One of the most magical things about reading aloud to students is that they then want to read it themselves or read it with their family. It is the quickest way to get books flying off of shelves and into student hands.
An even better kept secret is that the same is true for when classroom teachers read aloud to students. I know some of my colleagues tried and true read alouds, favorite series and favorite authors; and I can tell when they’ve been reading them to their class. I remember being a bit surprised that one second grader after another was asking me for Beverly Cleary books, or that I had about a dozen holds for Charlotte’s Web from fourth graders, or one teacher’s Kindergarteners ask for every Pig the Pug book available.
This is why when I was putting together my circulation policy and purchasing plan for this year, I decided to use that well kept secret to my advantage.
Knowing that our school library would have a constant flow of books, I also knew that it would be difficult to display them all at once. It just doesn’t feel right to stuff them on the shelves without giving them a chance to catch a potential reader’s eye.
While waiting to rotate these books on display, I decided that I would share them with the staff through a You’ve Been Book’d program.
I first read about You’ve Been Book’d on Shannon Miller’s blog, and thought that this would be a simply brilliant way to:
You’ve Been Book’d is a whole school library book promotion program. Typically Library Media Specialists and/or Literacy Coaches select books to share with staff.
Some You’ve Been Book’d programs are used to promote library books. This could be new books, or books that suit a particular purpose. A couple of us in my district use it to get new books some attention and love across the building. Another district colleague uses You’ve Been Book’d as a way to use literacy to support our district wide climate and culture themes. For example, she provides different titles across the school during Native American Heritage month.
Others use You’ve Been Book’d to build classroom libraries. Classroom teachers read aloud the book to their class. Then, they add the book to their classroom library.
What you do really boils down to funding, time, frequency, collaboration, purpose, and preference.
Honestly, when I started this program, I had no clue what I was really getting into and had only a vague plan. So I highly recommend NOT doing that. Instead, learn from my mistakes
First, decide WHY you want to Book your staff. Do you have a massive order of books coming in and can’t conceivably put them all on display at once, but you also don’t want them to just sit in a box waiting to be displayed? Do you want to increase the number of read alouds, highlight the collection, introduce new titles, or support a school or district initiative? Knowing why will help guide the rest.
Next, decide how frequently you will book your staff. This is where I failed; I really wasn’t sure about how frequently I would circulate books across the building and (as always) I over estimated the amount of time I had available. I recommend keeping it manageable by book’ng staff either once a month, every other month, or once a marking period.
If you decide to have it be a continuous flow of books; you need to make sure that you have enough time and new books to do so. You could potentially be switching out books once a week! You also have to consider that you may not want to come off as a book pusher; even your most avid book loving staff may feel overwhelmed by a constant flow of books!
Third, get a system in place. I recommend:
Making sure the books are catalogued in your system. I upload the marc records that Mackin provides and I just scan them under copy status to make sure that they are in the system.
If you haven’t already, create a Book’d patron in your library software. This will make it easy to keep track of where the books are. BONUS: this becomes part of your circulation stats! I use a handy chart to jot down who I gave books to so that I know which teams returned their books and which may need gentle reminders to read and return.
Decide how you will distribute the books. Will you distribute the books to each team in your building? One of my district colleagues and I did this. We give a book to every team, including the specialists and office staff. We ask that they read the book and pass it on to the next person on their team. Another option is to only distribute books to a certain number of staff. They can then hang a sign on their door indicating that they’ve been book’d. This sign will make it helpful for others to know who to swap books with because they will only swap with other book’d staff.
Gather some bags to put the books in. I had some sweet recycled bags made. One of my district colleagues uses the bags she has collected over the past couple of years from various vendors and library events.
Prepare the You’ve Been Book’d Flyers. What you print and use will depend on how you run your program.
If you want staff to pass one book onto the next person on their team, you will want these. They are generically informative while still being cute and fun. All you have to do is print and go!
If you want staff to swap books with another book’d colleague, you will want these. Edit them to give a sneak peek at the reading selection. BONUS: repeatedly use the same books with different staff!
You can keep a more detailed list
Once you know why and how you’ll get started, it is time to start book’n folks! All you need to do is:
If possible, I highly recommend collaborating on a project like this. While I did collaborate with the other LMS in my district, I was not thinking about who in my building to collaborate with. I should have reached out to the literacy and/or math coach, SPED team, or the ELL teachers. Their perspective would have been great for choosing books and who to book.
This year, I book’d teams. Some teams finished them quickly and I received books back within less than two weeks. Others will need a gentle reminder to read and return. Once you have collected all of the books, display them and get ready for the next round.
