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Good Morning, Thank you for al of the words of encouragement and the ideas. To summarize my original request, I am losing my clerk and wanted ideas of how to run a one person media center. Many of the responses were similar, so I have summarized them below. I found that many of you put in extra time either staying late, coming early, or working from home. Also, there are many activities that suffer due to the lack of staffing. In other words, you do what ever it takes to get things done. The only thing that concerns me about this is that if everything seems to be running smoothly will we ever get the help we need? In my district the clerical staffing guidelines call for a clerk in the media center. However, it is up to the principal where they are assigned. So, my clerk is in the office answering phones and handling the sign ins and sign outs. But, I do what I do for the students. Every one of you relies on library assistants to help you get things done. These are only available at my site for 3 of the 5 periods. But, I plan on training students from the classes to do the whole class checkout. I will just have to be available to deal with those students with overdue books and fines. I do plan to focus on those things that are important to me: the first thing is getting books into the student’s hands and promoting reading. I also plan on focusing on those items that affect my evaluation. I received many good ideas: 1. Take a planning period 2. See if those things that do not directly affect student achievement such as laminating, etc can be assigned to other people. 3. Make it a policy that all requests need to be made at least 1 day before they need or want them. Let the teachers know that the lack of an aide is going to change the way things are done in the library. 4. Very strict structuring of classes using the library. Make it clear to teachers that they are responsible for supervising and managing behavior. 5. One of the things I have done in the past is set up three or four "administrative" days each month. On those days, I set aside a certain amount of time during each period for accepting students with passes. I schedule no classes on those days. Those are the days that I attend all of the instructional team meetings. If one of my administrative days falls on a day when there are no meetings, I use that time to catch up on reports or paperwork, vendor meetings, or anything else that needs doing. I also trained 6-8 students in basic shelving and how I like the center set up for classes, and I let them handle those things for me in the mornings before they go to homeroom. 6. Insist that all teacher requests be put in writing, dated, and put in your mailbox; let them all know it's first-come-first-serve as you have time. Every time someone stops you for a question or service, tell them the same canned speech: "Can you make sure to write that down, date it, and put it in my mailbox? I'll get to it as soon as I can. I'm all by myself in the library now, you know. Thanks!" Once teachers begin not getting things the minute they want them, maybe you'll get more help. 7. I think canceling scheduled classes even though they send 5 students at a time works better for the students. You get to actually help a small group instead of everyone just messing around. It sends a clear message that things have changed. And no more just stopping to help faculty. Say "I'm so sorry I'll put that on my to do list and get back to you later". 8. Set up a fixed schedule of class checkouts. Work around that fixed schedule for the other classes. 9. Over the summer I read and implemented David Allen’s Getting Things Done book/approach and am very glad I did so. I feel much more in control and aware of what needs to be done at any one time. ( I have purchased it to read) 10. Also, in order to keep myself planted at the circulation desk more often and at my office desk less often I bought a small cart at IKEA that I roll out to sit next to me during the day and store in my office at night. On it, I put my calendar of classes, reader’s advisory books I may be working with, files of projects currently in action, my receipt book for lost book payments, and the AV reservation calendars. I also store tape and scissors in it. Thank you again for all of the great suggestions. Diane Diane Cotten Media Specialist Marshall Middle School Plant City, Florida cotten_s@firn.edu Diane Cotten Media Specialist Marshall Middle School Plant City, Florida cotten_s@firn.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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