School Librarian Saturday: Google Slides and Book Checkout – a Match Made in Library Heaven

In School Librarian Saturday, I’m going to share the websites, databases, apps, and other stuff I use with students in my K-5 teacher-librarian role, under the cover of internet darkness (see: the weekend).

Click here to see all the previous School Librarian Saturday posts

I’m breaking the usual format of School Librarian Saturday posts today to talk about something that has really helped me recently: using Google Slides to help show students how to check out books.

In the past, I would physically walk classes through the book checkout process. I would show the various sections of the library, model selecting a book, taking it to the circulation desk, and checking the book out. This was always a hit-or-miss process – trying to walk a class of kindergarteners around the library can get dicey in a hurry.

Then, last year, I had a revelation (maybe you’ve had the same one): What if I used Google Slides to show the whole process, using photos from our library? That way everyone would receive the same information, it would save time, and I could focus on showing the process, instead of corralling everyone around.

So I tried it. And I love it. Here are the elements I included in my book checkout Google Slides deck:

• Photos of every section of the library:

• Photos of our genre stickers
• Photos of how to use a shelf marker when looking for a book:

1. A couple “oops” photos: books put back upside down or with pages showing (to discuss):

• Photos of the circulation desk and how we line up to check out books:

• Photos of places around the library to read

Now I present the slides to each class and I know that I’m covering everything I need to cover and students are understanding it better.

Filed under: School Librarian Saturday