Parent/Teacher Resources

As a Family Place Library, we are tasked with having an up-to-date parent resource section located near our play area where parents can browse for books while their children are playing and not have to wander off to the adult department to do so.  We were gracious enough to receive a large donation a few years ago that enabled us to install some beautiful shelving along our windows that looks as though it’s been there forever and has given us valuable space for these books.  After having weeded this section a few years ago when we moved it, we just received word that our site visit is coming up in May.
Which means, I went back through our collection to weed it again and it’s amazing how pretty it looks now – there’s more space for the books, the books that are available look bright and new and our collection is now leaning much more towards parenting resources than teacher resources.  I think with access to the Internet (and Pinterest!) a lot of teachers don’t need to come into the library looking for crafts and projects related to their curriculum.
My next step is to re-label some of the books as many are labeled 649.1 (a general parenting number) and topics are spread throughout the collection.  My goal is to make sure all similar books are near each other making browsing much easier for parents.  Right now, some books about disabilities or in one place, others are a few shelves down, etc.
Once everything gets re-organized, I’m going to make sure we have enough resources for specific topics, we got a number of new books a few years ago and continue ordering books each year, but once we’re better organized we can see if we have any gaps that need to be filled.
I’m so proud of the work we’re doing in our department – we are cleaning things up, weeding old material, moving books to make it easier for patrons all the while continuing to provide quality programs for our patrons.