Today I’m grateful for my Tuesday afternoon scanning responsibilities.

11.12.2024

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My students go to the school library every Tuesday afternoon. They return their library books, check out new ones, and enjoy a story read aloud to them by our fun-loving and incredibly-animated librarian. They absolutely LOVE going to the library.

But I bet I love it more.

You see, when we go to the library, I immediately assume my position behind the circulation desk. I no longer ask or wait to be invited behind the highly-respected boundary of the circulation counter. I just charge right back there and set up shop. I claim the comfy chair and grab the all-powerful scanner. Then, while the librarian helps my students pick out books, I check all their returned books back in and subsequently, kid by kid, scan my students’ IDs and check out their new books to them. When I say that this is a highlight of my week, I’m not exaggerating.

I’m not quite sure what it is about the beep of the scanner that I love so much. Part of the appeal might be that while I sit calmly at the circulation desk, the librarian is doing the hard run-around task of helping the kids select their books. I don’t hate that. But there’s also a part of me that really enjoys the way I can cruise through a big ol’ stack of returned books and complete a whole class check-in in under 2 minutes. It makes me feel quite accomplished. I also love that when I check out a book for each student, the scanner beeps twice – once when I scan their ID and once when I scan their book. It’s almost like it’s saying “Good job, Wiebel” with each beep. If I do this for 22 kids, that’s 44 beeps of affirmation. I can’t say I hate that either.

I honestly have no idea what the other teachers at my school do when their class goes to the library, but on Tuesday afternoons from 1:30 – 2:00, I make a home for myself at the librarian’s desk with my trusty scanner in hand.

Sometimes I joke with the librarian about how I’m coming for her job. I don’t really mean it though. She’s an amazing librarian and I couldn’t imagine filling those shoes. I also wonder if the beep of the scanner would lose its novelty if I did it day in and day out – kinda like Disneyland might lose some of its magic if you visited every day. I don’t want to run that risk. But as far as Tuesday afternoons go … make way for Ms. Wiebel. I’ll be the one behind the circulation desk with a scanner in my hand and a huge smile on my face