What Makes a Good Elementary Classroom Library?
Organization Variety of Topics, Genre, and Reading Level Cleanliness Accessibility Convenience Up-to-Date Collection Flexibility Practicality Integration to Curriculum High Interest Level Age-Appropriate Ease of Management (by teacher) Tips There are a few things to keep in mind as you set up your classroom library. Most importantly, keep things as simple as possible – this will save headaches as the year progresses! • Teach students the routine. Let them help with the organization and maintenance. This saves work for the teacher and it gives students ownership of their library. • Keep a database or spreadsheet of the books in your classroom library. We do not have access to circulation or automation software, but this type of software isn’t necessary for the smaller number of books we handle each day. Two options for tracking your collection are creating a spreadsheet of your entire collection using Microsoft Excel or cataloging your books using LibraryThing.com. LibraryThing is free,
