HUNTERDON CENTRAL REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

The IMC had two brand new literacy initiatives this year. Blind Date with a Book provided festively wrapped
books with small clues to their contents on the outside each one. Students were surprised and delighted to take
home their unknown “dates” for the weekend. We also had a brand new contest for National School Library
Month in April. This year's theme was "Create Your Own Story @ Your Library." In honor of School Library
Month, the IMC hosted a six-word novel contest for staff and students. Fifteen lucky submissions were chosen
randomly to win WAWA, Dunkin Donuts, or Borders gift cards. Submissions were made in person or
electronically through a Google Docs Form. The response was overwhelming and unexpected. A grand total
of 493 memoirs were received! The memoirs were displayed in the IMC through the end of May, sprinkled
throughout the library with beautiful spring decorations! Many teachers did the memoirs as class activities, and
numerous staff members participated. The contest was a testament to the creativity, honesty, and talent of our
amazing staff and students.
EBooks
The IMC piloted two new types of eBooks. The first type of eBook we purchased is available through our
library catalog. To assist with professional development, we piloted this type of book with two popular PD
titles Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World and Becoming a Better Teacher. The other
type of eBook will certainly stretch our budget dollar and provide up-to-date global history, culture, and conflict
information for our students. These eBooks are still single purchase; however, unlike our previously purchased
eBooks, these are updated at least once per year and more for dynamic topics. This moves the resource closer
to a database without the yearly purchase.
We also purchased Current Biography, which will replace our old print reference set, with a searchable, multiuser
format. Other curriculum focused eBook purchases this year included the Milestones Documents series,
which provides primary sources and analysis of them for a variety of content areas and time periods, and multivolume
reference eBook sets about India, China, and Mexico, three curricular areas needing development.
Staff Development
Marci, Heather, and Emily attended the New Jersey Association of School Librarians’ Conference where Marci
presented “Blogging the Information Search Process: A Student Inquiry Project” with Social Studies teacher
Bill Pisarra, and Heather presented “Learning With and Without You” with English teacher Cathy Stutzman.
Marci, Heather, and Emily also participated in the NJASL/CISSL Focus Group with Dr. Ross Todd and Dr.
Carol Gordon from Rutgers University, and they attended a webinar by NJ Library Cooperative called “Getting
There Together: Assessing Student Learning” with Buffy Hamilton. They also participated in Writing Across
Disciplines meetings with Hunterdon Central teachers from various content areas. They are members of
NJASL (New Jersey Association of School Libraries), AASL (American Association of School Libraries), and
the Hunterdon County Library Association. With sending district librarians, they participated in two library
articulation meetings and the HCLA (Hunterdon County Library Association) Winter Workshop meeting,
where they attended the following presentations: “Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding: Teaching
with Purposes and Meaning” by Hilda Weisburg and “Great Websites for Teaching and Learning”, facilitated
by Heather in the absence of speaker, Fran Daly.
Marci and Heather also co-presented “Ctrl+Alt+PD: Shifting School Culture with Technology and
Collaborative Professional Development” at the New Jersey Association of School Administrator's TECHSPO
2011, and Educon 2011 with Don Ginty, VinnyPanico, Mary Woods, and Cathy Stutzman.
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