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Most months are busy here at CHEACT, and this one was no exception. Plans have been made for our Annual Used Curriculum Sale in May (Thank you, Annette Anderson!) and exhibitors are lining up for our summer conference. I had the opportunity to join Tim Lambert (Texas Home School Coalition) as he addressed a gathering of twenty central Texas Librarians, representing the Austin Public Library system, as well as libraries in Cedar Park and Round Rock. The day before, Tim had addressed another group that included Bastrop. This was obviously the first time many of these librarians had the opportunity to ask their tough questions about home schooling. Tim explained the history of education in America, when home schooling was the norm, and public education was the new idea; giving them a glimpse of why we do what we do, and why we may be more guarded and tenacious than their other patrons. After working through their concerns and questions regarding home schooling in general, the discussion turned towards understanding how we need each other. During my turn, I briefed them on CHEACT, and how critical public libraries are to our success as home schooling families. Per capita, home school families check out more books than other patrons. Their mission is to "serve the underserved", which until today had meant pre-school and adult. Our time together helped them see that they were missing a big opportunity. During this interactive session, they expressed a strong desire to help us. They wanted to make sure we got the word out about the TexShare card program. For those who do not know, this relatively new program allows cardholders from one library system to have cardholder privileges in other systems. For example, if you have a card from the Round Rock library, they can issue you a free TexShare card that will enable you to get a special (free) card from the Austin Public Library system (and vice versa). These TexShare cards have some restrictions, but generally, you have free access to all materials at the other libraries. When working between library systems, this lets you avoid paying the customary inter-library loan fees ($1 per book!) Talk to your librarian for details. As a whole, they would like to help us in any way they can. One woman from the Spicewood library said she has several home school Moms that come in at the beginning of the month with a list of books they need for the month. She looked forward to helping them find all of the items. While most of us may not be thinking that far ahead, this method gives the librarian time to assemble what we need. In general, they all seemed willing to help us locate required resources. They were even interested in stocking books for common literature-based curriculum, but admittedly did not know where to find many of the out-of-print titles that we need. At the end of the day, we agreed that our relationship is "win-win", and that we need to explore ways of communicating more effectively. They welcome our input into their planning process, and are glad to now have some contacts into the home school community. We now have contacts in the library system that can help us work out longer-term issues as we identify them. If you are interested in helping to identify the needs of the homeschool community (book lists, programs, on-line resources, meeting rooms, …), and working with public library officials to have those needs met, please call the phone line or send a note to info@cheact.org. This is a tremendous opportunity to safeguard and promote the quality of homeschooling in our region. Together, we can help all of us central Texas home schoolers succeed with whatever curriculum we choose. Yours,
Clip art provided by All Free Original Clipart |
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