Outreach Guidelines
How often should schools be visited?
How do I plan a school visit?
How do I contact the school?
What if something goes wrong?
The trick is to stay flexible! Your primary role is to remind teaches and students about the resources available by the public library.
- Ideally, 2 visits per year
- In spring, to promote the Summer Learning Challenge.
- In fall, to promote homework help, Teacher in the Library and our print and online collections.
How do I plan a school visit?
- Set an objective for the visit.
- Promote any current library initiatives i.e. library card campaign, Spring / Summer / Winter Learning Challenge
- Provide online database instruction
- Book talk Science Fair books to middle schoolers
- Determine what style of visit best accomplishes your objective.
- Talk to the Principal
- Talk with the school librarian. When there is no school librarian, talk with a reading / literacy coach
- Talk with Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Local School Council (LSC)
- Classroom by classroom presentations (can be short - 3-5 minutes)
- In-depth presentation made to a grade or targeted classrooms
- School assemblies
- Attend a Report Card Pick-Up Event and have a table with library resources
- Plan what you will talk about. Select books, flyers and other materials - enough for each classroom. If you're distributing paper flyers or library card applications, pre-bundle them in groups of 30 so you have them counted out for each classroom.
How do I contact the school?
- Call the school at least 2 weeks ahead of time. Provide your name and library and mention that you would like to visit the school in the next few weeks. Ask who can help you schedule the visit: you'll likely be referred to the Assistant Principal or Principal.
- When you talk to the administrator, be sure to tell them why you want to visit, to whom you wish to speak, how long you plan to speak in any group/grade. Confirm the date via email after you have spoken.
What if something goes wrong?
The trick is to stay flexible! Your primary role is to remind teaches and students about the resources available by the public library.