Volunteer Information

Volunteer positions have been filled for 2009-10.

Contact Mrs. Snively to add your name to the 2010-11 list of library volunteers.

INTRODUCTION

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.

LIBRARY MISSION

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.

GENERAL PROCEDURES

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.

SHELVING GUIDELINES

It is imperative to shelve items correctly. If a book is in the wrong spot, it may as well be lost. Ask for help if you are not sure.

Click for a brief explanation of the Dewey Decimal Classification System.

Click for the Caveman's Guide to the Dewey Decimal System.

Click for a Dewey Decimal Chart.

Click for an explanation of shelving guidelines.

CIRCULATION DESK - WHERE ACCURACY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN "SPEDE"

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

Check in or renew all items before checking out new materials.

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.

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.

"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.

THIS AND THAT

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. Follow the posted schedule to make sure the entire library is checked regularly:

Monday: Everybody and Emergent Reader

Tuesday: Fiction

Wednesday: Paperbacks and Series

Thursday: Non-fiction 001 through 599.99

Friday: Non-fiction 600 through to the biography section

Please turn off your cell phone

while working in the library or the classroom.

Please respect privacy and confidentiality
while volunteering at school.

The time spent helping at school
should not be used to talk to the teacher about your child.
Please make other arrangements for a teacher conference.

Thank you so much for
supporting the Library,
and for fostering
a life-long love of reading
in our students!