School Librarian Tip: Don’t Spend it all in One Place

Saturday I made a run to the bookstore to pick some things up for the schools where I work. Here’s the result:

We’ve got some new 39 Clues, The Magician’s Elephant, new Beyond Spiderwick, and others.

It never fails – the school year starts, student requests start rolling in, and you realize you don’t have the latest in-demand title, or the recent update to a beloved series. If you’re like me, you hate it when this happens (the “not having the book kids want” part, not the “student request” part).

It took me a bit to figure out that I should do something that would enable me to pick these titles up during the course of the year. I couldn’t just spend my entire budget on one massive book order, or I would be left penniless and embarrassed in the face of desperate appeals for the new Ranger’s Apprentice.

If you have the ability, I recommend dedicating a portion of your ‘flow to be spent at a local bookstore, so that you can buy requested books as they pop up. I do not, however, recommend using the term “flow” in reference to your library budget. It’s unprofessional, folks.

No matter how diligent I am with book orders, titles always fall through the cracks. This helps fill in the gaps.

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