There has been a great deal of discussion about Borrow Bags on the various mailing lists and Facebook groups so I thought I would document our process. I am sure that there are so many ways of doing this, but this is what worked for my team.
To start with, safety is our first priority. Not just physical safety, but mentally as well. Students and parents both wanted to know that we had taken appropriate precautions when dealing with the books.
How did we do it?
Students would reserve their books via the catalogue and also email us to say they wanted a Borrow Bag packed for them. In the email to us, students could request a mystery pack in a particular genre and also ask for books to support the Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge.
In our first lockdown in Victoria, Australia, we had one student who read through a selection of Novellas and Graphics Novels and she completed the Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge before the end of Term 2. Bravo!
We looked at using a Google Form for this, but often we would have to email back and forth with the student letting them know what was or wasn't available. A google form offered no advantage (for us) over email.
During our first lockdown, Term 2, 2020 we had lots of students interested in collecting a Borrow Bag. The interest petered off towards the end of lockdown, however the girls that were borrowing were grabbing 4-6 books each. We had two staff members come into the library on the Monday and Thursday to create and then distribute the Borrow Bags.
Each bag had a little lolly pack with a Chupa-Chump and some fruit chews in a little cute plastic bag with an "Enjoy your reading" label on them. A few students were very excited by this surprise. We also included bookmarks and some feedback/book review sheets as well.
A few button badges found their way in as well. These were received well! I have uploaded one of the button badge printables to my blog for your downloading pleasure.
Managing the Information
After creating a "group" spreadsheet of all the Borrow Bag recipients and their books while we were working from home, we printed off "receipts" that we could use to mark off whether a book was available or not.
When we came onsite, we printed off the receipts, collected the books and then folded it strategically. This was then used to label the bags. We managed to initially grab the bags from the Marketing office. They were left over from an event. But as we did more and more Borrow Bags, we finally just bought some from Officeworks, a business stationary retailer in Australia.
When we came onsite, we printed off the receipts, collected the books and then folded it strategically. This was then used to label the bags. We managed to initially grab the bags from the Marketing office. They were left over from an event. But as we did more and more Borrow Bags, we finally just bought some from Officeworks, a business stationary retailer in Australia.
We constructed the bags on the Monday and then they were collected on the Thursday. Allowing three days between us handling them and the kids collecting them. The guidelines given to us by the school was to clean and then quarantine books for three days before shelving.
When students were collecting their Borrow Bags they were encouraged to return any overdue books. We suspended overdue notices during lockdown, but encouraged them to return books.
When students were collecting their Borrow Bags they were encouraged to return any overdue books. We suspended overdue notices during lockdown, but encouraged them to return books.
So throughout Lockdown 1.0 this is what we did. During Lockdown 2.0 it might be a bit different as Year 11/12 students are onsite. Students will be able to pick their Borrow Bags up from the Library if they have been temperature checked a the front office. But we will still have to follow our quarantine procedure.
Please comment ...
This was the way that we did it, how did you do it?
No comments:
Post a Comment