Look at your Signage

If you can, try to empty your head of the familiarity of your library and walk through it as if for the first time to see if your library is user-friendly with good signage. Okay, if that's too hard, grab a student or person unfamiliar with your library and give them several different items to find and ask them to walk through and locate them just by reading the signs. Then ask them to be honest in their assessment. Was it easy to find what they were searching for? Was the library well organized and easy to maneuver around it?

The brown paper cut-out panels above the shelves are an inexpensive way to decorate the library and also provide good navigational signs. Each panel illustrated something found in that section of the shelves.

Our library had only six computers for patron use, and often our language arts classes average about 30 students per class. Not everyone was able to access the online catalog every time they visited, or sometimes the network would go down and the computers were useless, so I wanted to make sure students could still find their way around the library using the signage.

Years ago, librarians were the keepers of the information-- they were the key hole through which patrons had to go to find the information they were seeking. Today, librarians roles have changed drastically. Librarians teach students and patrons how to find books and information for themselves, and part of that includes providing good signage and teaching students how to navigate their way around the library using those signs.

Keep the signage simple; use easy to read fonts; fancy fonts are distracting. Vary the size of the signs; the largest for the major sections [FICTION, BIOGRAPHIES, the Dewey major section numbers, etc.], down to smaller end shelf signs.

I received a good tip from a lady who worked with special ed students. On both ends of the fiction shelves in the middle of the library, I added nice, easy to read letter ranges to help students quickly find the fiction authors they were seeking. The SPED teacher asked if I would also print out the entire range, not just the beginning and end letters of the authors' last names, to help those students who struggled with the alphabet. I was happy to comply. They looked similar to this:

A - F

A - B - C - D - E - F

Teach students to read the alphabetized shelves by section - left to right; up to down before moving to the next section.

Make the major Dewey division signs the largest for students to easily find the section they are looking for.

In the shelves using the Dewey Decimal System, try to keep the shelves together in numerical order. It's confusing to shelve the numbered books in different areas of the library. All of our numbered books were in shelves against the walls that wrapped around three sides of the library, so I put large signage above each major section of the Dewey - 000's, 100's, 200's, 300's, etc. so the students could see the section they were looking for from anywhere in the library. On the individual shelves, I added many subject signs [Civil Rights, Fairy Tales, Solar System, Weather, etc.] that also included pictures that were very helpful to the students. 

Teach students how to read numerical order, especially the decimal fractions. It's much easier for them to understand if you teach them to read it like money; kids understand money. I have several very inexpensive posters and lessons in my Teachers Pay Teachers store that let students practice alphabetizing and putting call numbers in numerical order. Both are important skills for students to learn for life, and skipping over those skills makes it harder for them later.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I tell myself that maybe a paraprofessional might be reading this and could learn something from these posts. Sadly, too many school districts are replacing certified librarians with paraprofessionals; that happened to my job. But students still need to learn their way around a well-organized library complete with good signage. 

I'm so sorry, April!

April is National Poetry Month, and I should've posted at the beginning of the month an encouragement to sponsor a poetry contest in your school. But the month is well more than half over, so I'll post some of my favorite winning poems from years past. These students will be seniors in a couple of years now, and their class contained a number of exceptional writers. I would love to see what they're all up to in about ten years.

Forever Loyal
by Taylor Bechtel, when she was in 8th grade

I remember when spring was in my step,
When my tail was an uncontrollable propeller,
And my face held no note of grey.
I remember when you would scratch my ears,
And praise me for simple tricks.
I remember when I was something to be proud of,
Not just a burden.

Was it really that long ago that I was your best friend?
Do you even remember my trusting gaze?
My innocent disposition?
My utter devotion?
It is still that way,
At least from my perspective.

Your eyes catch mine,
While I shiver on this silver bed
Drowning in your excess emotions,
Hope,
Fear,
Sympathy,
Love.
The last overpowering the rest.
Life has no Disney ending.

But even as this needle pierces my skin
I am at ease
Even as my heartbeat slows
I am content.
Because even as this cold drug pulls my eyes shut,
Your love keeps me warm.

                                                                                                                             [Used with permission]

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I was completely blown away by this poem. If you didn't get it the first time through, read it again. I cried the second time through when I realized it was from the perspective of the dog, about to be put down in the vet's office. 

RIP Daisy

About a month before, I had done the same thing with my seventeen-year-old poodle. And as heart-tugging as the poem is, it left me with such a sweet expression of love for my old dog.

*  *  *

A Long Wait

by Morgan Gray, when she was in the 7th grade

The child plays on

Carefree

The wind blows by

Unaware

Leaves rustle in the tree

Unnoticed

Dogs chase the cats

Ignored

The family eats

Unharmed

The soldiers march by

Feared

They pass through, destroying what they like

Hated

I shrink back from the window

Wondering

My mind contemplating the soldiers' defeat

Hoping

Thinking of the day I will get to play like the child

Happy

Be unnoticed like the leaves

Unimportant

The day I will be free of this hiding place

Waiting

                                                                                                       [Used with permission]

Morgan told me they had done a study on the Holocaust, and that inspired her wonderful poem.

  
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Rooted to the Ground

by Amanda Peck, when she was in the 7th grade




You are the wind

Trying to knock me down

Blow me away

Trying to hurt me

Trying to bruise me

Blowing at me

In every direction

But I am an oak tree

Rooted to the ground

Deep below the surface

Where you cannot reach me

No matter how hard you blow

I will not come un-rooted

You think I am struggling

You laugh at me

Think I am barely holding on

But I am sturdy

Mocking your attempts

To bring me to the ground

For you are the one struggling

While I easily hold on

                                                                           [Used with permission]

*  *  *

Invisible

by Nathan Albers, when he was in the 7th grade


If I could have a power

to hold and then to use,

The power to turn invisible

is not the one that I'd choose.

I do not like the feeling

of being unseen by all.

They act like my chair's empty,

Like no one's there at all.

It might be my fault, too,

because I'm quiet as a stone.

No voices speak to me,

no ring comes from my phone.

They have their own friends,

and they don't need me.

There's conversation everywhere,

but nothing aimed at me.

I feel like I'm an empty cup,

like a car in an empty parking lot,

Or a painting that no one comes to see,

like a basketball that's never shot.

The world seems very far away,

for I sit here very glum.

They're talking and laughing and having fun,

but they don't want me to come.

If someone would come

to the seat next to me,

In a very short time

he would begin to agree.

With what every few people

have come to see,

That when I'm not invisible,

I'm a completely different me.

                                                                                                                   [Used with permission]

*  *  *

The library is a great place to provide students opportunities to express themselves through prose and poetry contests. You can also create an anthology each year of students' original works to document their efforts. Work with your Language Arts teachers to help collect good submissions. 

Who knows? The spark you start may mean adding some of your former students' published books to your library shelves some day.   

Library Aides

Library Aides can help give your library a book store look by displaying books facing out to create interest

The library is frequently the place where teachers or office staff send students to "help" when students have time on their hands. And there are almost always tasks to be performed in the library, but what many educators don't realize is that a number of those tasks need some kind of training. And training takes time. I imagine most all librarians have created extra work for themselves when a student claimed to know how to shelve books, and then proceeded to shelve them incorrectly. Sometimes it took weeks before I realized that it wasn't always irresponsible library patrons re-shelving books haphazardly, but rather some of my student aides who actually didn't know how to shelve books correctly.

The librarians in my previous school district never had adult aides to work alongside them. We did everything ourselves, from managing the circulation desk and collection development to teaching lessons on researching and information literacy, so we often depended on student help to keep up. Twice a year - right before the Christmas break and before inventory in May - I put the books in correct order so for a brief moment in time, all was right in the world. Just kidding, but it sure felt good to have everything in order. I wanted to make sure when those parents called to tell me, "Junior said he turned that book in," that I could confidently say, "I'm sorry, but it's not in the library shelves," because I knew every book was where it was supposed to be and not lost/mis-shelved at that particular time.

Through the years I've had a number of student library aides assigned to me. Some of the students created a lot more work for me, but most of them proved helpful. The gamut ranged from self-starters (too few) all the way to the ones I had to tell when to breathe, but most were scattered between those two extremes. Too often I learned things the hard way when working with student library aides, so if you are new to having student helpers, keep in mind the following:

• In choosing or accepting a library aide, make sure they actually want to work. I've had some student aides that I would've liked the authority to fire because I had to stay on them constantly to do their work. One student would take some books to shelve, and then hide in the stacks to read. I'm glad she loved reading, but she had the attitude that library work was interfering with her favorite past-time. Another came in day after day to sit down at a table waiting for me to tell him what to do, like he assumed he didn't have to do anything until I told him each day. I talked to him regularly about what it meant to show some initiative. 
• Assume new library aides know nothing about working in a library. Even though they've been coming to the library for years, that doesn't mean they're trained in library work. 
• If a student claims to know how to shelve books, let them demonstrate those skills to you so you can confirm it. 
• Whenever possible, SHOW them how to do something, don't just tell them. I learned that even honor students often misinterpreted what I said when I just "told" them what to do.
• Have a written list of expectations for your library aides, and go over each one. That way if they come in and see work that needs to be done within their realm of responsibilities, they can start immediately instead of waiting for you to tell them what to do. 
• Train them in whatever tasks they are capable of doing - shelving books, processing books, helping with inventory, displays & decorations, dusting shelves, etc. 

Some librarians have very capable students who can handle the circulation desk. That was an area I rarely handed over to students because I could find mistakes that students would overlook. Last year I managed two middle school libraries, which meant I was at one library for two weeks and would switch with a paraprofessional to be at the other one for two weeks. My para and I used student aides at the circ desk occasionally because the workload was so heavy, or to cover while I was teaching a class a lesson, but the potential for mistakes was magnified since I was only at each school half the time.  For example, I thought a student had lost an expensive inter-library loan book during the first month of the school year. He kept telling me he had turned it in, but he had a history of being loose with the truth so I really didn't believe him. In December, another student checked out this particular book, and when my student aide scanned it, I just happened to be standing there and noticed the title didn't match the book. It ended up being the lost ILL book, which had been checked out constantly since the original student returned it because its bar code number was the same as another little-used book's bar code number in our library. My student aides would never have noticed the discrepancy since the computer scanned the bar code correctly.

One of the most exciting times for my student aides was when we received new books. I let them use the packing list to check off each title to confirm that all the books had arrived, and they stamped them with the school stamp and displayed them in the new books cart. They were the first ones to peruse and choose what new books they wanted to check out, and they loved that privilege.

Working in the library is a great way for students to learn skills they may use in a job later: good organizational skills, becoming proficient in numerical and alphabetical order,  public relations, personal service, good job etiquette, showing initiative, marketing, helping with equipment, and more. Your library aides should demonstrate improved levels of skills at the end of the year, and if they don't, remind them that the habits they learn in school-- good or bad, are the habits they will take into the workplace. They're already revealing what kind of employee they will make later.

Don't forget to thank and reward your library aides at the end of the semester or school year. I usually had a lot of leftover items from Book Fair displays that they were thrilled to choose something from. And I usually wrote them a personal letter in which I praised their strengths, mentioned any areas they needed to work on, and encouraged them in their educational and job endeavors in the future.

Fighting Fatigue

The older I get, the more of a battle it is to have to deal with fatigue because of my age, but when working with high-energy students, it's doubly difficult. It's so important for educators to get enough sleep at night, but there are other ways during the school day to find some relief from fatigue, too.

Look at your tasks throughout the day. If any of them can be done by students, let them. That gives them a sense of responsibility and investment in their education, as well as building a feeling of partnership with you. For a librarian in a library or a teacher in a classroom, students can:

• help decorate or change bulletin boards
• do any monotonous cutting out of anything needed for the classroom or assignments
• collate papers
• keep bookshelves organized
• clean whiteboards
• take roll
• tutor or help other students
• let students who've mastered a concept help teach some of the lessons 
• dust and/or clean furniture, floors, etc. (our school reduced its custodial staff to two during the day for a campus of 900 students, which included prepping and clean-up for three separate lunch periods, so any help we could give them was much appreciated)
• disinfect anything that students handle regularly, including doorknobs and computer equipment
• maintain equipment 
• help you carry things to and from your vehicle or between classes
• stamp books; add genre labels to fiction books
• process books (after training)
• clean book covers or do minor book repairs
• shelve books in the library (after training)
• do themed displays in the library
• help with inventory in the library
• write book reviews

I tended to be very particular with my displays and wanted things done well, so over the years I've really had to fight the urge to do everything myself, and unfortunately, too often I did. I finally learned to pay attention and ask myself if what I was doing could be done by a student, and if it could, I set it in an area designated for tasks students could help with. 

Most students love the opportunity to help educators with tasks they are capable of doing, and they're learning something at the same time. The jobs may not be done as perfectly as we would do it, but for us to do it all and not let them help is denying them the opportunity to learn and improve and be proud of their work. And I was guilty of that on many occasions. 

I know too many teachers who work through their lunch, or use that time for detention or rewarding students. I'm amazed at their commitment. But if mental and physical fatigue is getting the best of you, take back that time for yourself to relax and rejuvenate yourself. I've even gone to my car and shut my eyes for fifteen minutes during really busy or stressful days. Or I'd turn off the light in the library office and shut my eyes for a few minutes, and I'm not ashamed to say I had to hide. If students could see me, they would knock on the library door until I came and answered it. Some teachers would come hide, I mean, work or eat undisturbed in the library office, too, which provided a little respite from their hectic days. The teachers' lounge should be a place of refuge for educators in schools, but sometimes it's more like Grand Central Station. Listening to relaxing music (with no lyrics to contemplate) is also another way to rest the mind.

Fatigue takes its toll mentally and physically, and the job and students suffer when fatigue is in charge. Take the time to slow down and find ways to reduce it during your work day.