Library+Tours!

Where did you get to go and what did you learn?

I visited Mead Middle School on a Friday morning during AR (Accelerated Reading) time. The goals of taking the quizzes, doing well, selecting new books were obvious to any observer! The entire school was focused on AR and Mead Middle was a smooth running AR machine. This is a program that works well for them and my hat is off to the entire staff.

What I learned and what I shared: I learned more about books that are popular with the middle school students: Cirque du Freak is still a big hit, the Hallowmere Series by Tiffany Trent is hot, the 39 Clues Series is also popular. I learned that Sherry works really hard to keep her collection fresh and exciting for the students and seeks out additional funds. I knew she did that, but seeing it in action was great. We talked about the budget struggles in trying to keep up with new fiction and discussed possible grant sources. In trying to add to the AR books and quizzes, MMS is limited in purchasing new fiction from a money aspect and from the AR restraint. We also talked about the fact that our libraries are moving more toward fiction as more research goes online. Given limited space and budgets, I believe more libraries/ learning commons are or will be moving toward higher percentages of fiction. ---Alice L. York, Maverick Librarian, Mead High School