As a volunteer at Southview Public School in Napanee, Ontario, once a week I assisted the school librarian, staff, and students in the library and with extracurriculars. My goal was to not only learn about library policies, but to also assist with day-to-day tasks and the extra year-end workload.
Most of my time during the school day was spent shelving, checking in and out books, helping students and staff find books, and supervising students in the library. As a volunteer I also:
- Reorganized teacher learning aids by creating a book log for resources, which increased their use and allowed efficient tracking of these resources by the teacher-librarian
- Inputted and catalogued new library books by using ResourceMate library software that increased the available resources for both students and staff
- Supervised and assisted students in the Makerspace portions of the library (e.g. green screen activities and taking apart old computers), allowing teachers to focus on planning and other tasks
- Shelved and organized books from both daily circulation and for year-end cleanup, resulting in staff and students spending less time searching for resources
- Assisted the teacher-librarian in sending out late reminders and notices to students, which created an efficiency in more books being returned in a timely manner
- Volunteered further at the Scholastic BookFair by assisting students and staff in finding, paying, and ordering books and other products
- Supervised sewing club and graduation preparations to help students meet deadlines
Volunteering in the Southview P.S. library was a priority for me. With the role of the teacher-librarian slowly being phased out at Southview and the entire Limestone District School Board (LDSB), I felt it was important to lend my time so students would not be negatively impacted by this change. I hope students to get the most out of their school library, as I got out of mine when I was a LDSB student.
You can find more information about Southview Public School here.