Bulletin Boards & the School Library

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Barbara Paciotti

When I began my School Librarian position, I didn’t have any bulletin boards and I didn’t care—I didn’t see the point in “cutesy” bulletin boards. Rather, I focused on decor for the rather bare 2-year-old library, installing purposeful posters and informational signage. One day I realized that folks had to decide to enter the library to see what’s there, and if I had bulletin boards outside the school library, I could entice students and teachers to make full use of everything the library had to offer.

Now, Bulletin Boards are my primary way to promote the School Library to students, faculty, administration, and visitors! It doesn’t cost much because I don’t use prepackaged theme pieces; instead I create my own signage with slide presentation software that allows for a variety of text and graphics on 11″ x 8.5″ signs. I print them in color and laminate so they can be reused from year to year.

For any bulletin board, what we display and how often we update depends on how many boards we have and where they are located. By designating certain bulletin boards for certain purposes, and carefully planning for long-term display, we can minimize the time needed to create and maintain them, yet still have them convey valuable and relevant information.

IN-LIBRARY BULLETIN BOARD

The first bulletin board I installed was a 3′x4′ one inside the library, on a wall next to the circulation desk. I put up a calendar for planning class visits, but after switching to an online library calendar that could be viewed by anyone in the building, I turned the bulletin board into a place to display the “nuts & bolts” of my Library Program so our operation is completely transparent to visitors. This board is all business, but that’s its purpose, and the infrequent updates are quite easy to do. Signs and items on the bulletin board include:

Library Program Mission Statement – This sign typically stays the same for 2-3 years, and reflects my current Strategic Plan.
My Professional Information Literacy Theme – I create a new Info-Lit theme when I rewrite my Strategic Plan. It’s my personal goal for focusing Library Lessons to integrate with classroom subject content and new technology.
Monthly Library Schedule – I simply print this out from online calendar the first day of each month. Anyone can see who’s scheduled for library use, and I can pencil in notes when planning with teachers.
Library Activity Report – This is an infographic I create at the end of each 9-week grading period. I submit one copy to the principal and mount one on the bulletin board.
Public Library News & Events – Our school area includes 2 different city libraries and their Youth Librarians provide me with info and flyers, especially for the start of the school year and before each school break.

GRADE LEVEL BULLETIN BOARDS FOR SUBJECT CONTENT

Our school library is in the center of the building, surrounded by four hallways, so I mounted a 4′x4′ bulletin board in each of the three hallways that border our 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade wings to promote reading and using the library.

I designed a sign system to set them up at the start of the school year and not have to redo them, yet I can change individual signs to coordinate with subject area classroom activities during the school year. Each bulletin board includes a series of customized signs:

A grade-level Information Literacy Theme sign that reflects my lesson focus for that grade at the top left corner.
A grade-level English/Language Arts Unit Theme sign in the center. This sign changes for each 9-week grading period.
A grade-level Social Studies Theme sign in the bottom right corner to promote their Special collections: “Read Around the World” for 6g, “Read Your Way through Texas History” for 7g, and “Read America” for 8g. I keep bookmark pockets filled with reading log bookmarks for this reading promotion program.
I add smaller signs for other subject area classes that visit the library during the grading period, like infographics of online services for research projects. These change each grading period, too.
Students can create a book review on a 3″x5″ index card and staple it on the board. It’s a great way to involve students and to update bulletin boards without a lot of extra work.

Teachers really appreciate that I coordinate these bulletin boards with their subject content, and students constantly see them as they move between their classes.

MONTHLY THEMATIC BULLETIN BOARD

The 4^th bulletin board is located in the hallway near student bathrooms and is visible to nearly everyone on their way to the cafeteria. I share this 4′x4′ board with others so we can have a new theme for each month of the school year yet I don’t have to do it every month.

Heritage displays

September is decorated by our Spanish teachers and student Spanish Club for Hispanic Heritage Month, February is decorated by our Black History Month Committee (which includes students), and May‘s Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month is decorated by our ELL teacher and her students (we have a large Asian population in our school). All these groups use wonderful accessories to dress up and draw attention to the board and share classroom activities. I support that by displaying books inside the library that coordinate with each heritage, such as related biographies and authors.

November is Native American Heritage Month, and I use the board for an Indigenous Peoples Around the World display to bring awareness of this issue and support our IB program. I create the display by continent and post signs with historical insights or quotations, along with pictures of book covers of our indigenous collection, including books by and about Native Americans.

Topical displays

The March board is handled by the Fine Arts Department to feature Music in Schools Month and Youth in Art month. The April board is handled by the Math and Science teachers for Math Awareness Month and Earth Month, which includes highlights from our student Recycling Club. October is National Bullying Prevention Month and National Red Ribbon Week. Our school counselors—and student office aides—take on the bulletin board since they sponsor Red Ribbon Week and bullying also falls under their purview.

December is a short month with our winter break, so I post coming activities at our public libraries to encourage students to visit the library and continue reading during the break.

January is for our district Internet Safety Month, during which all librarians present lessons to our schools. National Internet Safety Month is actually in June, but since we aren’t in school, our district has chosen January for these important lessons with the theme Be Safe in Cyberspace and Become a Digital Citizen. In addition to the board, student-created posters from my Library Lessons are displayed around the hallways.

The monthly thematic bulletin board is popular with teachers, especially those who otherwise don’t have a public bulletin board on which to display their subject content classroom activities. Because students contribute to these displays, they are more meaningful to all students.

GET MORE!

Join my mailing list if you want more information about these bulletin boards! You can download my Purposeful Bulletin Boards ebook, which includes 15 Info-Lit and ELA signs.

You can also choose other free downloads from my e-List Library resources.

As a subscriber, you receive email notice of each new blog post covering school library lessons and management.

Helpful Informational Handouts from the School Librarian

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Barbara Paciotti

Students, teachers, administrators, and parents often have similar questions about our School Library Program. Such common questions include the hours we’re open, materials available for checkout and length of their checkout periods, how to access specialized online resources, general policies & procedures for visiting or using the library facility, and how the School Librarian can help patrons with skills and activities.

We can save a lot of time if we anticipate these questions and prepare helpful informational handouts that are customized for each type of patron. For our handouts to be truly useful we need to provide a broad overview as succinctly as possible. The key is careful organization of just the information each patron needs, provided in an easy-to-navigate format.

Following are images and explanations of the different handouts I use in my middle school library. You may wonder why I have so many items with redundant information, but each print document serves a particular purpose for a patron at their time of need…an essential goal of any school library. (Click to enlarge images; some handouts link to a free download of the document.)

HELPFUL HANDOUTS FOR STUDENTS

Library Bookmarks – A school librarian can never have too many free bookmarks as useful handouts for students. By creating my own templates and purchasing a wide range of bright-colored cardstock, I can quickly provide hundreds of these that are more purposeful and less costly than those available from vendors. I customize 2-sided bookmarks for library information, for Dewey and Fiction Subjects, for reading promotion of special collections and read-alikes, as overdue book reminders, and even as lesson supports. I keep these displayed on the circulation counter for students to take as they need them.

Fiction Subjects	Create your own Subject & Topical bookmarks: Download my FREE 5-bookmark template PPT file
Read-alike topical bookmarks
	Download O/D template from my FREE Librarian Resources page.

Library Information Bookmark & Brochure – Don’t waste time during upper-grades library orientations giving information that returning students have heard before. I offer a Student Library Brochure to those who need the reminder. Such a document is also useful for students who transfer in during the school year, so I give a handful of these to Student Services to include in their new student packets.
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Book Slinger Handbook – Middle school students love to shelve books…don’t ask me why. Rather than use an inordinate amount of time explaining shelving, I have a pictorial handbook that explains library organization and shelving guidelines. I can hand one to a student, and when they hand it back I ask if they still have questions; they rarely do, so my handbook must work.
Join my mailing list & you can download the Book Slinger Shelving Handbook for your library!

HELPFUL HANDOUTS FOR TEACHERS

New Teacher Library FAQs – The first time my principal invited me to talk to new teachers I realized what I had to say would be quickly forgotten among all the other “stuff” they’d get, so instead I created a handout with a colorful infographic about School Library Services on one side and a Classroom Inventory Guide on the other (new teachers like to know what ‘standard’ furniture & equipment they should have in their classroom).
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I place these on the tables before new teachers arrive for their meeting (in the library, of course), and most teachers begin reading it immediately. When my turn comes, I merely introduce myself and let them know I’ll be around to answer any additional questions they have. Often some return to the library later—with the handout—to talk, so my strategy works…and I have an opportunity to discuss collaborative lessons specific to that teacher.
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Teacher Quik-Flip Guide – Information about the library, the school, and technology. After initial setup it’s easy to update, which I do every other year. Sometimes I use different colors for each sheet, sometimes I use a bright neon color for all of them…whatever makes it jump out and say “Use Me.” Distributed at the start of school, my teachers tape or staple it to the wall beside their desk or computer for whenever they need this information.
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The 4 sheets of letter-size paper, printed on both sides, offer a huge amount of informational space; folded at various sizes, collated and stapled together, they make an easy-to-navigate 8-tabbed booklet:
- About the Library – map; checkout period for students, teachers; # computers.
- Library Lessons – orientations; info-lit skills; tech integration.
- Library/Librarian Services & Instructional Resources – collections; A/V/D equipment, collaboration.
- Library Website & Online Resources – picture showing site with top-level resources.
- Cable Channel Lineup – provider list + internal channels for media feeds.
- Copyright Law & Fair Use Guidelines – media use chart; website evaluation.
- Tek Tips – district services with logins & PWs; building’s networked printers.

HELPFUL HANDOUTS FOR ADMINISTRATORS

New Principal Information Booklet – I’ve had 3 different principals during my years as a school librarian. When a new principal arrives, I give them a folder of documents explaining the library budget funds I’m responsible for, the library and school services I provide—Instruction and Curriculum, Communication, Materials Management, and Special Projects—and end with a page of personal information I want a principal to know. My new principals have found it very beneficial.
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Internet Laws in a Nutshell – A document that explains how FERPA, COPPA, and CIPA apply to students using technology. Administrators & teachers may not have been given this information before…or perhaps they have but just not in a “nutshell.” Admins have asked me to distribute this to teachers at a staff development day just before school begins.
You can download this document from my FREE Librarian Resources page.

HELPFUL HANDOUTS FOR PARENTS

Our first PTA meeting, which is our Open House/Meet the Teacher night, is an opportunity to introduce myself to parents, and my principals have always allowed me time to give a brief presentation. I also make available 3 different parent brochures as listed below. A stack of these brochures is also given to Student Services for parents of new students enrolling in our school, and to our front entry Welcome Desk, to be available for parents at any time.

Parent Library Brochure – This brochure reiterates some of the information given at the presentation about how the library and I are here to help their young ones achieve greater success in their classes.
Parent Tek-Tips – I’m fortunate that our school district offers so much online access and so many online services to our parents and surrounding community. This brochure covers the main resources parents may need help using: private student email service, course outlines, student information service with access to grades, online library resources, online curriculum services, and online training for common tech tools.
Volunteer Guide – This booklet encourages parent volunteers to help their child by helping the librarian with various in-house and online library tasks; included is a shelving guide similar to my student one.

HELPFUL HANDOUTS FOR OTHER LIBRARIANS

Library Substitute Sheet – Even if we have a substitute trained for the library, it’s important to have a quick reference sheet to give them a brief overview of our particular library. My 2-sided handout—printed on bright-colored paper—has a small map and topical sections for computer logins, checkout info, and opening & closing procedures.
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Yes, I even have specialized handouts for other librarians who ask me about how I do—or have done—something. These are available:
- on my FREE Librarian Resources Page, or
- by joining my mailing list to gain access to the e-List Library, or
- from No Sweat Library, my TeachersPayTeachers store.

Looking Backward – No Sweat Library Lessons & Management That Works

Practical Answers to Questions You Didn’t Know to Ask

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