Grand View Elementary School Library-- Volunteer Info

ATTENDANCE AT A GROUP TRAINING SESSION
IN THE FALL IS MANDATORY
FOR NEW AND RETURNING VOLUNTEERS

The Grand View Library is a wonderful, busy place with excellent resources for students, staff, and parents to share. Thank you for your time helping our students in the library! Your active participation here and elsewhere at school shows your children how much you value education in general and reading in particular. A powerful message!

Below are guidelines for basic library services. Please do not feel you have to know everything right away. Over time you will grow to be comfortable and knowledgeable about library operations and services.

The goal is for children to have a positive experience in the library. This is where “YES!” happens. Our students receive intensive instruction in reading and language arts in the classroom. The library is the place to foster a love of reading to complement those lessons. This is the arena where those little learners can exercise choice with as little interference as possible. We are available for guidance in their materials selection, but we should never negate what they have chosen even if we think it is “TOO HARD” or “too easy.”

I subscribe to “The Three Bears” philosophy when it comes to pleasure reading: sometimes the student feels like reading a book that is “TOO HARD” because he or she is fascinated by the subject, and it feels good to have a “big kid” book about what he or she is interested in. Sometimes the student feels like reading a book that is “too easy” because a little relaxation is needed after stretching the brain muscle all day. And sometimes the student needs a book that is “just right” for reading practice or for research.

I want to stress that the book selection a student makes is valid for him or her, and should be supported. I believe it is OK for a first grader to go home with a book about the future of technology in which he or she cannot yet read all of the words ... the book is meaningful to the child and that is what is important.

Students visit the library with their class once a week for 30 minutes. As they enter they return their books for check in or for renewal, then they sit on the rug for a read-aloud experience, information skills lesson, or other presentation.

During this time the volunteer checks in or renews the returned materials. Books may be shelved at this time, but not in the presentation area, please, while the activity is in progress. Check out books once the children have made their selections. Straighten shelves, “read” shelves, and dust as time permits. Other tasks will be offered on an “as needed” basis.

Watch the screen during the transaction for accuracy, messages, and overdue books.

Students may check out the number of items that corresponds to the grade they are in: first graders get one item, second graders get two items, and so on. Kindergarten students check out one book per child to be kept in the classroom, not taken home.

Student materials are given a one-week due date using the BLACK ink pad and its stamp.

Students are allowed one bookmark per visit, not one per book, or, invariably, the bookmarks end up as litter on campus.

"Be here now" for the kids! While checking out books engage the student in a conversation about his or her choice, or make a positive statement about the choice. Talk to the student rather than to the parent working alongside you.

Teachers may check out an unlimited number of items. Use the RED ink pad and its stamp to indicate a two-week due date.

Art prints and videos are for staff use only. Some older videos have not yet been entered into the database and are checked out the old-fashioned way with a signature card.

Magazines are circulated as “temporary” items. Instructions are posted at the circulation desk. Remind the student to return the magazine in the barcoded plastic bag.

When shelving books, please scan the shelf for misfiled books and put the shelf in order.

Shelves are straightened frequently to maintain a neat library so our students will be encouraged to keep it that way. When performing this task it is not necessary to scan the shelves for out of place books.

Dusting is not any more fun here than it is at home, but is a necessary task. Supplies are under the sink.

Our collection gets heavy use. To make sure a book can be found when it is needed it is helpful to “read the shelves” when there is extra time. Applying general shelving rules, the spine label of each book is read book by book to make sure every book is where it should be. To make sure the entire library is checked regularly, please follow the posted schedule:

The time spent helping in the library is for the benefit of the students and should not be used to gain access to the teacher