It is hard to believe that we are midway through the school year, but now that we are, I have a question to pose to all Media Center Aides, especially those that are in the library without any help. What do you do about all your book returns? How do you get them back on the shelves within a timely manner and still keep your shelves looking nice and “checkout-able”? I’ll be the first to admit it – I have control issues. I really do! I do not like anyone else shelving and putting things away in my library. It’s my domain, my happy place! It took two years to get everything arranged and moved to where I feel it works and I dislike the idea of someone else taking a cart full of books and putting them away where they think they belong. I know usually by sight where something goes and its painstaking to have someone try to put something away and just wander around looking for its home when inside I’m screaming “no…to your left, it goes right there!!”
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not a dictator, a mean and grouchy librarian who doesn’t like students touching her books (although I do tend to call out “shelf markers don’t forget to use your shelf markers” from time to time). I am all about freedom of reading and choosing a book that is interesting to the student and what they enjoy. I began by letting the kids help me shelve. It was all I could do – I was overwhelmed with so much to do as a new librarian thrown into the position. I was facing about 300 books, every class day, to shelve and my piles were only growing. Some students offered to help and I looked upon those little angels with relief and slight desperation. I remembered to ask “Do you know your call numbers and Dewey?” before gladly letting them have at the piles with the gusto of a student “helping” their teacher. When they finished shelving, I went through and did my straightening and checking to make sure books were in their homes. I quickly discovered that the kids didn't know their call numbers or Dewey. I had nonfiction in the fiction and easy read section, fiction in the picture books, and some books were just laid on the empty part of the shelf and left there. I was at a loss. Now I had to go back through and carefully look to make sure each book was in its home; I had created more work for myself.
For about two months I didn’t have the kids shelve anymore. We reviewed Dewey and call numbers and talked about where each book belonged. I had “quizzes” where the kids picked up a book and told me based on the call number where they thought it should go. And then, the fateful “Mrs. B, can I help you put books away?” came again. And, again, I jumped on it. Sure, why not? We’ve been reviewing like crazy people, surely they know the drill by now. And they did, a little bit… but when I went to do my weekly sweep, I still found over half of the books the students helped shelve in the wrong place. They had the right section, but the books were just thrown on the shelves like the student knew the area it went in, but decided they didn’t want to keep looking and here was good enough. In the picture book section, W call numbers were in the Ts, Ns in the Cs, and again some were just left on the bottom of the shelf.
In desperation, I turned to the internet to see what other media center aides had done. I found the Elementary Librarian Adopt-A-Shelf program, but the kids did not seem interested. We went through the power point and there was some enthusiasm, but I have so little time with the students (after they finally come in and get settled, about 20 minutes) that they never really got a chance to straighten their areas. And when they did, they became possessive and did not want others “messing up” their area by looking for books. That did not mesh well with our open and inviting atmosphere. I attempted to do what another media center aide in our district did, where she separated the nonfiction books and chapter books by shelf and had students come in during recess or resource period and put them away. This seemed like a great idea, but then the student’s recess didn’t match up with my lunch, or I was out at recess duty, or I had a class and they could not come in. Another wash. I tried reaching out to parents during our parent teacher conferences and PTA meetings, but I work a second job, so I have to leave right after school. Without me in the library to offer direction, a lot of them did not feel comfortable shelving and putting books away. So I am back where I started, trying to find ways to make it easier and quicker to shelve my books and still keep things looking nice. (If you’re curious about my book piles, see the below picture. This is after one class day. I see 6-7 classes per day with two “free” days where I see only 2 classes and am pulled to aide in other rooms after my recess and lunch duty.)
My next idea to try is to sticker everything up. Create stickers for the fiction, nonfiction, picture books, series, and binned books and put them on the spines to hopefully make it easier for the students to see where things go. Then we will give another shot at student shelving… always the optimistic control freak! 😉
What strategies do you guys use? Have you met with any great success or have any super secret time cutting tips that you would be willing to share?
Today’s post is written by Nichole Baumgartner. Nichole is an Elementary (K-5) librarian who has been with her school district for two years. She works at Carlin Park Elementary in Angola, Indiana. She sees classes every day, as well as doing recess duty, lunch duty, and aiding in the Kindergarten and Deaf and Hard of Hearing rooms at her school.
Adriana says
Hi, I am a Library aid. We have 8 classes a day plus open book exchange. I do all the check outs and shelving.
All our easy books are in carts by AR levels color coded.
When the children come in with their books if they have easy books I checked them in and they put them back in the carts.
If the books are fiction and non fiction I keep them and put them back later. Fiction books go mostly by the first letter. And non ficition mostly by hundreds. Some go by collections or series. But this way it only takes me about 20 minutes, to shelf them.
Sometimes the 5th graders like to help and this way is easy for them too. Since we have so much circulation this is the only way that has work for us.
Melodie Barton says
An old post, but in case anyone is still struggling:
I have 3 tables in my library for books (Easy, Fiction and Nonfiction).
K kids leave their books on my desk and I put them out on tables, adding a few more for them to choose from.
1st grade: Puts all of their books on the Easy table (even if some are chapter books or Easy nonfiction, I just sort those out).
2nd grade: They learn how to read the first line of the spine label and after I scan their books, they put them on the correct tables, using that first line (Easy, Nonfiction, or Fiction (which I have to explain that in the library labeling world, Fiction means it's a chapter book. I point out the Fiction sign I have in that part of the library)).
3rd: Continue to put nonfiction books on the on the nonfiction table as they did in 2nd grade, but they learn how to use the 2nd row of the spine label to see what letter the author's last name starts with. They put Easy and Fiction books on any part of that correct shelf, laying the book on its side. So Jeff Kinney books go somewhere with all the other K books. I have 4 shelves of "S" books (author's last name starts with S), they can put a Goosebumps book on any of those shelves. But they lay it down, they don't shelve it.
4th and 5th: The same as 3rd with Easy and Chapter books, but now they do the same with nonfiction books (if the call number is 599.78 Rey, they just have to lay it on one of the 500 shelves).
This has saved me boatloads of time. And I don't have to deal with carts. It takes a week to teach, 2 or 3 weeks of doing it together, me finding individual students and showing them one on one how to read the spine label, and fixing what they don't get right, but by about a month, most of them have it down.
Tami says
I love all these tips! I am in my first year as a Librarian as well and love it! I do several of the suggested tips listed in the comment section. One thing I plan on doing ASAP is having a practice shelf (outdated books , etc.) and once a student can organize the entire shelf then they will be able to put their own book away or help.
Shelby says
In our library (I'm the librarian of an elementary school K-6, 350 students) I put my books on a book truck that is organized by section. There's a section for
1. French (yellow dot section)
2. Story Books (in story book island A-Z by Author)
3. Board books (in a tub)
4. Subset books (Learn to Draw, Things that go (trucks, cars, trains etc... also in tubs)
5. Primary (K-2) Fiction (paperbacks etc. wire spin rack) and
6. Non-Fiction (green dot section)
7. Junior Fiction (HC on shelves and pbk in wire spin rack A-Z by author) &
8. Non-Fiction (Gr. 3-6)
9. Oversized books (Guinness and Ripley's).
Our students all know how to use shelf markers and use them every visit to the library. That helps a lot! It makes them accountable for their own space. I have a few library helpers that come in. What I have done with them is I only let them shelve one section to start with. I shadow them as they shelve the first few times and stress over and over that if they aren't sure, to put it back on the cart and ask me. It's better to have the books on the cart than on the shelf in the wrong spot...
I use this cart:
http://www.brodart.ca/Library-Equipment/Book-and-Utility-Trucks/Utility-Trucks-and-Wagons/_/Smith-System-Everything-Cart/?q=63175000
Hope that helps! Thanks for your tips too 🙂
Donna Ferguson says
I am a k-3 librarian of about 650 students and I like you am alone in my library. We are heavy AR users so I divided my books into fiction and nonfiction except for in Kindergarten and First grade books. I put the fiction books in colored buckets labeled by AR levels. Then I have sections for series and they are stickers so can be sorted easily. My nonfiction books are shelved according to sections that are also labeled like animals, vehicles, space, weather, occupations, etc. I also subdivided my animal books to make it easier for the kids to find. This year, I have taught them to check in and out their own books and have 5 2nd and 3rd grade library student helpers that come for 30 minutes and help me shelve and straighten. Has made it so I get to go home before dark. Hope you find a solution.