Remote School Librarianship – 4th Quarter 2020-2021

Amazingly, next week is the last week of the 2020-2021 school year. This has been the longest school year ever! I have to say, I always work hard, but it’s nothing compared to what the classroom teachers have been doing. Our teachers have had to totally revamp their teaching at least four times this year.

  1. 100% remote at start of school year
  2. Some SPED and ESOL students in building, most teachers still working remotely
  3. Back to 100% remote
  4. All teachers return to building, teaching remote and in-person students simultaneously; some SPED and ESOL students in building
  5. All teachers teaching remote and in-person students simultaneously; about half of the students in building on alternating days

It’s enough to make your head spin. I have never been so grateful to not be a classroom teacher (and to not be a parent of a small child).

Collaboration with 6th Grade Teachers

Oddly, the only teachers I’ve collaborated with at all this year have been 6th grade teachers. I was able to do an orientation to the virtual library for all of the 6th grade language arts teachers, then I did some read-alouds to support their curriculum. I also worked with all of the 6th grade students through their science teachers. It was awesome for the students to see me as more than just a language arts support. I haven’t been able to work with any classes since we returned to the building.

I’ve felt very useless this year. Truly, though, I get it–teachers have been so thoroughly swamped that they don’t have time to even think about collaborating with me. I did what I could, and I really enjoyed learning how to teach remotely. That’s something I can build on in the future.

Collection Development Project

Since I’ve been working very little with classes, I’ve had time to finish up the massive weeding project that I started before we began our renovation in 2017. I went through the 800s (literature) and 900s (history and geography), and removed almost half of the books.

Before – shelves were so crammed we couldn’t fit any more books in

After – plenty of room to display a book on each shelf

Although the term “weeding” brings to mind a garden, I think it’s more like a refrigerator–books, like foods, have an expiration date (especially nonfiction). Books get worn out (and sometimes actually moldy, although not in this library). If something is not used in quite a while, even if it looks new, it needs to be removed to make more room for newer stuff. Libraries, especially school libraries, are not archives–they are living collections of books, to be used by our patrons. If something is not useful to our community, evidenced by the lack of checkouts, it needs to go. Use it or lose it!

Why New Print Books?

I have ordered a lot of print books this year, in spite of the lack of easy opportunities to check them out. Why?

  • Because publishers are taxed on their current inventory, they are not able to keep books in print for very long. Once books go out of print, it is almost impossible to buy copies of them.
  • We have a budget for books that includes print books.
  • Our students will want current books to read, and the latest in their favorite series, when they return to the building.
  • As part of our collection development project, we need to order updated titles to replace some of the ones that were weeded.
  • Because so many books have not been returned, I’m anticipating having to spend a large part of next year’s budget replacing them.

To be continued…