Homeschool World Forum

[lglenn]

Hello everyone,
My name is Leslie and I'm a brand spankin new children's librarian in Delaware.

I've tried to no avail to join local homeschooling groups to no avail and I stumbled upon this site.

There are several things I would like to do for homeschool parent/teachers and children. First of which is a program geared towards homeschooled children. Second, upon my boss's approval, I'd like to start a homeschool resource center. There are probably many more ideas that will come to me in the middle of the night.

We would like to better serve the homeschool community and any advice would be appreciated.

I'm not only a librarian, but also a mom to a beautiful 17 month old boy. My husband and I have discussed homeschooling as an option when that time comes.

Thank you for your time.
Leslie

[Jill]

Welcome!
It's great that you are thinking about homeschoolers since they tend to frequent the library.

My experience with the last two head (children's) librarians in our town is that one understood homeschooling and the current one doesn't. I don't think homeschoolers in general want anything "special" from the library. They just want great resources and help finding what they need.

Does your area have a large percentage of home educators? Ours does, so you would hope the librarian would listen to homeschoolers.

The last librarian tried to fill as many book purchase requests from homeschoolers as she could. That included reference books as well as literature. The summer reading program prizes for the older kids included (but wasn't limited to) classic literature in the prize choices. She always had a few minutes to chat about books and give suggestions to the kids ("if you liked _____ you should check out ________") when homeschool families came in.

Since she left (about 2 years ago-her husband's job transferred), the new librarian has not added any new homeschooling reference books, and all the summer reading prize books are, in my opinion, not even worth reading ~ even though they are popular with many students today. She is rarely available ~ in fact my kids aren't really sure who she is. I (and several friends) have approached the new person with the concerns but no changes have been made.

My suggestion would be to try and seek out homeschoolers as they come in to the library and ask what they would like.

Best wishes.
_________________
Jill
http://www.homeschool-by-design.com
Where love and learning go hand in hand.