Wioletta Stępień Pedagogical work or promotional activity? As seen at Grade School 12 in Bełchatow
	Grade School No 12 in Bełchatow
	This article was translated thanks to the grant received from the Open Society Institute

About the library

Grade School No 12 in Belchatow, a modern educational facility, was founded in 1992. Since the very beginning it has been managed by the same headmaster. It has at its disposal a very well stocked and modern center for information serving the pupils, their parents, and the teaching staff. A substantial area destined for the library first included the lockers, a bright and spacious reading room, a loan division area and room for cataloguing activity. The library was equipped with TV, VHS, radio.

In 1997, 82 new classes were formed, and then 8 more, at a pre-school level. The school facility, originally destined to hold about 1000 children, had now about 2000. The space started to slowly run out the reading room had to be converted into an additional classroom. A room formerly serving as stack was now stocked with books and a small portion of the customer section was adapted as area for individual work. There was, however, some no-frills space left to conduct classes with younger pupils and provide them with direct contact with books.

Then, in 1999, came the educational reform, and with it, the new type of grammar schools. As a result, the number of pupils increased. This, in turn, forced the separation of existing library in two divisions and the remaining space had to be shared. At present one library room of 44 m² functions as center for information serving 1200 pupils. The library staff with their exceptional organizational skills, inventive thinking, and enormous amount of work managed to create the following:

• visitor service area,
• books, catalogues, files, periodicals area with an enclosure for cataloguing activity.

The library welcomes users everyday, from 8 a.m till 4:30 p.m. The pupils can borrow books four days a week, while on Wednesday the library deals with its interior business and members of The Book Club have their regular meeting. The reference collection is accessible every day.

There are three full-time librarians on staff who perform their duties according to educational guidelines set both by the school and the educational rules and act on education. These guidelines key points are: technical and organizational issues, educational work, close co-operation of schools, parents and various institutions. The library staff is involved in the process of continuing education, participating in meetings with editors, publishers, people of culture, attending workshops and courses all this in order to constantly improve their professional skills and broaden their work experience. Members of the staff pay special attention to learning more about pedagogy, didactics, psychology, and to keep up with what's new on the publishing market. They also make efforts to educate themselves in the matter of new educational trends and legal issues pertaining to libraries.

Collection

The library contents consists of: 12, 000 books, 250 video cassettes, 300 tapes, 150 CDs, and some educational games. The library staff's main concern is to first and foremost conduct and complete the prescribed educational program, however, the individualized needs of the pupils in terms of choice of reference literature are also taken into consideration. Books such as: encyclopaedias, atlases, albums, manuals, lexicons, dictionaries, non-fiction, constitute about 40% of the book collection, while the compulsory reading literary material and chosen pieces of fiction amount to 50% of the total. 10% of the books are the manuals used by the teaching staff.

The library subscribes to over 40 periodicals, and the library staff try to follow the current trends and popular tendencies. The youngest users can help themselves to current periodicals destined for their age group as: "Ciuchcia", "Świerszczyk", "Płomyczek", whereas older ones take interest in reading such periodicals as: "Popcorn", "Bravo", "Przyroda Polska", "Raj", "Poznaj swój kraj", "Poznaj świat", "Mówiś Wieki". Periodicals assisting teachers in their work are also ordered in: "Biologia w Szkole", "Chemia w Szkole", "Geografia w Szkole", "Języki Obce w Szkole", "Wiadomości Historyczne", "Wychowanie Fizyczne i Zdrowotne", just to name a few. The librarians also subscribe to a couple professional of titles "Biblioteka w Szkole", "Poradnik Bibliotekarza", "Przewodnik Bibliograficzny", "Nowe Książki", "Guliwer".

Due to the lack of a proper reading room and huge interest of the readers, the library allows borrowing of the periodicals overnight. Bearing in mind that school library is a basic educational tool both for the teachers and the students, the proper placement of books with free access to shelves plays an important role. The books are placed according to the Universal Decimal Classification and they are catalogued alphabetically and according to topics. There are also name, subject, review and illustration registers.

The school library

The library staff's responsibility is to implement and then efficiently oversee the flow of information at school. The librarians use school's bulletin board as well as available space in teachers' room for posting current info about library business - quizzes, meetings, charity actions, new book trends and publishing novelties. They also fill in for absent teachers or free periods conducting classes about reading, ecological, regional issues and summarizing events of the past century. This allows for the broader and longer contact with students; they can be reminded at that time about returning overdue material and get acquainted with newly purchased books. Librarians also assist teachers in conducting research and students in organizing various school functions, i.e. a celebration of the school patron (Kornel Makuszyński, well-known Polish author, a great friend of children and youth) or school sponsors.

In the recent years, the library's ties with the Parent Committee grew significantly stronger. The parents participate in school functions, donate books and money. At the moment, a process of computerization of the entire library is under negotiations. In keeping with the idea of constantly improving the quality of their work and service, the staff conducted a poll among students about the library's activities and its efficiency in helping with the didactic process. The answers proved that the library's activities are well received and effective. Students visit the library not only for the reasons of conducting research pertinent to their schoolwork, but also help themselves to the reference collection. When in need, they ask the staff's help. The functions and classes organized by the librarians are very popular. At presents, the readers biggest wish is for the library to grow bigger and fully computerized. Overall, readers' opinion about the library was very favorable.

The Book Club

The students of grades 5 and 6 form a core of the school's Book Club. Once a week they participate in the activities geared at improving their library efficiency. There are four groups sharing various library activities:

• performance team - this group is the Club's calling card of sorts the girls participate in shows and school functions,
• artists - the participants help out with the preparations of functions, produce bulletin boards and take care of the library's appearance (maintenance duties),
• technical team - this group conducts the maintenance of books simple repairs, (adjusting covers, cleaning), book placement, producing catalogue cards in the form of illustrations for the youngest readers,
• info-group - the participants oversee the flow of books circulation, act as liaison with the teachers and produce remainder notices for delinquent borrowers.

The illustrated catalogue for the youngest readers is produced in the form of cards with the information about tales, stories, children's poetry and compulsory reading books for grades 1-3. Each card contains a brief bibliographical description, an illustration, a recommendation note and a signature. The cards are protected by plastic covers and filed alphabetically in special folders. Such manner of storing helps maintain cards neatness and good appearance even with a heave use. The costs of purchased material (paper, sheeting, etc.) and time spent on producing these cards prove to be a good investment of sorts, as readership and interest increases. Also, the cards are excellent teaching aid. The 5 and 6th graders have great fun creating these cards for their younger colleagues and leave behind a unique mark of their talents. Undoubtedly, work with young people can be very satisfying and rewarding, however, it requires lots of patience and inventiveness, especially when it comes to inciting enthusiasm for new tasks. The girls who help out at the library broaden their knowledge of books, become skilled in library techniques, develop other interests and reader's interests. They also learn the meaning and value of teamwork, the importance of taking responsibility, and how to prepare for active participation in cultural aspects of their future lives.

Book fairs

The school library organises many events during the school year -for all kinds of readers of all ages. These are:

• Best greetings for Mom - nicest Mother's Day greetings competition.
• Do I know this character? - an art competition for the youngest. The member of library staff describes a book character and the children are to name the book in question and draw a picture.
• What do I know about this book? - a quiz for 3 to 6 graders testing their knowledge of certain library issues.
• Students as creators of comic books - (i.e. creating a sequel to Koziolek Matolek a popular children story).
• School Celebration of Books - the most popular a five-day-long event including:
  • a book fair,
  • a raffle,
  • a library quiz,
  • art competitions,
  • a closing event in the form of celebration with performances and award presentation.

A School Celebration of Books begins with a book fair usually prepared with the assistance of a co-operating bookstore. A special promotional offer is prepared, including books for the youngest (fairy tales and poetry for children), adventure, history and nature books. Naturally, fiction, science, manuals, handbooks are also represented. Thanks to such a way of promoting books, students have the opportunity to examine the books, leaf through pages and get acquainted with their contents. Usually, the main goal of the fair is reached the students do get closer to books.

The second day is dedicated to lighter fare there is a raffle during which all the kids can have fun, win prizes (everybody is a winner!) and new funds for the books are collected. All the local sponsors are named, acknowledged and thanked during the function, and later, in the local weekly, "Fakty" ["Facts"]. Most institutions make gracious donations, however, not everybody shows keen interest.

About 1.300 items were collected for the lottery, as well as valuable prizes for the art and book competitions. Lottery items included: a desk chair, books, school bags, compact discs, videocassettes, caps, T-shirts, cosmetics, toys, museum passes, games, drinks, vitamins, etc. All the items were on display and sold for 1,00 PLN. The organization of the event was faultless, there was no confusion and the raffle was conducted in an orderly manner. All the tickets were sold. The whole event proved to have been a success due to well-organized promotion including:

• ads and notices about the event, posted all over the school well ahead of time (two weeks),
• an informative poster placed strategically at the school gate,
• live ads the members of the Book Club announcing the coming event in every class.

The librarians put a tremendous amount of work into all the preparations (looking for sponsors, lottery items pick-up, marking the items, and so on), but their effort was rewarded with a considerable financial gain, namely 1.300 PLN, later allocated for the purchase of new books.

Day three was dedicated to the inter-class library competition meant to test the following:

• student readership in general,
• students skills in using the information,
• students knowledge about school patron, Kornel Makuszyński,
• basic library knowledge acquired during classes.

The participants were those students of grades 5 and 6 who successfully completed the first level of the competition.

Day four of the event saw an art competition whose main goals were:

• to get students better acquainted with the library and its functions,
• to make students realize that spending time at the library is an excellent pastime,
• to encourage them to borrow and read books,
• to explore the character and writings of Kornel Makuszyński (the school's patron),
• to help develop their creativity,
• to awaken children's imagination,
• to help children develop greater interest in reading.

The students of all grades participated in the following competitions:

• grades 1, 2 - the quiz about Koziołek Matołek [a character from children's poem - ed.],
• grades 3, 4 - the quiz about their most favourite character from Makuszyński's novels,
• grades 5, 6 - school library poster.

The students expressed themselves beautifully using various artistic techniques. The closing ceremonies included handing the awards and artistic performance of the girls from the Book Club.

The library and the parents.

The library keeps in touch with parents, mainly by way of organizing meetings, presentations and exhibitions on a variety of topics. For example: Children's education problem solving , alcohol, tobacco, drugs, AIDS the prevention . All kinds of material is used in preparation of these functions: videos, books, newspaper clippings, articles, free written information and flyers offered by AA, Monar (a network of self-help groups for drug users) and social assistance groups. The parents learn about the meetings from notes posted on the school's gate. Undoubtedly, the above-mentioned initiative met with great success. The parents seemed to be greatly interested in attending exhibitions. Most of them were not even aware that there were so many publications available to help them with solving their queries. The library staff's role was to assist in sorting through the available material and determine the requirements. After a few sessions, a group of parents joined the library and became its regular members. The bibliotherapy education appears to be very helpful in such sessions leading. ^[1] The librarians got feedback on the borrowed book; sometimes, they referred the parents in need of dealing with their educational problems to psychologists or counselors.

The members of the school library took a poll about reading interests of the students. One of the questionnaires was directed to the parents asking their opinion about how reading benefits their children. The parents opinions were:

• reading improves children's expression, reduces the number of errors,
• children should spend more time at the library,
• children should read more at home,
• children should be positively motivated and rewarded for their reading activities with good marks during Polish language classes.

Co-operation with other cultural and social institutions. The school library has been co-operating with the Pedagogical Library of Bełchatow for a couple of years now. The staff has been very helpful in sharing valuable information regarding proper cataloguing of books and book classification. They also share all sorts of professional literature, newspapers with the school.

Similar co-operation was established with the Public Library of Bełchatow. There is an exchange of information regarding books, consultations regarding clients and regular visits to the library with the students of grade 6. The six graders direct contact with a different kind of a library benefits them greatly.

The school's working relationship with the Muzeum Regionalne [Museum of the Region] has been beneficial too this institution helps generously both with donations of books and money, as well as sharing their expertise.

The library has been in contact with one of the branches of MONAR Society - University of Life for the Children with Special Needs in Belchatow. Every year before Christmas holidays, for the last three years, the staff has announced the action "Kids for the Kids" donating books, school gear, toys and clothing for the needy children. Last, but not least the school's library has been working with the local newspaper, "Fakty", announcing library events and acknowledging sponsors.

Despite the fact that fulfilling library duties takes almost all of the staff's time in performing their work they try to be more than library technicians. They realize that kids who come to borrow books require attention and need to be treated as individuals. However hard, time-consuming and demanding this work may be, it is not without rewards the children, even those with learning problems, seem to be doing a lot better when aided with right literature or advice on the part of the library staff. The librarians feel appreciated and needed when thanked by the kids or asked for further assistance.

Footnotes

[1] The author specializes in bibliotherapy and is graduated from Państwowe Pomaturalne Studium Kształcenia Animatorów Kultury i Bibliotekarzy in Wrocław .

Translated by Dorota Jaglarz