47. • “Making You and Your Library Indispensable” Sept. 8, 2010 Webinar with Gwyneth Jones
48. (through the Teacher Librarian Virtual Café) – Fran Bullington
49. • South Carolina Association of School Librarian’s Annual Conference March 2011 – Fran
50. Bullington
51. • Discovery Education STAR Educator Workshop March 30, 2011 – Fran Bullington
52. • “Screenagers and the Digital Window” Apr. 4, 2011 Webinar with Joquetta Johnson (through
53. the Teacher Librarian Virtual Café) – Fran Bullington
54. • “Diving into Digital Books” May 2, 2011 Webinar with Buffy Hamilton and Jennifer LaGarde
55. (through the Teacher Librarian Café) – Fran Bullington
56. • Follett’s “The ABC’s of Inventory” Webinar May 2011 – Fran Bullington and Jay Campbell
57. • Upstate Technology Conference June 14-15, 2011- Fran Bulington
58. • SCASL Summer Institute June 21, 2011 – Fran Bullington
59. C. Offsite Presentations• Upstate Technology Conference June 2010 - Fran Bullington co-presented with Cathy Nelson (Dorman High School media specialist) and Heather Loy (Wagener-Salley High School media specialist): “There’s an App for That: Using Web Tools to Simplify, Organize, and Enhance Your Life”<br />• July 7, 2010 – Fran Bullington was filmed as guest speaker for Dr. Virginia Wallace’s SLIS 742 (Curricular Role of the School Library Media Specialist) graduate course at the University of South Carolina’s College of Library and Information Science<br />• January 16, 2011 – Fran Bullington took part in a panel presentation with Cathy Nelson and Heather Loy for Martha Taylor’s SLIS 761 (Information Technologies in the School Library Media Program) graduate course at the University of South Carolina’s College of Library and Information Science<br />• Feb. 3, 2011 – Fran Bullington was on a webinar panel presenting “Kindles, Nooks, iPads, Oh My!” for the South Carolina Association of School Librarians<br />• March 10, 2011 – Fran Bullington co-presented with Cathy Nelson and Heather Loy: “There’s an App for That: Using Web Tools to Simplify, Organize, and Enhance Your Life”<br />• Upstate Technology Conference June 14, 2011 – Fran Bullington co-presented with Alice London: “Revitalize Reviewing”<br />• Upstate Technology Conference June 15, 2011 – Fran Bullington presented “Ramp Up Reading with Technology”<br />D. Professional Blog: Informania<br />Fran Bullington began her professional blog about school library matters as a graduate student at the University of South Carolina. Now in its fourth year, the blog provides an opportunity to explore ideas that are relevant to our library. “Creating blog entries to post for others to read encourages me to research topics carefully before I post and has expanded my own PLN (Personal Learning Network).” (Fran Bullington)<br />Informania was once again recognized as a leading professional library blog. This year it was nominated for the 2010 Edublog Awards Best Library Blog.<br />IV. Promoting Reading<br />Our mission is to support teaching and learning, foster a love of reading, and enable students and teachers to become effective and ethical users of information.<br />Part of our mission statement addresses promoting reading for not only learning, but also for pleasure. The BSHS LMC has created many reading programs and events to encourage our students and staff to read as well as implementing new ideas to assist students in locating books.<br />A. READissance<br />We entered the ninth year of READissance, our voluntary reading program, this school year. Because participation in the program had declined, one of our program goals this year was to analyze and improve participation. We asked for both teacher and student volunteers to serve on a READissance Committee and met early in the fall semester to revamp the program.<br />The committee felt that we could encourage more participation by lowering our reading requirements. We instituted two tiers of reading achievement: 6 books OR 2000+ pages per semester. Students could still use all books read as part of class assignments. <br />Each semester a luncheon was held as the culminating activity to celebrate reading and reward those who had read the required number of books. The library provided Chic-Fil-A meals and the top readers from each grade were recognized and given their prizes. Everyone who attends can enter a drawing for a variety of door prizes. <br />Fall 2010Spring 2011Students Participating11183# READissance Members6360# Books Read315664# Pages Read104,295211,569<br />Even with the lowered requirements, fewer students participated in READissance. In an informal survey completed at the January READissance luncheon, participants stated their reason for participation was a love of reading and the lowered requirements did not lead them to participate. <br />B. South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Program<br />Each year, the South Carolina Association of School Librarians presents prestigious book awards in four categories. BSHS students not only read titles from the list of twenty Young Adult Book Award nominees, but they also had the opportunity to help choose the winner of the award by casting their vote via ballot on Feb. 25th. <br />The BSHS LMC promotes this program by purchasing titles for our collection and providing students and teachers with brochures that include brief annotations of each title. Fran Bullington booktalks many of the titles to classes and creates an Animoto video of all twenty titles to promote interest in the program. <br />C. Bulldog Booklovers Club<br />The Bulldog Booklovers Club was formed in the fall of 2006 and meets once a month after school. We have seen steady growth since the book club’s inception and have worked to accommodate the growing number of members and their various interests in different genres. We new regularly discuss two different titles, allowing our members choice each month.<br />Book club members participate in Exclusive Book Previews. When new titles have been processed and are shelf-ready, Mrs. Bullington and her service learners set up a book display in one of the conference rooms. Then at 7:30 on the morning that books will be available for checkout, book club members are allowed to browse through the new titles and choose one for checking out. Book club members appreciate and look forward to these Exclusive Book Previews.<br />D. Banned Book Week<br />The BSHS LMC participates in sevral events sponsored by the American Library Association. Each September, “Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States” (“Banned Books Week”). Fran Bullington created a display of popular titles that have been challenged over the years and lead a discussion of the topic at the September Bulldog Booklover Club meeting.<br /> E. Teen Read Week<br />Teen Read Week is another American Library Association sponsored event that BSHS LMC celebrates. This year we sponsored two events:<br />1. Celebrating YA Lit Fiction Jeopardy <br />The library sponsored a Celebrating YA Fiction contest during all four lunches. Sign up was limited to six participants per lunch period. We served Chic-Fil-A meals as students teamed up to play compete in the Jeopardy game. <br /> <br />2. Book Trivia Contest<br />Each day, a trivia question was read during the announcements. Students and teachers who could identify the book wrote its title down and submitted it to the library. Those who identified the title correctly had their names entered in the prize drawing on Friday for a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card.<br />F. Author Alan Gratz’s Visit<br />To encourage reading and writing for pleasure, Fran Bullington collaborated with Sally Hursey, media specialist at BSHS 9th Grade Campus to sponsor author Alan Gratz’s visit. To help defray costs, Fran applied for and received funding from The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg.<br />Alan Gratz was with us on Feb. 16th and held three sessions in the library: 1) “Stealing Shakespeare” for both current and former students of Mr. Pack’s Shakespeare class, 2) “From Brainstorm to Bookshelf” for Mr. Cannon’s and Mrs. DeLac’s Creative Writing classes , and 3)” Q & A with the Author” for students who had read at least one of Mr. Gratz’s books. Gratz captivated each audience and was a huge hit.<br />G. Teen Tech Week (March 7 – 11, 2011)<br />During the two weeks leading up to our Teen Tech Week this year, students were invited to enter a Book Trailer Contest. Both Mrs. Menzer and Ms. London brought their classes in for instructions on using Windows Movie Maker to create their trailers. Individual students were invited to drop in for instruction before school, at lunch, or after school on Feb. 24th and 25th.<br />Entries for the contest were due March 4th. Using a rubric, a panel of judges considered each entry. They awarded first place to Jessica Pathammavong’s book trailer on Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. Jessica won a gift certificate and had her book trailer posted on the library’s website.<br />H. South Carolina READ IN<br />On April 14th, Bulldog Booklovers Club members from both the 9th grade and main campuses traveled to Columbia to participate in the Read-In sponsored by the South Carolina Association of School Librarians. Hundreds of teachers and students from across the state gathered on the State House grounds for a program celebrating reading. We proudly represented the importance of reading in Bulldog Nation. Sen. Glenn Reese not only took us on a guided tour of the State House but also introduced us during sessions of both the house and senate. <br />I. School Library Month<br />April is not only National School Library Month, but it is also National Poetry Month. In honor of both, the BSHS LMC sponsored two events.<br />1. Book Spine Poetry Contest<br />This year we once again combined our celebration of poetry and school libraries by sponsoring a Spine Tales Poetry Contest. Student created poems were photographed and put on display in the media center. On April 29th, students and teachers read over the 80 entries and voted for their five favorite poems. The winning poem was created by Paul St. Cyr who received a Barnes and Noble $10 gift card for his excellent entry.<br />2. Poem in Your Pocket Day<br />The media center once again sponsored a Poem in Your Pocket Day this year. Students were encouraged to copy and carry their favorite poem in their pocket (or wallet, purse, etc.) on April 20th. Mrs. Bullington randomly asked students to share their poem with her, and if they had a poem in their pocket and shared it, they were rewarded with candy. Life is sweet!<br />J. New Spine Labeling<br />Never one to be satisfied with the status quo, Mrs. Bullington analyzed our fiction collection to determine ways to make it more user-friendly. This analysis led to two different relabeling adventures:<br />1. Series Books<br />As our 2010 – 2011 Top Twenty Checkouts list illustrates, young adult series books are some of the most sought after titles in our collection. In the fall, Mrs. Bullington began what she termed “The Great Sequel Challenge.” She created numerical spine labels to be placed on all titles in each series to assist readers in ensuring they read the titles in chronological order.<br />Mrs. Bullington and service learners pulled hundreds of books from the shelves and began affixing the numerical labels. This process not only empowered our students to locate their next read, but it also indicated gaps in our collection that Mrs. Bullington was able to correct with this year’s book orders.<br />2. South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee Titles<br />We have continued to place special focus on the South Carolina Young Adult Book Award nominees by shelving them in our recreational reading section. Having the books in one location enables us to point the students to one section where they can find highly recommended titles. <br />However, students using the online catalog to search for books often had trouble locating the SCYABA books in the library because their call numbers only indicated that they were Fiction books. If the catalog indicated a title was available, students would head to our General Fiction section to locate the book and often become frustrated then they couldn’t find it.<br />To remedy the situation, Mrs. Bullington created new spine labels with the call number “YABA FIC” for the current and last five years’ nominees. Now when students find an interesting title in the catalog that happens to be a SCYABA nominee, they know where that title will be shelved.<br />Goals for the 2011-2012 School Year<br />The results of our annual report have increased our awareness of both our strengths and weaknesses. Our goals for next year are based on the results of this report and on the South Carolina State Department of Education’s Achieving Exemplary School Libraries report.<br />1. Continue to work on increasing collaboration with classroom teachers.<br />“Collaborative planning—the joint working of two or more educators (e.g., teachers, library media specialist(s), reading teachers, itinerant teachers, resource teachers) to plan lesson and/or unit content, the delivery of instruction, and the assessment of student achievement—exists between the classroom teachers and the library media center professional staff. At least 50 percent of the classroom teachers actively participate in a collaborative partnership with the library media center professional staff to plan, deliver, and evaluate lessons that link information literacy, technology, and academic content and to assess student learning” (“Achieving Exemplary School Libraries,” 8).<br />2. Continue to improve both the content and currency of our collection.<br />“The library media center resource collection of print and electronic resources (including computers) is carefully selected and aligned with the school’s curriculum. The collection is systematically organized and is sufficient in quantity and quality to meet the information and recreational reading needs of the school community. The resource collection is continuously monitored for currency and relevancy to the curriculum and to students’ general interests” (“Achieving Exemplary School Libraries,” 12).<br />3. Restructure READissance to increase participation.<br />“The library media program supports the school-wide reading initiatives and emphasis by encouraging reading throughout the school, offering a variety of reading materials, and participating in various state and national reading programs (e.g., S.C. Book Award Program, Children’s Book Week, Teen Read Week, National Library Week). <br />At least 30 percent of secondary students participate in one or more reading initiatives, events, or activities throughout the school year…” (“Achieving Exemplary School Libraries,” 14).<br /> See Appendix Two<br />Report submitted by Fran Bullington<br />Bibliography<br />“Banned Books Week.” American Library Association, 29 July 2008. Web. 19 July 2011. <br /> <http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm>.<br />“Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning.” ALA/Roles and Responsibilities of the School <br /> Library Media Specialist. American Library Association, 5 June 2010. Web. 19 July 2011. Path: <br /> http://www.ala.org.<br />South Carolina Department of Education. “Achieving Exemplary School Libraries: Standards for South <br /> Carolina School Library Media Programs.” N.p. Web. 27 June 2011. <br /> <http://scschoollibraries.pbworks.com/Achieving-Exemplary-School-Libraries>.<br />South Carolina Department of Education. “South Carolina Standards for School Library Resource <br /> Collections.” N.p., 2009. Web. 27 June 2011. <http://scschoollibraries.pbworks.com/>.<br />Appendix One: By the Numbers<br />Number of books circulated throughout this school year<br />13,994<br />Number of items in the BSHS LMC collection as of June 15, 2011<br />16,804<br />Number of new books, CDs, and DVDs purchased for the collection<br />692<br />Equipment items purchased for the collection<br />24<br />Number of classes that visited the LMC for orientation, research, book check out, or to use computer rooms<br />1,436<br />Number of individual student visits to the LMC<br />21,048<br />Number of students participating in READissance<br />194<br />Number of students becoming READissance VIPs<br />123<br />Number of books read through READissance<br />979<br />Number of pages read through READissance<br />315,864<br />Appendix Two: READissance Statistics<br />