Johnson Elementary School Library
The library at Johnson Elementary School in Charlottesville, Virginia serves about 300 pre-schoolers through fourth graders. It provides books in circulation, maker spaces and tools, access to digital media and literacy programs; it houses afterschool programs and gives students, teachers, and staff access to academic resources outside of the school. The space is fairly small but circulates about 12,000 materials (FitzHenry, n.d.) and has areas for reading, relaxing, meeting, school work, and club activities. It feels like a school library I would have been familiar with as an elementary school child in the 1990s—there are bright colors everywhere; small tables and chairs to accommodate little kids; student art decorates bulletin boards; the lighting is soft and/or naturally streaming in through big windows that look out onto the school playground; cozy rugs for sprawling out on cover over the standard issue school carpet; and there are rows and shelves crammed with books.
The most prominent technological differences between this library and the library I used as a kid are the smart board that can be wheeled around to different locations in the library and the desktop computer where kids can check out their own materials (my school library had a card catalog). The library itself has very little online presence outside of a site with resources that is accessed through the city public schools website—there is a fairly comprehensive blog called the “Learning Leopard Library: the Online Home to the Johnson Elementary School Library,” but it was most recently updated in 2016. The current librarian has an active Twitter account, where people can read about her personal interests, activities outside of school, or anonymous anecdotes from the school day.
The AASL has developed six foundational concepts that should govern the work of all school libraries (AASL, 2018, pp. 59–64, as quoted in Rubin & Rubin, 2020). Johnson’s library seems to incorporate them all into its mission. Librarians should foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills (“Inquire”) as well as collaboration to broaden students’ perspectives (“Collaborate”). Johnson’s library hosts regular meetups of a LEGO builders club that invites students to work together to engineer structures and machines. The librarian incorporates culturally sensitive materials into her curricula year-round (“Include”), “demonstrating an understanding of and commitment to inclusiveness and respect for diversity in the learning community” (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 155). The readings during each class’ library time are interactive activities that involve students helping to select materials, reflecting on materials together, and sharing their knowledge with one another (“Curate,” “Explore,” “Engage”). Book reviews by students were a feature of the school library’s blog (Shreya, 2016).
The blog also has a section dedicated to “Library Procedures,” which (in my personal experience) many of the students at Johnson are very familiar with. The Procedures are in place to protect library materials and resources, but also to develop students into good citizens of the library community. Pre-K, Kindergarten, and first-grade students are only allowed to check out one book at a time—that responsibility grows as they enter second grade when they are permitted to check out two books at a time. Privileges and rewards are given to students that demonstrate excellent engagement with the library—those rewards include special access to new books. Breaking rules results in restricted access to library materials and students seem to take that risk very seriously. Family members are invited to volunteer in the library, which connects it to the wider community as a public library might be.
Though today’s technological climate has pressured many school libraries to shift from physical to digital media, from being materials-based to learner-focused (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 156), Johnson’s library and librarian are still very focused on teaching literacy and a love for physical books. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson Elementary took its classes completely online. The administration kept “library” as one of the school’s special requirements—the librarian made visits to each virtual classroom multiple times a week to read stories and lead games or workshops for the students. She also created story videos on her own time with virtual backgrounds to engage the students. They could watch these videos any time they had a free period or any time outside of school that they wanted a story. To give students access to physical books during the pandemic, the Johnson library joined other local school libraries in organizing Book Pickup Drives. According to an interview with the librarian, “…we’ve created little book grab bags that kids can pick up at their schools, where you can drive up and pick up a bag of books that you can take home and keep with you” (Jones & Jones, 2020).
Today, students are back to school in person but are still able to access the library catalog online through any web browser. They can look for books by grade level, reading level, topic, title, and author—they can see whether the book is available at the Johnson School library, but they can’t place a hold or check the book out unless they’re in person.
RESOURCES
FitzHenry, S. (n.d.). About the library. Learning Leopard Library. https://johnsonlibrary.wordpress.com/about/
FitzHenry, S. (n.d.). Johnson Elementary School Library [Photograph]. Learning Leopard Library. https://johnsonlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/img_0327.jpg
Jones, K. & Jones, J. (Host). (2020, May 19). Youth in the time of coronavirus [Audio podcast episode]. In Social Distance Assistance. VPM. https://vpm.org/articles/13546/youth-in-the-time-of-coronavirus
Rubin, R. E., and Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.
Shreya (2016). Student book review: Shreya’s review of Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes and The BFG by Roald Dahl. Learning Leopard Library. https://johnsonlibrary.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/5436/
Hi Kelly!
I sat in this library years ago as part of one of my teaching practicums. I’m glad to hear that the current librarian is working hard to include problem solving skills, collaboration skills, and diversity in her library lessons. The librarian at my school also has similar grade level check out options. I love how the school librarian stayed a part of the school community by doing virtual classroom visits on Zoom or Teams. I’m sure the students loved seeing her “live” instead of just in pre-recorded videos. I really love how the school libraries in Charlottesville teamed together to get books into kids hands during the pandemic! That was something my school struggled with because we weren’t allowed to send books home for kids to read. I love the idea of the Book Pickup Drives!
I appreciate that this school library offers afterschool programs! The school library I visited didn’t do that very often. Bright colors are a great way to make an environment feel welcoming to young children. I wonder what happened to make the blog stop being updated – it looks like a great resource. There are lots of great librarian accounts on Twitter and it’s good to know one of them belongs to this staff member. I like the way you brought in the AASL’s foundational concepts. It’s interesting to hear about another school where parents and family volunteer in the library – I’d never heard of such a thing before this assignment. (My mom did volunteer a lot at my elementary school though, so there’s a chance she worked in the library and I just don’t remember it.) Those story videos must have been very helpful for students during quarantine!
Very nice school library. It seems like an inviting place that still has a large selection of print books to help engage students with learning and to promote the love of reading and physical books. There are many similarities between this library and my school library. It is exciting to see that the librarian still tried to engage with the students through the pandemic.
This Library is so cute and cozy. At first glance it seems small and confined with shelves crammed but that is only its appearance. I love that their goal is to teach literacy at such a young age. The grab bags are a fun way to also keep them engaged. Also, the fact that they have kept up with the latest technology by using smart boards and have a self-checkout station to teach students how to be responsible is a plus too.
Sounds like a great elementary library. I like the bright colors used to decorate the library. Very ecstatically pleasing to the eyes and invites the love of reading. I like that they use a lot of technology to keep up with other libraries and are reinforcing learning for students at a young age. I like how they allow them to check out books one at a time for younger students and then they progress to more as they move up in grade level. Teaches them responsibility.
I like how the students are able to look up books on the library’s website. I especially like how they are able to see what the grade level and reading level of the book is. This benefits the students in finding books that they can read within their grade, though there are some students who read books above their grade. I like how the school librarian took the time to interact with the students during the pandemic through story videos. It shows how much she cared for the students and bring that love of reading to them.