Category: Uncategorized

Personal Book Shopping Program

By: Susannah Goldstein
Brearley School

IMG_20181214_155459Upper School students are busy, and are often juggling many things at the same time– after school jobs, athletics, college applications, arts, and other commitments.  Many librarians see a drop in circulation between middle school and upper school, especially among driven independent school students. Students who know exactly which series or title they want are able to check out books quickly, but when students aren’t sure what they are seeking, coming to the library to browse and do active readers advisory feels like another item on their packed to-do list.  While I do many passive readers advisory programs, I wanted to do something new that would incorporate active readers advisory but would also be high-quality and personalized.

Enter: personal book shopping programs! Continue reading “Personal Book Shopping Program”

HVLA Winter Meeting 2019

By: Gili Warsett
Brooklyn Friends 

The HVLA Winter Meeting brought together about forty librarians to think deeply about Diversity and Inclusion in School Libraries.  We gathered in Public School 363 – The Neighborhood School’s library hosted by HVLA Vice President Cheryl Wolf.

Cheryl welcomed HVLA into the space.  She spoke about the demographics of both The Neighborhood School and PS 63 – STAR Academy, which share a building.  HVLA President Karen Grenke and veteran members noted that this was the first time HVLA had held a meeting in a public school, not including the HVLA and NYCSLA meet-up, also hosted by Cheryl Wolf at The Neighborhood School. Continue reading “HVLA Winter Meeting 2019”

ALA Mid-Winter 2019

By: Hannah Mermelstein, St. Ann’s School and Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School

In January, HVLA members Kyle Lukoff and Hannah Mermelstein attended ALA midwinter in Seattle. Below are a few thoughts and highlights from each of us.

Hannah: I spent some time ducking in and out of the exhibit hall, gathering ARCs and listening to publishers present about their favorite upcoming titles. When I needed something that was a little less of a free-for-all, I attended sessions both small and large. One of the larger events was the The President’s Program featuring Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Her presentation was insightful and polished and important, particularly for the vast majority of librarians who are white. Look her up, read her book, watch her speak. Continue reading “ALA Mid-Winter 2019”

NYCSLA/HVLA Cookie Exchange

Anna Murphy
Berkeley Carroll

Last month public school and independent school librarians came together to share cookies and ideas in another successful collaboration between NYCSLA and HVLA. NYCSLA (New York City School Librarians’ Association) is primarily comprised of public school librarians, so this was a great opportunity for independent and public school librarians to connect with one another and share. As we noshed on delicious homemade cookies in Jennifer DeGrace’s beautiful space at The High School for Environmental Studies, we also got to hear from some fantastic librarians.

Continue reading “NYCSLA/HVLA Cookie Exchange”

Hybrid Learning Consortium

By: Dacel Casey
Trevor School

As a Library Media Specialist, I have found that I, along with my colleagues and peers, often wear more than one hat at our schools.  At Trevor my hats include  9th Grade Advising, Model UN Faculty Advisor, and directing our N-12 Community Service and Global Programs. Combined with that, this Fall, I had the opportunity to expand on all of those by teaching an online course focused around Civic Engagement and the youth of today. This course was able to let me combine my passion service and research with teaching and using an online medium. My students, hailing from Miami and Maui, provided unique perspectives on my material and assignments and have helped me future enhanced some my programming at Trevor Day.

Continue reading “Hybrid Learning Consortium”