Re: [LM_NET] VENT: "There is no talking in the library"[Spam score: 8%]

["Hastings, Jeff" <HASTINGJ@HOWELLSCHOOLS.COM>]

Sarah:

Gawd. I know EXACTLY what you're talking about: "This is a LIBRARY,
people! You need to be quiet!!!" 

Makes you want to crawl beneath the circ desk, doesn't it? It's like
"thanks loads, teach, for knocking my profession back into the stone
age."

And, ironically, the teachers who make these hackneyed old admonishments
almost always do so at the top of their lungs. 

This topic kind of reminds me of the lunch/coffee in libraries thread I
got involved in earlier in that it illustrates the competing sets of
expectations people have for our facilities and the way that we run
them.

Do you SAY something to these teachers? I generally don't. The way I see
it, they're my customers, too. If they want the place to be run as an
antediluvian throwback when they're in it, then why not let them play
one-room school. We need eveyone's business. Just don't ask me to bust
out the dunce caps and knuckle rulers.

Feelin' your pain, Sarah.

Jeffrey Hastings,
School Librarian
Highlander Way Middle School

hastingj at howellschools dot com


-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Sarah Loch
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 12:09 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] VENT: "There is no talking in the library"[Spam score:
8%]

I'm a new librarian at an alternative school, and I'm slowly encouraging
more teachers to come into the library with their classes. I have been
told repeatedly how, before I came, the library was not available at
all, to anyone, so I'm glad that the teachers are building the habit of
coming in and using the resources.

HOWEVER!

I am hearing, repeatedly, teachers tell their classes "There is no
talking in the library!" "This is a library. You have to be quiet." 

This makes me twitch. Every time. I don't want to correct the teachers
at that time, because many of the teachers have only a tenuous grasp on
classroom control as it is. These students are, pretty much all the
time, loud, rambunctious, and talkative, (on the good days!) and the
teachers have difficulties getting them to listen long enough to
communicate the activities. But I also don't want these students to
learn that the library is the quiet place where you tiptoe into the
presence of knowledge.

I'm not sure how to communicate this to the teachers without it sounding
like a criticism.

Sarah Loch
Librarian
Valley Park Alternative Center
4510 Bawell Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
225-926-9765
SLoch@ebrpss.k12.la.us

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