Let’s order! What a process this is! I have enjoyed learning more about the ordering process of books for the library. I am excited about diving into the next assignment, but I really enjoyed this past assignment.
When I first started the process, I looked at the videos and thought I was on it. You don’t really know what you are doing though until you actually try to create a list and find books. My first struggle was the vast amount of options available to order. I had to narrow down my focus and needs and only focus on that. Once I had a focus of what I needed, I was able to move on to looking for books.
The filters were my friends! I again was a little overwhelmed at the beginning, but when I started playing with the filters, it got a lot easier. I started with the pre-selected filters to start looking for books. I still felt like I had too broad of a section. I had to keep playing with filters and finally tried filters that helped me find books for the 600 section. I even used a specific filter searching just for books in the 600 section. I didn’t know this was even possible. When I clicked this search, it even broke the search down to specific sections within the 600 section. Knowing that I can use this as a search and filter will help me in the future.
Paying attention to the description of the books is very important. I noticed that I had to look at several different things when I was searching for books. The first thing that I noticed was that I need to look at the age suggestions for the books. This was a filter I was able to set to make sure the books were within the range I was looking for. You can narrow the search by grade levels. I was able to narrow my search enough that I didn’t waste time with books that were too mature for my students. The next thing I was looking at was the date of publication. I needed to make sure that the books were within a specific number of years old, depending on what the book was about. Being able to use the Dewey numbers listed with the books helped me with determining which books to not look at depending on how old the books were. All of these helped me when determining what to look for.
I was definitely surprised by the amount of books I was actually able to order. I thought I would only be able to get about 20 books for $1000. Being strategic and looking closer at the books, I was able to get a lot more books. I also learned about the different types of books available. I had never heard of some of the options available. I had to Google the different types of options available to know which one would be the best. Hardcover library is more expensive, however, it will last longer with smaller children. If I was ordering for a middle school or older I could save money and get more paperback books. The ebooks I would have to learn more about because they were talking about subscriptions with them.
Overall, this was a great experience. I am looking forward to the next assignment in which I get to use a different site and try to align the books to the library I am helping in.