Student Librarians

Since about 5 years I have 'employed' student librarians every school year, which includes one Library Leader, aka 'the Boss'.  After years of trial, some error and finally great success I would like to share with you my top list of things to do when you are working with student librarians:

• Give the student librarians a sense of ownership of the library, by letting them organise lunchtime activities or come up with lunchtime activity ideas and most of all, support them to make it really happen. 

• Rewards!  Reward your student librarians, not only just once a term with a free book or other gift, but also let your students librarians issue one more book than all other students in the school. It doesn't cost a thing for the library and it makes them feel special, and they are!

• Of course your librarians will pick the jobs that are most fun if you let them and you will be left having to tidy up the library and shelve all the books!  Believe me, I 've been there, done that many times!  To avoid this, print reward tickets for the different jobs that can be done in the library.  We have 3 types of tickets: tickets for shelving books, tickets for being a lunchtime monitor and tickets for issuing books for a class.  Every time a student librarian does a job, they may take a ticket, write their name on the back, put it in an entry box.  Every Friday we draw the winning ticket to find out who the Librarian of the Week is.  The photo of the Librarian of the Week is displayed on the notice board for the next week.  The more tickets a student has, the more chance they will have to become the Librarian of the Week! 

• Our student librarians may issue books from my 'hidden' box of books (these are the newest books not on the shelves yet for other students to read)  They absolutely love this privilege and it's free advertising!  They will read the new book and tell their friends about it, who tell their friends, who tell their friends,....  

• School librarians usually don't have the luxury to have relievers as you will know.  A good solution is to train the Library Leader so they can be the school librarian if you are away.  Picking a Library Leader is an easy job usually, they would have been a student librarian for at least one school year so you already know them and you can trust that your library is in safe and capable hands until you return. Tell them that you will be 'their assistant' for the year.  They will love it!

• Make job lists, they will make your life a whole lot easier and avoid that same question over and over again 'Miss, what do I do now?'  My morning job list for example looks like this: -turn on library computers-log in the search computers- empty book trolley-check shelves and magazine table for tidiness- Pick a book and read.  I also have a job list for class librarians and one for lunchtime librarians as they all have different tasks.  Explain to them that they start with the task at the top, and work their way to the bottom.  The children love the clear and simple instructions and always have something to do.  Here's an example of the job list for librarians who come in before school:

• At the end of each school year, I give the Year 6 librarians and Library Leader a written reference.  I don't use a template, I write a reference for each individual separately, because they deserve it and of course because they all are different. This way I hope they will get a job in the library in their next school, and who knows where else they will be able to use it in the future. The students usually don't realise the importance of this document, but their parents and teachers appreciate it very much.

• How do you find your student librarians?  In our school, pretty much everyone wants to be a librarian, so I had to implement a selection process.  In the first 3 weeks of every school year, I select new librarians.  Anyone interested needs to fill out an application form.  I have kept it simple and short, but by answering the 2 questions, the students do give away quite a bit of their level of interest and work ethic.  Of course I do know all the children quite well before they apply for the job, but by their answers I can almost instantly tell who is applying for the sake of it, or who is genuinely interested.  Here is the form I put together and use every year: