[Publib] School visits policy compilation - LONG

[Beth]

Back in July, I requested your input on policies that you have when
schools come to visit your libraries. Many thanks to all of you who
responded! With your help, we have revised our visitation policy. If
you would like to see a copy of it (and/or any other attachments
mentioned below) please let me know!

Thank you again -
Beth

On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 4:25 PM, Beth<beth.borene at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone -
>
> Please forgive cross-posting.
>
> I am revisiting my guidelines for school visits to the library and was
> wondering if any of you have such a policy and would be willing to share
> yours?

RESPONSES:
We do not have any written guidelines for school/camp visits, but
after reading your email maybe I should rethink that.  In general,
when we have a school or camp group visit and they have not told us
ahead of time, we will make a point of assuring them they are welcome,
but need some advance notification in the future so that we can have
adequate desk coverage (our desk schedules are done 2 weeks in
advance).
I never considered it from the adult/child ratio standpoint. Usually
if a group is rowdy I will discuss this with the head of the school or
camp and suggest additional staff for subsequent visits.
You actually can do a program for a group with 24 hours notice?  No
way at my library!! I tell them I need at least a month's notice.
Unfortunately, our program space is shared with people doing programs
for adults and also community groups using it for meetings, AARP tax
assistance, etc.
******

This isn't actually so much a policy, but our entire program model for
class visits. There is one for P-3 (K-3 in the US) and another for
4-6. They differ in the types of activities that we do with the
students (puppet show vs. scavenger hunt, etc.). We do require that
they are booked in advance and it is so we can prepare a program. They
are normally booked well in advance with daycare or school teachers,
which requires a high level of cooperation. If you don't have a close
relationship already with individual teachers, this advance booking
might be difficult to acquire and may act as a deterrent. On the other
hand, it makes for a well-oiled and quality program. As you'll read in
the model, we send out card application forms to the group, who then
have the children's parents fill them out and the school returns them
two days in advance so we can have the children's cards ready for them
to borrow on their visit. (Attachments)
********

Here's our policy.  We see quite a few groups during the year and this
helps keep things under control.  We had so many unannounced visits at
our precious building that we had to instigate this policy when we
moved into our new building 5 years ago.  All our registration is on
line through Evanced.  Good Luck.

SCHOOL or CLASS VISITS, AND FIELD TRIP Policy

August 2003
Revised October 2008

Before you schedule a Library Adventure for your class or group,
please read through the following important information.
Click on the Library Events Calendar to register online for Library Adventures.

Any school bringing students regardless of size must register on line.
Farmington Public Library defines "a group" as any organized group of
people less than 30. A group of 31 or more must register as more than
one group. Tours or class visits for groups of 8 or more students must
include a minimum of one adult for every eight students. (Library
staff will not be included in this ratio.) The library staff may
request additional adult supervision based upon the nature of the
group or activity.
Adults accompanying the group should stay with their group, and will
be responsible for the group's behavior as well as any articles of
clothing or possessions brought into the library.
Additional training for teachers or parents prior to your visit is
available upon request.
In order to ensure a high-quality library experience for everyone, the
Library reserves the right to limit the number of groups that can
register for a given time slot. All groups must register before coming
to the library.
Register online for Express Check-out Adventures up to two weeks in advance.
Registration is available immediately for any Story Time and Choose
Your Own Adventures posted on the Library Events calendar.
The Library Adventures calendar is subject to change. Library
Adventures are scheduled only for the times listed on the calendar.
Groups arriving early will have to wait until your scheduled time and
leave no later than the scheduled time. Groups wishing to stay beyond
their allotted time for research or other purposes, must seek prior
approval from the Library Director.
All online registration closes one week prior to the adventure posted
on the calendar.
Participants of the tour or class visit should remain in the
appropriate area. For example, it is not appropriate for elementary
school children to be in the Southwest Room or the Teen Area.
Please call (505)-599-1272 to notify the library of any delays or
cancellations for high school and adult tours.
Please contact youthtours at infoway.org or call (505) 566-2200 to cancel
a Youth Services Library Adventure that has been scheduled online or
afterschool.
Failure to cancel a scheduled adventure may result in losing
privileges for future adventures.
When your group arrives at the library, please stay in the lobby until
Youth Services and security staff meet you for the Library Adventure.
Our goal is to provide the best possible library experience for every
group.
All children or adults that attend programs at the Farmington Public
Library are required to follow the Library's Rules of Conduct
Proposed School Visits Policy Appeal Procedure
The Farmington Public Library staff and Board design library policies
to ensure access to information and culture for all citizens, and to
realize the right of all library patrons to equal access to library
service.
Annual Planning Meeting
To fulfill that goal the library staff sets an annual planning meeting
in early August to discuss the School or Class Visits and Field Trip
Policy, the scheduled Library Adventures for the upcoming school year,
any problems or difficulties with the previous year’s Library
Adventures, and to gather input on improving the Library Adventures
experience.
All area teachers and educators are invited to attend.  In addition to
the invitations that are hand-delivered and mailed to previous Library
Adventures attendees, the Farmington Public Library’s Youth Services
staff e-mails invitations, announces the meeting in the library’s
newsletter, and distributes invitations to all daycare providers.
During the planning meeting attendees are charged with assisting the
library staff in improving library services, reviewing policies, to
ensure that every organization has equal access to Library Adventures.
Appeal Process
If an organization wishes to challenge the School or Class Visits and
Field Trip Policy or the scheduled Library Adventures for the current
school year, the Farmington Public Library staff and Board support the
following appeal procedure: Request for Reconsideration Form
Written Request
A member of the library staff explains the School or Class Visits and
Field Trip Policy to the patron, and offers a printed copy.  If the
patron wishes, s/he may then submit a written Request for
Reconsideration of the School or Class Visits and Field Trip Policy to
the Library Director.
Library Director’s Review
The completed request is reviewed by one or more members of the
library staff who have responsibility for the School or Class Visits
and Field Trip Policy, and by the Library Director.  The library staff
objectively review the request in question to ascertain that the
principles of equal access to library services were applied and review
the current year’s planning notes and requests to ensure that
suggestions by area teachers and educators were included in the
current year’s schedule.
The Library Director or a member of the library staff shall make a
written response to the requester within 14 days of the date that the
Request for Reconsideration was submitted.  The Library Director shall
also notify the Library Board of each Request for Reconsideration
received.
Appeal to Reconsideration Committee
If the requester is not satisfied with the decision of the library
staff, s/he may appeal in writing to the Library Director, who then
convenes a Reconsideration Committee.  This committee will consist of:
One member of the Library Board;
Members of the library staff with responsibility for School or Class
Visits and Field Trip Policy;
Members of the community selected jointly by the Library Board and the
Library Director.
In reviewing the appeal, the Reconsideration Committee relies on the
policies and considers other appropriate information, including
professional best practices and recommendations, comments from the
library staff, and comments from the requester.
The Reconsideration Committee will recommend an action to the Library
Director, who will reach a decision and inform the requester and the
Committee in writing of that decision.
Library Board Review
Should the requester wish to appeal this decision, s/he may make a
final appeal in writing directly to the Library Board, which will
review and rule on the request within thirty days of the final written
appeal.
The Farmington Public Library does not accommodate groups that
come to the library without prior registration.
********

This may not be at all what you’re looking for or it may give you some
ideas. We list different types of programs/tours that we can do for
teachers on our website and in our newsletter. Teachers like the
choices and usually request a program rather than just an unstructured
visit. If you’re having problems with groups “running wild” you may
want to consider giving them options.

Below are guidelines that we have posted on our website for teachers –
they aren’t really a policy. We offer a lot of programs (in house and
outreach) and host a lot of daycare and school groups so we have a
pretty complicated schedule to make sure everything is covered –
that’s why we ask for 2 weeks notice.

In addition to our programs, some groups/classes just want to come in
for book selection or research – they don’t need to call/schedule for
that. At one time we were having a lot of problems with a private
school that didn’t have a school library. They brought several classes
a week to our location to work on projects and select books. The kids
would go wild, pulling books off the shelf, looking at them and
leaving them. Every time they left we’d have at least 200 books to
reshelve. I decided something had to be done. I contacted Lowe’s and
asked them to donate 50 small paint sticks (which they did). I covered
2 coffee cans and put the sticks in them (25 each). The next time the
classes came I asked their teachers if I could speak to them about
library procedures. Hear is what I told them. “Thank you so much for
visiting our library and using it for study and projects. We love to
have you here but we also need your help. Every time you visit you
probably look at about 10 books that you don’t want while selecting
the books you do want. If each of you (20 children) look at and leave
10 books that is 200 books for us to put away when you leave! That is
a lot of books! So we need your help. I got paint sticks and we are
going to use them as shelf markers. They are special and only used by
classes. When you come in your teacher will come to the desk and ask
for the markers. Each of you may have 1. You will put it in the space
where the book you are looking at goes. When you are done looking at a
book you will put the book in the space where the marker is. If you
want to keep the book for checkout remove the marker. Before you leave
your teacher will collect the markers, put them in the can and return
them to us. If anyone is caught “sword fighting” or breaking a marker
you will lose your checkout privileges for the day.”

All of the classes/students were agreeable. The kids really seem to
like helping us by using the markers. Teachers remember to ask for the
markers and most of them are returned. A few are found in the stacks
and over time a few have disappeared. We’ve never had any “sword
fights” or any markers broken. The shelves are much straighter and the
staff is much happier. We generally repeat the above explanation to
classes each fall or whenever a new class begins visiting. If there is
a behavior problem we ask the teacher to handle it first and if she
doesn’t we’ll handle it through our Code of Conduct. Because we now
have a better relationship with the classes the teachers are better
about controlling the children.

Here is the info from our website:

Book a Program
Programs may be scheduled for groups of 10 or more.
Schedule programs at least two weeks in advance.
Call 242-5000 x2248.
Please have the following information available when you call:
•         Name of the school or group
•         Name, phone number, and email of the group’s primary contact person
•         Expected number of attendees
•         Age range of the group
•         Primary, plus an alternative date and time preference
Dewey Decimal - Children learn about the Dewey Decimal System. 45 min.
Hughes Main Library (3rd-5th grade)
Story Time - Book a private story time for your group or class of 10
or more. Call 242-5000 x2248. Time: 30 min. (You may select a theme.)
Shelf Elf - Based on the popular children’s book, this program teaches
children the care, handling, and arrangement of library materials and
gives them “hands on” experience. (K4 & up) Time: 30 min.
Tours
We offer several tour options for groups of 10 or more.
Schedule tours at least two weeks in advance.
Call 242-5000 x2248.
Please have the following information available when you call:
•         Name of the school or group
•         Name, phone number, and email of the group’s primary contact person
•         Expected number of attendees
•         Age range of the group
•         Primary, plus alternative date and time preference
•         Type of tour (see descriptions below)
Dr. Seuss tour - Children and teachers will like this tour. You will
see. You will like that it is free. They will like the matching games.
They will like learning area names. You will like that it’s
interactive. And that it holds their attention captive. Available at
all library locations. 30 min. (K5-2nd grade)
Safari tour - Children go on a grand safari as they trek through the
Children’s Area with their guide learning about different types of
library materials and African animals they sight along the way. Hughes
Main Library building. 30 min. (K5-2nd grade)
Behind the Scenes tour - Get a glimpse of how materials are processed,
the computer room, SC Room archives and more. Time: 75 min. (5th grade
and up - Hughes Main Library)
Computer Lab/Reference tour - Library staff will guide students in
accessing the quality resources and services offered by the Greenville
County Library System. Sessions can be tailored to student needs.
Class size is limited to groups of 10 or more. Time: 1.5 hours (5th
grade and up - Hughes Main Library) Beth:  This program includes a
reference tour of the library, a review of databases we subscribe to,
information on how to evaluate a website, and how to cite materials.
Teachers may select a particular subject for research. If they do we
emphasize that area of the collection on our tour and review databases
that would be particularly useful.)
*********

We don’t have an adult/student guideline.  Usually the schools have
appropriate guidelines for that.  We do ask that they call before they
come, because we like to have information available for them on what
the library offers.  Most of the time they are looking for something
specific and want us to present something.

Our storytime room is off of the preschool area, but we have something
scheduled in there almost every morning of the week—two days are not
our programs, but a group of GED students from the local college, and
their children have  daycare in the room, so it is unavailable for our
programming—as well as class visits, so having a class or 2 come in at
the same time is physically hard on our space issues.  We don’t have
enough seating in the Children’s Department.

We will do a story and a craft if they desire, but we do not hesitate
to tell them we do not have the staff scheduled to give them a tour
that day and suggest a different time.  A few times they have said
they are coming for research, but just wanted us to be aware of their
presence.  We really appreciate that because of the space issues.

Hope you find something that will work for you.
********

I’m attaching my guidelines and letter that I sent out to preschools.
(Attachments)
********

Just a note - something our Library has struggled with is not
excluding students and teachers from the rights of every Library user.
Whether it's one kid or 30, we need to ensure they are treated
consistently and don't lose value because we consider them "a class",
rather than ordinary patrons of the Library. I wouldn't enact any
behaviour consequences that you aren't already using on general
library visitors.
*************

Just from reading your post I think the courtesy call in advance saves
you many possible headaches. What happens if you and the other
reference librarians are out the day 20 kids show up?? Or you had
planned other things and will need to turn the kids away?

You could change it to a courtesy email--any easy way teachers can
give you a heads-up about their visit.
******************

>From our Library Programs policy. To see all of our policies, from the home
page (www.hcpl.net), click on About, then on Policies.

"In order to provide the highest level of service to as many of our
customers as possible each branch library works to determine how best to
serve the children in their community.  It is always preferable for groups
to contact the branch children's librarian before arriving at the library so
that library staff can determine what level of assistance may be available.
Groups wishing to visit the library without the expectation of any
presentation by library staff are welcome at any time."

This is the last paragraph of this particular policy.  Other sections may
also be helpful to you.  The several sections of the Problem Behavior policy
may also have some points you can use.

Good luck in putting together guidelines that work for your community.
****************

We don't have a formal policy but we have made adjustments in what
kids can do, etc...:

We remind teachers to tell students that they must bring their own
card.  We limit them to one book during school visits (no movies,
music cds, etc...).  Starting last May, we now have the students
browse for books instead of letting them run free in the children's
department.  That got to be pretty crazy.  We have an awesome
collection of educational toys, large puppet theater with hundreds of
puppets (mostly Folkmanis), a Thomas the Tank Engine table, etc...  We
tell the children that they can come anytime and play, but when they
are visiting with their class, they need to discover what cool books
they can find on the shelves.  We hand out shelf markers and watch for
proper use, helping them if they need it.  I try to make sure if
someone is having trouble finding something they like, that with just
a couple easy questions I can usually find something they can get
excited about.

We don't limit how many kids per adults, most teachers know what they
can handle.  If there is a problem the teacher deals with it and if it
isn't something they are aware of, I let them know.

I do agree that library staff should have a heads up when a group is
coming!  That's just commmon courtesy.

For some children, this is the only time they get to visit the library
so we try to make an extra effort to help them feel comfortable.
*****************

Attached is our letter we give out to groups.  It seems to work fairly
well here.  Good luck! (Attachments)
****************

In our system, and our branch specifically we like to have the teachers
call at least in advance and schedule the visit with the appropriate
librarian (Children's or YA). At the time the teacher schedules the
visit, we give them library card applications which we request be turned
in at least a week in advance. That way we can have the cards ready when
the class comes for a visit.

On the day of the visit, the librarian leads a talk, discussion, or
whatever is appropriate for the particular group. Kids then have the
opprotunity to check out one item, or more if the teacher is okay with
that. Lots of times kids want to get on the computers. Since teachers
are usually on a time schedule, we tell them they have to come back
another time for that.

I think that covers everything, but let me know if you have more
questions.
************************

Is this helpful? (Attachments)
******************

Our library doesn't have a specific policy on groups of children
coming into the library.  I am with your manager though about calling
ahead.  It is not necessary.  A public library is for the entire
public, whether that be individuals or groups and it is disheartening
to see a group of people, esp. children treated in a hostile manner by
a librarian, simply because she views them as an inconvinience.  Not
saying that you in particular would do this, only that I have seen it
happen.
*****************

Hi, just back from vacation and I read your question.  I really think you
need to keep the 24 hour notification in place, both for staffing reasons
and in case another class is already at the library!  We are a small
library and generally only have one person in children's so we like to
know when groups are coming.  We don't require a 5 to 1 ratio, but
generally the teacher has some parent volunteers chaperoning the groups.
Hope this will help.
*****************