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| Downtown Los Angeles |
A few days ago my Grandma took me to her work. My Grandma works at the University of Southern California (USC) library. She is a librarian, and works in a library that has over 2 million books. My Grandma leaves to go to work at six-thirty in the morning so I had to sleep over at there house. I couldn't have breakfast in the morning because we had to leave right away. On the way to her work, we passed downtown Los Angeles. Downtown is a place where there are many gigantic buildings were people work and live.
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| Each isle has more than 100,000 books in it |
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| Stamping Discard on books |
At her work there is a toaster. We took some pieces of bread and cream-cheese and made breakfast there. After I had breakfast, my Grandma gave me some books to stamp the word Discard on the books that the library didn't need anymore. I had to stamp the spine, the first few pages, and the back where the bar code was.
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| Very old books |
While I was working, some students arrived to work in the library. After I was done stamping the books, my Grandma took me to one of her students named Olivia. That day was her last day because her school started on Monday. The first thing I did with her is to find the books that people were requesting to check out. All the books are organized by call number. It was very hard to find the correct books. Then Olivia showed me the Dewey section. In this part of the library many of the books are over a 100 years old. The books are smelly and very dusty.
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| Scanning books |
Next, we scanned a whole cart of books that were returned back to the library. When I was done, I had lunch. That day there was ice cream for all of the students and I got some too. After lunch, there was a job fair that my Grandma had to attend. A job fair is a place where all the people who want a job go and meet with people who are hiring. My Grandmother wanted to hire 3 students to work in the library. The job fair was on the main campus of USC. On top of the building, there is a Globe that stands for International Relations were the students study how countries relate to one another. On the other side of the building, there are many flags from different countries. While my Grandma was talking to other students, I went around to every table and got candy or other goodies that they were handing out. When I got home, I shared all the goodies that I brought with my siblings. After the job fair, my Grandma looked over the applications and looked for the neatest hand writing. I learned how important it is to have neat handwriting.
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| Globe on top of the International Relations building |
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| International flags |
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| Job fair |
Who do you want to be when you grow up?
Do you like your job?
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful day of work experience you had and what made it even more special too me was that you got to do it with your Grandma.
Thank you for sharing this with us. I must say you wrote with such wonderful details too about your day working at the USC library. :)
Wow I had to re read when you wrote over 2 million books now that is a lot of books. :)
When working in a library you sure do have a lot of tasks that need to be attended to.
I have never heard of a job fair before. I found this (job fair) as I was reading your post very interesting as I learned something new today.
Do you think you would like to work in a library some day Miriam?
Great post Miriam.
From your friend,
AA.
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteWhat a day you had with your grandma! It was filled with new adventures, and that made it so interesting to read.
I'm curious, what do they do with the discards? Were you able to get any? I ask because sometimes our librarian stamps discard in a book and then she'll give it away. However, sometimes they are so damaged that they must be thrown away.
Yes, handwriting is important! A lot of people don't think about that, but if your writing isn't neat...maybe your work won't be neat either! Good tip for everyone, Miriam!
No, I have never been to a job fair. However, I have heard about them. Our district started attending them when we were looking for new teachers. When I was hired, I had to go to the district office and deliver my resume personally. A resume is a document that lists your education and your work experience.
What would you like to be when you grow up, Miriam? Any ideas yet?
Your pal,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Aloha Miriam,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your wonderful day with you Grandma. Not only did you get to spend time with her you learned a lot along the way.
I was unaware how large the USC library was, I wonder if there is a library that is larger? I did learn that there is a library in Seoul, Korea that is completely digital, meaning no books.
I have never been to a job fair but there have been many of them here, in Hawaii. The most recent was held by Disney for their new resort on Oahu.
Miriam, it is always a pleasure reading your posts. Wishing you a wonderful fourth grade year.
A hui hou,
Mrs. Jacobs
Miriam,
ReplyDeleteI so enjoyed reading your post about spending the day at the USC library. You were very busy with all the jobs to do there.
I had read your post earlier this month about spending the day with your Grandma Tanya. I was wondering if this was the same grandma?
I grew up near Los Angeles, so I enjoyed seeing the picture of downtown LA. In fact, I remember Los Angeles when it had very few tall buildings. I think maybe in the 60s or so they began making skyscrapers safer in earthquake country. I'm not positive that is why there were more skyscrapers after that, but there were. When I was a little girl hardly any, but by the time I was an adult there were many more.
I like your question "Who do you want to be when you grow up?" because we can always answer that question. I want to be a passionate, caring, helpful, loving person who loves God and other people and keeps learning and growing her whole life.
I teach 7th and 8th graders and, yes, I love what I do!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Krebs
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteMrs Yollis had directed me to your wonderful blog post of your visit to the USC library with your grandmother. It seems you had a wonderful day where you were able to help.
Your post may help people understand why it can take some time for a book to be found when needed by a student. My old university, Sydney University in Australia, had many books on display for ready access by students yet far more stored in floors below the public areas as happens at USC.
Discarded books are a concern for any library. I could never throw away books from my personal library so, on retiring from permanent teaching, I wanted many books to still be in use yet I needed to reduce the number. I donated educational books to my local school, fiction to local charities and academic books to Rotary so they could be sent to Pacific islands in need of them.
The oldest books in my collection are only almost 100 years old. They are five volumes of “Harmsworth Popular Science”. It is wonderful to look back 100 years to see what ideas people then had about the future and science.
Your photos are a wonderful addition to your post. It helps us readily see what you have seen.
So much has changed since I set up a school library in a small school in 1981. Fictional books were alphabetised by author name and non-fiction under the Dewey system. We used library cards, not bar codes and manual date stamping to record when books were borrowed. The system worked well but today’s systems are able to link many libraries and locations.
I hope you keep blogging. Your blog is one of the best I have seen from a student.
Ross Mannell (teacher)
Australia
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteWonderful comment.
When I grow up I want to be an author or a vet.
WOW there a over 2 million books that is huge!
The big building looks like the capital city of Victoria which is Melbourne.
You and your nanna must have had fun at the library.
I read that you met a new friend Olivia that is sweet.
From your pal,
Bianca.
PS- did you share your treats with your dog?
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving me an excellent comment. When I grow up I want to be a veterinarian or a teacher.
They try to give away the discarded books to other library's but many times they don't want them. They usually only discard the adult books so I wasn't able to get any. The dicarded books are usually duplicate copies of what the library already has. If there happens to be a children's book, my Grandma can bring it home.
Your former student,
♥Miriam♥
@BB,
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving me a comment. I didn't give my dog romeo any treats but I did give him is own dog treat.
I also want to be a vet. I love animals.
Your blogging buddy,
♥Miriam♥
@Mr. Mannel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving me such an interesting comment. Your 100 year old books sound really amazing.
The library discards books if they have more than one copy. They try to donate the discard books but not every library wants them. They also tried to send them to countries that need books, but the shipping costs too much.
You caught a mistake on by blog. The books at USC are not organized by author's last name, but rather by call number and some are by the Dewey system.
From,
Miriam
@Mrs. Krebs,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience about Los Angeles. The down town is gorgeous with the tall skyscrapers.
It is the same Grandma as I did my other post on. When I grow up, I think I would like to be a veterinarian, a librarian or a teacher.
Where do you live now?
From,
♥Miriam♥
@Mrs. Jacobs,
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog and leaving me a comment. A library with no books sounds strange, they must have a lot of computers for people to search on what they want. I still prefer to have a real book that I can read in bed.
How about you?
From,
Miriam
@AA,
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving me a great comment. I always enjoy hearing from you. You are usually the first to leave a comment!
I really liked my day at the library and maybe I will become a librarian when I grow up.
From,
Miriam
Hi Miriam,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing a new comment in response to me. I now live in Iowa. It is very different from Los Angeles, as you can see in this photo. I love the quietness and the beauty here in my adopted state.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Krebs
Aloha Miriam,
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question about books as we know them and the newer digital version I have to confess I love reading on my iPad. I never thought I would feel this way since I have been reading for so much of my life but I there are advantages. I can easily carry it and read wherever I am and the lighted page is a real plus.
I do feel picture books should stay in paper form. I think the illustrations, which are so much a part of the story, just aren't the same.
Have a wonderful week!
A hui hou,
Mrs. Jacobs
Dear Miriam,
ReplyDeleteI had a wonderful time with you at the library, now you know what I do at work. May be one day you also be a USC student as your mom and aunt Elana.
You did a good job helping to complete different tasks and may be next time you could learn even more things. What the most you liked at USC?
Love you,
Grandma Tanya
@ Miriam,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for replying back to me.
It really is so wonderful to read your blog and I learn so much from you.
How are you enjoying school so far as I know it is only early days.
Keep up the great work time.
From your pal,
AA. :)
Dear Mrs. Krebs,
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting back to me. Iowa is a lot different them Los Angeles. It looks like a beautiful place to live. Have you been back to visit Los Angeles recently?
From,
Miriam
@Mrs. Jacobs,
ReplyDeleteThank you for describing the advantages of an ipad. Maybe for my birthday I will ask my Mom to get me an ipad. Then I can try to read a book on it and see if I like.
From,
♥Miriam♥
@Grandma
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking me to work. My favorite thing to do was scanning the books. I also enjoyed the job fair. Everyone liked the candy.
Your granddaughter,
Miriam
@AA
ReplyDeleteI am really glad that you like my blog and visit often. I am now in 4th grade and really like my new teacher and class. I still visit Mrs Yollis classroom and class blog and comment on it as well.
From,
♥Miriam♥