Library During Lunch Policies

[Jennifer Fasolino]

Hi All,

This is my first year as a middle school librarian, and I'm trying to figure out how to handle library sign-ups during the lunch periods. As it stands now, students can come into the library during the day to sign up for a library lunch pass. They sign up on a sign-in sheet and take a library pass. During their lunch period, they eat for the first 10-15 minutes, and then come to the library. My problem is I'm getting lots of students with nothing constructive to do but socialize with friends/play games on the computers, or the students take a pass but then never show up. Tracking down passes and monitoring students that are not in the library for any real reason has become my entire day. Does anyone have any suggestions? Do you just have students get a pass from their subject area teachers? Any ideas would be appreciated!

[Cathy Nelson]

Use some sort of disposable pass--so that you dont have to track them down. Perhaps a different color for each day of the week to keep kids from keeping them. You might also limit the activities to just reading or doing homework, and not necessarily allow anything online access unless they come with a teacher's pass that specifies the activities. I don't let kids come in to surf the Internet, as our computer use policy specifically states online activities should be content and curriculum related. I do however tell other teachers they are welcome to come in with kids in the morning and at lunch to supervise this activity if they want it for their kids. So far none have made the sacrifice. I also sponsor a "Book It, Bag It" Lunch Club, and the kids can cut in the lunch line to get a bag lunch form our cafeteria to BRING to the library and eat. We have done our state book award nominees as well as a few activities like Teen Read Week, Banned Books Week, and Twilight, just to name a few, The kids BEG for these lunches, as they love 1) cutting in line at lunch, and 2) not having to eat in the cafeteria. Having literacy related activities is my added bonus. I hope this will give you some ideas for redirecting what I think is a problem waiting to happen-->kids in the library with idle time and nothing specific to do. I hope some others will give you some great ideas too. (PS--I am middle school too.)

[Sue Fitzgerald]

Lunch can be a difficult topic for many of us. Here are some regulations we implement during lunch.
1. We monitor our lunch passes according to our daily schedule. If we have 2 classes using the media center during lunch, very few passes go to lunch students. We also notify the administrator on lunch duty that we have classes.
2. We greet lunch students at the door, ask them if they need a computer or table, and than direct them to the available areas. If students come in as a group to socialize we separate them per assigned seating areas.
3. I allow students to use the Internet during lunch and have a small grease board indicating which computers are available. We walk around during lunch and I have viewing software in my office. Every now and again I will check a screen and take appropriate actions if students are not on educational sites (per our district policy).
4. I always forward complaints from teachers about lunch students to my administrators so they are fully aware of the situation.
Many times you can solve the problems by walking around, talking to the students, and monitoring situations.

Good luck,
Sue

[Stephanie Paul]

The infamous lunch passes! My middle school lunch pass policies are similar to Cathy's and Sue's. My school has 3 lunch periods, one for each grade. I have a different colored pass for each grade. The passes are made out of unused date due library cards which are no longer needed. I stamp the current date on the cards and put them on the circ desk in the morning. Students may come in and pick up a pass anytime before lunch. Passes are returned when students sign in to the library after they eat. It is true that about 1/4 of the passes do not come back each day. It's a pain, but I make new ones. A maximum of 25 passes per lunch period go out each day. If I have classes, there are no passes that day. As for what kids do in the library, it has to be educational and preferably homework or project related. I stopped the games like "cool math" which were being abused by the 6th graders, so no more games of any sort. I walk around to make sure students stay on task at the computers. They have to ask for permission to print anything. Students at the tables may sit 2 per table so it stays quiet. No food allowed. If there are any major behavior problems, those students are reported to their administrator and are not allowed back during lunch or after school for a week.
The problem that I would foresee by having students ask their subject teachers for lunch passes to the library is that too many kids would end up with passes. The subject teachers have no idea who else would be getting passes. I already have problems with subject teachers sending kids to the library at any old time to print something, work on a project, or choose a book, because they don't know when I have classes and I do not have a library assistant to help the stragglers.
Do what works for you. Good luck.