Hi Denise, I'd love to other responses you get, would you forward them to me or the list?
I am a day school librarian and work with grades 5-8. I have student volunteers during recess every day. It works out, sort of. They do things like book processing (mylar covers, etc.) put up periodicals, take turns sitting at the circ desk, etc. They only have about 10-15 minutes, it's more for their benefit than mine. I do not recruit, these are kids that basically don't want to go to recess, they love to hang out in the library workroom, and of course I make a very big deal out of it (service awards at end of year, etc.) I also started a book club this year for 7th and 8th grade. They had done book clubs here before but that age seems to drop out of reading. I conceived a "space of their own," redesigned a section of the library to look like a Starbucks, at the once a month discussion I actually bring in Starbucks. The program took me a year to develop (still working on it) (get money, furnish, etc.) and this is my first year and it is beyond my wildest dreams! I had hoped for 8-10 kids and I average 30-35 each time, (I have had to schedule 4 separate sessions) 8th grade boys included. Anyway, I think the key to a book club for kids this age is the environment and the right books. So far I have not done Jewish-theme books (I plan to) and have had some criticism, (criticism about Starbucks, too) but I have my reasons. The name of our club, as well as that section of the library, is Café Book. I would like to develop an online book review section of our website, but only so much time! Re Teen Advisory Council...I have a built-in one, kids that read a lot and are always telling me about the books they love. It would probably be those same kids, and then I would be obliged to purchase the books, and most times, these are very advanced kids and reading books on a high-school level (content-wise, too), and most not appropriate. Hope this helps, Maureen Maureen Reister Director of Libraries Ann & Nate Levine Academy 18011 Hillcrest Rd. Dallas, TX 75252 972-248-3032, x.111 Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
