The Value Of Summer Library Services

I'm beginning my fourth year as a 12 month public school teacher librarian. I'd like to share some of the things I do in the summer months that have helped our learning community and our library program. It is rare in Arkansas (and in most states) to hear of 12 month school library positions. I want to pose some ideas for those of you that have considered working some of your contracted days in the summer months (if that is permissible in your school district).

A Great Opportunity

The library is a great place to host summer PD sessions!

I have always envisioned the school library being available to students and teachers year round. This was something that came to pass for our learning community starting in the 2013-2014 school year. Since that time, I have witnessed a great increase in the use of summer library services, most notably following our recent library renovation earlier this school year. 

Many people ask me "what do you do in the summer?" or "don't you get bored?" There is always plenty to do in a school library; in 8 years as a teacher librarian, I have yet to ever catch up on my work. I'm sure you relate well to this! I keep waiting to experience the boredom in this career, but I haven't seen it yet. With all of the constant changes in technology and publishing, I feel certain it will never be boring. There is always a new book to read, a new skill to learn, new technology to try, and patrons needing help. I have discovered that it is difficult to decide where to start every day when I walk through the library doors, especially in the summer months.

There are always new materials to catalog during the summer!

Benefits of Summer Services

I've decided that opening the school library (even a few times per month) in the summer is beneficial to the entire learning community. First of all, we have equipment and inventory that is just sitting during June and July. Opening up allows it to be used. Consider using some of your summer contracted days to host teacher training sessions. Groups are always needing places with computer access and presentation spaces; the library can be a perfect place. Presenters always need technical assistance, and teacher librarians can easily provide that expertise. This adds value to our programs and allows attendees to view us in a different way. Everyone loves a good host/ hostess!

There are always students and teachers needing tech help

Secondly, consider having a summer book club. When I host summer book clubs, I invite students to lead them. We typically only have three meetings for each book club. The groups are usually small and easily manageable. The students who join these clubs really seem to enjoy coming to discuss the readings. Most of these students are not typically involved in many other summer activities, and they are looking for things to do. Book clubs are a great service to them! I'll be sharing some summer book club stories soon!

There are always students needing new reads in the summer!

Thirdly, any summer hours you have provide amazing promotional opportunities! Recently, I shared photos of our summer daily library traffic on social media. Parents and administrators noticed this. (Some even shared my posts on their social media!) Imagine how this changed how our library program looked to others. My hope is that our administration and school board get a small return on their investment in the library renovation and in providing me extra days to work when they view such photos. I am grateful to them for funding our library to be open in the summer! I want them to see summer activity, excitement, and value to our learning community. Imagine how this could make a difference in your school and library program, even if you opened just a few days each month in the summer. Make sure you share your summer library stories, or others may not know what cool things you are doing!

Our students love to come eat lunch in the library during summer school!

Final Thoughts

This student came by the library to read last week

I understand that summer time is sacred to both teachers and students. We need our time away from the intensity of school in order to recharge. Consider having a few activities in your library during the summer months. The potential benefits to your library program are huge. Most importantly, if you can make a positive impact on just a few students or teachers during the summer months, the results are priceless. Be sure to share any of your ideas or success stories in the comments below!

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Our first Google Hangout for Professional Development!

How one of our students used Skype to Read Across America in 2016!

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Six Ways To Become More Indispensable

Six Ways To Become More Indispensable

It worries me when I hear that some schools in other states are doing away with their school librarians. This is a time when librarians are needed more than ever in schools since we have training in literacy, research skills, and technology. With these skills at our disposal, how can districts simply choose to eliminate these positions? I think there are many reasons; and among these are reduced school budgets and perhaps a perception that librarians only check out books. I want to make my position indispensable so that stakeholders never want to eliminate it. These six steps are simple and can help you change how your position is viewed. It doesn't happen overnight since it is a process. Please, consider making these six steps a part of your daily best practices, even when you may not feel like it. You WILL see a difference over time! I am not perfect at any of these points, but I try very hard to do each of them. Let's examine some practices that have helped me over the years:

1. Be approachable, and have a consistent good attitude.

If you reach out to others and make yourself approachable, people will be drawn to you. It doesn't cost a bit extra to make people feel comfortable by being nice and welcoming.

I have to work at having a good attitude some days. If you choose to have a good attitude and project this to others, it will make your day much better. People are drawn to positive individuals. Strive to be that person in your building.

2. Be dependable. If you say you will do something, do it.

Don't you love it when a colleague tells you they will have something done, and they come through every time? There is nothing like a dependable person that you can count on. The flip side of this is that individual that says they will do something, but they never do. They only provide excuses. These folks generally frustrate everyone. Don't be this person; if you make a commitment, come through every time!

3. Serve others.

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and had great service? What a great feeling it is to be served by a professional waitress/ waiter that goes the extra mile to make sure you are satisfied. A high level of customer service makes us all happy. If you serve others well, word will get out quickly that you take care of people. This is definitely a crucial step in becoming indispensable.

4. Be a lifelong learner. 

One of the reasons I love Twitter is because it is full of educators that are lifelong learners. These people amaze me at how they are constantly looking to learn more so they can impact students in a greater way. Lifelong learners are never satisfied with where they are are. They have a growth mindset that demands going to the next level. They are constantly forming questions and researching answers. A school librarian with this mindset will most likely be a leader in their building! Train your brain to ask questions, and then research the answers. Read education magazines, library journals, and blogs. Learn about the latest technologies. Take part in Twitter education chats. Attend conferences and bring back new ideas to your building. Hangout with other motivated educators. Develop your growth mindset, and thirst for lifelong learning. If you project this passion, you will spread this interest throughout your building and personal learning network! Passionate learning is contagious.

5. Go above and beyond in your job.

If you make a regular practice of going the extra mile in your job and for others, it will get noticed. When my wife and I are out eating in a restaurant, I love it when we get a server that makes sure our food requirements are met. Occasionally, we will get a server that goes over the top with their service. This always makes us feel like the server cares about us and our needs. Don't you love that feeling too? Going above and beyond in a job is a sign of a true professional that loves their work! In school librarianship, this could be a follow up visit or email when we are helping troubleshoot technology. It could be ordering a book that a student or teacher has requested, then tracking them down to make the delivery when it arrives... I love doing this! When you put forth extra effort, it shows people you care about them and love what you do. This type of action draws people into your program. Everyone wants to be served with a high level of professionalism and care!

6. Promote what you do in the school and on social media.

Many educators have told me they don't feel comfortable using social media or they feel like sharing happenings might seem like bragging. If we keep our social media posts positive and student focused, it is certainly not bragging. We should enjoy celebrating strong moments with our friends and colleagues. Social media will allow others to see examples of our best practices and programs. This can change how your audience perceives what you do in the school library! One of my favorite questions to ask to other teacher librarians when they express concern about sharing on social media is, "If you don't tell them, how will they know what you are doing?" Promote, share, email, post, display pictures, blog, make posters, and shout from hallways and the roof if necessary! You never know how your celebrations and stories might draw others to partner with you in the school library. What might happen if we all shared our best practices and pictures from the library on social media? It just might transform the perception of our jobs and empower future school librarians!

Closing Thoughts

I hope these six practices will help you better serve others. There are days when these six steps are easy to fulfill. Then, occasionally, the opposite occurs; and it seems like a long shot to do just one well. School librarians have the potential to impact every teacher, student, and administrator in their buildings. What a great opportunity this is to make a difference in so many lives! Let's encourage each other to be our best for those that need our services!

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This might help you understand Twitter education chats and hashtags!

Have you ever asked students why they like the school library? We did, and you can click here to see what happened!

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Email: stony_evans@lakesidesd.org

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Finding Value In Tedious Tasks

We all have tasks within our jobs that fall into the category of "tedious". I can think of unpleasant but necessary tasks I have had to endure in my 20 years as a public school educator: taking daily attendance, standardized testing, and inventory to name a few. For the school librarian, there are still jobs that are not as enjoyable as others. Probably one of the most demanding jobs we are tasked with at Lakeside High School is textbook distribution.

One of our 3 textbook storage rooms.

At a school of over 1300 learners, one can imagine the size of the required textbook inventory. We keep these textbooks in three different storage rooms in the school. During the first full week of school, we schedule all English classes in each grade to come checkout their textbooks. It is an all day event for each grade that generally takes at least four days to complete. There have been years I have dreaded this event, mostly because it occurs during the initial days of school. During this exciting time, I had much rather be planning library events to draw new learners to our programs and to new books. I also tend to worry about classroom technology not working correctly at the first of the year (our library team serves as technology support). There are always glitches with new software and any hardware that has sit idle during the summer months.  It is important to me that teachers and students have access to the technology they need, and that it works correctly! I also want our learning community to have the print materials they need. The first order of business is handing out the texts that contain the information the teachers must use. Right now, textbooks are the vehicle for this content. In the future, electronic devices will hold this content, and I feel certain we will be tasked with issuing these products during the first days of school. This service is invaluable to our school learning community now, and it will continue to be in the future.

Our learners are always happy to pose!

I truly changed my attitude toward textbook distribution two years ago. I realized that this was an opportunity to see every learner. Every student will not come by the library during the course of the school year. Even though we aren't hosting this checkout process in the library, we still represent the library to the learners. Our library team decided this was a great opportunity to serve and positively impact students that we may only see a few times this year.

How can I make a difference in these learners with only a few moments to interact with them as we retrieve their textbooks, get their student ID number, scan the books, and then send them on their way while the next person comes in? The process is simple:

• I say "hello" or "how are you today?"
• I smile when they come into the textbook room. 
• I have been known to "pick" at students (for a laugh) when it is their turn to get textbooks.
• I take the time to say their name. 

I don't know all the students' names, but I can take the time to look at their name on the circulation database screen and make it a personal interaction by calling them by name. Everyone appreciates this.

Also, this year I decided to genuinely use phrases like:

• "How can I serve you today?" 
• "It's good to see you today." 
• "Thank you for coming by." 

I have noticed the difference it makes when I am served at restaurants or other businesses and the workers say things like this to me. What is the impact for me personally? It is simple: I want to go back to those businesses because the employees make me feel like they care about me! I feel valued!

All students need to hear these phrases. When we say things like this, I believe it makes people feel important. I have personally seen a difference in their faces when I have done this in the textbook rooms and in the library. My hope is that they will want to come back and give us an opportunity to serve them in the library media center.

Yes, we took a textbook checkout selfie ;-)

We also took some photos when time permitted. I found that students loved to have their photos taken holding textbooks or waiting in line. (Yes, we even took a textbook room selfie.) I decided to post some of these photos on Twitter and on our Facebook group for the library. I also shared some of our textbook circulation statistics for the day in these posts. Now, others could be better informed about what we were doing.  In a sense we took a tedious task and turned it into a library promotion event!

One of our library Facebook posts (Good PR!).

Textbook checkout is still a tedious task, but more importantly it is an opportunity to see every learner in our building since they ALL have to have textbooks. If we were able to make one learner feel valued over these four days, it was worth the effort. If they come to the library in the future because we served them well, it was definitely worth the work! I hope this reflection will help you find ways to make your tedious tasks a valuable experience for others. We can make good things happen in almost every situation. Most of the time, it depends on our attitude. Attitude is contagious!

Have you shared your annual library report? If not, what are you waiting for? Go here!

Read what one of our students wrote about the library in "Not Just A Room With Books" here.

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Contact Us/ Follow Us

Email: stony_evans@lakesidesd.org

           misti_bell@lakesidesd.org

Are you on Twitter?

Follow me : @stony12270

Follow our library (LHS_Library): @LHS_Library1