Even though books may be due soon and many librarians will be completing inventory, do keep the library open if at all possible. Is it hectic? Are you busy? Definitely, but teachers are too, and they don't have the luxury of closing their classrooms.
Some folks have questioned whether inventory is still needed. For me it's like balancing your checkbook. It's not something you look forward to, but when you're done you feel pretty darn good. And in this case, you're balancing the checkbook for the library, which is a district asset. If inventorying the entire library feels too overwhelming, next year you may wish to schedule a half day periodically to do it in small sections.
In addition to inventory, there's a long list of things to accomplish including the following:
1. Make every effort to get missing, lost, and overdue books rounded up. This may involve calling parents with a gentle reminder, going to the cafeteria every day to ask kids to go look in their lockers, digging through trash cans during locker cleanout, and enlisting the help of pretty much everyone at your campus. Some librarians get creative with a competition of some sort.
2. Encourage teachers to continue to check out books through the last day of school and over the summer. If teachers have books they're finished with but haven't returned, you could go from room to room and trade books for chocolate.
3. Fix problems found from inventory. Mark missing books as lost and catalog books not in the system. Go ahead and delete items that have been missing more than one year.
4. Prepare a one-page report for your principal. Highlight important things that happened in the library this year. Include stats of how many books circulated, how many classes came to the library, and the number of collaborations completed. Your purpose for the report? Showcase how the library impacts student achievement and builds a reading community at your campus.
5. Let the teachers know how much you appreciate their support. Put a card in each box with a fun-sized candy bar that reads, "Thanks to your awesome support of the library, we have been able to..." Fill in the blank with 2-3 great things that you've been able to accomplish with their help.
6. Leave the library open as long as possible. Even if you aren't able to circulate books, you can still provide services and programs. Make a book trailer to get kids excited about summer reading. Hold one more book club meeting to talk about what kids are planning to read this summer.
And before you wrap up the year, be sure to take a moment to evaluate. What would you like to change or add next year? What successes can you celebrate? It's a great feeling to look back on a job well done!
Leigh Ann, your suggestions are commendable, but...
ReplyDeleteI work in a 5th/6th grade building as the teacher librarian. We've got 600 students as, as far as the library and computer labs go, I'm all they've got. There is no library associate, aide, clerk, or paraprofessional - whatever they're called from place to place. When I'm teaching, there is NO one. When I'm not teaching, I am the "checkout guy". I would love to keep the circulation open and ongoing through the last day of school and on into the summer. I would love to complete an inventory (which hasn't been done in this library sincle 1996 - I'm in my first year here). But it boils down to time.
I come to work one hour before all teachers. I work at least one hour longer than classroom teachers. When lunchroom, recess, and bus duties are added, I have no time left to do anything extra - I teach, circulate books, and shelve them.
I really cannot complain though. Many of my friends are assigned to cover multiple (as many as 9) buildings. I get to stay in one building all day every day.
OK - my whining aside, I really do agree with your points. Your post has inspired me to try harder and I'm going to begin getting ready for next year starting tomorrow - our last day of school. Thanks.
BF