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Wow! Thanks so much! Since we just got Destiny I think I'm going to try checking out in the middle of the media center with a laptop. (Thanks to Carole, my Broward County partner!) And there are lots of good ideas here that I'm going to seriously consider. Thanks for helping! ____________________________________________________________________________________________ What about student volunteers? We have a class at my school that requires 10 community service hours, 5 of which can be in school. I have many kids ask me if they can help out in the library for this time. I see that you're in an elementary school, but if you have any contacts at the high school(s) in your district, maybe see if any National Honor Society kids would be interested in helping out, as they also are required to have so many service hours. Another thing would be to see if there are any parent volunteers who enjoy working in the library. At the elementary school I student-taught in, many parents wanted to volunteer in their child's school but not directly in their classroom. We had a large number of these parents who would end up in the library, and they did a wonderful job. Some of them preferred to shelve and straighten, one woman would sticker and stamp new books, etc. If this would be a feasible thing at your school, it's worth a try! ____________________________________________________________________ Lots of repetition year after year with the "Shelf Marker Hokey Pokey" for the little ones and demos for the older ones (I have the kids do the demos for the rest of their classmates at the beginning of each year), reminders that if I see them not using their shelf marker, they sit down, etc. helps alot. Mostly though, since we have Destiny, I will take my laptop with an attached scanner and sit right in the middle of where the most action is (fiction, or non fiction areas) and then I have a visual of what is going on, rather than sitting at my large, U-shaped circ desk with the large Dells where my visual of the entire room is limited. I am loving having the option of using any computer for check out, but mostly that I can use the laptop right among the students. Since they know I am watching they try harder to be more careful. This also is a big help when I d o morning checkouts and have lots of kids coming in at once with no media clerk this year. _______________________________________________________________________ Instead of finding yourself stuck behind the desk checking out, is there a way you can teach the kids to do check-outs? My having an aide is no sure thing going forward and this seems like it would cause less problems than the other way around. __________________________________________________________________________ In my media center I have the kids use Shelf Markers (Home Depot painted paint stirrers) and I teach the kindergartners how to use them (stick them in the shelf where you want to look at a book, pull the book off the shelf, look at it. Want it? Take book and shelf marker to check out desk. Don't? Now you know where to put the book back.) 1st and 2nd graders get a quick review at the beginning of the year. New students are trained to use them by "tour guides" in their class. I keep the shelf markers in a coffee can on my desk and when they go looking for books (especially in the nonfiction section) they have to be using a shelf marker. If I catch them not using one they're tossed out of that aisle. Also my Everybody fiction (picture books) are just alphabetical by first letter of the author's last name so all authors with A are on a shelf together in no order, except that we keep all the prolific authors books together (like David Shannon). When I first saw this system I thought it was ridiculous and it IS harder to find a specific book. But when you don't have help shelving books or keeping them in order it works really well. Even first graders can shelve an Everybody book by getting it on the right shelf! __________________________________________________________ I'm dealing with a similar issue myself. I want students to demonstrate care of our resources and they don't always because of the mad rush to find a football book. When students leave our library class they take a ticket back to their class. Just today I told them I'd check the shelves before they leave and if the shelves are great I'll pass on an added complement and hole punch a star into their ticket. I'm also planning some direct instruction on how to straighten a shelf with a list of steps and pictures for the younger ones. Students do need to be directly taught what we expect and they need time to practice it in a positive environment. ____________________________________________________________ I guess I need to consider myself very lucky because I still have my aide. On the days that she is absent, this is how I do it. I am still out there in the stacks while the kids are looking for books. As they make their selections they go back to their tables with them to look at them. When there are five minutes left in the period. I go to the circ desk and call the kids up a table at a time to do checkout. This might not work if you have high traffic from students who are "dropping in" to get books. I have also used a program that I called "Adopt a Shelf". I served grades 1 - 5 so I chose some responsible 5th graders. I assigned them a section of shelving. I took their photo and made signs to put at the top of each shelf - "This shelf adopted by....." with name and photo. Those students came by each day (sometimes every other day) on their way back from lunch to their rooms and straightened up their sections. After a month or so - they knew when a book was there that didn't belong. They loved doing it and it helped me out. I had an ice cream party for them at the end of the year. I'm sure you will get some other ideas. Good luck. ___________________________________________________________________ From the address I'd guess that you have a high free/reduced lunch population. Our school is 82%. I have selected two shelves (one fiction, one nonfiction) for kinders. They chose books four at a time from those two shelves. The others are reading board books or Baby Bug magazine or Animal Babies magazine from a tub. After selection, check out, then seated in another place. The kinder aide stays with the class. Class uses markers to replace books to proper place. First grade gets gradual release to "E" section. They "earn the priviledge" of entire "E" section. Also enforce marker use and use reward system. Second grade learns DDC and earns release to entire library. They can also lose the priviledge of chosing their own spot to search for a book. Also reward system. Third through fifth has reward for silent reading. Sorry for brevity but also running a book fair with no help. I get downright twitchy during these times. :) ______________________________________________________________________ Shelf markers can be an incredible help! If you don't have them, you can ask local hardware stores to donate some paint mixing sticks. Teach the children the shelf marker hokey pokey: You put your marker in, You pull your book right out- You put your marker in- And you pull that book right out, Flip through all the pages, to see what it's about- Put it back if you're in doubt! This seems to help and they do like learning the song.... ___________________________________________________________________________ I would get "nasty." I would warn them before I release them to check out that this is their library and if they want the books to be on the shelves correctly when they are looking, then they have to be respectful of the organization and of other users. If the "mess" does not meet your standards at the end of the period, they will not get to check out the next week. Then as I am checking out books, I would watch for areas with lots of students in them, and do my spot checks there. I also had a policy that if the 4th graders and up were leaving the shelves in good order, books in their proper place AND right side up, spine out I would no longer require them to use the shelf markers. This was a great incentive to be neat and keep things in order. Graduating to no shelf marker was a biggie. Or, divide your library up by the number of classes you have, omit the 1st graders or assign them things like the magazines and other areas that just need minimal straightening and organizational skills. Each class is assigned an area to keep neat and clean. You could even create some of those signs like we see on the highways, "This section is maintained by Mrs. Davis's 3rd grade Class." TEACH the Dewey and organization lessons! Any time I was alone in the library, that would be the day we would go over shelving rules and then have table "races" to see which group could get all of their books shelved. Everybody had to try; only one student was up from a table at a time. When they thought they had it they put their hand up and I checked them (So, I had 6 or 8 kids up at a time.) They tried again or they could go back to their table and trade off to another shelver. (The variation on that, they could call one person from their table over to help them, when they thought they had it, the helper went back to the table and the original kid raised their hand again.) They loved it, and I got the books back on the shelf, it even seemed like they really understood it better. But, playing that a few times prior to them taking over the up keep of an area will ensure that the books are being shelved correctly. AND, each student really does understand how to shelve correctly. ____________________________________________________________________ I actually have a big blue bucket sitting next to the circulation desk that the kids put the unwanted books in and then I re-shelve them between classes or at the end of the day, depending on when I have time. I found that this stopped a lot of my problems and in the long run saved me time. It doesn't stop the new kids who aren't use to the method from putting books back on the shelf wrong but the kids who know what they are doing are quick to help the new kids. Plus an added benefit for me and the kids, we get to see what sections or authors the kids consistently look at. This helps when I'm buying books. The kids also after the first couple of weeks seem not to pull as many books from the shelves and make their selections much faster and in the upper elementary, it has actually started some unexpected book talks and excitement about some rarely read books since the kids can get books out of the bucket, which is something I encourage them to do. ________________________________________________________________________ Parent helpers? I had a wonderful one at my previous school. She actually did the checking out so I could help the students choose the right book for them (and "clean up" after them!) ________________________________________________________________ Could you begin a self checkout? I implemented that here at my school. K-8 school. Nobody goes behind the circulation desk. The computer faces the library. _______________________________________________________________________ It has to be really hard in elementary. I'm in the same situation in the middle school, grades 6-8, nearly 1000 students. Also, no student help this year because of elective scheduling. Time and time again I talk about creating a mess in the shelves. You miss everything when you're forced to do book checkout behind the circulation desk and your attention isn't on students. In the morning before first period I no longer let them aimlessly walk among the shelves. They have to browse the paperbacks or two carts full of books that haven't been shelved. They may look up a book on the computer first, but they have to tell me the title/author. The same procedure goes during lunches. I've talked to the teachers about active monitoring and no longer are entire classes of 30 plus allowed to wander the library at the same time. They go by tables of 5-6 at a time and they have a time limit. Teachers are expected to help them as well as keep an eye on them. The frustrating thing is that I'm pretty sure it's just a handful of students who are deliberately making a mess and ignoring directives. The majority of students are well-behaved and fairly respectful of the books. I also think they're aware that it's just me in here trying to keep up with everything. I know exactly how you feel! ________________________________________________________________________ That is a pet peeve of mine and an ongoing problem. My first and second graders check out one book. After 2 weeks of warning them to use good shelf etiquette, I will pull books and put them on top of the shelves (you could put them on a table). The students then can only choose a book from there. No shelf browsing. 3rd - 5th can check out 2 books. If the shelf order is an ongoing problem, I will only allow them to check out 1 book. So far this has worked well and the students patrol each other to get the sanctions lifted. :) ___________________________________________________________________________ Do you have access to parent volunteers who could do this once a week? Or could you roll this responsibility into some sort of a library club? (with a book club, a chance to make recommendations for new purchases, etc.?) I am blessed with aides who each have a certain section of the collection to keep up with for part of their weekly points. _____________________________________________________________________________ I'd suggest that you take a page from the university libraries and teach the kids NOT to reshelve books, but to either leave them on the tables, put them on a specially marked cart, or leave them at the ends of the shelves. You may end up using one, two, or all three of those methods, but that would be easier on you than going through all of the shelves looking for books that are out of place. The upside of this is that you will, yourself, handle every book that the kids have handled, so you will see which ones are of then used in-house and you will develop a "feel" for what they look at but don't check out. Some circulation systems will even let you track in-house use IF the books don't get reshelved first. _________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have the kids use "spacers" ? I have plastic spacers that look like oversized bookmarks. Each child has one to "mark the place on the shelf where the book lives" and even my preschoolers are pretty good about taking only one book and leaving the spacers to mark the place. It is not a perfect way to keep the books spine facing the right way, or not have book on their sides, but it does help a great deal. _______________________________________________________________________________ When I was in the elementary library, I used shelf markers and my kids were always proud of being able to handle them. My only rule was they couldn't hit each other with them :-) They loved them and I had very few mis-shelved books. ____________________________________________________________________________ Susan Davis Media Specialist, NBCT Bennett Elementary School 1755 NE 14 Street Fort Lauderdale FL 33304 754-322-5464 FAX 754-322-5490 susan.davis@browardschools.com Under Florida law, email addresses are public records. Your email address and the contents of any email sent to the sender of this communication will be released in response to any request for public records, except as excluded by F.S. 119.071, 1002.22(3)(d) [student records], or any other law of the State of Florida. If you do not want your email address to be released as part of any public records request, do not send email to this address, rather contact this office by phone or in writing. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. 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