[aisle] Return to In-Person for High Schools

[Renee Kozeal]

We have been on an blended schedule since our first day and haven't closed
once. Unfortunately, the administration told me that I would be closed
during our shortened school day and open in the afternoon for students to
come in after classes are over for the day (no one comes in, of course). I
am to go to classrooms to work with teachers and have done that. I did ask
if I could allow 1-2 students at a time from a class to come in to checkout
books if the teacher wanted to send them. I did get approval for that. The
first business I had was our freshmen lit classes. We are not allowing
students to browse on their own and touch books. So, to prepare, I filled
the tops of our low bookshelves with genre displays that are loaded with
sure hits. This way, if a student wants a "sports book" or a "mystery" we
go walk around that display, and I do mini booktalks to help them choose a
book. Sometimes we get back to the regular shelves if my interview
questions take us there. But this has worked pretty well so far. We just
keep the displays full of winners.

We have a few students assigned to us that are doing online classes
independently on our "Blue" days. Otherwise, we don't get much traffic as
the kids are pretty shut down in the classrooms with little time between
classes. I recently asked our administration if we could reevaluate having
classes come in to do research if we take very careful steps. One of our
English teachers went with me to advocate for this opportunity. Crossing my
fingers!

Renee Kozeal
Princeton HS

On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 11:01 AM Amy Phillips via AISLE <
aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

> Good morning.
>
> I'm looking for some help and information from other high school libraries
> that have had students return to school in-person. My district is looking
> to start bringing students back on to campus for 2nd Quarter, and I want to
> make sure my procedures for the library are up to date for COVID and are
> reasonable. I created a plan over the summer, but I know things have
> changed slightly, which is why I'm looking at all of this again.
>
> My questions specifically are:
>
>    - Are you allowing students into the library to use the space (study
>    hall/free period/etc.)? What are your expectations and procedures for that?
>    Anything different than pre-COVID?
>    - Are you allowing students to browse the collection, or only place
>    holds and library staff retrieve books? I am currently doing curbside
>    pickup and plan to continue that and have hold pickups in the library, but
>    I know my students normally like to browse.
>    - Anything you wish you had in place BEFORE students returned?
>
> Thanks in advance for any and all advice!
> Amy Phillips
> Riverside Brookfield High School
> Library Media Specialist
> aebromberg at gmail.com
> phillipsa at rbhs208.net
> 847-722-6169
> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
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-- 

*Renee Kozeal*

School Librarian

Scholastic Bowl Coach

Princeton High School

renee.kozeal at phs-il.org

815/875-3308, ext. 1080
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