I Have Become the Stereotype...

I am a librarian. I pester kids about returning their books, I tidy up the library every morning and every afternoon, I write out fine slips and type up book lists. I sit with kids when they come to the library. I do it all. I am the super librarian at School of the Nations. 

Librarians are seen so often as hard faced old women who love books more than anyone in the world and who are mean about making people return their books and heartless about fine collection. Yeah I get that. I am that. But I understand now why librarians are like this. It has nothing to do with a hatred of children. I love kids with all of my heart, I just want kids to have access to every book possible. I want them to dive into the world of literature and it bothers me when kids don't bring back their books because it's like they are stealing that book from the other kids. Is that weird? Yeah kinda, but I don't care. This is their library and they need to share.

Over the last 2 months I've been working on making this library a fun and inviting place where kids want to hang out and spend their free time. It was hard at first because the boards had been up for years, and the format of the library was cluttered and dysfunctional. Not anymore!! Super Librarian to the Rescue! I have replaced all but one board and have moved every single shelf to make this a more livable and inviting place. I have also worked really hard to give the kids ownership of this room. Let me show you what I've done :)

This is the reference section. This section did not exist before. It was really all over the place. The short book shelf is one half of the Kindergarten reading corner. I will tell you about that map later cause it's my favorite part of this library.

This is the Non-fiction section (it was crammed onto one bookshelf before, now it has 3) and little reading table for the few kids who don't want to sit on the ground or on the cushions.

We all have our favorites. Roald Dahl is mine. We only have 3 of his books, but they have already gone through like 8 kids since I put this up. The kids can't get enough!

This is the study corner. The learning support teacher brings her kids in here often for a quite and not so distracting place to work. She used to have to sit right in the middle of the flow of student traffic from the outside to the computer lab. Not anymore! You can also see the games corner. We only have chess and checkers, and they are only allowed to play during break and lunch time. Library time is for books.

This long row of book shelves is Upper Primary Fiction on one side and Lower Primary Fiction on the other. My next project is to make this more true. The books were divided in a very subjective way and you can often find very primary chapter books on the Upper Primary side. It's really great to have a real fiction section too. It was all over the place when I arrived as well. The 2 brown boxes by the door are where the kids return their books from home. We are still working on the culture of returning them on time, but we are definitely getting there :)

You remember how I said that the fiction books are little mixed up. This board was put up in hops that kids will branch out and really try to read a book that challenges their minds. There has been progress, but I think this is one of those constant battle types of things. 

Kids need help some times, and this board has most of the teachers making recommendations for their students reading levels. It has also given the kids a little bit of inspiration. Most of these books have been checked out at least once.

Aww.... The map. All of those little slips of paper represents one of the students. It has their name, their year number and their family's country of origin. Then a string runs from their name to the country. It is so cool and totally kid friendly. You can pull of the strings and they don't go anywhere and you can find yourself and all of your friends. The little kids that are used on this were colored by the kids in Year 3. I think this is one of the most important things I've done to build that ownership I was talking about.

and every classroom needs the alphabet ;) 

I love this school and I hope that the things that I've done to try and help really do make an impact on the literacy here. The things I've done are little, but I hope the results are big. I am a librarian and I know now why we are the way were are. I also know now that I just want this library to feel like the ones I grew up in. All through middle school I spent my lunches in the library because I liked it better than sitting around gossiping with friends. Does that make me a nerd? Yes, I believe that it does.