COVID Resources for School Librarians

I’d like to share two COVID resources for school librarians who are looking for fall 2020 solutions. The photo above illustrates a social media idea that I created in PowerPoint. The template can be downloaded here: Behind the Mask_ThatLibraryGirl. Each day, beginning in late July, I’ve opened the template and added photos of a teacher posing with… and without… a mask. Then, I’ve saved the template slide as a jpg in the drop-down menu. The slides have been used as daily posts on our school Facebook page. In the description, I’ve shared a bit of news about each teacher, introduced him or her to our new families, and I’ve hopefully helped our students get used to seeing the school staff all masked up.

Family Connections on Social Media

While the template that I’m sharing is very simple, the feedback that we’ve received from this series of photos has been heart-warming. We’ve gotten lots of “likes,” “loves,” and sweet comments! I hope you find it useful. Of course, I want to give credit for this great idea to my librarian friend, Tiffany Williams, who teaches in Mena, Arkansas. I’m so thankful that I scrolled by and spotted her showing off a “with and without” mask duo on their school’s Facebook page — and that she graciously allowed me to use their great idea!

Another ‘Rona Resource

My other COVID resource for school librarians involves the scientific guideline of quarantining returned books for 96 hours. To store our returned books, I purchased lidded bins from Walmart for $15 each. Because they’ll become quite heavy once we fill them with books, I’ll be using extra “teacher chairs” (with wheels) to move the bins around the library.

Quarantine Tracker Signs

Each of our bins has a sign attached to it like the one you see above. I’ll use these signs to track the release dates, so I’ll know when the books are safe to re-shelve. You can download a set of the free signs here: Quarantine Bin Signs_ThatLibraryGirl. I laminated mine because I want to circle each release day with a Sharpie and later get rid of the mark with fingernail polish remover. That way I can avoid accidental erasures, and I can also reuse my signs. I included two versions in the free download, so you can select a good fit for your situation. Again, I hope these COVID resources for school librarians take something off your plate as we head back to school.

 

Hello! Looking for the freebies?

#1 is under the subheading COVID Resources for Librarians.

#2 is under the subheading Quarantine Tracker Signs.