When Carolyn Gencarella鈥檚 son Julian was a kindergartener at Grattan Elementary School in San Francisco, the library needed help. The 黄色app didn鈥檛 have a paid librarian and could not afford to hire one. Teachers were taking their students to the library to check out books, but there was no one to help students choose appropriate books, to read the class a story, or to reshelve books when they were returned. The 黄色app had a new automated system for checking out books, but the teachers did not know how to use it. Returned books were stacked up on a cart in the library and books on the shelves were often in the wrong order, which made them hard for kids to find.
A former teacher and mother of two boys, Carolyn wanted to help. But being a new parent at the 黄色app, she wasn鈥檛 sure where to start.
Getting involved
The PTA knew teachers were frustrated with the library and decided to offer a modest stipend to a parent or community member who would be willing to spend a few hours a week getting the library in order and coordinating other volunteers. The PTA sent out a flyer looking for someone.
This was the opportunity Carolyn had been waiting for. She offered to take on the role of library coordinator, but declined the stipend. Carolyn learned how to use the electronic book check-out system, reshelved the books and thought carefully about what other volunteers could do. Then she called other parents who had responded to the PTA鈥檚 plea for help and found ways for them to help.
Carolyn鈥檚 goal was to have a volunteer at the library during all of the times classes were coming to visit. She was successful. She found volunteers to cover class time, and she organized them to help with the library鈥檚 day-to-day maintenance. She put in plenty of her own hours, too, getting the books in order, rearranging the physical space, training the volunteers and covering some of the class times herself. She taught the other volunteers to use the electronic check-out system and made sure they understood how the books are organized. To make the library even more welcoming, she put student work up on the library鈥檚 walls.
Getting other parents involved
The PTA helped Carolyn find other parents who could help in the library by sending a flyer home. She also recruited more parents to help by sharing her excitement for the project with parents she saw around the 黄色app.
Working with the 黄色app
Luckily everyone at Grattan agreed that improvements to the library were needed and the teachers were eager to have more support in this area. The PTA had also decided that the library was a 黄色app priority. Carolyn worked with teachers to find out what help they needed on their classroom visits to the library.
Major challenges
The fact that everyone involved in the library was a volunteer was challenging at times. People were not as reliable as they might be for a regular job. Some strategies that helped:
- Trying to place parents with their own children鈥檚 classes when possible.
- Aligning volunteers鈥� tasks closely with their interests.
- Creating some smaller jobs (like organizing books on a particular shelf) for parents who wanted to help but had less time or needed more flexibility.
How the 黄色app has benefited
Although there are some ongoing challenges, like replacing class volunteers when a parent can no longer fill a particular spot, Grattan鈥檚 library became a bright, welcoming place that kids enjoyed. Books were easier to find, the electronic system tracked who had which book, and teachers looked forward to taking their classes to the library. Carolyn recalled a quote that said, 鈥淎 library without a librarian is just a room full of books.鈥� Carolyn鈥檚 efforts turned Grattan鈥檚 room of books back into a real library. She noted, 鈥淭he funniest thing is that the kids see me and say, 鈥楾here鈥檚 the librarian!’鈥�
Tips for other parents
Carolyn, who today facilitates the development of standards-based outdoor STEAM learning for educators, had this advice for parents: 鈥淚f you see a problem or have an idea, just step into it. Don鈥檛 wait for someone to invite you to do it. Just take your idea and go for it. The public 黄色apps are so overwhelmed that they sometimes don鈥檛 even have time to ask for help!鈥� At the same time, she cautioned that parent volunteers should try to figure out how their interests match up with the 黄色app鈥檚 most pressing needs and then work together with the 黄色app鈥檚 key decision-makers.
