It's a tiny space, not nearly big enough for all the kids and what they need. But in a building that is about 100 years old? You make do with what you have.
Especially when budget constraints are already tight and other desperately needed repairs have to take precedence.
It's funny, because the facilities are not exactly optimal at the school. But academically? Kids test really well there, and when they've gone all the way through from elementary school to graduate from the adjacent high school? There is a close to 100% college placement rate.
The school is full of wonderful teachers who are making do and teaching so well. So it is truly a pleasure to volunteer with the parent's organization a bit and help to give back to them and to the kids where I can.
In terms of organization, we've been trying to come up with a system that works well for the accelerated reader program. And that makes the books easier to find for the kids, but also has some sortable system for shelving by topic, age group, fiction versus nonfiction, and so on.
Probably not quite as complex as the Dewey Decimal system, but something along those lines nonetheless.
We really only started talking about this last Saturday, but in my typically anal retentive fashion, I've already pulled several research papers online and printed them off and ordered a book on school library reorganization just to try and wrap my brain around what we can do, and what we should avoid doing up front as well.
I've also got a local friend who is a librarian at a public library nearby and I'm hoping to pick her brain a bit on this.
The cool thing, though?
I found some pre-printed labels for accelerated reader classification that ought to really help the kids spot where they ought to be reading on sight. I'll need to do some more research before we even get to the purchasing stage -- and even then we may have to do some fundraising and/or applications for grants to get what we need -- but it is great to know there are already a lot of resources available.
I thought some folks out there might have some experience with something like this, or with working in a library, or any number of other things like grant writing or book drive ideas that could be shared. Would love any thoughts on what to do -- or what not to do, which is sometimes even more useful.
To start, has anyone set up a library wishlist on Amazon that parents, grandparents, alumni, etc., could use to purchase needed books? If so, did it work well or not well at all? Any other options that you've tried along those lines, I'd love to hear about them.
(Photo via kpishdadi.)
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