Library skills curriculum – what do we want?

Part 3 in a series liveblogging curriculum development.  (Part 1 – Introduction.  Part 2 – a visit to the neighborhood branch library.)

Over a cup of tea, each of us nursing a little one, I told Hannah I was planning on developing a library-skills curriculum for second grade.  "Do you want me to develop it for Ben too?"  (Her son Ben is in the same grade as Oscar.)  It sounds like a good idea.  I write down the name of the library branch that her family uses, so I can tailor the curriculum for their library too, and I keep my notebook and pencil out while we think out loud of what the children need to learn.  We come up with a scrawled list:

• Library rules.
• Asking librarian for help — approaching and identifying library staff.
• Where ref materials are
• how to find on shelves – children F, children NF, picture books
• author title subject keyword
• basic – computer catalog

At this point we pause and reminisce about card catalogs:  the brass pulls polished by many hands, the clunk  of the drawers sliding open, the feel of placing your palm on the aligned edges of many cards and turning hundreds of cards at once, the faded typewritten ink:  Subject — Libraries — Library science. Hannah tells me that her church has a library, a small collection, that still uses one — only one drawer, but a real card catalog nonetheless.   "Really?  Maybe we can take a field trip to see it!"  She agrees that this could be fun.  Maybe we could develop a card catalog for a child’s bookshelf even, as a project…

I pick up my pencil again.  "What about alphabetization?" I ask.

Hannah considers carefully and finally says, "I don’t think that this ought to rely on the child’s knowing how to alphabetize words.  It’s a pretty complicated skill." 

"But maybe if they were at least able to alphabetize to the first letter of a word.  So they can at least find the right volume of the encyclopedia." 

This seems right, so we continue:

• Alphabet – "beginning letter"
• The Code – library of congress or dewey
• Library layout
• The system of checkouts, returns, holds, etc.
• Field trip to big central library

I’ll compile this into a list of goals when I have a chance.