The Reading Renaissance

This week’s reading was…rough. I brought Catalog It! on vacation with me to San Juan and this text is not a beach read. Funnily enough, while I was reading Parable of the Talents (also not really a beach read…), the main character mentions cataloging! I couldn’t get over it. I couldn’t escape cataloging!   “So later in the day, Marc found me sitting with Channa Ryan, sorting and cataloging books. We’re always behind in that, and it needs to be done…Still, cataloging is tedious. I was almost glad when Marc came and interrupted my work” (Butler 146). Most of this week’s content felt completely over my head which was frustrating. I thought I might like trying out the exercises, like a fun little sudoku puzzle. They were not fun and I didn’t like them!   I did feel relieved to see that my classmates had similar feelings about this topic and that even Kaplan describes cataloging as “thorny.” My fingers are crossed that intricacies of cataloging will eventually make more sense to m...

image created using imgflip.com/memegenerator My AP Language and Composition class recently finished this practice exam from 2017 that prompted them to “develop a position on the role, if any, that public libraries should serve in the future.” The sources provided by CollegeBoard along with the discussion my students had in response to the prompt, drew me to Wendy Stephens’s article, “Welcome to Your Post-Coronavirus School Library.” I was drawn to this article because I’m learning that librarians really have to adapt to the ever changing landscape of education. Obviously teachers have to adapt as well but I think it’s easier to stay a bit “old school” in the classroom whereas it seems like a librarian’s livelihood depends on their flexibility. Ultimately, I wanted to read something current and was curious about the author’s ideas for a post-coronavirus library.  Stephen’s main point is that school librarians need to adapt to the changing educational landscape by embracing d...