Library Sign-up

Library Media Center Planning Guide from St. Thomas Aquinas High School

We do flexible scheduling in our K-8 school and it works great!!  I keep a 3-ring notebook on the library counter and in it is a page for each day.  Each day's sheet has 3 columns labeled Teacher's name, Time, Purpose of library visit.  When a teacher wants to bring a class in for research, the teacher comes in ahead of the visit and signs up for the date and time that they are coming.  I visit with them if there is anything we need to collaborate on.  The teacher is expected to stay with the class and work with me on the project.  Individual students and small groups may come and go at any time without signing up--the sign up sheet is just for teachers who are bringing whole classes.  We have about 600 students in our K-8 school with 1 librarian and 1 para,  and this system works well for us. 
Dorothy Fairchild, Kingman K-8 School

Response from Joseph G. Amos
Library Media Specialist
Blue Valley North High School

In our high school library we have calendars made for each week. There are five columns (one for each day) and seven blocks in each column (one for each hour). On our block days it looks different than on our seven-period days. We have a L and a R in each hourly block. That stands for left-side and right-side of the library. Two teachers may sign-up for any one hour. On block days we limit teachers to 1/2 of a block period, so we can have as many as four classes during a block period. We have a separate Technology Lab with our library and it has a separate sign-up sheet. We make the sign-in sheets for the whole year in the summer so they ready when the teachers report back in the Fall to sign-up in. Any teacher coming to the library for anything other than checkout is required to turn in a lesson plan prior to coming to the library. The teacher and I conference at that time to see what services we can offer. We do not require they plan with us from the beginning, but at some point prior to coming into the library they have to conference with us.

How do we handle last minute requests? The very best we can. The first thing we have to check is space, there are times when teachers want to come in but we are already full. If we have space, we will work with the teacher the best we can to provide what the teacher needs and to supplement the lesson if we can and have the time to do it.

Students do not have a form that specifies what they are sent to the library to do. They are required to have a hall pass to be out and about, but nothing specific to the library. Students might have more than one project they are working on. Furthermore, we allow students to come in and use the comfortable chairs and sofas in our three "free reading areas" and simply read a magazine, look at possible books to checkout, whatever, as long as they are reading. Also, during lunch any student that isn't eating or is finished eating may come to the library to work or read. Students do not have to have a hall pass during lunch. We have a simple sign-in sheet the kids sign so we have some count and a way to look up to see if a student that was sent from a teacher really made it or not. We are averaging 150 walk-in (those not brought with a class) a day so far this month.

I have done three things that have really helped teachers. First, I visited the various departments and explained how we expected the library to work. In those meetings I tried to get one or two teachers to work with me on a lesson plan so they could tell others the benefits of advanced planning with the LMS. Secondly, I reminded them, some not so gently, that this is MY classroom! I don't tell them how to run their classroom and they will not tell me how to run mine, period. Did that distance some teachers? No, not really, they actually seemed to understand that. Finally, I started a LMS Newsletter that I produce three times each semester. I give them handy tips, some lesson plan suggestions that they might find useful, copyright information, and with each one I cover at least one of my expectations for their use of the Library. You have to tell them, tell them, and tell them and then tell them some more. It's just like teaching!

Now that the teachers are used to me, they are coming more and more all the time, and I have some organization to my day, as much as a Teacher Librarian can have I guess.