the Iron Media Connection

I’ve been working on a weeding project in our IMC for some time, now.   You may wonder why I’d need to weed in the IMC…there are only three plants in here, right?  Well, weeding in a library means getting rid of books we no longer want.  That may shock you at first…what…a library actually gets rid of books?  How can that be?  Well, you’d be surprised how many books I am deleting from our collection…it’s well into the hundreds by now.  But before your shock overtakes you, let me explain.

When weeding a collection, there are many criteria to consider.  Many librarians use the acronym MUSTIE to help them decide whether to weed or to keep.  MUSTIE stands for the following:

Misleading–is the information so outdated that it is actually wrong now?  Think about a book on AIDS from the mid-eighties.  There was very little knowledge about the disease and virtually no treatment.  That is totally different now.

Ugly–is the cover so outdated that no one will pick it up?  Have you seen those sports books with the players wearing short shorts and sporting giant ‘fros?  You would never read that today, as you would know that it’s not current.

Superceded–again, has outdated information been updated in newer editions?  If so, why keep that old copy??

Trivial–is the information really important to anyone?  What is the circulation of the book?  Is there a large fan base for it, or is there one or two people who read it??

Irrelevant–I think the classic, “some day, man will walk on the moon” example belongs here.  There are a lot of books that talk about things in the future that have already happened.  A modern example would be a book about East or West Germany.  Neither country exists anymore, so having books on them is irrelevant.

Elsewhere–do your students have access to this book somewhere else?  This is particularly huge to us, as we have three academic and two public libraries in town.  There is a ton of information at our students’ fingertips.

So you can hopefully see that there are a lot of good reasons to get rid of books.   Hopefully I won’t weed something that you want or need.  My goal is to clear out the IMC of the old MUSTIE stuff and make room for a ton of new materials for everyone to enjoy. 

Wish me luck!

Mrs. K.

So the time has finally come for my very favorite holiday of the year…Thanksgiving.  I know that it’s not one of the most popular holidays.  Christmas, Halloween, New Year’s Eve, and probably even Valentine’s Day rate above Thanksgiving in popularity.  But hear me out…this is by far the best holiday of the year to me.  The great thing about Thanksgiving is that there’s not really any pressure.  Ok, someone is inevitibaly getting up at like 4:00 a.m. to start cooking the turkey, but…you don’t have to buy the perfect gift for someone else, you don’t have to make super terrific fun plans, and you don’t have a case of depression if you’re not happily dating or married.  All you have to do on Thanksgiving is eat, spend time with your family and…that’s it!  How can you argue against the perfection of that day!

In my family there is really just one tradition for Thanksgiving…football.  We watch it all day, but we also try to play a game or two if the weather permits.  This year my son is old enough to join in the game, so I’m really hoping for some good weather.   On a side note, I’m sorry that we won’t be heading to Champaign to watch our Ironmen play for another state championship, but they team represented us well, and should be very proud of their fantastic season.

 Happy Thanksgiving all you Ironmen!!

I recommend this book for girl who like serious and emotional stories. It is about a little girl named Kate who was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age.  Like any parent, they wanted there little girl to live a long fulfilling life. The cancer that Kate had was very serious and not very curable. Kate needed to get bone marrow transplants, kidney transplant and many other things. However, there had t be a match for these operations. Knowing this, the parents decided to go the the doctors and make a child that would be an exact match the Kate. When the child was born they named her Anna. As Anna grew up she was always in operation. anytime Kate need something Anna would have to give it to her. When Anna got older she realized that she would never be able to lead a normal life if she keep having to do this, and she didn’t like that. This book is very good and suspenseful.

Wicked was extremely entertaining. I would recomend this book to someone who enjoys longer novels that take time to understand, as it is not an easy read.  The novel is based of of the “real” life of the wicked witch in the novel and well liked movie Wizard of Oz. Yet the only real reference to Dorothy was the first chapter and the last few chapters, all the other material is about the witch. Her birth name is Elphelba and she is born green. Her mother and father both think this is a sign that they were not good people and that Elphelba is evil and so they do not love her. Later her sister is born without arms, and her father makes special shoes to help her walk without aid. both sisters have their own curse and motivations for their actions.  This book was a mix between an science fiction book and a fantasy story. There were some parts that i did not like.  For instance, there were a lot of names that one needs to remember througout the novel. The parts that I disliked the most were the unexpected crude parts.Yet the author did a good job of potraying how the wicked witch became wicked and why she was wanted dead. I really liked how it mixed politics, personal relationships, and religion.   Overall i would put the book on my top ten list.

The book message in a bottle is overall a love story following a single mother named Theresa. She lives in Boston and works as a journalist. After a sad divorce, Theresa was having a hard time finding the right person for her. She spent most of her time alone or taking care of her teenage son Kevin. While on a short trip to her friends beach house Theresa stumbled upon a message in a bottle washed up on the beach. When she read the message she was completely taken away by the loving words that the message conveyed. She later posted this message in her column for the newspaper she wrote for. Women around the nation were calling and commenting on the romantic message this man had written. Later Theresa came across two more messages from the same person and began to think it was not just a coincidence. The only information she could get from the messages were that this man was about her age, lived in south carolina, had suffered from the death of his wife, and owned a scuba diving store. She set out to find him and ended up finding this man at his store. They began to spend time with eachother and had a mutual liking for one another. So far in this book Theresa has not told the man (Garret) that she had sought out to find him through his messages. They were having the time of their lives together and it was almost time for her to return home to Boston and leave Garret behind.

So tomorrow is a huge football game for the NCHS Ironmen.  Joliet Catholic Academy comes to town with their 11-1 record and a huge football legacy.  Don’t know what I mean by legacy?  Well, you’ve seen Rudy, right?  Yeah, he went to Joliet Catholic.  Granted it was the all boy Joliet Catholic High School then (they’ve since merged with the all girl St. Francis Academy and become co-ed) but it’s still Joliet Catholic.  If fact, their quarterback is a Ruettiger–part of the “famous” family.  In addition, NFL pro-bowl fullback Mike Alstott graduated from JCA.   It may sound to you like I’m a JCA fan or something, but that’s not the case.  However, one of my closest friends graduated from there, her brothers all played football there, and she is still on the Board of Directors.  So I know a lot about the school and their football program.  And it makes me want this win even more.

This is a huge game for the Ironmen.  It’s a statement game…one that will show the Chicagoland area that there is some seriously good football being played in Central Illinois.  We all know that we rarely get the respect we deserve from those northerners, and tomorrow we can earn it.  Can the Ironmen beat the Hilltoppers?  Of course they can.  And when they do, high school football fans will begin to realize that our record really does reflect what kind of special team we are.   Come on out tomorrow, deck yourself in orange, and watch what is sure to be a fantastic game.

Go Iron!!

I would recommend this book for mostly girls but guys would also enjoy it.  It starts out kind of slow getting to know the people but keep reading and it will get a lot better. The main character in this book  is named Delia she is the daughter of Andrew Hopkins and the wife of Eric.  Delia, Eric and other best friend Fitz had been Friends sinice they where small children.  During Delia and Eric relationship they had a twist, Delia got pregnant and it changed everyones relationship.  Delia spent a lot of time with her dad and didn’t know much about her mom.  Later in the  her dad gets arrested because he allegedly kidnapped Delia when she was a baby.  Now he is sitting in jail waiting for his trial…..

 *I will keep you updated as i get further in the book*

This book follows a teenage girl as she completes her four years of high school at a prep school in New England.  The book is a very interesting read from the start, however can be very confusing at times.  One example is that the main character is having lunch with a couple in her class and goes onto explain what happened to them in the future, but then jumped right back to having lunch with them.  I enjoyed the book because I felt that it was true to some high school drama, having to hang out with the right people, and balance school and sports.  I would recommend this book for a good enjoyable read.  

The Dead Zone is a book written by Stephen King, a very famous author, who has also written books such as Carrie, Dreamcatcher, Salem’s Lot, and the Dark Tower series.  The Dead Zone is about Johnny Smith and his experiences with his coma.  After he come out of coma after a long time, he is experiencing weird things, things related to his incident during his childhood.  In my opinion, this is a great book and is very interesting.  There is also a show on t.v. called “Dead Zone” based off of the book.

This book is in a fantasy world of Annar where there is a war between the light and the dark.  Meard and Cadvan are trying to find a lost secret that could change the outcome of a war that is starting and is threatening to change the world.  Both Meard and Cadvan have to overcome obstacles that need to be solved together and separately.  Meard and Cadvan are going north to find the secret of the Elementals and unlock the secrets of the Silence after the first war between the light and dark.  Can Meard and Cadvan change the outcome of a war for the light.