Our school library media center schedules each class to visit and select books on a particular “letter” day during the six-day cycle. Children who miss their library day or who need to exchange books can visit us at the beginning of the school day (8:25 –8:45). Classroom teachers may have different times when they will send their children for book selection based on individual needs.
Kindergarten through 2nd-grade classes select two books per week. All library books have a two-week loan period, however, we encourage children in the early grades to return their books each week to make new choices. Grade 3 selects three books; grade 4 selects up to four books, and grade 5 selects up to five books. All students are guided to books that will be appropriate for their reading abilities. Children also select books, which may be suitable for reading with parents or siblings.
We appreciate your support in assisting your child with timely book returns. Please ask your children to keep their books in an area where they can easily find them for their library day. We ask children not to keep books in their backpacks all week due to wear and tear or potential juice spills.
If a library book is damaged or lost please email us at nkoehler@northsalemschools.org. We will allow a grace period for you to keep searching for a lost book. Your child can borrow the usual number of books once you let us know. We try to send overdue notices out each week: sometimes our notices reach you after your child has returned an item or the books are in the classroom cart in route to the library. There are miscues as well and we’ll do our best to correct any problems.
Parent Volunteers are the heart of the PQ Library Program. Without their efforts, our library program could not offer the rich services we provide our children.
Our current schedule provides two parents in the morning who shelve the majority of book returns (close to 200 books) and check out books to morning classes. One parent volunteer assists with afternoon shelving, straightening, and other projects including assisting classes and students.
We are fortunate to have enough volunteers so that each letter day “team” is able to come every other week. Our PTO library coordinator does a wonderful job recruiting parents and maintaining the scheduling of this important endeavour. Parents who cannot attend their regular shift are asked to call an alternate when possible. In the event of an emergency, please call the library so we can adapt our plans for the day.
If you like working with children and books, consider volunteering. We’ll provide the training.