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Ack!  I mislabeled my previous post, having confused "target" and  
"hit" (which is yet another reason I probably won't be asked to join  
any archery teams!)  Sorry for the mistake.  Here it is, again, and  
at least this time, it's correctly labeled as to subject.

My original post asked if any of you have school libraries that offer  
summer hours.  I noted that one of our local elementary schools  
offers this service and that it has been given high praise by many  
parents.  I further asked what hours you are open, if your  
administrative folk are supportive of the effort (i.e., do you get  
paid), and how you advertise the program.

As always, the replies I received were helpful and gave me much to  
think about.  An interesting "e-conversation" ensued regarding summer  
hours at school libraries and potential impact on public libraries.   
That text is included after the initial replies.

Ronda Y. Foust
School Media Specialist in Training, UTK
rstansb2@utk.edu
Oak Ridge, TN



LM_Netters' Response on Summer Hours at Our School Libraries
Our elementary school does.

Last summer was the first. We had about 30 children patrons over the

summer. Children checked out books, read and took Accelerated Reader  
tests

on our computers over the summer. They received a certificate of summer

library participation from me in the Fall at an assembly.

For 6 weeks on Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.

PTA pays me a stipend to operate it.


When we can secure grant money to pay for this, yes, we are open in  
summer.  However, the powers that be don't get their act together  
till SO late in spring that I have never been able to do the kind of  
promo/programming job that I'd like.  The pay is what is paid  
teachers for after school / extra-curricular activities.  Generally  
we are open 2 afternoons each week, from noon to six.  Unfortunately  
the grant money was spent differently this year.  Hope this helps.


Our upper/middle school library is usually open but we are getting  
some much needed renovation done so we're closed.  Our lower school  
library is open on Wednesdays from 9 - 2.  We went to a 1 day a week  
schedule because we weren't getting enough business to warrent the 3  
were used to be open.


We have summer school and are open from 9 to lunch time 4 days a  
week. That's about it.  Yes the administration is very supportive.


I don't have formal open hours during the summer, but I'm open when  
I'm in and if someone comes by I will check out books. I get four  
weeks off in the summer which I spread out over the ten week summer  
break. I have told lots of kids and parents to call or drop by if  
they need books. I haven't asked the administration - it's my call,  
really - but I know I would get support for this.


The one I worked at did 2 days a week, for about 6 hours a day.  It  
was nice, kids from the neighborhood could come and check out, and  
often times babysitters could walk the kids over.  One day we had  
activities planned for the older kids that didn't have a structured  
summer school program, so that was fun.  Good Luck!


We've had libraries open during summer school, but not otherwise. Of  
course, we're in a different situation than most in that our  
buildings are out in the country, so we have no one that would walk  
or bike to the school (we're actually right on US 65, and traffic is  
moving between 60 and 65 mph).


When the libraries were open during summer school the librarian was  
paid from summer school funds. I'm on an extended contract so I'll be  
around during the summer anyway, so I've arranged with the HS science  
teacher that she can schedule (in advance, please) times for her  
Forensics class to come to the library for research.


We are a private school and therefore open five days a week, from  
8:30 -12:30 daily, and 5:30-7:30 on Wed. evening.  No additional pay.


Last year right before school ended, my principal came to me and  
asked if I would like to work on an extended contract to have summer  
library hours.  I told him I would let him know (because I was  
getting married and wasn't sure I'd be able to get all the hours  
required done in time).  Then he came back and told me he was letting  
the guidance counselor do summer library instead.  She didn't use the  
circulation system...she just wrote down who took what and marked  
them out when they were returned.  It wasn't advertised that I know  
of...I think only the kids who come to summer day care at the school  
participated and the hours changed as the guidance counselor's  
schedule changed.  He hasn't mentioned it at all this year, but  
another teacher told me she hear we were having it, so I have no idea  
who is running it.


We're trying something new with our high school library this summer.   
We're open three morning a week for summer school and we'll be  
allowing non-summer school students to visit us to check out books.   
We'll see how it goes.  We've never allowed student checkouts during  
the summer months and thought this might be a nice way to reward our  
kids who like to read...at least to encourage them to continue reading!


In the past I have always opened the library for a few hours a week  
during the summer.  I would pick a certain day, but I would alternate  
morning and afternoon hours in an effort to make it more accessible  
to everyone.  In the middle school, there was not a whole lot of  
students coming in, but I was glad to do it for even one that would  
come.  My principal allowed me to do this, and did give me courtesy  
time (time that could be swapped out for non-mandatory workdays on a  
one-for-one basis for the number of hours that I worked).  However, I  
am sorry to say that the library will not be open this year because I  
have so much on my plate at this time.

I am trying it this summer for the first time - Wednesdays only, from  
9:30 - 1:30.  Our small town library closed this month so I thought  
this might help.  My principal is supported but I'll be an unpaid  
volunteer.  I've advertised on our newsblog, told all the students  
several times, and today posted signs around the school.


Yes, we offer summer library service in ONE of our libraries.  It is  
for 2 hours, Monday - Thurs. for 7 weeks.  The clerk is paid.  We  
advertise by flyers in the community, bookmarks to each child with  
the times (we encourage them to put them on the refrigerator)


I sure hope noone is doing this without getting paid!!!  Just had to  
put my two cents worth in.


I'm in a small school system in TN. We have summer library in our  
elementary schools. We're open 35 hours during the summer and we get  
paid $500.00. We can set our own hours so I am open 3 1/2 hours on  
Tuesdays and Thursdays (with adjustments for special events and my  
trip to New Orleans for ALA). I will start June 1 (school is out this  
Friday) and finish July 13. (school starts back for teachers on July  
27!)


I've been the media specialist at a 5th-8th grade charter school for  
three years.  The media center is open  August 1st through June 30th  
and I am paid for all 11 months!   However, school libraries with  
summer hours is a fairly new concept in our area.  We had no more  
than 200 circulations last summer.  I'm hoping that I'm doing a  
better job of getting the word out to our families this year.  A new  
and improved school web page will help, I think.

Our High School library is open 9:00 to 1:00 on Wednesdays all  
summer.  We put 1000 books from the primary school, 1000 books from  
the elementary school, and 1000 books from the junior high in the  
high school library on rolling carts.  So we are a library for all  
ages every Wednesday in summer.


Our administration fully supports the summer library, and two  
librarians are paid their daily rate for those hours in the summer.  
We are a school district of about 2000 students k-12, and we usually  
have about 100 people coming and going on those Wednesdays.


Ronda, I have not done summer hours before but am seriously thinking  
of doing it this summer. Hope you get lots of helpful replies.


Please post a hit- I'm trying to convince my principal right now :)


My clerk and I work summer hours, but we're not open to the public.



Something I hadn’t thought about was the issue of how school  
libraries offering summer hours might interrelate to public library  
usage.  The following is the “e-conversation” this topic fostered.

My first question is what about the public library?  If you don't have

one then go for it. --Jean



We actually have a very good public library children's room and  
children's room staff (she says with bias as she used to be one of  
them!).  That is part of why I was curious about school libraries  
being open during the summer.  So far, what I'm hearing is that there  
is room for both.  Our public library does not deal with AR, while  
the school libraries seem to offer continued AR testing over the  
summer, but does have an excellent summer reading program.  Many of  
my "regulars" at the public library also used their school library  
during its summer hours.  It was a way to keep in contact with  
classmates and school staff and it was right in the neighborhood.  I  
think there is room for both, particularly if they are serving  
somewhat different needs--and especially if they are getting kids  
(and parents!) to read more!  I'll be curious to see what the other  
responses are.  It's been interesting so far. --Ronda



Ah, the dreaded AR reason.  While not OPPOSED to AR, I think there

should be another reason to provide this service to the students.  It is

taking customers away from the Public library, which is where we want

our students to eventually become attached.  Making the public library

something that is important to their lives!



We hear lots about students wishing they could read for fun, no tests,

or even teachers wishing that students would pick up a book because it

looked good, not because it is worth a boat load of points.  Teaching

our students to become life long learners, seekers of information and

just reading for fun is our end goal.



What can you do, to support the public library?  Show the students and

their parents the library is important and that supporting library

issues and funding drives is important to their lives.



If the public library is that close, I would take the library classes

over the last week of library; introduce the public library people, have

them give an orientation, hand-out card applications to the kids that

don't have one and get everybody signed up for the summer program; this

would give the kids a chance to feel comfortable there, know where

things are and MAYBE would mean that the parents would take them in over

the summer.  If you give advance warning to the parents on this, you

could have the applications already filled out and kids with their

library cards so they could leave with a book.



My 4 cents.  Four paragraphs, four cents ;)--Jean


I'm still not sure how to feel about AR.  For some students, it seems  
to inspire them to read more than they normally.  However, for some  
students, it seems to seriously damage their incentive to read.  From  
the little I've been able to observe, it seems that some of it  
depends on how much import is placed on the program--by the teachers  
and by the administration.  My son's 2nd grade class enjoys AR and it  
seems to be a good incentive toward getting them to move on to more  
challenging titles.  However, I've been disappointed (disgusted in  
some cases) by some of the questions used in the AR tests.  My big  
complaint about AR, and this is from the point of view of a public  
library children's room, is that too many times kids would come in  
and be interested in a book but choose not to read it because it  
either didn't offer enough AR points, or wasn't on the AR list for  
their school.  THAT really bugs me.


In my experience with the public library and the one elementary  
school that was offering summer hours, the elementary school hours  
did not take away from the public library usage.  They simply offered  
different things.  Different titles,  more audiovisual (at the public  
library), the summer reading program (including events scheduled all  
summer).  I had parents who brought their children to both places. I  
don't know if the school library here offered AR testing or not.  I  
think there's room for both public and school library summer access,  
but would submit that the community at large would be best served if  
there is some serious collaboration between the librarians.  I think  
that your idea of introducing students to the public library at the  
end of the year is excellent--and actually is something that my son's  
elementary school already does, at least with the 2nd grade.  The  
public librarian provided storytime and an intro to the summer  
reading program and a copy of the summer reading program schedule.  I  
hope that more schools  offer such collaborative efforts--after all,  
to me, the end goal is to share with our students the joy of  
reading.  Would you mind if I included our discussion in my "hit"?   
It's thought provoking and might stir further ideas for collaborative  
efforts--or at the very least, just some really good discussion.--Ronda


After the discussion with Jean, I decided to ask one of the other  
respondents about the summer hours vs. public library hours.  Here’s  
was Donna’s take on the issue at her location.


Our public library is probably not affected by our summer library.   
Some of our "customers" go to the public library because they tell me  
about it.  Most of the others would never go downtown.  We are just  
much more convenient for them.


Pondering it, I would say that the school's library being open in the  
summer will have no effect on the public library. Some people will  
use both; some will use only the school--but they probably would not  
have gone to the public library in any case; and some will keep going  
only to the public library because they are tired of the school  
collection and want something different.--Donna


  
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