Make parents part of the equation

Parents are also teachers, and the home is an essential place of learning.

Your DLC membership is essentially a "family membership" since students, parents, and teachers can access all of the resources, including the library databases, from any Internet-connected computer.

Finding creative ways to engage your students' parents/guardians can help improve the use of the resources and strengthen your information literacy efforts at school.

Reaching out to parents will help them see school librarians as professionals playing an active role in the school learning community.

What Works

I write a monthly column for our PTSA newsletter to communicate to parents information relevant to student learning. In this column, I might discuss the databases accessible to our students, plagiarism, recent events, etc.

— Nancy Kuta, Juanita High School

'Database and Dessert Night' is an idea I got from another librarian at a workshop. I invited parents/guardians to come to school with or without their children to learn about the databases they can access from home. I did a 45-minute presentation with them following along on computers. They were each given a bookmark with some of our databases' names and passwords to access from home. Then they had an opportunity to try out their new knowledge by completing a scavenger hunt, which included questions they would have to answer using DLC resources. Everyone who participated received a DLC mouse pad.

— Gladys Fox, Showalter Middle School

Articles & Resources

"Addressing Student, Teacher, Principal and Parent Perceptions"
Ken Haycock. Teacher Librarian. Seattle: Dec 2003.Vol.31, Iss. 2; pg. 34 (Proquest)

"Literacy Begins at Home: 25 Ways to Make Sure Reading Runs in the Family"
Nespeca, Sue McLeaf. School Library Journal. New York: May 1996.Vol.42, Iss. 5; pg. 26, 4 pgs (Proquest)