[LM_NET] Hit: Homeschooling and the SLMS

[Heather Smolowyk <hsmolowyk@YAHOO.COM>]

Thanks so much to all who responded!

First I've included my initial request and below it
the responses I received. A very interesting subject!

Dear Group,

I am a library school student and new subscriber to
LM_Net. I am looking for some information to be used
for a research paper regarding homeschooling and the
school library media specialist. I have been able to
find very little in research articles regarding how
this issue is affecting SLMS and how we could be
helping. 

If anyone has any thoughts or experiences regarding:

 -outreach to homeschooling families including what
help or services are offered
- what problems are encountered
- what are the benefits of a SLMS relationship with
homeschooling 
- what resources are available to help the SLMS with
regard to homeschooling
- what should we be doing to reach out to this
community?

I thank you so much for your help! I would appreciate
personal email if possible but will compile and post
the collective responses from the group.



1.  I think the public libraries probably have a much
more active role in home schooling. I interned at a
public library and we actively "enticed" home 
schooling parents with a Back-to-School goodie bag
promotion (filled with lots of helpful stuff and some
fun stuff - including "Smarties" candies!) and the
library had periodicals of specific interest to home 
schooling parents available. I saw groups of
home-schoolers on occasion. Further, the public
librarians usually have a "light" schedule during the
school day, and so can accommodate the unique needs of
home schoolers and parents then, whereas after school
they may a lot of regular school kids to work with.
 
As a Library Media Tech who is only scheduled
part-time at my library (I'm the sole library employee
and the library closes when I leave at noon) I have
650 students and 30+ teachers - I really don't have
time for "drop-in" visits from home schoolers. My
situation is common throughout California. Even if I
was full-time, I doubt I would see many home schoolers
in my library. Security issues being what they are,
having groups of kids and parents who are not part of
our campus community accessing our campus at will
doesn't sound like a good idea. Our county education
center can assist home schooling parents with
materials and assistance. 


2. My district libraries do not reach out to the
homeschooling community. Actually it has never come
up. We have an extensive public library system here
run by the county and they have more resources than
the public schools. 


3. yea, here's my immediate reaction to your
question......if you attend my school, or perhaps even
any school in my district, I help you.  you are home
schooled, feel free to use the public library. your
premise sounds like we could and should be helping. 
my immediate goal is to take care of my population. 
you want to use public school facilities, enroll. 
enrollment money is what helps pay my salary and buy
my supplies.  and I feel the same way about kids who
are home schooled joining sports teams, etc.


4. Although all taxpayers in my district are patrons
and might have rights to use our collection/materials
this issue has never come up regarding users who don't
attend out school.
In my community the public library does all of the
things you mention with homeschoolers.  They actively
recruit homeschooler attendance at programs, and
provide parental information to everyone in the
community anyway.  They have even fixed a banner for
each public elementary school in our area, also
private schools and a special banner for
Homeschoolers.  These banners are brought out for
special events like the summer reading program kickoff
or back-to-school time, etc. I don't even think about
homeschoolers because our public library does such a
great job.  I live in a suburban community of 60,000+
which is part of a larger 1.2 mil metro community. 
I'm sure things would be different in a smaller, more
rural setting.

5. I believe most homeschool famililes use their
public library.  I have many friends who homeschool
and none uses a school library - school libraries
simply are not available when homeschoolers need them
- during the school day. I worked in a public library
that offered extensive support and programming for
homeschool families.  I suggest you shift your focus
to the relationship between public libraries and
homeschoolers.  I'll be surprised if you learn of many
schools that provide programming/materials to
homeschool families.

6. I live in an area with a fairly high home school
population.  I have tried some outreach to this
population with limited success.  I offered an
introduction to the state provided databases.  The
class was advertised through the homeschool network
and scheduled for early evening.  Two people came and
were very excited to see all the resources available,
so it was worth it for them.I also have an occasional
request for a book checkout on some topic for a
homeschooler’s research project. My philosophy is to
do the best I can to be a good resource for this group
and cultivate good will.

7. Perhaps home schooling outreach is something more
appropriate for the public library sector to be
addressing. Those who have rejected the school system,
public and private, should not be expecting services
from it. I am certainly not inclined to be providing
them. I understand that home schooling is not going
away, but my library's resources are for the students
and parents in my school, and sometimes the larger
library community through interlibrary loans, and this
listserv. 

8. Maybe you will be able to find some information if
you just search for home schooling in educational
journals. I used to work in a public library and in my
experience the public library is where most home
schoolers get their resources. I don't see the need
for school libraries to reach out to home schoolers. I
don't know how much most home schooling parents would
want from their school districts. If they did, why
would they want to homeschool in the first place?
Maybe I'm cynical, but I think a homeschool parent
could find a lot of fault with some of the material
that is purchased in a public school since religious
beliefs are one of the primary reasons that parents
choose to homeschool. I believe there was a case
recently in the South where a homeschooling parent
challenged library materials from the school library
and her children didn't even attend school
there!Personally I don't think it's necessary at all
to reach out to home schoolers. The primary mission of
most school libraries is to support 
the school's curriculum, not parents   and children
who do not choose to use the public schools. It's the
public library's mission to serve all people in the
community.


9. -outreach to homeschooling families including what
help or services are offered

Legally, homeschooled children have access to school
services such as 
speech
therapy and counseling, but my current school system
does not provide
library services to them.
- what problems are encountered
The problems I had in another wchool system when the
homeschoolers 
Checked out library books is that since they were NOT
in the school system, I had no legal recourse if they
moved with a bunch of books.  When children who are
part of the school system move to another school
system, their library record follows them.  If they
have not paid for books or returned books before they
left the previous school system, the new school system
holds them accountable for the books.  Their new
school librarian knows of the problem, and they may or
may not choose to start with a clean slate.

- what are the benefits of a SLMS relationship with
homeschooling
Children who are home-schooled usually end up in the
school system 
Somewhere down the line.  It behooves the school
system to provide services to them, such as databases
(which are paid for by tax money) and special
services, but if there is a public library in the
town, I don't think the school library should be
obligated to check out books to the home-schooled
children.

- what resources are available to help the SLMS with
regard to 
Homeschooling I read a lot of books about
homeschooling, and I understand the issues involved. 
I encourage school librarians to educate themselves
about the home-school industry.

- what should we be doing to reach out to this
community?
The home-schooled children deserve school social
services, such as 
access to counselors, social workers, family
specialists, speech therapists, and information about
those services should be made available to the
home-school community.  For example, our school
district's professional library was available to
parents who wanted to learn about curriculum and
teaching methods.  Although they may not have been
able to check out the professional books and videos,
they were allowed to use the library resources while
the professional library was open.

Best of luck with your project.  I would appreciate a
summary of the
information you receive, or if you post a HIT for all
of the LM-NET
community, that would be very helpful.


10. For many homeschoolers, the public library is the
resource used for research and supplemental
information.  As far as how homeschooling affects the
school library media specialist, you might want to
start examining public libraries and homeschooling,
then extend your research to school libraries /
librarians.  You might also want to examine college
libraries that support homeschooling--- I have also
seen many university libraries used by homeschoolers. 
 
You may be one of the first to approach this issue, so
if you don't find anything already written, don't
become frustrated.  Be sure to examine the Wilson Web
databases (if you have access to them---they have a
LOT of resources relating to libraries).  


11. This is an interesting question. In VA there are
some online resources available to homeschoolers
called Find It VA. The problem seems to be that not
many homeschooling families know about this resource.
My daughter homeschools her children in Richmond, VA
and uses the public library ofter for print resources
related to the studies and for pleasure reading. One
way to reach out might be local homeschooling
conferences and networks.


As an elementary school librarian, I have had one
family visit the lmc 
often as one of the siblings is getting early speech
training. The mom and son read and do work together.
They have borrow books as well just as some of our
regular parents do. If you get some more information,
I would like to see it so please post a hit.

12. In our area, at least, the library connection for
home-schooled students is the public library.  I do
not see that outreach to home-schooled students is
part of our mission as school librarians. Just my
opinion.


Thanks Again!
Heather Smolowyk
Library and Information Studies Student
University of Buffalo
HSmolowyk@yahoo.com

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