Fern Creek High Annual Reports: 2015-16

Circulation took a bit of a hit in 2015-16 as it did in the previous year; this is primarily due to construction issues.  The library opened two weeks later than usual and some classes were never scheduled for any kind of orientation or refresher. With new English staff next year, the goal is to get 90% of the classes in to the library within the first 6 weeks and that will hopefully impact circulation in 2016-17! Through April, Fern Creek’s circulation was over 4700 and the district average was 5300—11th out of 20 schools.

Classes and individual students use the library on a daily basis for research, reading, meetings and projects. On average, 3 classes are scheduled per day and over 70 individual students utilize the library on their own.

Collaboration with teachers starts early in the year as freshmen come in for orientation and upper classmen come in for a library refresher.  As the year continues, classes get lessons in accessing personal OneDrive accounts, using KYVL for specialized research or using EasyBib for documentation. This year, collaboration continued on research projects conducted with Honors Senior English classes as well as ESL Seniors. The Compass Blitz continued to help prepare Seniors for benchmark tests. New this year was a special Shakespeare research project with Freshmen Humanities classes and webquests with ECE Social Studies.

Students and teachers have access to the 2 year-old lab and 15 additional desktops in the library. The 20 laptop computers make it possible to accommodate two classes simultaneously as they work on projects. The new color poster maker was a big hit with teachers and was utilized extensively by Social Studies, Special Ed and Athletics.

Students used the new poster maker to create library displays.

Over 560 new books were added to the collection this year. The budget amount of $6000, plus the balance from periodicals (approximately $300) was spent. Additionally, $800 was added from text book funds to enhance the AP reading section. Lost books continue to drain the collection: 37 transferring students did not return books totaling $850; 42 current students did not return books totaling $725.

In its 5th year, the READSTRONG program continues to attract students who love to read and appreciate the reward of receiving a free book as well as treats and other prizes.  A small but very enthusiastic group completed the 25-book campaign and each received a book of his/her choice at a celebration party in May. The readers were very competitive and three read more than 60 books each.

Next year, the program is going to expand. Readers will still have an opportunity to generate reviews for credit toward the 25-book campaign, but other readers will have an opportunity to participate in an expanded club—students will be involved in selecting books for the library, will create recommendation displays and will be asked to be ambassadors for the library with other students. There will be perks and opportunities for some fun sharing and social events with other readers as well.