Volunteer Duties

STONEGATE LIBRARY VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES 

In order to protect student information, volunteers are not allowed to check books in or out.  There are many other vital activities that volunteers can do to help the library run smoothly.

• Familiarize yourself with library shelves, book carts and neighborhoods

  • Easy

  • Fiction

  • Biographies

  • Non-fiction

  • Graphic Novels

• Arrange books in ABC / 123 order on book carts

• Shelve books - see 'Shelving Books' for more details

• Pass out shelf markers

• Straighten books on shelves

• “Read” the shelves to make sure books are in ABC/123 order

• Help students find books

• Wipe down tables and countertops

• Dust shelves

• Sharpen pencils

• Copy and cut out bookmarks

• Help students maintain Hawk PRIDE behavior

• Pull and display holiday books

• Minor book repairs

• Wall displays

• Assist with inventory

• Check chromebooks to make sure they are working

• Global read aloud

• Buddy book club

• Read Across America day

• Read for the Record

• Storytime read alouds

Students are allowed one bookmark per visit, not one per book, or, invariably, the bookmarks end up as litter at school.

SHELVING BOOKS

When shelving books, you must pay close attention to the spine label on each book.

The spine label is the ‘address label’ for the book – it tells you where in the library the

book lives. The spine label gives the book’s Call #, which indicates fiction, nonfiction,

etc. The basic destinations are:

• E or PE is Easy picture books - shelved under the windows

• FIC or PFIC is Fiction - shelved on the portable bookshelves

• B is Biography - under the last section of windows by the office

• ### - books with #s are Nonfiction - shelved on the cubbies and shelves along the innovation lab wall

Easy, Fiction, Leveled Reader and Biography Shelving

• Sort first by category - E, FIC, B, 123

• Alphabetize by Author’s last name

Nonfiction Shelving

• Numbers first!! Pay very close attention to all of the digits.

• Look at the #s to the left of decimal first (i.e. 789 before 798)

• Within the same #s, look to the right of the decimal (i.e. 796.323, 796.332, 796.352)

• For identical #s, alphabetize by author’s last name

• For same # and author, alphabetize by title

• Ex: 398.2 ARN, 398.2 LOW, 398.2 SCI

HOW TO “READ” A SHELF

• Our collection gets heavy use.  To make sure a book can be found when it is needed it is helpful to “read the shelves” when there is extra time.  Applying general shelving rules, the spine label of each book is read one by one to make sure every book is where it should be. 

•  First go to areas that look disheveled and straighten by making sure all items are in order.  Make sure the book spine is showing with the call number (address) at the bottom of the book.  

• Then proceed to look at the call numbers.  The first line will tell you the neighborhood

  • E

  • FIC

  • B

  • 000-999 

• The second line of the call number is the first three letters of the author’s last name. The books should be arranged in ABC order according to these letters.

  The library would never be able to maintain our services without your help. Thank you.