Classroom Libraries
Organizing your classroom library
Note the student written signs on the book bins!
Those are pillows on the left side of the picture!
This library is the first thing you see when you walk
into this classroom!
Books facing out!
This library contains a wide range of reading levels!
Ask yourself these questions when evaluating your classroom library and thinking about how to make it
central and vital:
 When you walk into your classroom. Does the library or book nook jump out at you, or is it all but
invisible?
 Does your library corner look beautiful and contain an inviting display of plentiful reading materials, or
does it look bland and impoverished?
 Does the library include a variety of genres and literary forms-poetry, picture books, informational
books, mysteries, fantasy, popular series-or does it house mostly fiction and textbooks?
 Are most of the books in the library written by well-known children’s authors, or are they part of a
program that has been created and leveled by a publisher?
 Do you have current books that accurately and aesthetically portray other cultures, or is your collection
homogeneous and dated?
 Can children find books in which their language and culture appear, or are they unlikely to “see
themselves” in the collection?
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Have students been involved in the selection and organization, or have you made all the decisions about
design, how books are grouped, and what reading materials are included?
Can struggling readers easily find books they can and want to read, or do they spend most of their
independent reading time searching for books?
Are there comfortable areas in which students can sit and read, or can students only read at their desks or
tables?
Do you and your students rotate, change, and add to the collection based on changing needs, interests
and curriculum, or is your collection static?
Does you library include children’s favorite authors, books, and series, or is the collection limited to
what you have on hand and your own preferences?
Most of all, is the library a place children love to go to seek and find wonderful reading materials, or is it
a rarely used appendage in your classroom?
Regie Routman, Reading Essentials (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003).
Tips for Making Paperbacks Last
Since you are trying to collect a large number of books for your library, you want the ones you do have to
last a long time. Below are some ideas to make the paperback books last longer.
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Use book tape on the spine of new paperback books as well as your older ones. This is where
paperbacks tend to wear out first. The tape will make them last much longer. You can purchase book
tape from many school suppliers. (Clear packing tape does NOT work.) Your school librarian should
be able to help you find a source.
Note: I found a tape at Lowe's, a building supply store, that worked even better than the book tape
because it was a little heavier and more flexible, not to mention cheaper. It is called All-weather
Clear Poly-tape made by Manco. I found it in the same area where the duck tape was located. I have
also found it in some stores with the winterizing materials that come out in the fall.
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Get your students involved in identifying books to be repaired. They should know to bring to you
any book that has a torn or loose page or cover.
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Use a craft glue for gluing in loose pages. Regular white glue does not work as it just soaks into the
paper. A craft glue, such as Aleene's Original Tacky Glue, is thick and very flexible when it dries. You
can stick a page down into a thin line of glue. It also works if the pages of a novel are coming
unglued from the cover.
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Talk to your students about the correct way to put a paperback on the bookshelf. This is a little
different than with a hardback since shoving the book in will bend the cover.
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Watch out for the book hoarder. Some children will end up with many of the books in their desks
which can cause damage.