LM_NET: Library Media Networking
LM_NETTERS:
Thank you for your responses to my query about your experiences with study
halls in the library. I printed your responses and passed them on to a fellow
librarian who is taking the papers to her administration. Give back to thenet!
sandy colby SCOLBY@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU
From: Irene Clise <iclise1@mickey.esd113.wednet.edu>
Irene Clise
Library Media Specialist
River Ridge High School
8929 Martin Way East
Olympia, Washington 98516
iclise1@mickey.esd113.wednet.edu
It's difficult for me to believe this is still happening??? We are a
resource-based school and students use the lmc all the time--but NEVER
JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE IN A STUDY HALL, etc. Actually we have no study
halls. There is an understanding in our school that students are more
than welcome to come if they have something specific to do in the lmc AND
THEN PROCEDE TO DO IT.
I've been in four schools as media specialist and it's actually been a
condition for me taking a position.; I am there to be a
teacher/facilitator/curriculum person and do not facilitate a study
hall or students sent there because they are "finished" with work in
their classes. Of course, there are some who still do that but I have
the full backing of my administration to see they go somewhere else or
back to their class. We are filled with students doing research--often
in groups, etc. or preparing projects. It is not a quiet place.
My fear is that the administration in that school does not know what is
going on -- or maybe there is not a program that works with staff.
Good luck to your friend.
From: Sandy Colby <SCOLBY@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: TARGET>assigned study hall in library
Netters:
Please show the knowledge and power of LM_NET by answering questions about
assigned study halls in the library, with an emphasis on secondary, but not
excluding others. I'm going to give your responses to a high school librarian
who has never witnessed the power of the net:
1. How do you manage when large numbers of students (up to 210 during the final
period) are assigned to the library for study hall?
2. and how have you approached your administrators/faculty about the dilemma
the library staff confronts when given additional duties?
Thank you for your help. If there is a large response I'll post a hit.
SANDY COLBY SCOLBY@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU GRADUATE STUDENT
SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
BATON ROUGE
From: Betty Dawn Hamilton <bhamilt@tenet.edu>
I can't IMAGINE such a nightmare and inefficient use of a facility! That
many people in a facility that is designed for utilizing information
seems a waste of students' time as well as a waste of a professional
information handler's valuable time. It also could cause a lifetime
"aversion complex" in students when we want the opposite! We want them
to WANT to go to the library for the remainder of their lives -- we want
them to be LIFETIME learners and when they get out of school, they will
have to use the public libraries!
Because I'm new person on this campus, I've been slow to build a case,
but I have begun by putting out a monthly newsletter telling what is
going on; who is researching and what (teachers *love* to see their work
mention -- I am careful not to leave anyone out); what I *plan* or hope
will happen in the future; some of the new or more interesting books in
the library. I do only ONE page either just front or front and back. No
one has time for more. Oh yes, we are also going to do a display in a
glass case in the hallway by the science classes with samplings of all
research projects and several reference books.
>
> Thank you for your help. If there is a large response I'll post a hit.
I would like to see one, Sandy.
Betty
.----.
Betty Hamilton, LRS ] ] 701 Cub Drive
bhamilt@tenet.edu ____]* ~~~~~~. Brownfield TX 79316
Brownfield High School \ ] (806) 637-4523
\_/\ . /
\ {
\ }
~
From: rshook@edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu (Richard R. Shook)
library/study halls:
I have been at John Glenn High School Library for 22 years.
This building (28 yrs old) has NEVER had assigned study halls. I
have not had to cope with that problem.
When we had split shifts, we did have "cookie break" and I just
got very firm my 1st yr when I saw problems. I locked library doors
and admitted students one at a time until I had number I could manage.
I always explained it as "My Problem" -- as "I couldn't watch the
number that usually come in." My Supervisor showed up one day and
I explained situation and my solution to her in terms of what was
expected of Library and how Library was to be used. I've never had a
problem.
Those few times I "volunteer" to watch a class when a coach leaves
early for athletic events or when a teacher emergency causes an
unsupervised classroom are extremely rare now. I just showed my
distress and anger each time.
Richard Librarian
From: Geri Moulton <gmoulton@freenet.columbus.oh.us>
This is an "image" problem -- short-sighted administrators! When I came
here, the library was used as an overflow site -- I spent a year
'training' teachers and administrators to think of the library in a
different way -- I had to be a 'broken record' about what I wanted the
library to be -- a resource center.
I still take students who are not really using the library properly but
that's life! I guess you have to set your standards and then let everyone
know. It helps to have an advisory committee and maybe a plan( or
alternative) for study hall students.
But ... first YOU have to set a standard and then just keep plugging away!
Good luck!
Geri Moulton Beechcroft High School Library
gmoulton@freenet.columbus.oh.us
6100 Beechcroft Road
Columbus,Ohio 43329 614-365-6800
From: Sandal Lynn Stephenson <sandal@tenet.edu>
In my first job as a librarian I had study hall in my library. I hated
every minute of it. It was extremely counterproductive to having any
type of library program. I started on the very first day asking in the
most polite way to have them moved somewhere. I kept up for a year,
bringing to my principal's attention what I couldn't do for the student
body because of the study hall problem. I got several teachers to go to
bat for me and finally got the study halls moved to another room. The
down side - I had to give up my library clerk to go and oversee the study
halls. It was a hard thing to do, but in the long run it really
benefited my students. If at all possible try and get the study halls
moved elsewhere.
Sandal Stephenson, Librarian
Bryan High School
Bryan, TX
sandal@tenet.edu
From: Robert Owen <rowen@gilligan.esu7.k12.ne.us>
Hi
We're a small district, 175 total with 130 in grades 7-12. We frown on
having study halls assigned to the Media Center, but there are times that
it is necessary. We, administration and staff, want the Media Center
available to all students as much as possible through the day. Even if
there must be a study hall in the Media Center, it is recognized that
there will be periods when a class must come in to use the Media Center.
In that case, the study hall is either exchanged with the class' room, or
sent somewhere else.
Hope this helps. The Main Thing is the Media Center is for research and
use, not baby sitting!
Bob Owen
Media/Technology Specialist
Clarkson Public Schools
PO Box 140
Clarkson, NE 68629-0140
402/892-3454
rowen@gilligan.esu7.k12.ne.us
From: Susan O'Neil <sjoneil@sinnfree.sinnfree.org>
Sandy,
We haven't had study halls in the library since 1980. At some point, the
administration realized that the library was not just a holding pen for
students, but an active, productive part of our curricular program.
As of today, in our middle school, we have very few study halls, never
more than 3 in a day with no more than 24 in each (in a 6-8 school with
about 350 students). Even in the study halls, the teachers don't dump
the kids on us. Students come to the library a few at a time with a book
pass for 10 minutes at a time, or with a written pass to work in the
library on a research project from the subject-level teacher.
This does not mean the library is not busy! Instead, I teach a lot of
classes or work with teachers and students on resource-based or
interdisciplinary projects. If the library was full of study halls, we
couldn't use the library for learning!
Good luck.
Susan O'Neil, School Library Media Specialist
Byron Middle School, Byron, IL 61010
815/234-5491x267 sjoneil@sinnfree.sinnfree.org
From: j_henne@mentor.unh.edu
210 students! That is neither a library nor a study
hall, it's just a hall. When a student is assigned
to the library he or she is there for the wrong reason,
and will probably not behave properly.
Doug Johnson of Mankato, Mn. posted this thought on the
net recently, I think it pertains to your situation:
Unfortunately, education is only one of three tasks with which society has
charged its schools. The other two - child care a
ld socialization - seem to be particularly apparent in the unstructured areas of
the school: hallways, lunchroom, and library. Of these areas in which student
have
d a choice of activities, the library is the only one with an academic mission
as well. While we
owledge that the library must share the school's obligation to contain children
and honor children's need to socialize, librarians can and should bring the
academic mission to the fore.
You cannot pursue your academic mission while monitoring the
behavior of 200 potentially restless and unmotivated children.
In our school no students are ever assigned to the library.
They do have study halls and may come to the library with a pass.
Students who do not use the library appropriately are ejected and
their study hall teacher notified. They usually stop coming
unless they actually need library resources, and when they do I
find they act appropriately.
Perhaps you need to restate for the administration what the
mission of the library is. Too often it is seen as a large space with
comfortable seating and supervision, rather than as an
integral part of the acadamic mission of the school. Good Luck!
John Henne
Gorham Middle/High School
Gorham NH (j_henne@mentor.unh.edu)
From: Nancy Ryder <nryder@sinnfree.sinnfree.org>
In response to your question regarding study halls in the library,
we completely removed study halls from our schedules about 6 years ago.
Nobody misses them. They were considered very unproductive time for the
majority of students. We know have an 8 block schedule and all students
are required to take 8 classes. When you have study halls in the
library, you have "glorified" study halls, and you become "glorified"
study hall teachers. You have better things to do than to supervise
study halls, especially with the restless ones at the end of the day.
When do you get breaks! Good Luck!!
Nancy Ryder
Byron High School Media Director
Byron, Il 61061 815-234-5491 ext. 240
From: 0309prms@InforMNs.k12.MN.US (Park Rapids Middle School)
The mission of the media center is to be a comfortable environment where
students and faculty may come to locate and use materials to answer their
educational, personal or recreational needs. The Media Center is not meant
to be a study hall and to misuse it in that way is an abuse of space,
materials, staff and students/faculty to genuinely want to use the
space/materials/staff for the intended purpose.
And 210 students is beyond belief!!
Mary Childs
Media Director
Park Rapids Middle School
Park Rapids, MN 56470
======================================================================== 42
From: CAMPBELL SUSAN MARIE <cam8120@rs6000.ivcc.edu>
Good luck with study halls in the library!
We have study halls in the media center all periods, but a teacher is
assigned to supervise them. I don't have aides to supervise, only student
volunteers. I am often needed to fix something in the computer labs or
de-ice a satellite dish or write a grant. Can you tell that we have a rural
school district and I am the only professional media person?
This works because there is a teacher assigned to supervise.
What about when I have a class in that needs instruction?
The supervising teacher can take the study hall to the cafeteria. This is
not the favored option because students in study halls loose the
accessibility of materials and media center computers. Our study halls are
never over 60 students.
*************************************************************
* Susan M. Campbell Home: *
* K-12 Media Director Box 115, 106 5th Street *
* Putnam County Community McNabb, IL 61335 *
* Schools, Dist. #535 phone: 815/882-2189 *
* 402 Silverspoon, Box 341 *
* Granville, IL 61326 *
* 815/339-6514, Fax 815/339-6573 *
***************** cam8120@rs6000.ivcc.edu *******************
From: KBW_INGLIS@MEC.OHIO.GOV
The basic question you need to ask your administrators is whether they
want a study hall or a library because it is impossible to do both.
Study hall is about control. If they did not need to control the
kids they would just let them be and not schedule the. Library is about
information and learning. The two are not interchangeable. Part
of me, of course, wishes I had space to even accommodate half of
what you get sent - but I sure would not want to trade limited
space for a situation like yours. Go, fight, win!
Kari Inglis kbw_inglis@mec.ohio.gov
======================================================================== 32
From: "K. Gary Ambridge" <kga@umd5.umd.edu>
I have given guidelines to teachers and they seem to help:
1. You may send up to 10 students to the library on a hall pass
2. They must all arrive at the same time and they may not leave untill
the end of the period.
3.I return all passes to the teacher at the end of the day.
4. All passes MUST include a specific library based research assignment
written on the pass. Finding a book to read does not count and students
are not accepted.
5. Students who take advantage of this pass will not be allowed back
without their teacher.
Gary
kga@umd5.umd.edu, Baltimore, Maryland
From: "Rita Kaikow (Oceanside High School)" <K12OCKZR@vaxc.hofstra.edu>
>1. How do you manage when large numbers of students (up to 210 during the final
> period) are assigned to the library for study hall?
This never happens. When Study Halls were first instituted in the school, we
dealt with the issue of how students were or weren't to come to the Library
from same. At first, we tried to leave the option open to the Study Hall
teacher. This proved unworkable. Then we set up policy whereby only those
students who had a pass from a subject teacher verifying need to go to Library
to complete a research assignment were permitted from Study Hall to Library.
Does the latter policy work - hopefully. :-)
>2. and how have you approached your administrators/faculty about the dilemma
>the library staff confronts when given additional duties?
We deal with this issue directly. Keeping administrators informed about
library activities helps the cause. Ditto for faculty too. If we hear faculty
gripping about our "leisure" during test time when we don't proctor, we invite
them to help us and explain what we are doing. They opt out. :-) It's easier
to deal with this issue with administrators.
--
=========================================================================
] "A Puppy's Lament"
Rita Kaikow, Library Media Specialist ] The world is so big
Oceanside High School Library ] And I am so small...
3160 Skillman Avenue ] Without you beside me
Oceanside, NY 11572 ] I won't make it at all.
UPhone: 516/678-7534e ] **********
K12ockzr@VAXC.HOFSTRA.EDU ] HAVE A HAPPY :-)
=========================================================================
From: library3@bit.csc.lsu.edu (Scotlandville HS #3)
I am a librarian right here in Baton Rouge, at Istrouma High School. I
graduated from LSU SLIS in 1993. I can at least partly identify with your
librarian friend. My co-worker and I also have to endure students being
stuck in the library when the administration thinks they have no other place
to go. Last week during exas we had a roomful of about 80, and they were
really rowdy and loud. One of them actually threw a penny at me, very hard,
and almost hit me with it--as I stood at the circulation computer. At the
time I was the only adult in the room with them. It took that to get some
help in there. After the students left, I drafted a memo (with the help of
my teacher organization) that said I objected to having students stored in
the library with for no instructional purpose, and urged them to find another
place if they had to do it. I also suggested that an administrator be present
if they did choose to store students in the library in the future. When I
gave the principal the note and discussed it with him, I tried to make him
see that this was not a fair situation, and having so many in there just
breeds troub We have quite a bit of trouble in the library even under
the best of circumstances at our school. Anyway, this is a lon-winded way
of commiserating with your friend. I really don't know what would work. I am
sure that having 200 students supervised by a librarian or two is not even
within school system guidelines. I hate to say it, but I plan to sign out
sick if I am ever placed in that situation again. Maybe she could get some
help from her district library supervisor.
On the second question, my co-worker and I know very well how this feels. Last
year we planned, organized, and carried out virtually every school program--
many of which were handed to us at the last minute after someone else failed
to carry through. When asked to do one of these programs at the last moment,
I di tell the asst. principal that I was willing to do whatever the school
needed, but that certainly he knew that library svice would have to be put
on hold, and that students and teachers could not possibly be adequately
served. I think that made him think a little (and maybe he got some
complaints from teachers) because this year we ar not called on nearly so
much as last. I also made suggestions at the beginning of this year as to
who might be gooat carrying out certain programs . If your friend wants to
talk more, I would blad to be put in contact with her. Good luck at LSU.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gail Hawkes
Istrouma High School and Technolgy Academy
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
ghawkes@scotmhs.fred.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "Wanda P. Duff" <wduff@ops.esu19.k12.ne.us>
We have no study halls in our Information Center and when we did it was
nothing like 200. After my first year in this high school, I explained
to my adminstration that there was no way I could serve the staff and
students when I had kids assigned to the facility. They were most
cooperative knowing that I was trying to build a strong program. Now, my
teachers would scream if I couldn't schedule their classes into the
library because of a study hall. Perhaps you should try to get them on
your side. Also, since 8th period is our last of the day, seniors are
allowed the privilege of leaving at the end of 7th period if they can
arrange their schedule to be finished in 7 periods. This cuts down on
the number of students being warehoused during the last period of the
day. Good luck--this sounds like a horror story.
Wanda
Wanda Duff Internet: wduff@ops.esu19.k12.ne.us
Instructional Information Manager Voice: (402) 557-3516
Omaha Northwest High School FAX: (402) 557-3539
8204 Crown Point Avenue The person who succeeds will be the
Omaha, NE 68134 person with the best information. Disraeli
From: Jennifer Krassnig <ed848505@mailbox.uq.oz.au>
Hi, Sandy. We too have faced this problem. We still have study periods
but our numbers have been reduced for each period. We encouraged the
administration to come down during study periods and see the chaos. We
also had teachers who wanted to use the library during study periods
complain that their classes were being disadvantaged. We have staggered
study periods with about 60 students using the library. Other students
are permitted to study in other areas.
Good luck! Don't give up. Let the administration supervise study periods.
We did.
Jenny Krassnig <ed848505>
Anglican Church Grammar School
East Brisbane
Sorry wrong address <ed848505@mailbox.uq.oz.au>
From: SOEADM62@UConnVM.UConn.Edu
First of all I couldn't seat 210 students, but I will take as many as can work
quietly in the center at one time. If they cannot work there is no point in "i
nviting" them in.
Second, We have a rule that no teacher can send more than 5 students per period
from a class or a studyhall(these are normally held in the classrooms during t
he teacher's prep). If a teacher wants more students to go to the center then
they must accompanythem or send them with an aide.
third, our administration was "convinced" by a faculty committee that the media
center was not the place to dump students who did not want to be there in the
first place. Continuing this practice would not be pro-active and would result
in serious vandalism to materials and equipment.
contact me if you have any additional questions.
Peter
.........................................................................
PETER P. SALESSES LIBRARY MEDIA DIRECTOR
SOEADM62@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU APPLE.LINK EOSMITHHS
REG. # 19, EDWIN O. SMITH H.S. 1235 STORRS RD. STORRS, CT 06268
VOICE (203) 487-0877 FAX (203) 487-1106
========================================================================
From: Nancy@alcon-hs.demon.co.uk (Nancy Sue Mitchell)
Thank heavens our school does not have study halls for anyone. Therefore
I don't have the problem. Maybe you need to get rid of study halls.
--
Nancy Sue Mitchell
From: 0055cgsh@InforMNs.k12.MN.US (Clinton-Graceville High School)
Subject: Re: TARGET>assigned study hall in library
After looking at the numbers you are talking about, I am thankful that I
work in a small school.
I work in a 7-12 Media Center serving about 260 kids. There are Study
Halls assigned to the Media Center 8 periods a day of a seven period day
(Jr. & Sr. High have different times for 4th hour). I am the Librarian and
am in charge of students 4 1/2 of the 8 periods. Teachers are assigned the
other 3 hours. My numbers range from 4 to 36 students per hour. I have 55
seats. I add an extra dimension to the problem in that I am only in the
High School building on Monday and Friday. On T, W, and Th the Study Halls
are supervised by aides.
I have told my administration (and been told by them) that supervising
students had to come first and that Library tasks would suffer. This is
true! There are some things that just don't get done in the hours when
there are more than ten kids to supervise. The administration is aware but
doesn't care.
I think that the main difficulty is one of perception. To my
administration, if I do not have a Study Hall, it doesn't look like I'm
doing anything. I have tried to show my administration a list of the things
that I have to do. However, I have had no success.
An additional problem in our small school is that there is no one else
available to supervise study halls. Our teachers teach 6 periods of their
7 period day already.
Kathy Martin Internet: 0055cgsh@Informns.k12.mn.us
Clinton-Graceville High School
Graceville, MN 56240
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