[CASL-L] Library Club ideas

[Valerie DiLorenzo]

Hi Jennifer,

I love my "Library Prefect" program. This year, I never even announced it
formally (my library is Covid surge space) and have a small group of five
students: three of them are in person and two are distance learners (one in
China!) They help out with any programming that the library does, and in
years past, helped with day to day tasks of library. (Two students reached
out to me before the school year started; one reached out during the Fall
Term; one reached out in December, and I asked my most recent member
because she's such an amazing reader and I was missing her since we no
longer eat during the same lunch time!) One prefect made tons of paper
snowflakes recently for our Snowstorm of Reading and she's finishing up
writing students' and alumni names, titles and authors of recent favorite
reads on the snowflakes. Here you can see our kindergarteners putting up
our Snowstorm of Reading
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wOUAscGVvfN7GnOr4e8ZBYN0nrm0nJ6z/view?usp=sharing>.
(We wanted to include our distance learners and alumni in our "Snowstorm of
Reading" program.)

I always have library prefects take part in the brainstorming for programs
such as the Nutmeg Book Reveal (though they don't know titles until reveal
day), Bizarre & Extreme Day Green Screen, Teen Read Week (when that was in
existence); Teentober; Book Fest; then prefects promote the programs, and
carry them out under my guidance. Though I'm at a K - 9 school (only grades
6 - 9 are prefects),* I had a Biblio-Tech program at my previous
high school. *Biblio-Techs helped with the day to day running of the
library, but I also remember organizing a huge Tech Showcase that ended up
being school-wide and people attended from around the state. (That was back
in 2008 or 2009--a long time ago). We also met on Friday afternoons(!) to
learn all sorts of fun tech and had guest speakers. This Friday afternoon
program was done with another fabulous teacher at that school at the time.

Depending on the strengths/interests of your members, you can do all sorts
of things!  Here's an example of one of the projects my distance prefects
did this year. She's only in 6th grade. I basically told her what I wanted
and she put this together on her own. (I think she already has her MLS!) How
to Upload Work to Google Classroom
<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rtFTQ5jEzS4yOEjOAPtNr2yuhHiq0cUaSLx0FOXsCOw/edit?usp=sharing>

My best advice is to have fun with it! It's a way to reach out to
individual students (and gives some who need it a place to fit in and feel
purposeful in a safe place) and your wider community through programming.
Feed into their interests and needs (and your library's goals/mission, of
course, too!) In previous years, I always had my students fill out an
application (like a job application--good real world skills). I also had
two levels of prefects they could apply for: Pros made a commitment to
helping out in the library at least 3 times a week; Lites just helped out
with the big programs and when they had time.

Have fun!
~Val

[image: Rumsey Hall School] <https://www.rumseyhall.org/>

Valerie DiLorenzo | *Library Media Specialist*
RUMSEY HALL SCHOOL | 860.868.0535 x1
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#m_-8012110276188521706_/>22
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On Sat, Feb 6, 2021 at 8:30 AM Jennifer Crutchfield <
jennifer.vernali at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> I inherited a Library Club a few years ago. Students can help with various
> maintenance projects in the library. I tried to turn into a book club but
> we have another book club. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or has
> had success with such a club on the high school level? I'm hoping to make
> it a more active club.
>
> Thanks,
> Jen Crutchfield
> _______________________________________________
> CASL-L mailing list
> CASL-L at mylist.net
> https://mylist.net/listinfo/casl-l
>
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