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Dear LM_NETTERS, This is to report the result of our request that we made on the list a few months ago for information on how to teach children how to handle library books. Our apology for being so late in posting this, and thank you all who so kindly helped us by sharing wonderful ideas. We are really impressed by your creativity!!!. If you have any question about things posted here, please contact Kay Nakajima at nakajima@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu. Thank you very much, Kay Nakajima Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign The following is 10 responses we received for our request. ___________________________________________________________________________ I've just been showing the video "If Books Could Talk" to grades k-3. The kids really like it and seem to have no problem grasping the message. ___________________________________________________________________________ Until recently I worked with K-4. Every fall I had a lesson which I did with both K & 1 on care of books. Over the years I developed a "sad book collection." I would introduce my lesson with a great deal of sighing and sad looks, and tell the kids I was about to show them something awful. I'd work through my collection, showing them the damaged books: 1. A book that had a lot of crayoning. (keep your books in a safe place away from very young children that don't know the difference between coloring books and library books.) 2. An alphabet book with 5 pages (and letters) missing. (babies tear paper as a way to find out about the world.) 3. A book with the spine and corners chewed. (A real life story: a little girl came to me with this book and said that she thought it was safe on the coffee table. But the new puppy was able to reach it and now look! Could she buy a new one for the school? ) 4. A Madeline book that is the shape of the new moon, wrinkled of cover and a bit moldy and smelly inside. (Bring me the wet books because I know how to dry them out so this won't happen.) 5. A Star wars book that got really wet on the floor of a car, and the shiny paper came unglued to show the cardboard underneath. (I use this to show the construction of a book and make the point that the cardboard acts like a paper towel and soaks up water.) 6. A torn page in a book taped with celophane tape which has turned yellow, dried up, and fallen off, and the yellow adhesive is still there. At this point I show them my Magic tape and demonstrate on a small rip how I make rips disappear "like magic!" (At the risk of sounding like a commercial.) I promise not to yell if something happens to their book and they are bravve and tell me about it. I will say "thank you for helping me save this book!" At the end of the lesson, I asked all the kids to raise their hands if they'll be my helpers and help take care of our books. Every hand goes up. Now I admit I ham it up, but it works. I have a million rips shown to me that day and their next few visits, even some rips that I suspect are a bid for attention, but I Magic tape them, and say the thank you...... Hope this helps! _____________________________________________________________________________ As with all good ideas, this one was "stolen" from another librarian who "stole" it from an ALA or AASL workshop a number of years ago: Treat Your Book Like A Baby I had wanted to try for several years, but was busy, etc. Just before school started last fall, I found a clip art baby's head, complete with bonnet. Enlarged it, colored it, found a disposable diaper and a receiving blanket - then dressed a library book like a baby (head was on a tab so would stick up out of the book). I started out by telling them ways books and babies are the same -- need to be treated with special care, kept safe, not dropped, not left outside, etc.-- discovered, however, that the students loved thinking up things themselves so it became a sharing/brainstorming session. It was so silly - they loved the diaper - that they tend to remember it better than just being told. Also, during the year as I have seen students doing things they shouldn't with books, I could remind them to "baby their books". That always brought a smile and the correct behavior. Yes, books still come back with "problems" but when you are dealing with children that happens. The goal is to reduce the problems as much as humanly possible. I used with K through 6th grade. ___________________________________________________________________________ nJust one quick suggestion: I have found it very effective to save books that were ruined by some of the more common mistakes: chewed by dogs, scribbled on by baby siblings, or wet down by leaky lunches in bookbags. When I hold these up the students are universally horrified. It makes a big impression. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 1) Does your library have or has your library developed any program to > teach children how to handle library materials? How do you teach them how > to handle books and other materials? When our kindergartners visit the LMC for the first time, I give them a tour of the Easy/Everybody section and demonstrate the use of shelf markers to locate a book. At this time, they are allowed to check out one book at a time. We find a book they want to read and I again demonstrate how to handle it. I have compiled a little coloring book that shows how to care for a book which each student receives and takes home to color. When they finish it, they return it to us and receive a sticker. This way we are sure parents see what our expectations are. We also send home a letter to parents stating thet their kindergartner has checked out their first book from the LMC and further explain the procedures and policies we go by. > 2) What is most difficult in teaching children on this topic? > Being there whenever the children visit the LMC to reinforce the "correct" way to do things. > 3) What kind of resources and instruments do you use to teach children > this topic? I try to review the procedures each time we get together which is on a flexible basis but seems to work very well. The little guys are actually more conscientious than the older ones. > 4) Do you know any source of information related to this topic? > > No, that's why I developed my own. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- In response to your posting on teaching children to handle library materials: When I was an elementary librarian, I kept some of the books that were returned badly damaged. When first-graders were ready to check out books, I would devote one session to showing the ruined books to the children, eliciting sympathy for the poor abused books, and demonstrating what not to do. I had books that were burned, moldy, muddy, chewed, colored in, etc. I think it's necessary to present this as gently as possible, stressing that accidents can happen to anyone. I wanted to encourage the children to be responsible without scaring them away from borrowing books at all. Perhaps letting children dictate a list of ways to care for books would be useful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For many years I have been using a very old filmstrip called Glad Book, Sad Book. It is from the 50s and has a kindergarten class taking books home from their classroom library. Right off I tell our kindergartners this filmstrip is older than their parents, but the message is still very important. The Glad Book (RED with a big smile) is taken care of properly and the Sad Book (BLUE, in terrible condition, with a frown and tears) is colored in, the pages are torn, it is eaten by a dog, dropped on gravel and left out in the rain! "No one wants a torn and dirty book", says the narrator as the book is left on the shelf while all the others are chosen. We spend about three weeks talking to the kindergartners about proper care: always take them home in a book bag, turn the pages from the top right outside corner and not from the bottom, put them in a safe place away from younger bothers and sisters and pets, tell us if the book has been marked in before leaving the library (we write marked, the date, and our initials on the pocket, then give the child a bookmark for caring about books), to tell us if something was torn or hurt while it was checked out to them, so the book could be repaired for others to continue to enjoy. My clerk and I took large poster boards in red and blue and made the glad and sad books to wear as halloween costumes. It was such a hit that we wear them every year after showing the filmstrip. There is also a 16 mm film that we used with first grade on the care of books. It too, is old, but it has a young boy helping an older gentleman repair books. When the boy borrows a special joke book he leaves it on the bleachers after soccer and the sprinker system ruins it. At the end of the film the books talk to him, because he cares about them so much. Sorry, I'm at home and cannot remember the correct title. We are constantly asking the students to evaluate their books and say whether they have a glad or sad book. We also point out that the books have human characteristics; they are all individuals with a spine, the body of the book, a jacket, and a pocket, and they have a home and an address, just like they do. Hope this helps. I haven't found anything in recent years that gets to the kids like the filmstrip does. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have created a booklet that I use with my kindergartens and their parents. This is used as a part of our Big Six Research Unit. If you are interested,let me know, and I will send you a copy. Nothing sensational, but it works! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I believe that it is important to nurture a sense of ownership of the library and an appreciation of it as a collection. One way I do this is by asking interested students to display a collection in one of our cases (shells, rocks, baseball cards, dolls, folk toys, whatever) or organize a group display (family menorrahs right before Hanukkah). After the community has enjoyed a few collections, I make the connection to the library. "How would you feel about lending part of your collection to someone else?" "How would you want them to care for it?" "How would you feel if an irreplaceable item was borrowed and not ever returned?" We then talk about the library as a special collection we all share and that we must protect and treasure it for everyone. Oh! and I augment the display of the collection with related books from the library. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a program called "Siblings Involved in Reading to Siblings" in Dekalb County School System in Ga. The media specialist involved in this wonderful project is Anne Wallace. Part of the activities in this project is teaching children how to handle books. The tel. no. of Anne Wallace (media specialist) in her school is 404-482-6112. (I am not sure whether the area code has changed to 770). The school's name, I think, is Redan Elem. in Stone Mountain, GA. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------