Internship+Objective+4

"I will work with the media specialist to promote the media center as well as the March book fair."
 * Internship Objective 4 (FEAP 3)









Activities used to complete this objective:** Mrs. Evelyn gave me "carte blanche" concerning the library displays. She steered me to a storage room which contained various items used to make displays. I selected some flowers, a punch bowl, pink cloth, and various biographies to promote Women's History Month. I also used a Western theme and cloth for "Cowboy Poetry Week." Along with that, we pulled books dealing with the history of the Western U.S. as well as snakes and other animals associated with hot, arid climates. Mrs. Evelyn even contributed her cowboy hat, belt, and boots! For April, I did a bulletin board on "School Library Media Month" as well as a display for "March Madness" that featured fiction and nonfiction basketball books. Mrs. Evelyn wrote a letter, copied it, and then staped to it flyers promoting the March book fair. Each student received one through his/her language arts teacher. She was also responsible for putting up the signage that accompanies a Scholastic Book Fair.


 * Objective partially met.** While I did a satisfactory job with my first foray into library promotions, I did very little in promoting the book fair; I hung up two posters. Much of this can be blamed on my error in thinking that I would be present for the book fair during March. To put it simply, I got the dates wrong! The book fair actually occurred after I had returned to Texas for the second time. In retrospect, I should have rewritten this objective once I realized my error. (However, I did appreciate the opportunity to read through the planning and promotional materials that Scholastic sends out long before the actual week of the book fair.)

Since the success of any book fair strongly relies on careful promotion and preplanning, I believe that Julie was key to the profitable week that followed her internship. Funds we receive from Scholastic Book Fairs enable us to raise money for the reading prizes and promotional materials that make the library a "fun" place for our students. For our existing collections, Julie's creativity in selecting themes and building displays was impressive. As you can see from the photos, teachers and students were drawn in and checked out many books from those areas right away. It became a situation where it was difficult finding books to fill the holes left by their choices.
 * Mrs. Evelyn's comments regarding Mrs. Horrocks' completion and assessment of this objective:**


 * My thoughts:** I can see why displays and promotions can take up so much time to create and space in which to store them. I enjoyed investigating various themes and browsing through library catalogs to see what's available, especially for elementary schools.