Smultron mellan blåbär: AMA: One Year On

Hello friends! It's been a year since I started working as the school librarian at Aston Manor Academy. Most of my time has been spent evaluating the collection and deciding how it can best be accessed by the students and staff. Should we arrange fiction by author or genre? How do you recommend a book if you can't locate it in the library? Should we even have a copy of the Volkswagen Transporter T4 Workshop Manual?

My line manager has given me a lot of freedom to decide what happens in the library space. Since the collection wasn't locked into an alphabetical-by-author arrangement (in fact, it wasn't really arranged at all), I decided to organise fiction books by genre, like many bookshops do—and many school libraries, too! I took inspiration from The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller for this. This arrangement gets students talking about the elements that make up a story: its setting, characters, and plot. What makes a mystery, for example? What makes a fantasy? Students can easily find books by other authors in a genre they enjoy reading and they can explore a different shelf with a different genre of stories. We recognise that not every book fits neatly into a genre category, which makes us think about other qualities of the stories we like and how we could describe them to someone who hasn't read the book.

The information books underwent a major weeding project. I cleared the shelves of around 1,000 outdated and irrelevant books according to MUSTIE. I also had to figure out which books were even entered in our online system, since many books were just on the shelves and not in the catalogue at all. Books that were in the system were not shelved in a consistent place and the shelf labels were not accurate, so I also created a floor plan to locate items. I fell back on Dewey (alas), because I have the most experience with how books are located within that system, having worked at a public library. Most books I booted out were actually gross: water damaged, mouldy, sticky, graffitied, or falling apart. That Scotch 845 book tape is my best friend! Other supplies I use most are Avery labels (for spine labels), clear label protectors, date slips, and book jackets.

A few challenges have been working with a very limited budget, student behaviour in the library, and little staff collaboration—but I have been addressing these as I can. I applied for a grant from the School Library Association and our school was awarded £500 for new books from an independent bookshop. I set out clear expectations for behaviour in the library that students using the space have to follow and which prepares them for interacting with people in other public spaces. This position is a good fit for me because I work well on my own and enjoy the independence and power to make decisions about the space and priorities, but it can also feel isolating to be the only librarian at the school. There are definitely days when I only talk with students and hardly at all with adult coworkers! So, I am reaching out to colleagues in the School Library Association to share ideas and get support.

Students say that the library is a calm place. I have many library helpers, and they all want to help, not with activities, but actually with processing and putting away the books. I was kind of surprised by how many students really enjoy gluing in date slips and stamping books. Haha! We do a variety of activities during lunch break every day including art with recycled books and a secret writing group on Mondays. I know my favourite part of the job should be getting to work with the students—and that comes in as a close second—but, honestly, ordering new books is the best! In February, I have the opportunity to visit the Multilingual Library in Gateshead to select *free* new books for our library in English and possibly French. Des suggestions?