Kim Keith is the Library Media Specialist at M. E. Small Elementary School in West Yarmouth
and a winner of a 2016 President's Award
and a winner of a 2016 President's Award
As a library media specialist I have many jobs, all of which I love. When I started as a library assistant 24 years ago and to this day, I feel the most important part of my job is to instill a love of books in my students. Ninety percent of the time, I read to every single class I see, grades K-3. I share my reading experiences with my students. I stand my favorite books up on the top of the bookshelves to let them have a chance to enjoy them as well. We talk a lot about books. Did they enjoy the books they are returning? Would they recommend them to a friend and why? At our school we participate in Read Across America week which includes a Book Ball (dress like your favorite book character), Story Walk, school wide Drop Everything and Read, trivia contests using Dr. Seuss books and a family reading night. We take our second graders to the public library before summer break to get a library card and also to see the schedule for summer activities happening at the local library. This year I was able to host author Melissa Stewart in order to produce the book trailer, with one of our third grade classes, for her newest book with Steve Jenkins, Can An Aardvark Bark? With a high needs population that includes free and reduced lunch, special education and a high percentage of ELL students, the school tries to provide free books whenever possible. We order books from First Book (an organization whose mission is to provide disadvantaged children with new books) twice a year to distribute and we also received a generous donation from Houghton Mifflin that provided our students with free books.
Three years ago I read a tweet by Beth Redford, a Vermont school librarian, about summer book check out. Following up with a blog post, Beth called summer book check out the most popular program at her library. I was intrigued and took the idea to my principal. Knowing that she was not going to be on board due to the issue of books not being returned, I brought the blog post with me. I also considered the issue of lost books but it was outweighed by over 5,000 books sitting in my school library all summer with no one reading them. The program has grown and last summer 105 students took out 10 books each. Are some books not returned? Yes. But not many and the positives far offset the negatives. To me is was a tangible way to show the students and their parents that we care about literacy and we trust those students to take care of library books over the summer.