Thanks to the people who sent me scenarios and/or ideas for writing new
ones. I didn't get many, so may repost this in the fall...
My original request was for scenarios which show how a librarian makes a
difference in a school.
My example (from the Dec 1993 SLJ article by Angela Page):
A sixth-grader who comes to the library looking for information on Harriet
Tubman for a report.
Without the librarian, the student uses the card catalog, sees two entries
in the catalog (that the librarian entered before she disappeared). Both
books are out, so the student gives up and leaves the library.
With the librarian," the librarian shows the student the McGraw-Hill
Encyclopedia of World Biography, as well as eight articles in the magazine
index., etc.
Below are responses I received.
............
Without a librarian:
A student assigned to do a report about an exotic animal comes into the
library, uses the OPAC ( or maybe the Opac from the classroom), finds one
book on his animal. He goes to the shelf, doesn't find the book (it's out,
but with no librarian it was never "checked out".) and leaves. Or it's in,
but he can't find it. Or he misspells the animal name and can't find
anything.
With a librarian:
He comes to the library as above. The librarian helps him find the book
since the Dewey number has four places beyond the decimal point, and third
grade students haven't worked with decimals yet. She then shows him an
animal encyclopedia and helps him use the index to find his animal. Then
she helps him look up some more general works about the type of animal he
is researching (such as "Big Cats" or "Bears" etc).
Without a librarian:
A teacher wants to do a unit on reptiles. He never goes to the library
because he doesn't have a clue how to use the online catalog or where the
reptile books might be located. He asks a couple other teachers and gets 2
books to use with his class of 20 students.
With a librarian:
The teacher comes to the library and librarian shows him how to search the
OPAC which he will be able to do from his room in the future. Together
they identify 40 books about reptiles that the teacher checks out to use in
the classroom. He also takes 6-8 picture book stories with reptiles in
them to read to his students. He also finds several folktales dealing with
reptiles to add to his unit. Since the librarian has added notes to the
catalog record for each "teacher" magazine, he also finds 8 articles in
magazines such as Bookbag, Mailbox, Copycat, Good Apple, etc. that deal
with units on reptiles. He is able to use several activities and
worksheets from these to supplement his unit.
............................
The first thing that comes to my mind is the library budget being turned
into classroom money. Some teachers use the money for their classroom
library collection while others use it for on overhead or paper. This idea
would cause many duplicate purchases in the district. Imagine how many
copies of the same titles are being purchased from the same few companies
that classroom teachers have access to. And imagine how many pieces of
equipment are floating around in the building. When one teacher needs to use
an overhead she has to buy one, rather than borrow it from the library.
Another idea is who is championing independent reading in the building? I
constantly talk about books and put books into kids' hands, despite their
reading level. I run the book fairs, the Hall of Fame for those that have
read and recorded a list of 100 books, and two books fairs. I talk about
authors and illustrators. Who would do that if I wasn't here?
...............…….
I had a student, earlier this year, doing a report on hamsters. We are not
automated, so we looked in the card catalog, found two books with that
subject
heading and went to look for them. When we got to the proper shelves
(upstairs,
of course!), the books were not there, so the student turned to leave.
However,
I was able to find information for him in a book that covered small mammals;
without me, he would never have found this source of information.
Since he also had to have an Internet resource, he then went to a computer
and
typed 'hamsters.com' in the Location box--coming up with the Petsmart site.
Then he tried 'hamsters.org' and found a site in Japanese. I showed him how
to
use the Search box rather than the Location box and how to use quotation
marks
to find "care and feeding".
He went away happy.
……….
Here is a scenario for you: I work in a prison for boys and more often than
not they will tell me that they never read a book until they were locked up.
Because of their struggles, they are far behind in their reading skills, no
library no chance to turn their reading around, increase in re-offending
because of low skills and tax dollars pay to support them the rest of their
life. Pretty grim huh?
.......
Thanks again.
Rena Deutsch, Librarian
High School for the Humanities
New York, NY
renadeutsch@worldnet.att.net
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