Bookish Eclectic

I have cleaned and cleaned, and I am still nowhere near done. I am beginning to review resources, weeding, and developing ideas to get more teachers and students into the library. The few days I have been in to watch the kids rotate through, no one ever makes it to non-fiction. The English teachers are the only ones I have seen in the space so far, and they want their students to read fiction. Honors students are not brought in to choose books. They typically stick to the classics and don't have enough time to step outside that box. Challenge number one is that it has snowed so much that we haven't had school for more than a few days. Challenge two: I am new, and teachers aren't used to coming in or collaborating. Challenge three is that the library is set up more for adults than students. Challenge four, the prevailing idea has been that students don't read anyway, so spending money on new books is a waste. Challenge five, and maybe the one that will be the...

 "You recognize it, little soul. Of course you do; it is known to all who arrive here. It is a myth of an endless library, a place for souls to pause, rest, and regather themselves after death. It is a place of sanctuary; it is a place of homecoming. And, like any good library, it is open to all." ` The God of Lost Words, by A.J. Hackwith (p. 350)      The Hell's Library series by A.J. Hackwith caught my attention about two years ago. The first novel was sitting on my local library's "Just In" shelf, and it certainly caught my attention. A book by a queer sci-fi author? A book about a librarian? I was absolutely going to pick that one up.       Inside of that cover, I found a heroine I could relate to and a world that caught my attention. At the end of the series, I found the quote above. As I have contemplated, over and over, the idea of studying Library Science, this quote just keeps popping into my head. Reading has always been a sanctuary to m...