When a Closet Returns to Use as a Professional Library

Even though I was a teacher's kid, as a child reader I wasn't privy to the goings on in the back rooms of school libraries. I was aware that librarians had offices and that the dividing wall between patrons and the keepers of the books likely housed all sorts of nooks and crannies for stamps, ink, and rubberbands at the circulation desk. Stamps and ink pads, stamps and ink pads.  And pencils. Oh, and maybe overdue notices and a cash box.

Offices and backrooms (and yes, cabinetry and drawers full of labels, adhesives, stamps, stickers, pencils, book tape, etc.) continue to be essential for school libraries since there's so much that needs to be done behind the scenes.  Patrons don't need to be in the middle of all of the book glue, scissors, cutting blades, adhesive covers, rolls of polyester book jackets, printers, adhesive removers, oversized elastic bands, book presses, drying racks, and jumbo spine clips while they're looking for a favorite book by Kate DiCamillo. New books waiting to be cataloged and in-processed keep those being repaired company until all are ready to be shelved or put into the hands of readers. Not to mention, it's also helpful to have a cabinet for our coats, umbrellas, purses, book bags, and lunch boxes, and locking storage for when the book fair comes to town. Offices and closets are necessary.

During the onset of COVID, the library wasn't used, so my library mentor and I were able to get outdated technology removed from a closet which freed up the floor considerably. Since she had to teach remote kindergarten with me for the school year, projects she had started while pregnant and prior to the pandemic remained unfinished. When my mentor took a job closer to home, I moved from my kindergarten classroom into the library and inherited a large closet that had always seemed inaccessible because the space had been full to the brim with floor-to-ceiling shelving of books, magazines, dvds, vhs tapes, and book fair decor, while book carts and the recently removed rolling tv/vcr/dvd player carts filled the floor.  It turns out the closet was really our professional library, a space where teachers and staff could borrow resources for professional development, instruction, etc. Here's what it looked like, sans outdated audio/visual equipment:

Realizing that most of the teacher resources (Mailbox, Ranger Rick, The Instructor) were outdated by decades and never used, I began with a no-holds-barred gutting of the shelves. 

The custodians provided me with a rolling trash bin, seen here in the left corner of the photo below (yes, the circulation desk required its own cleanout, too):

That bin was filled and emptied s-e-v-e-n times on the first day that I tackled the closet.  After discovering book sets tucked into the recesses of the closet cabinetry, I decided that I'd somehow put them out on the open shelves so that teachers could not only see them but borrow them as needed for whole-class or small-group interventions and enrichment. Because the library doesn't receive funding from the district for collection maintenance, book repair supplies, or new books (except when a new curriculum is adopted every half-decade), I scrounged every bin and basket I could find to store and arrange the book sets.  This past week I finally finished adding the last six sets of books to the collection and was able to share the spreadsheet containing all of the book set titles,  copy count, grade levels, and Lexile information with teachers. There's even a little room left on the shelves should any more book sets be discovered elsewhere in the building.

The book sets have a checkout card that can be left with me at the circulation desk, so I didn't have to use sheets of barcode labels on all of the books, and so teachers can grab and go while I'm teaching without worrying about interrupting my lesson. While only six sets have been checked out so far this year, it feels good knowing that there are more resources available to help teachers plan and support students, that they know where they are, and that they can get to them without risking a twisted ankle, smashed fingers, or an allergic reaction to decades-old dust.

Our library and its collection have evolved so much over the past two years.  I'm glad to be able to affect the space and its patrons in a positive way, and I plan to keep this shared heart of the school growing and changing so that it doesn't return to its time-capsule, archival state.