5 “Hacks” for a School Library

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Barbara Paciotti

The Hack Learning Series is a series of books by educators who see big problems, and have figured out simple solutions to implement within our own classrooms and school libraries. The books are so reasonably priced a teacher can afford them. As I read my “Hack” books, I realize I’ve been “hacking” the prevailing methods in my school library for years!

After certifying and moving into a school library position, I suddenly had so much more “stuff” to manage. My focus shifted to “The Library” but, without a clear strategy, my library management suffered. Then, with only intermittent visits with classes, I lost focus as “a Teacher,” and my library lessons with students weren’t successful, either.

After a disastrous first couple years, I regained my focus and and my purpose. I see in listserv posts and Facebook groups that other brand new librarians have this same problem, so here are the 5 “hacks” that improved my entire school library program.

HACK #1: Get rid of overdue book fines.

One of my wisest decisions for creating a reading culture in our school was to eliminate overdue book fines. A kid is far more important than a book—certainly more important than getting a few cents for an overdue fine. Furthermore, fines just don’t serve any positive purpose:

Kids hang on to overdue books instead of returning them because they can’t pay fines in order to check out new books; thus, kids aren’t reading and books aren’t circulating.
Fines don’t “build responsibility.” For well-off kids the paltry amount is of no consequence and when poor kids have to decide if they’ll still have money to buy lunch, that’s not responsibility, that’s sacrifice. Offering “fine forgiveness” incentives to get overdues back is not only unfair to kids who’ve been paying fines, but undermines the reasoning about “building responsibility.”
Due dates pass before teachers can bring classes back to the library and some aren’t willing to release kids from class just to return a book on time. Kids have more pressing concerns than getting to their lockers for an overdue book during such short passing times between periods.
In my case—and maybe for you—the public library doesn’t charge overdue fines, even for adults, so why would my public school charge kids?
Collecting fines is time-consuming work for us with little benefit, either monetarily or promotionally. We can’t continue to use overdue fines as an excuse to “raise money for the library.” There are more positive ways to do that.

Initially I’d override the overdue fine alert, but my principal supported my decision to eliminate fines, so there was no pushback at the district level and the system admin removed fines from our school library altogether. Even now with an overdue book, I check out a new book to a student with a reminder about the overdue, because we must never discourage a child from reading!

HACK #2: Establish silent reading and invited book checkout.

From kindergarten through high school, teachers bring students to our libraries to quickly grab a book, check it out, and return to the classroom. Instead, our goal as School Librarians must be to give students the time they need to find something they want to read and then give them more time to begin reading to make sure it’s what they want.

I establish a standard checkout procedure at the very first library visit and we follow it for every visit at every grade level for the entire school year. After students find their book(s), they return to their seat and silently begin reading—we call it DEAR (Drop Everything And Read). When students are settled, I go to the library seating area and quietly invite students at a couple tables, depending on numbers, to follow me to the circulation desk and check out. They line up single file, continuing to read as the line moves up until I check out their book, and then they return to their seat.

When that group is done, I go over and quietly invite a couple more tables for checkout, continuing until every student has checked out. This is an orderly process with only 8-10 students checking out at a time, and I avoid the noise and turmoil typical of whole-class book checkout. It actually takes less time, even with double classes in the library.

Silent reading time during checkout allows students to become immersed in the story and they finish more books faster. My ELA teachers bring classes to the library every other week and, rather than return to the classroom, they remain in the library the entire period for DEAR. The real value of this Hack came near the end of each school year: with this recurring free reading time, our State Reading Test scores moved steadily upward!

HACK #3: Do Dewey Decimal Orientation with Math classes.

My eye-opener about Dewey Decimal lessons was during an incredibly boring orientation my 2nd year as a School Librarian: I suddenly realized DDC is for me to know for organizing books, not for students to know for finding one. They just need to know how to locate a number on a shelf, and what better class for a lesson on numbers than Math?

My 3rd year I created a Library Lesson for 6th grade Math and the following year I created one for 7th grade Math. We have few opportunities to bring Math classes into the library, and not only are these some of my favorite Library Lessons, the Math teachers are excited to have a fun, non-graded review where they can see which students are having trouble—they come to me to ask when they can bring their classes in! I wrote more about this Hack in a prior post, Do We Teach Dewey … or Don’t We?

HACK #4: Use Content-Area Standards as the basis for Library Lessons.

I cringe when I see library lessons that have no relationship to what students are doing in their classroom. When I first realized my Library Lessons needed an authentic curriculum connection, I created a Library Lesson Planner that begins with Content-Area Curriculum Standards and then adds National School Library Standards. Every section of my Library Lesson Planner begins with content-area criteria so the lesson is an integral part of classroom learning. Teachers realize my value as a Teaching Colleague when I bring them a Library Lesson Plan based on their lesson plans. As a result, my collaborations increased, my library use increased, and my lessons were actually meaningful and helpful for both students and teachers!

Try my Library Lesson Planner! Just download it from my FREE Librarian Resources page.

NoSweat Library Lesson Planner Template - page 1

HACK #5: Create a Curriculum Matrix for Information Literacy Lessons.

We school librarians see young children perhaps once a week and the older students become, the less we see them, maybe only a few times during the school year. How can we build Information Literacy skills in students with such sporadic visits? I realized I could scaffold short lessons throughout each school year and across the 3 years I have our middle school students, so by the time they leave they’ll be prepared for their next stage of education and library use. I needed to know when to do which lessons with which subject areas, so I created a Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix, a visual guide to track intermittent lessons so they fit together into a comprehensive program for Information Literacy instruction.

I use a separate grid for each grade level with each week of school along the top and each subject area down the side. I examine curriculum guides and identify a unit that could benefit from a library visit. I highlight the time period for that subject’s unit on its row, and write in the name of the unit and the assignment. Then I fill in the Info-Lit skills that can be introduced or reviewed. At right is a composite example of an older version of my Library Lesson Matrix for part of the 1st grading period. My Matrix occasionally changes as standards and course curricula change, but I’m able to maintain a broad view of Information Literacy visits.

At the start of each grading period I go to each teacher whose subject appears for that span in my Matrix and propose a collaborative lesson. I bring a print version of my Matrix—so teachers see what a school librarian’s job is all about—and a printed Library Lesson Plan I’ve prepared that incorporates their unit Standards and activities. I make it pretty easy for them to say “Yes, indeed, let’s do this!”

KEEP HACKING

So, there you have it, my 5 Hacks for a School Library: simple, practical changes that challenge “what is” and fix problems we continue to wrestle with, whether we’re brand new or have been in libraries for decades. If you have some “hacks” you’d like to share, please share them in the comments below!

For a real treat, we now have our very own Hack book: Hacking School Libraries: 10 Ways to Incorporate Library Media Centers into Your Learning Community, written by Kristina Holzweiss and Stony Evans. I encourage you to look into other Hack Learning Series books, too, and become inspired by changes you can make in your library or classroom to fix seemingly big problems in an innovative way.

Do We Teach Dewey … or Don’t We? A School Library Lesson

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Barbara Paciotti

I don’t teach the Dewey Decimal Classification System during Library Orientation. In fact, I don’t teach it at all!

The eye-opener came my second year as a librarian when I was telling students (during an incredibly boring orientation) that library books were originally shelved behind the circulation desk, and the DDC was created so librarians could organize books to find one when a patron asked for it. I suddenly realized that the DDC is for me to know for organizing books, not for students to know for finding one.

Students only need to know how to find a number on a shelf, and anyone who can put 3 or 4 numbers in consecutive order can do that—even a kindergartner!

CAN I JUSTIFY NOT TEACHING DEWEY?

Few School Librarians understand “Classes” and “Divisions” of DDC, or what it means that DDC organizes those Classes & Divisions by discipline. While the 10 Classes are pretty easy to remember, most School Librarians know only a few Dewey Divisions. Quick: name the 10 Divisions of the 700s Arts & Leisure. And that’s an easy one! If we School Librarians don’t even know the DDCS, why should a kid?

Secondly, the AASL National School Library Standards never mention the Dewey Decimal Classification System. (Nor did the Standards for a 21st Century Learner!) It’s not even listed in the Glossary or the Index. It’s only at the School Library level that there’s a hint at a classification system:

IV. CURATE C. SHARE 2. The school library facilitates the contribution and exchange within and among learning communities by including and tracking collection materials in a system that uses standardized approaches to description & location. (p.62)

As for School Librarians, there’s not even a hint at a classification system; this is as close as they get:

IV. CURATE A. THINK 2. School librarians challenge learners to act on an information need by designing opportunities for learners to explore possible information sources. (p. 50)

I particularly like the wording “opportunities for learners to explore,” and I’ve written about such opportunities for Science and for Social Studies that coordinates both the discipline of Dewey and classroom learning.

So, if our own Standards don’t specify the DDCS for us or for learners, we don’t need to teach Dewey!

Finally, the trend in education is away from content-based instruction and toward developing critical-thinking through inquiry and problem-solving. The school library is all about inquiry and problem-solving, so why would we continue to teach a content-based lesson on the Dewey Decimal Classification System?

WHAT TO TEACH INSTEAD OF DEWEY

As School Librarians, our main concern is about helping students learn how to use an organization system to locate resources. Thus, we teach students about our online catalog, and that, after using it to identify whether the school library has a book, they only need a number to find the book on the shelf.

This goes beyond just a lesson; it touches on the latest trend of dumping Dewey for a “kid-friendly” word-based system. I’m astonished when I hear this, since Dewey is itself a short, simple notation for locating a book on the shelf. I doubt that kids are any more likely to “learn” letter acronyms than Dewey numbers.

They’ll still have to search By Subject, we’ll still have to teach them how to use the system to find a book, and we’ll still need to put signs on the shelves, all of which we can do just as easily with Dewey numbers!

NoSweat Library Dewey Decimal Library Lesson presentation slide - They rarely visit the library, so a Dewey Decimal lesson gives Math classes a curricular reason to visit the library, especially if we offer a practical, hands-on application of decimal concepts.

A slide about place value from my math lessons.

Students do need to understand that each place value in a Dewey decimal number stands for a more specific subject or topic, so more decimals mean a narrower topic of a book. What those subjects or topics are should be a sign on a shelf, not a scrap of trivia in a kid’s brain.

Granted, for elementary students, especially very young ones who haven’t learned about decimals, Dewey numbers may seem a bit daunting, but even a kindergartner quickly learns to count to 100, and helping kids discern and practice numerical order is a more important skill to focus on than what the numbers stand for.

It’s incredible that many of my middle schoolers can’t do this, so a lesson activity that sends kids off to find books by number is not only a better strategy for the library—and for reinforcing Math skills—but it’s a lot more fun! At least it always is for my students since I changed my lessons from content to process!

DO DEWEY WITH MATH CLASSES!

I suggest that our reluctance to focus on number location is due to math anxiety—after all, most librarians seem to come from a language arts background, not a math one. But think about it: Numbers and decimals are part of the math curriculum, so why not bring in math classes for a Dewey lesson? They rarely use the library, so a Dewey Decimal lesson gives Math classes a curricular reason to visit the school library, especially when we offer a practical, hands-on application of decimal concepts. And it certainly answers the common question in math about “When are we ever going to use this?”

Thanks to a suggestion from my library colleague, Cindy Nietubicz, I bring both 6^th and 7^th grade Math classes into the library for a Dewey Decimal Lesson. The timing is perfect for us—these math classes begin decimal units about 5 weeks into the school year, when our ELA fiction reading pattern is well established and students are eager to check out Dewey books.

My math lessons serve to activate prior math knowledge about what students should already know about decimals, so it prepares them for their upcoming unit. With 6g students we review place values and sequencing decimals; with 7g students we review adding and subtracting decimals. Students practice how decimals are used in the library by locating Dewey-decimal-number books on the shelf. Math teachers like having this fun, non-graded review where they can see which students are having trouble with decimals.

Animated lesson slide for students to practice putting decimals in order.

After the practice activity, students have plenty of time to browse for Dewey books to check out. Many get an interesting book they find during the activity. Others are stimulated to use my signage to find Dewey numbers of their favorite topics. When students are seated, we follow the same silent reading and invited checkout procedure that we use for ELA classes.

Math teachers love these lessons so much that they come to me early in the school year to see when we can schedule them into the library. It also whets their interest in collaborating on other math-related lessons in the library. Students love these lessons, too. Sixth graders are always puzzled about why they’re in the library with a math class…most have never done that before. What amazes me is how many comment afterward that now they understand how all those numbers work, which is, of course, the whole point of teaching Dewey numbers to our students.

WHY DO I SAY “DEWEY NUMBERS”?

You may be wondering why I deliberately use the phrase Dewey numbers—and Dewey books. I identify areas of the library by what’s on the spine labels of the books; since there’s a Dewey number on the spine labels, it’s the Dewey area of the library.

My decision to begin doing this came during the aforementioned (incredibly boring) orientation: I was explaining that we separate fiction books from the 800s into their own area of the library, but the ‘non-fiction’ area still had some fictional books, such as aliens and fairy tales. I thought, “Why am I making this so confusing to students? If I just call them Dewey-number books I’ll alleviate confusion and questions!” So from then on, that’s what I called them.

Now I clarify with students that ‘non-fiction’ is about the content of a book, not it’s location. If you take anything from this blog post, I hope it’s the terms ‘Dewey area’ and ‘Dewey-number books’ instead of ‘nonfiction.’ Our kids deserve common sense.

If the slide images above have sparked your interest, you can find my Dewey Lessons in my No Sweat Library store on TeachersPayTeachers, as well as my colorful Dewey Subject Signs & Shelf Labels.

Make your Dewey Decimal Library Lesson more authentic and relevant by inviting 6g Math classes to review decimal place values and sequencing! Students & teachers love this Library Lesson that activates prior knowledge at the beginning of their 6g Math decimal unit. Do this lesson, and your math teachers will come to you every year asking when you'll schedule their visit!

Make your Dewey Decimal Library Lesson more authentic & relevant by inviting 7g Math classes to review adding & subtracting decimal numbers! Students & teachers love this Library Lesson that activates prior knowledge at the beginning of their 7g Math decimal unit. Do this lesson, and your math teachers will come to you every year asking when you'll schedule their visit!

No Sweat Library Dewey Subject Signs & Shelf Labels - Make it easier for students to find a Dewey book in your school library with these colorful, pictorial signs and shelf labels. They're just what you need for your middle school or elementary library!

Looking Backward – No Sweat Library Lessons & Management That Works

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