Every year since I was in sixth grade I have helped the Elementary Library. My mom is the elementary school librarian and after fair and the end of the year she would ask for my help with inventory or inputting new books. When I was in middle school I would just stamp and scan the books into the system. Since high school I have been able to help in a lot more ways.
This summer I helped her input as many books as I could into the system. She had roughly six to eight cases full of books. Several of the cases came from the book fair that the school had. At the end of the book fair, my mom and I went through the books and picked out which ones should go into the library. The other cases of books should be ordered based on students, parents, and teachers’ wishlist.
My job when helping my mom was to go to Accelerated Reader or Amazon and find out what the test number and reading levels were for each book. Then I would input the information into Alexandria which is a library program. After the information is inputted the books would be stamped with the school’s contact information and would be assigned a bar code and label.
When we completed so many books we would either put them in a box or we would wrap them. Any books that were hardback and had a cover had to be wrapped. We would take off the cover and then put this special kind of plastic that should protect the cover from any potential damage. Then the cover would be tapped to the book with a special kind of tape.
Helping my mom with the library books has always been a task that I have been happy to do. I get to look through books that I bring me back to my childhood and reminded me of all the amazing books I got to read growing up. It is probably one of my favorite things that I get to do with my mom and it is nice to know that these books will be read by children and will one day be part of their childhood.
