AR Books

Parents often ask where the AR books are located in our library.  AR or Accelerated Reader is a program schools use to evaluate students' independent reading.  The child reads a book of their choice, then takes a short quiz to prove that they read and understood the selection.  The answer to the question, "Where are your AR books?" is "Everywhere!"  The vast majority of the books in our collection are a part of the AR catalog.

There are two easy ways to confirm that a books is part of AR.  One way is to look in the HPL catalog.

In the entry under the heading Program Information, you see "Accelerated Reader AR LG 2.2 0.5 107422."

This entry tells you three things:  The interest level of the book, the title's reading level, and the number of the associated  AR quiz.  In the example above, LG indicates the interest level is "lower grades." In other words, K-3rd kiddos will likely enjoy the material.  MG = middle grades (4th-8th), MG+ = middle grades plus (6th and up), UG = upper grades (9th-12th).

Next you see the number 2.2.  This means that the text could be read independently by a student whose skills are at the level of a typical second-grade student during the second month of school.

The next number indicates the number of AR points that title is worth.  (Teachers often have a target number of points the students are working to earn in a particular grading period.)  The 0.5 in the example tells you that this picture books is worth half an AR point.

Finally, we see the number 107422.  This is the test number of the AR quiz associated with this book.

Another place to find this information is at arbookfind.com.  (There is a link to this site in the Reference section of this blog.) Click on "Librarian" and hit submit. You will see a search tool that allows you to type in a title; the site will then generate an entry that gives you the same information in a clear format.  IL = interest level and BL = book level.

ILL Holds

Please begin printing hold wrappers for ILL items using colored paper. This is to distinguish them from regular holds, so that they don't accidentally wind up on the regular hold shelf.

Incident Reports

Please name all incident reports in the following manner:

Date-location-staff initials-subject-name of person involved if known

Also, please be aware that when an incident occurs at a location, ALL staff present when the incident took place should write and submit an incident report. This is because there are several sides to a story and we want to make sure that all information needed to aid in the resolution of the matter or incident is available to us.

FLIP Kits

Patrons only receive a Children's Museum pass when they return a FLIP Kit along with a completed survey. Please make sure the survey is, indeed, complete.  Many of our customers are pulling the surveys from the kits in order to receive the free pass -- without even opening the book or looking at the activity!  This is unfair to the next customer who will be without a survey, and it does not provide constructive feedback to the Children's Museum staff members who use customer comments to improve the service.  If a patron brings you a loose survey, please encourage them to check out the associated kit and return the completed survey when they bring the kit back to the library.

If a customer returning a kit complains that the survey was missing, I have extra copies of the survey (in English and Spanish) in a file folder in the drawer by the circ desk.  You may leave completed surveys in that folder as well; I will pass them along to the Children's Museum staff.