Does your district recognize the need for evolving school libraries?
As I've written before, I believe school libraries are more relevant today than ever before... IF they are evolving to meet the needs of 21st Century students. I love this quote from the Mediamorphosis website, "The library, as we once knew it, may no longer be relevant. School librarians, as we once knew them, may no longer be relevant. And, yet, this is undoubtedly the most exciting time in history to be a librarian. For the first time in history we are moving from a time of information scarcity to one of information abundance." I could not agree more.
I also love this article about school libraries from the National Association of Independent Schools, especially the "What's Hot, What's Not" table. I feel like many of today's library debates turn into a finger pointing game. Some librarians want to blame districts for a lack of support, and some districts see librarians as unwilling to change what they've always done. I think it's important that neither side "win" the fight. Students should be the winners here, and that means everyone is going to have to bend a little.
For districts, that means librarians are going to need time for collaboration with teachers, time (and funding) for meaningful and relevant professional development, and up-to-date technology tools. For librarians, we have to forget about the way things were done in the past and be willing to change our instruction to help students navigate an information world that is constantly changing. This may seem like an uphill battle, but it is truly the key to school library success in the world we live in today.
5 Simple ways to make your library the heart of the school
1. Communicate regularly with students and parents. If you have a special event coming up, make sure everyone knows about it! You can send a note home, put it on the school website and/or social media pages, or use an automated call system. I share some ideas about communicating with parents in this post.
2. Find time for collaboration, even if it's passing by another teacher in the hall. Check out this post for more ideas.
3. Make an effort to involve your administration in library-related activities. Did your students create a cool Prezi or FlipSnack? Invite your principal in to watch the presentation! Better yet, involve your principal in fun reading incentives, like one where students were given a piece of tape for meeting a reading goal and used it to tape the principal to a wall! Local news outlets love these stories, which could give your school library some free positive publicity!
4. Keep displays current, and think outside the library! Find out if there's an unused bulletin board out in the school building, or if that's not possible, decorate the outside library door. These displays remind students of the library even when they're not inside it.
5. Help students stay motivated by offering various incentives throughout the school year. You could offer 10 minutes of extra recess to the class with the fewest late library books, or popsicles for the class with the best behavior for the week. Check out this post for more ideas on behavior management in the library. I like to offer incentives because it reminds students of the library even when they're not there.
How do you make your library the heart of your school? Share your ideas with others in the comments!
I like to make my space ‘magical’. Always changing displays, colourful and lots of lights. See my imagaes on Instagram ’coloursofourlibrary’. Student say our library is their ‘happy place’ as I work in a low socioeconomic area. Lunch times the library is packed! Also graphic novels and literacy activity stations for those reluctant readers who don’t even realise they are reading works well for me.
I am an elementary school librarian, and I sincerely feel that the biggest part of my job is getting kids excited about reading. I have a very accessible library where kids can check out books almost any time. I read kids books so that I can suggest books for my students. I do my best to make library fun.
My 4th grade teachers do a whole term around Harry Potter. I carry that over into the library.
At the beginning I start with a HP reader's theater. I make a laminated HP bookmark for each 4th grader and the teachers let me give out house points. If I catch a student using their bookmark I give them 5 points, if they are using it in a Harry Potter book they get 10 points. I also did Harry Potter centers this year. They could have their picture taken with a Sirius Black wanted poster and I turned them into baseball cards they could keep. They could pick their own patronus as well. The most popular center was the magic wand. Using wooden dowels and hot glue my family and I created over 110 magic wands that the kids then painted at school. They loved it!
My favorite activity this year was my Valentine's "Speed Dating" and"Blind Dates". I did this activity with my 5th/6th graders. I decorated my library to look like a restaurant with tablecloths, bud vases with a rose, placements etc... I used cheap plastic tablecloths, most of the vases were donated, and the placemats were printed on paper to look like a table setting.
Each table was a different genre. At each place setting was a book from the corresponding genre. The kids chose a seat and then had 2 minutes to "get to know" their book. At the end I had a "Rate Their Date card. I used emojis and they could circle Love at first sight, Hmm, maybe, or Not my type. They rotated through the tables three times.
After this activity I had a table full of "blind dates", books that I had wrapped with only a teaser clue on the front. They could check out a blind date but they had to commit to reading one chapter and they couldn't open their date until they got back to class. The kids loved it and I will continue it every year for my older grades.
For the past two years I have also held a writing contest. I make copies of every story entered and they become an official part of my library collection. I time it to conclude with my spring book fair and use my Scholastic Dollars for prizes. The kids rarely get to write for fun anymore but I have some kiddos with amazing imaginations and this is a good outlet for them.
I am lucky that I have a decent budget and a supportive principal.
I love Carmen Deedy's quote, "The library is the heart of the school". That is my creed. I'm trying my best to make my library welcoming and a place the kids want to be.
The library is open during most morning recesses and at lunch. There a cabinet full of Legos, checkers, Kinex, and card games the kids can use at recess. There are art supplies out on a shelf (no paint or pastels) so kids can come color or draw. This has become more popular as there are no formal art classes. On Tuesdays at lunch recess is Games Club, there are board games, legos, etc. It was designed by the counselor to help kids who were quiet or didn't have many friends find a safe welcoming place to connect. It is popular with all the kids.
I started a coding club this year, along with the district director of digital instruction. It meets once a week and the library is closed during lunch recess for this. About 17-20 kids come regularly and we work in Scratch learning coding. We have completed 2 projects, are planning a third. The kids work on the Macbooks that we have in the library. (I have Macbook cart with 30 computers for library use). The kids are allowed to play computer games (school approved)at lunch recess on the desktops.
I also put up a weekly trivia question and the kids can win a box of Red Vines if they are chosen the winner. The topics are all over the place, most they can look up on the computer, occasionally they have to find a book or a dewey designation. It is very popular. I post all the questions and the winners name on a wall.
The library is open before and after school so it draws kids needing to finish homework or a project.
It helps that the counselors office is attached to the library. She is a warm sunny person who also draws the kids in.
My collaborations with teachers are sometimes the pass in the hallway but end with a good result. We also connect and collaborate through Google sharing, since it is not always possible to meet face to face.
I have book suggestion bucket on my desk so students can request books we don't currently have. The kids like having some input into our book choices.
Our space has NO windows so I have tried to decorate it and make the displays as colorful and engaging as possible. Most kids say the library is their favorite place in the school.
(our school is a k-8 Title 1 school)
Remind is a great service for getting messages out to parents and families. I use it to send reminders to return books, as well as upcoming events happening in the library or at the school in general. I send reminder texts out over the summer to remind students to head to the library for summer reading!
Is there an easy way to add all students at one time or do you add them individually to Remind?
Thanks!
This past school year was my first as a librarian...all my principal asked was to make the library more flexible and he wanted to see change. We implemented free flow time outside of scheduled library time, piloted a small Maker Space, and facilitated Battle of the Books teams and competition. Students could enter a contest for turning in books on time...if their name was drawn the got a class pass to the library...for a scavenger hunt, reading in the dark with finger lights or celebrity read aloud with popcorn. I also started a library and Maker Space blog on Seesaw ...a safe school technology. The result was what I call the "loud library"! There were ALWAYS students in the library and teachers utilized it for positive reinforcement... i.e. whole class MakerSpace reward for everyone turning in homework for a certain amount of time. It was a great year and I look forward to next year...we will implement more student- led technology such as book reviews with QR codes, recorded book read-aloud on Seesaw etc. Libraries rock!