Each April, fourth grade students begin to think about what they want to do when they grow up (and become fifth graders). Some choose to become Bus Buddies, some want some air time as a crew member for our morning announcements, while others volunteer to be stewards of the library and its treasures. If you've ever sponsored student helpers, you know that there is a great deal of time, work, and coaching involved. When it's done right, the payoff is great. Luckily for me, when I became the library media specialist at my school, I knew the fifth graders because I had taught them when they were in kindergarten, so I had existing relationships with students who wanted to help in the mornings and afternoons.

The previous LMS had asked students to bring library books with them and she would check them in as students entered. This worked well for her, but as our LMS curriculum became more rigorous, I realized I needed that check-in time for teaching and checkout. After a couple of months, I had begun to ask teachers to collect their books in the mornings and I would go collect them on the cart and check them in. Eventually, I got bins for collection and asked teachers if they could start including a "librarian" job within their classroom to bring their class bin down in the morning. That was working out much better than the previous plans, so at the end of the year, I thought it would be extremely helpful to have helpers to shelve and collect the books so I didn't have to rush around in the mornings and spend substantial time after school shelving the books. I recruited some of the upcoming fifth graders to help (with recommendations from their teachers) and got signed parent permission forms because there was a responsibility factor.

There was, of course, a learning curve - not only for the kids, but also for me as far as teaching them in only 10-15 minutes at a time how the entire library was organized. I asked the kids a lot of questions about their experiences finding things, what kind of things they wanted to read, how I could help make the library more user-friendly. I am so grateful that I was able to have the relationship with the kids to get their honest feedback to create new library routines, signage, collections, and restructuring the physical space. I have continued to have library helpers each year, and they always love helping.

After the first year, I made a document to give to the kids when they became a library helper so that they could refer to it as a kind of checklist for each morning and afternoon to make sure everything necessary happened. The back had a lot of tips and tricks for each library neighborhood to assist them in their shelving. The document, which I'm sharing with you as pictures in this post, has evolved over the years, but it was helpful to me and helpful to the library helpers I rely on to run a student-centered library.

My library helpers come off the bus, unpack and say hi to their teacher, then come to the library. They log into the student self-circ stations, check the schedule and go grab the library bins. Some of the library helpers will take that time to merch the shelves or shelve any leftover books from the previous afternoon. When they return with the bins, the library helpers check the books in, sort them onto the appropriate shelf of the cart, and possibly begin shelving.

Each afternoon, the library helpers come in and check the schedule to deliver the bins to tomorrow's library classes, then shelve and merch until their bus is called. They always stop to help any kids who come in with a late book, or want to check out. They could really run things without me, which is extremely rewarding. I highly recommend having library helpers if you don't. They always remark how much work there is in the library, but how much they truly love doing it, even if it is overwhelming sometimes. This is a mirror of my feelings about working in the library.

Just make sure you remember the Peter Parker Principle: With great power comes great responsibility.