Teen Award nominees with different activities: maybe a Prezi presentation (click HERE for the post) or QR codes (click HERE to see this post). This year, we're trying another different approach--using Thinglink to introduce and promote the titles.

Thinglink will allow students to use interactive content related to the ITA nominees and encourage them to move through the titles that interest them.

Check out the presentations below, and come back later to read about students' use of them!