Best Practices - Homerooms

Best Practices

Homerooms and Circulation

Using homerooms to facilitate the circulation process works well in an elementary school library situation; however, it may also be useful for secondary school libraries that have students brought to the library regularly by the language arts teachers.  There are two methods that use homerooms and you will need to consider whether you are a "mouse" person or a "scanner" person and the amount of speed that these two methods provide for you.  Obviously, these methods are for use when the student does not present a library card with barcode and you do not wish to use the "L" (locate a patron by the last name) command.

Using the Homeroom Selection Window (Mouse" Method)

• This method mainly uses the mouse.

• It is slower than the "scanner" method because you must switch between using the mouse and the scanner.

• It works best when Alexandria is not run in the "full screen" mode because you must have room on the screen for both Alexandria and the Homeroom Selection window.

To use the Homeroom Selection Window:

• Click on the Homeroom icon in the upper-right corner.  In versions prior to 5.5.3, it is a green dot; however, this is changed to a "house" icon in 5.5.3.  When this button is clicked, the Homeroom Selection window opens showing a list of the homerooms.  If you have entered the teacher's name as the homeroom, this list will be alphabetical; if you have entered the room number, then the list will be numerically organized.  
• Double click on the desired homeroom or highlight the desired homeroom and click on OK.  This opens the window in 5.5.2 or the pane in 5.5.3 that contains the names of the students.
• Double click on the desired name or highlight the name and click on OK.  The patron will be made the current patron. 
• When you are ready to change patrons, click on the name of the next patron that you want to make the current patron.

No additional maintenance is needed if a new student is added to a homeroom in order to have the student's name show in the list. 

NOTE:  If you want the organization on the Homeroom Selection window to be by grade or by day of the week that you see that class, put a designator before the homeroom name in the patron records such as 1 Jones (to sort by grade) or TH Jones (to sort by library day).

Using the Patron Homeroom Pages Method (Scanner Method

• This method uses the scanner only.

• It is faster than the "mouse" method because you are not switching between using the mouse and using the scanner.

• Alexandria can be run in the full screen mode since there is no other window that needs to used at the same time.

Using this method requires a bit of preparation.  You will need to prepare homeroom pages that are really sheets of barcodes.  You will be printing these pages on a homeroom-by-homeroom basis in order to have the teacher's name or the room number show on each student's barcode thus giving you a visual check as to what homeroom page you have in front of you.

To print the homeroom pages:

1. Go to Reports on the menu bar and select Patron Reports.

2. Set up report window as shown below entering the homeroom designation for the first homeroom you want to print in the Starting With and the Ending With fields.

3. Click on Print.  A new window will appear showing a barcode with your library's name in the white field above it.  The library's name will be highlighted in blue.  Type the same thing that you entered in the Starting With and b fields.  Then press Print.  This will put that homeroom designation below the student's name right above the barcode.

4. Put the printed pages in plastic page protectors in a notebook in the order that best suits your needs.

To use the homeroom pages, simply open your notebook to the page for the homeroom you need, then scan the barcode for the patron.  It's as simple as that!  If a new student is enrolled in a homeroom, just run the report again and substitute the new page for the old one. You can even make a Quick Report of this report format so that all you need to do is edit it to change the homeroom in the Starting With and Ending With fields.