This summer I posted my free Adopt-A-Shelf program materials (if you haven't downloaded them yet, what are you waiting for?!?). I had high hopes for implementing the program in my own school library. In my mind, this was going to solve many of my messy shelf problems.
If you're new around here, you may not know that like many of you, I have no library assistant. When I became a librarian over 5 years ago, I thought shelf markers were the answer to my messy shelf woes. Wrong (although they do help and I still recommend them). So what about Adopt-A-Shelf? Would I recommend it? Let's analyze it.
Pros of Adopt-A-Shelf
- Students are finding books they've never seen before, and they're checking them out.
- Many of the students are taking their shelf straightening job seriously.
- Parts of the library do look neater.
- Some students seem to understand why it's important to make sure each book is in its correct place on the shelf.
- Books are being repaired as students find them in disrepair instead of waiting until I have time to do it.
- There's a general sense of excitement about Adopt-A-Shelf. The students want to participate, even if they don't fully understand what to do.
- The program reinforces many of the library skills we've learned over the years.
Cons of Adopt-A-Shelf
- Some students just don't get it. Despite my best efforts of explaining everything to both the whole group and each individual, I still have some kids trying to arrange the books from shortest to tallest, or by colors. I even had one student who was trying to display every book on his shelf cover out instead of spine out... This one is especially frustrating because it tells me I have not taught these skills as well as I'd hoped.
- It's a very time consuming activity. I've already spent 3 weeks introducing the program, letting students pick their shelves, then "grading" each person's shelf one-on-one to help them understand what I'm looking for. I could probably spend at least another 2 weeks reinforcing what I'm looking for (but we're moving on).
- It's not keeping the reshelving carts as empty as I'd hoped, and the carts look TERRIBLE after students search through them for books that belong on their shelf.
- While some necessary repairs are being done, I also have an equal number of students wanting to repair tiny issues that I wouldn't normally repair at that time.
- For every shelf that looks great, there's one (or more) beside it that does not look so great. They are very inconsistent.
The bottom line: Do I recommend Adopt-A-Shelf?
The jury's still out, but I'm going to stick with it. I'm hoping that as students progress through the grade levels, they'll improve each year. The biggest challenge for me is time. I only see my students for 35 minutes of library skills time. I think I could spend every class period from now until the end of the year on correct shelving procedures, but then I wouldn't get to cover the rest of my curriculum.
I realize that elementary children are not going to understand shelving like I do, and I also realize that they're not losing any sleep about whether or not our library looks as neat and tidy as I think it should. 😉 I'm going to be happy with the small improvements that I've seen and try not to concentrate on the negative aspects.
Have you started using Adopt-A-Shelf? What challenges are you facing so far? Share with us in the comments!
Amy Kline says
I have had an Adopt-a-shelf program on and off over the last few springs. It wasn't as involved as yours though. I just taught the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th how to make the shelves look neat and tidy so it is easier to shelve books. Push the book end to the left so the books are straight up and down, and spines to the front edge. It helped a lot at first and then was sporadic. Kids who enjoyed it kept it up and actually asked to tidy up other kids' shelves too. I did not put a lot of time into it, so this year I would like introduce it earlier and reinforce it later. I also plan to make it voluntary , but have some sort of award or shelf elf treat or something. I do have an assistant and volunteers who can shelf most of the books, but we have over 1000 kids so the volume of books we check out each week is massive. Once the shelves reach a certain point of messiness, it doesn't take long for the shelves to reach chaos stage. Good luck to you!
Robyn says
I did adopt a shelf last 2 years ago. I also have no staff, but I almost never do shelving, because thankfully I have a couple parent volunteers who come in when they can to take care of the shelving-- but they aren't always very accurate or consistent, so I still needed some help. Adopt a Shelf worked great for a time-- the only failure was my follow up. But here are some things I did.
1. I did NOT spend a great deal of time on it. I don't have 4th & 5th graders on a regular fixed schedule, and I have to arrange special time to get them as a whole class (otherwise they just come in independently in small groups) so I can't count on them regularly. I used it to supplement parent volunteer shelvers, to help keep the library in order. But it did give me the opportunity to make a fun game out of teaching students the library's system of organization. A few ambitious students asked if they could have an extra shelf to adopt in another section.
2. Students had to "qualify" to adopt a shelf. In 2011, the "Order in the Library" game was available through UT's website. I don't have fixed library classes with 4th & 5th grade, so they had to play the game on their own time (I did one 30 minute lesson with them teaching them to play the game and how shelves are kept). I had kids wanting to come in to the library on indoor recess days to play the shelving game. Once they finished the final level of shelving practice in this game, they could print out a certificate, and bringing me that certificate meant they could claim their shelf for adoptions. Now I plan to use this much more attractive game from Mrs. Lodge's Library called Shelve-it! http://www.mrs-lodges-library.com/search/shelve+it -- though I don't think it has a certificate of completion, so I'll need to figure that part out. These games work so much better than I ever could teach, because it gives students immediate feedback when they mis-shelve something in the game, and they want to get it right-- so they learn the skill more consistently without it feeling boring or tedious.
3. I did not have students do the actual shelving. Their job was to come into the library once in a while (their teacher would let them come down to the library in small groups when there was free time before dismissal or something) check their shelf, make sure books were in order and neatly arranged, and to put away books that had been left carelessly in the wrong place. I have parent shelvers do the bulk of the shelving, but for some of my parent volunteers, I think a 4th grader would have been more accurate, so having the kids follow up was actually pretty useful.
4. I had a mnemonic device to teach students all they needed to check on their shelves. "Cover all the BASES" (Books Belong on your shelf; Arranged in the right order; Spine facing you, Even with the front Edge of the shelf, Standing Straight and tall)
5. I did random checks, and weekly, casual reminders to the classes. On a Friday afternoon, I might drop in their classroom and say "This week there were a few shelves that looked like they had maybe been ignored, but I noticed Rachel and Ben did a fantastic job keeping their shelves well cared for! Thanks and good job, you two!" Or I would tell them "Today was when the kindergartners visited the library, and those kindergartners are still learning about keeping the library in order, so things got pretty messed up. You may want to take a look at your shelves to make sure things didn't get messed up!" These verbal reminders helped when I was busy and it felt like the library was gravitating toward chaos, and totally motivated them to get competitive with each other.
I have considered this year having a poster with students names on it, and having them check off their name whenever they came in to check their shelf, which would inform me of who was actually looking at their shelves, and signal me of which shelves to check for accuracy.
Jocelyn says
Great ideas. I especially like the BASES idea. I might make a poster of that. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Robyn says
Feel free! Or you can use mine. Here's a PDF: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_y_PayYpiYhcjl0VXZJS1E3NTQ/edit?usp=sharing
GayLynn says
Robyn, thank you so much for sharing those tips!! I'll be introducing A-a-S to 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders this week. Your comment is timely, to say the least. I love the BASES idea and stopping by the classrooms to praise. Thanks again!
Meredith says
I also tried Adopt-a-Shelf last year with 5th graders at one of my schools. They spent all their time coming up with names for their shelves, making labels, and arguing over who had which shelf. Once that novelty wore off, I think only 3 out of 50 bothered putting away books or straightening up at all. I may only ask those 3 to participate this year as 6th graders.
Amy Blythe says
I took your program and ran with it this year. I started with just my fifth graders. I didn't let them choose a shelf, but they could request two. This allowed me to give higher students the hardest shelves and lower students easy shelves. I was surprised that about 90% of my students wanted to participate. I'm only letting them straighten and recommend books on their shelf. This will let us ease into the program. I even let them decorate cardboard book stands. I may even let them share shelves and work together. I'm hoping that my shelves will at least look cleaner.
Jen says
I introduced an Adopt-A-Shelf program last year, my first in the library. I spent a great deal of time on it and was so excited. Well, it didn't even survive to the year's end. Very disappointing. I didn't try it again this year as I can't afford to waste so much time and energy again. I hope your system becomes for efficient for you!