We’re on Week 3 of school in Ontario and have just hosted library orientation. It’s looked many different ways over the years (including years without it), but this year we kept it low-tech and simple.

With students coming from educational systems in almost 30 countries, we can’t assume any baseline when it comes to past library experience. As we’re placed in the schedule towards the end of our very busy opening weeks, we’re welcoming tired, pretty overwhelmed students. They come to us in 3 different groups:

• New Gr 9 day students (50) during the afternoon flex period
• All new boarding students (3 groups of 30 each) during evening study
• New Gr 10 & 11 day students (10) during afternoon flex period

Considering all of this, we set the bar VERY low with 3 goals:

1. Students learn that they have a library and where it’s located
2. Students are exposed to key library-related basics
3. Students leave orientation with a warm, fuzzy feeling (so that they want to return)

With no more than 2 library staff on at any time, we needed this to be student-directed so we devised a list of 12 things that we wanted kids to know and created a worksheet to guide them. The number of each item on the sheet corresponded with a tabloid-sized number posted somewhere in the library.

We put students into groups of 4 and set them to task. Once the worksheet was complete and fact-checked by us, they were free to go; corrections allowed for a lot of great conversation. It took most groups 15-20 minutes to wind their way through the stations. My supervisor and colleague kindly agreed to join the party, and it was nice to have them help with direction & support while witnessing the happy chaos.

Hilariously, a number of older students were working in the library during the chaos (I’m not sure how) and commented that they wished that they’d had this available to them when they were new (hindsight might be a bit rosy in this case LOL). Or it may have been that I’d promised homemade cookies to the winners…