Wow, so disheartening to hear all the stories about difficult library experiences.
We have been lucky, our elementary k-4 librarian (actually I think her title is information technology specialist) was a favorite and had a huge influence on our kids. However, it sounds like our public school experience is an outlier among those here, so I don't know if any of this will be useful. Our kids are older now, but we have fond memories of the library at the elementary school.
Our library was staffed by a librarian and a full-time library aide, along with a large group of parent volunteers; I spent a lot of time there when our kids were young. The parents were responsible for checking out, renewing and returning books, reshelving stuff and helping kids find books, thus leaving the librarian free to teach and interact with the kids.
None of the experiences I remember were directed towards gifted kids, by the way; they were enriching overall and things my guys loved. One thing that sounds different from what others describe is that our school has library classes, at least once a week (it's considered a special along with computers, music, art, PE, etc). The class is run by the librarian and aide, sometimes team taught with a classroom teacher, particularly if they are working on research projects.
The librarian spent a lot of time each year introducing the library- making sure everyone knew where each type of books are kept, etc. (there are no limits here on reading choices). She also spent time every year reviewing the computer catalog and how to search for books, the Dewey decimal system, etc- they had little scavenger hunts to ensure kids could figure out how to find what they needed in various sections, particularly because they end up doing a lot of research on the library. She also introduced all the online databases the school subscribes to, and hands out bookmarks with all the passwords, etc on them.
She also did wonderful, creative projects with the kids. A favorite was having the kids do book reviews. This happened throughout the year, books of their choice, and they explored all sorts of ways to record them. They frequently learned to use fun software programs like Voki or Animoto to record their book reviews, and the librarian would post them to the school library website so they were searchable later when your kid was looking for a new book. The website, by the way was fantastic; always had up-to-date information, lots of reading lists from various sources and geared to all types of kids/groups, great links, etc.
She spent time teaching specifics (age-appropriate) about Internet use and particularly safety, as well as how to evaluate websites for research purposes (Wikipedia, for example, was discouraged here).
She also managed to have author visits once a year. The kids would spend some time learning about the author and reading their work before the visit, and then have a great time meeting the author in person, getting to ask questions and often hear a talk about their work.
Towards the end of the school year, she would host a visit from the local public children's librarian, who would talk about summer reading programs and other things the library was doing, and encourage the kids to come in over the summer.
And then there were wonderful classes where she just let them go, explore the library and read, sprawled on the floor or curled up in the squishy chairs. There was a lot of interaction with her about specific books, what they were reading, what was new, etc.
Again, it sounds like we were very lucky. Good luck to you- as a librarian, you have the opportunity to make a huge impact!
