Re: PARENTS SIGNING OUT BOOKS/Community People

[Pat Lambert <pat@HAWK.SCAN.ORG>]

I am in a town of about 30,000 people and a very well stocked public
library.  I have been in my present elementary library job for 7 years.
It has been my *dream* to have the library open in the evenings so
parents and students could make use of the facility.  Our public
library is not far away and it was not my intent to compete with the
public library.  I just felt there was a need by the students to have
it available to them in the evenings.  It has now been made possible
for me to have the media center open twice a month from 6-8 p.m.  My aide
will help me during these *extra* hours.  So far the community has
responded very positively to *FAmily Library Night*.  Parents are issued
library cards and may check out books for three weeks at a time.  The
computer lab is open to parents and students.  And some parents just come
in to sit down in an easy chair and read to their children.  Even if
someone is not a parent of a student at my school, I would still check
out books to them.  I often check out children's books to education
students at the college.  I may loose some books, but that's the breaks.
So far so good.  My shelves have far too many books on them right now, I
need people to come in and check them out.  They aren't been read as long
as they are on the shelves.  Our community and state have adopted
educational standards that reflect *parents-as-partners*.  What better
way to do this then get them into our schools checking out books to read
to their children.

Pat Lambert
Needham Elementary
Durango, CO
pat@scan.org