Almost everybody knows that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine and practically anything else go down. We used our own sweet touch to celebrate National Library Card Month this September. Any seventh or eighth grader who showed us a current public library card received a sucker and a smile.
Last year our literacy improvement committee decided to help our students obtain or update public library cards. With the help of language arts teachers, the media center staff, and Marilyn Rondot at the Bartholomew County Public Library (BCPL), these cards were created, renewed, or verified for some nine hundred seventh and eighth graders within a matter of weeks.
The idea stemmed from the Middle Grades Reading Assessment taken by all fifteen members of our literacy committee. Assessment results indicated a need to strengthen our connection with the public library by reaching out to public librarians to promote programs. In addition, we found that students’ public library usage needed
a boost. The best plan was to get public library cards for all students who needed them.
Bartholomew County Public Library readily offered help. The first step involved modifying the borrower’s application to suit middle school students. Next, language arts teachers provided time for students to fill out the forms that were then sorted by BCPL staff members to determine which students already had valid cards, which cards needed updating to “teen” status, and which requests were new. Phone calls, as needed, were made to verify signatures and information.
In a few weeks, students received their cards by mail. This fall we advertised
National Library Card Month during morning announcements and also again offered application forms.
Ms. Rondot, supervisor of adult and teen circulation at BCPL, indicated that without checking circulation records it was hard to know if the number of middle school patrons increased as a direct result of our collaboration. She did say, however, that graphic novels certainly are bringing teenagers back to the public library. Area teens now meet there on the first and third Tuesdays of the month to discuss graphic novels.
Our 2007 literacy improvement committee will continue its work to bolster public library support by initiating trips to the public library, arranging visits from public librarians, and continuing the collaboration between public library staff and the middle school community.