GEN: Confused by staff

[Gayle Hodur <ghodur@REDSHIFT.COM>]

I'm still pretty new at my schools and I'd like to make a good impression,
but I'm really confused right now. Last year teachers told me they didn't
like to use the library because they didn't want to have to keep track of
the cards or put them back in the books. (I am only at their library one
day a week, so for them to have check out ability, they have to do the card
stuff and let me teach on my one day there. We have no automation because
the libraries are so small and we're so poor.) This year I thought I'd make
them happy by saying that I'd take over the card work. Now they are unhappy
because they DON'T have the cards. At one school I asked students to bring
a pencil to library. Then the principal tried to help me out by putting out
a bulletin asking teachers not to have their students doing "catch up" work
from classes during my teaching time. Now teachers are annoyed that I
expect their students to bring a pencil because they were told that
students weren't to bring any other work with them. Am I nuts? There has to
be a way to turn this situation in a more positive direction. I've been as
accomodating as I know how to be, but am I doing something desperately
wrong? I know I'm new at this, but I feel as if I'm being looked upon as a
burden and not an asset and it really bothers me. I've never been a
librarian before, and I'm kind of making it up as I go. I get 20-25 minutes
to teach the middle school students every other week. I'm having a really
hard time fitting any kind of worthwhile activity into that time span. I
don't mean to whine here, I really like my job--I just want to be doing it
well, and I don't know which direction to go.

******************************************************************************
Gayle Hodur
ghodur@redshift.com