Yesterday, I met with the Director and Assistant Director from the Oxford Public Library (OPL) to discuss a possible collaboration. Since the public library is so close to the school and since they have WAY more resources than we do at the OHS library, we talked about setting up an inter-library loan program so our students have access to more books. For those of you who don't know, inter-library loan refers to a service where a user of one library can borrow books held by another library. For example, if you frequent the Oxford Public Library, but the book you are looking for is only held at the Auburn Public Library, you can have that book sent over from Auburn so you can pick it up at Oxford. This works out when libraries belong to the same network, since they have overlapping online catalogs. At OHS, I am planning to introduce students to the C/W MARS catalog, which is what OPL uses, so they can see what other books are available to them. If a student does not have a library card or is not physically able to visit the library, I will act as the liaison and bring those books to our school. I used this system at the last school I worked out, and it worked really well! I just need to depend on my students to return their books on time!
While visiting OPL yesterday, they were generous enough to donate some of their old reference materials to the OHS library. I snagged some various sets of encyclopedias, such as a six volume set of the Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and a four volume set on North American in Colonial Times. These books are in great shape and I am certain that they will be a great addition to our collection. I look forward to seeing what else OPL weeds from their collection, so hopefully I will be able to add some nonfiction and fiction books as well.
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I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new library media specialist at OHS! My name is Ms. Castonguay. I grew up in Northbridge, MA and still live there now. I graduated from Northbridge High School in 2009 and then went on to Stonehill College, where I majored in Psychology. After considering a career as a school counselor, I decided that was not the right path for me. I made the impulsive decision to enroll in graduate school immediately following my undergraduate graduation, and I decided to work on my Master's for Library and Information Science at the University of Rhode Island. My decision to work on my master's in this field might have been impulsive, but my interest and love of libraries and literature has been an important part of my life ever since I first learned to read. I am especially fond of the Young Adult genre and I am looking forward to developing a large collection of these kinds of books for our library. My life goal is to nurture a lifelong love of reading in all students and to find books that will interest even the most stubborn kids who push back against reading.
This is an exciting time to be part of a library! As a result of the constant changes in technology, we are now able to access our information needs outside of the tedious task of searching through a book. Particularly in schools, we are dropping the term "library" and enforcing the term "media center." I welcome the use of all media in this library and I would love to see students embracing these new learning opportunities. There is so much useful media that students can access, and I am excited to introduce OHS students to these new tools, many of which will be useful to them in college. |
AuthorMs. Castonguay is the Library Media Specialist at Oxford High School. She has a special interest in Young Adult Literature and hopes to inspire a love of reading in kids of all ages! LMC Hours
Mon: 7 AM-3:30 PM Tues: 7 AM-2:30 PM Wed: 7 AM-2:30 PM Thurs: 7 AM-3:00 PM Fri: 7 AM-2:30 PM Ask me if you need to use the library after hours! ArchivesCategories |