Thing 5

I remember as a child loving to go to the library, in fact I liked to read and would go through books so quickly that my parents did not want to buy them. In elementary school, I loved library time. I always had my books finished by the time it was to bring them back. In middle school, I liked reading, but stuck to the more popular series like Babysitter's Club or Sweet Valley Twins--so my parents did a lot of buying, since the latest was not at the library fast enough. Our middle school librarian did remind me of the old lady in the movies-- there were 4 chairs at all the tables, but her biggest rule was only 2 people per table. It was like the 11th commandment or something.
Between being busier in high school with things and not having the weekly trip to the library, I usually did not visit too much ih high school, except for research projects. I did continue to read for pleasure, but I was not a frequent visitor to the library. In college and graduate school, the library was again more a place for research. This summer though I decided to get myself a library card in my area- Maple Grove. I have liked that they let you check out a lot of books at once and you can renew online-- in case you can't make it back in 2 weeks.I haven't really used it for much other than pleasure reading.
As for my students, I really am not too aware of their use of the public library. As a history teacher, I do take my students to our media center and teach them about the resources there, however, being that I don't live in Carver County, I am not that familiar with the libraries or student usage. I know that Larry Bachman and I are going to encourage public library use by offering some extra credit for history day and we are having public librarians come in and teach our students about the resources. Other than this, I haven't had a lot of time to think about better usage for students.