Advisee groups meet in the library

Advisee groups meet in the library
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Each Wednesday morning, after chapel talk, advisee groups settle comfortably into various parts of the library to discuss upcoming events and check in with their advisors. Mrs. White's group meets around the table in the electronic classroom to share events of campus life and discuss whatever might be of interest to them at the moment.

Barbie is Nifty at Fifty!

This month we have been celebrating Barbie with artifacts from our daughters and garages (the things we save!) Our display features a timeline of Barbie events including painted by Warhol in 1985, castigation for uttering "math is tough" in 1992, and the 2004 announcement that Barbie and Ken remain friends despite breaking up. Here find the list of books in the display. Our favorite website is Celebrate Barbie at 50. The history page states "I'm simply plastic without you" and has videos of "vintage moments and retro highlights from an iconic history."

Front door color

Front door color
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Colorful flyers adorn our doors and brighten up our comings!

Open Doors

open doors
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

It's the fourth week of April and it's finally nice enough to leave the doors open to let in fresh air. But fresh air isn't the only thing that entered today. MingMing, Mrs. Gold's kitten, decided to discover the library. According to Mrs. Gold, MingMing is quite the cultured kitten. In addition to her fascination with the library displays and the fiction collection, she apparently has attended campus art shows and concerts. Sporting events, however, she leaves to the dogs.

Earth Day

Earth Day
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Our Earth Day display includes information on how the poor are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation. For more information see Disproportionate Affects in Our Planet magazine on the United Nations website.
Also on our display is a book made entirely without paper. Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough is made from calcium carbonate and petroleum byproducts and claims to be nearly indestructible and infinitely recyclable.

A Day in the Life

ESL class
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

The 2009 ESL class took photographs to document A Day in the Life of an international boarding student at The Governor's Academy. Photographs include pictures from the academic day, the afternoon program and residential life. All the pictures were uploaded to the library's Flickr page and organized into a set called A Day in the Life. Enjoy!

Classes working in the library

ESL at work on Flickr project
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Teachers often bring their classes to the library to take advantage of the many resources - the Electronic Classroom with 12 computers and an overhead projector, or in this case, the nine laptop computers. Students can work together on their project and get guidance from their teacher and the librarians.

In this photo, Mrs. Gold helps students in her English class upload photos to our Flickr page.

Conversation Overheard

Conversation overheard between a faculty member and student on the way back from morning meeting: "
"So, did you have any luck finding all those books you needed for your independent study?'
"Yeah, I've got them all. They had them all in the library."
"Really?"
"Really. They have an amazing variety of books on the Middle East."

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Jean and Terri, two of our evening librarians, spend their time preparing books to go on the shelves, cleaning, repairing, and otherwise making sure that the books, newspapers and magazines are always where they can be found and in good repair. It takes many hands to keep things running smoothly and looking attractive.

Newburyport Literary Festival Display

Newburyport Literary Festival Display
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

The Newburyport Literary Festival will be held April 24th and 25th. We set up a display of books and author information. The festival honorees for this year are the recently retired Dorothy LaFrance from the Newburyport Public Library and native son David McPhail whose books have enthralled and delighted our small faculty children over the years.

An empty library?

Hong Kong-Library-(AY)
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

One of our international students composed this picture. It's not often that this section of the library is empty. These two tables are some of the favorites for students who want to work and study together. We also have several long tables for larger groups, study carrels on the second floor (our silent space), and comfy chairs in many of the windows. For groups that really need to spread out and discuss their assignments we have three rooms that can be reserved for group work. Each is outfitted with a table, chairs, and whiteboards.

Book Repair

book repair
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Emma, our student intern, is trying to avoid an end of the semester bind. To keep her out of any sticky situations, she's on the cutting edge of book repair technology here at the academy. Emma's fixing to spend her summer in school and enjoying the great north shore summers.

As signs of spring are popping up all over campus (daffodils, spring beauties, lacrosse players, golf clubs) some other signs have mysteriously appeared in the rest rooms.
Apparently, at least one of our students was inspired by an article in the April 8th issue of The Governor that suggested that pranks make spring more fun. A quick internet search suggests that an enterprising student may have found this prank on cheesebikini.

Karibu means "welcome" in Swahili

Karibu means "welcome" in Swahili
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Today we welcomes two new students from Kenya, Leslie and Lydia, who will be studying here through the end of the term. Each year we're fortunate to have students from Kenya visit us while several of our students have a chance to go to school in Kenya.

Awaiting Opening Day

Baseball in fiction
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

As we eagerly awaited Opening Day, we put together a display of baseball stories to tide us over. Our selected stories included Kluger's Last Days of Summer, Lardner's You Know Me Al, and Kinsella's Shoeless Joe among others. AND, given today's rain we shall just need to keep on reading. Sox have been postponed until tomorrow at 4:05.

Dwindling but will it be gone?

The dwindling snowbank
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

We are all hoping that today's April showers (well, deluge) and murky weather will melt this pile. Enough is enough!

The Digital Commonwealth

On Tuesday, the academy's archivist and myself attended this year's Digital Commonwealth conference to see "what was what." Digital Commonwealth is a portal for the historical and cultural resources of Massachusetts which are in libraries, historical societies, museums, colleges, and schools. Now that we have a part-time archivist, we are assessing our collection for where we might want to begin digitizing the historical resources in our archives to share. Next Wednesday Greg Pronevitz of the Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System and a driving force behind the creation of the site is coming to answer our questions and give us advice on this exciting new venture!

Foolish April Library Behavior

School libraries are built for students, but students don't always know what's expected of them in the library. While we like to think that our students are exemplary, we know that our mission is educational and that we need to instruct students on the best research methods and proper library etiquette. For those who'd like to see just what can happen when those skills haven't been properly taught, take a look at The Peeps Arrival at the Library from Milliken University.