I am a past gifted teacher, now classroom teacher (due to budget cuts). I'm working on another Masters degree, this time in Education Technology and Library Science. I'm wondering how you have seen the library be a support for your gifted learners/children. I want to be able to provide enrichment opportunities to students when I'm a librarian but I'm not sure how it will work.

I would love to hear about any experiences your children have had with the library and if it's been a supportive place.

Thanks!

This is wonderful. Thanks for writing/asking.

I would recommend ensuring that kids aren't restricted to age/grade-level books. The most common complaint I've heard on this board is that kids and parents get very frustrated when gifted kids aren't allowed to borrow books outside an arbitrary range that has been established for them.

As for enrichment, I'd recommend getting to know the gifties and helping them find books that will benefit them.

That's wonderful! I agree with Val. My DS6 has been restricted from accessing parts of his school library. Our public library has been a huge resource, however, and the librarian and my son have really connected. He learned far more via his public library card than he did in K this year by far.

Are you interested in the use of school libraries, public libraries not located in schools, or both?

Book clubs for the gifted reader (wouldn't have to label it that)....

Some sort of magical app where you input....he's read this this this and this and loves it and he has read all of these off this list and he likes big thick books at least at this level (no dystopia or teen lovey stuff)....print me out a list for what is next. I know good reads and scholastic and amazon have some recommendation features but I need a really good app (or a human) who can do a better job.

Netflix actually did a good job when I was a member because once the recs showed up you could keep clicking...saw that loved it, saw that hated it and they kept recommending.

Right now I just look though the library alphabetically in the fiction section...sometimes I find something he likes and sometimes it is a miss (I volunteer work in the school media center). He doesn't get a lot of time to browse so I help.

An easily searchable online catalogue with the ability to make reservations is the single best feature of our public library.

The local librarians add content-specific tags that are searchable by age/grade level, so that you can search an entry such as "sea stars tide pools", toggle kindergarten level, and get a list of potential titles.

ETA: keeping story time or book clubs ability-linked, not age-linked, is something I wish was more prevalent here.

Our experiences:


Public school: LOVE our librarian. She has always let my girls check out what they wanted once she got to know them. If they had something outside of norm (1st grade shelving restrictions early in the year to acclimate to library-- then you only have to do a short read a loud to her to be able to check out what you want---especially if she knew family and their comfort level with content)- we were allowed to stop after school and check out from anywhere. She always had suggestions and urged them to try something new. I love that she does not like AR/limited reading choices.

** would love if they had a book club and/or peer suggested book activities**

Public library: LOVE our library. Librarians didnt blink an eye at my 5 yr olds asking for something like "name a book" or for specific chapter books. They even offered suggestions and/or greet my kiddos by name after awhile. We have a wonderful library with a massive childrens department and supportive librarians. I do wish now that my kiddos are older (8) that they had the marvelous selection of activities that are available to the younger set (K-2nd grade) like book clubs, an older Elem kid storytime, etc. THey have some programming, but said that age group (8-12) has been one that is hard to get activity on. Lots of family programs though!

The key thing in my mind is making sure you have a good range of appropriate yet challenging books for the gifted reader and making them accessible and obvious. These might be books typically shelved with the adults books. Particularly pay attention to books that aren't the most popular, but are still well written and engaging to people of all ages. These exist but take a bit more work and research to find. Perhaps encourage gifted kids that come through your library to write reviews of these books to be posted along a display.

I agree with everyone that is saying to allow the gifted readers to take out books at their level in the school library. What I saw a lot of in K and 1 especially is that the librarian would put out a bunch of grade level books on a table and only allow the children to choose from that table, instead of the whole library. I'm sure that made it easier for them, but my child who was reading 3 levels above would come home with a picture book that was read for 2 minutes and then was done with it.

The current librarian knows my child and abilities and makes a point to suggest higher level books.

What I appreciate about our local library is that they have no minimum age for a library card and no limit to how many books you can take out. The volunteers at the desk seem to "know" about advanced readers.

We use the public library's online feature exclusively - once we search for a book or keyword, there are links to other similar books and reviews and recommendations and categories. We hardly interact with librarians because we do things online - reserve books, download ebooks etc. I believe that this is the trend of the future. So, I would suggest that you study all the online apps available for library use - overdrive, adobe etc have some such apps. I suggest coming up with ideas for helping gifted kids access information readily using friendlier interfaces with librarians able to help them out online and in person when needed - maybe facilitate online book discussions, book clubs, foreign language classes etc.

When my son was in 1st grade he had 2 pull out classes each day. He was also in a reading discussion group 2 times a week. So he was always on the go especially for a 1st grader. On his way back to class from his pull outs he would stop by the library grab a book off the shelf and sit down and start reading. I got a note from his teacher one day stating he had done this. He told me he did this all the time. I told him to check the book out and get back into class. He told me he already had 2 books out already and couldn't check out another till he returned his others.
He said he has read several books this way. He never really got into trouble just something to watch out for.

He absolutely adored his librarian his 1st grade year. She let him check out any book he wanted no matter which level it was. I bet she was breaking some rules.

I have had to author emails to the appropriate authorities for the same school in two separate school years that said, in essence, "My DD should not be prevented from accessing any material she is interested in at the school library." I'm working from an assumption that an elementary school library is mostly free of controversial and/or mature content, and the only issue is reading ability... which for our DD, is not an issue.

Yes! Our public school has a one book limit and my DS6 has to choose a picture book. He's reading on a 4th grade level but his DRA does not reflect that so he's stuck with the picture books.

We ran into some difficulty last year when my DS was a first grader was interested in anatomy. He had been given free access to the library and came home with a book about how to deal with the bodily changes that accompany puberty. The book discussed issues like how to deal with comparing genitalia in the locker room and how to deal with hair growth on specific parts of the body. We had to ask the librarian to monitor his reading a little more closely because he read the entire book before he arrived home from school.

There are all levels of picture books because tons of picture books are meant for the adults to read and not the kids....thinking Steig, Kellogg, some Avi....lots and lots are fourth grade and fifth grade. My son tried to read every Caldecott winner off the poster if the library had it in first grade for his picture book and every Geronimo Stilton and Goosebumps book for his chapter books (had to get permission to read those high level chapter books, but he did) but no one was helping him find other books. I helped and his teacher helped last year in second grade.

Oh I wholeheartedly agree, Sweetie. We have a much loved picture book collection at home. I just wish he'd bring home something equivalent from school.

We love our public library! We are very fortunate to live near one that seems to be quite well funded, new books regularly, book sales several times a year. (However, I learned the hard way that my child is a glutton for books and while my back is turned will buy many since they are 10 cents each. But I digress...)

Knowing the books/genres well is what has distinguished one librarian in particular at our library. She loves that DS is such an advanced reader and makes excellent suggestions based on his interests. She told me she maintains a book list in her work binder of new books or ones she's remembered reading that are good for advanced/prolific readers.

We have also been fortunate in that the private schools DS7 has attended seem to allow him open access to their library books.

My child's biggest barrier at the library is tall shelves, so my #1 wish would be plenty of easy-to-move stools that young children can use to browse shelves that are higher than eye level.

Also book clubs. Also a great collection of high-quality books, especially series books that kids love and some of the newer non-fiction books. The genre is changing a lot right now. Also a general interest in helping all children find books that are a good match for them. Also the ability to check out books after school.

My child's library is very dated. There is no librarian. Children are allowed to check out one book at a time and must keep it in the classroom. I remember the library pretty much saving my life when I was a kid. THAT was where I learned the most in school. My child doesn't have that.

We mainly use the public library. I must drive her, so she doesn't get the joy of exploring the library by herself. The shelves are really high at our public library. Sometimes my child tells me what she is interested in and I pull a selection off the shelf for her to look through, but most of the time she finds the books online and we "order" them from the library. It pretty much kills the concept of browsing.

Lots of amazing tips. Thank you everyone. My previous school librarian limited book selection based in grade rather than reading level and it has always bothered me too.

I am a subversive library aide at our school. I've helped with K-2 for the last several years. I understand limiting them to certain parts of the library for the first few weeks while they are getting used to things. After the first few weeks, if a kid comes and asks for something that is not in the reading circle area (picture books and easy readers), I either grab the book for them or accompany them to that section - I'm not about to carry over all of the Magic Treehouse books! I quickly get a reputation with the kids as the lady who will let you get "big kid" books.

I hate when I hear the librarian say that that probably isn't a "just right" book. I know that the librarian doesn't believe that some of these kids read these things but I talk to them. Some of them do read them and some of them have parents or older siblings who read the books to them. As the parent of a 2e kid, I get super frustrated by the attitude that I child shouldn't have access to a book that they can't read themselves. If the child is interested in the book that is a stretch, aren't they more likely to work with an adult to access the content? I always tell the kids that if the book ends up being harder than they thought, they always can bring it back early.

For us our public library/school has a program called myON, a program that reads books aloud. DS is gifted but his reading hasn't yet caught up to his intellect. Plus he still loves pictures. So I use a lot of reserved award winner books from our county physical library system, but the myON reads books aloud and shows the pictures and it's been great. Not all the books are things I would choose or high literacy, but DS usually finds a lot he likes, and they do have some great resources, like Max Axiom (a science comic series).

The public library also has some audiobooks MP3, which we may start using for car rides for some chapter books.

School library... He goes once a week, and is guided to choose books of a certain reader. Very limiting I think. He can't read past his level, but I read SO many books aloud, why restrict him? And it's only one book. I personally think the school probably spends a lot of unnecessary time labeling books a certain AR reader level and coding when it should just be a LIBRARY. You know, fiction here, non fiction here, like the real world. Why should the students look for a certain coded book for their level? Rant over for now.

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!

We love our public library! There seems to be no limit on checkouts nor renewals (as long as no one had requested the same book). I search online and request a ton of books. Free holds helps a lot. I search by juvenile. Seeing page numbers helps too. A link directly to like AR (so I could gage interest level, reading level etc) would be icing.

I agree about story times being open to kids by ability. We also had some librarians (at other branches) be too strict about what for DD's age should have been a process based art activity rather than product oriented, and DD was quite bothered by that. She also freaked out when librarians acted out a scary poem. Sometimes librarians seem clueless about what's scary or mean in stories. I'm always cringing at puppet shows as the animals call each other names. Maybe not every kid will cry or repeat it forever but mine will

There's a Shakespeare reading club at our local branch and it was open to all ages, so I took my 6yo Shakespeare obsessed daughter ( I checked what play they were doing first) and she loved it. We all just read the plays aloud. The other readers (almost all elderly or middle aged, with an occasional college kid) seemed happy and welcoming. That was a fantastic experience for DD.

I remember looking for Les Miserables in sixth grade and being told it was not an elementary book. No offer to get it etc. the first week of junior high I checked it out and read it! DD's school doesn't even have a library (just big classroom collections) so we haven't had school experiences. I make sure we use our public library a lot, and I'm always checking out a huge pile of books.

Our public library is fantastic-- we have a 100 book limit.

It's the school library that stinks.

Thank you for asking!

When DS began first grade at his small charter school, (this school moves children up or down depending upon their level as determined by parental recommendation and MAP testing) he had not yet taken the MAP test and so the librarian was not aware that he could read at a 5th grade level, as tested at his prior public school. When she sent him home with an easy reader, I went with him back to the school and told her that it was too easy because at his prior school he was tested at a 5th grade level.

She seemed to be unaware of that. She also, and perhaps this is just her personality, was reluctant to direct us to the correct level of books. I was a bit put off because I thought the charter's policy would have prepared her for such requests.

So, if I had a say in how the library is set up for kids like ours, I would appreciate having a "getting to know you" survey a parent can fill out. It would include a child's interests (to help with choosing subject matter), as well as past books the child has read on their own. I would love to see a "Comments" section to add any quirks a child may have, such as gravitating toward books that are years too easy for them.

I'm happy to say that since the librarian has learned DS is truly a high-level reader (I credit the MAP test and his teacher for this!), she doesn't blink an eye when he wants to check out a three inch book on the elements and asks to have it renewed again and again.