Sponsor a Book, District Meeting

I just wanted to write a quick post to document a program my supervisor has in place at her school that significantly adds to the library's budget:  sponsor a book.  A form goes home to all parents inviting them to sponsor a book in the library.  For $20 (per book), they or their child can choose a book to sponsor.  Parents can specify an existing title or let the child choose, and parents can also specify an inscription or let the child choose.  The forms come to the librarian (money goes through PTA) and she organizes them by class.  Then, when that class comes to the library, she has the students select books, fill out the book plates (stickers she prints), and puts the label in an EXISTING library book.  Books can have more than one sponsor.  Students can check their book out then, even if they have overdue books or have hit their "limit."  This takes quite a bit of work but has greatly increased her library budget.

I continued working on collection development (I've moved from the 400s to the 300s) and am making decent progress there.  Also got to do some readers' advisory with the 1st graders today.  It's clear that they don't trust your suggestions until they know you, though.  Relationship-building is essential.

I also attended a meeting of elementary librarians from throughout the district today.  Most of the meeting focused on how they will show compliance with the Broadband Information Act and what they will put in place to ensure digital citizenship skills are being taught.  Because these TLs teach students weekly and have a specific curriculum they follow based on the model library standards, their time is already pretty full.  They are going to take responsibility for many, but not all of, the digital citizenship lessons.  It was interesting to see how they were approaching the staff regarding this.  Most felt presenting a basic overview at a staff meeting and then meeting with grade levels for a deeper discussion was the best method.  They want to get teacher input on when/where each requirement is taught, etc. 

My real take-away, though, is that this district is on top of it and these librarians are extraordinarily fortunate to work in a place that actually employs elementary librarians.  I don't know who, if anyone, is doing this at my child's school.  It feels completely unfair that this is supposedly the same free and equal education other students in the area are getting when none of the other districts in this area have elementary TLs.