School Visits

Hekman Library is open to the community for guest use, and area school students are welcome to visit and use the library resources on their own or as part of a class visit.  Teachers interested in arranging a class group visit should contact Kathy DeMey or Sarah Kolk.

For class visits:

• While we are happy to provide tours to middle school students, the use of our library for research purposes is most appropriate for high school students.
• Two weeks’ advance notice is requested if a librarian's assistance is required (e.g., an introduction to the research tools available at Hekman Library). If no assistance will be needed, one week's notice is sufficient.  We ask that class visits not be scheduled during the three weeks prior to the start of college exams, when the library is heavily used by Calvin students.
• If your students are working on a class assignment, it is helpful if you send a copy of the assignment to us, so we can prepare resources and our presentation accordingly.
• Please read about guest access to computers and printing, and obtaining a guest library card which students can use if they want to check out materials.
• A teacher should accompany students on any class visit.  Two teachers are requested for groups larger than 25 students.  (Be aware that our main computer classroom accommodates only 29 students, so a larger group will require more planning.)
• If teachers want to meet with students informally (in small groups or one-on-one), no permission or advance notice is necessary.

Interested in helping high school students improve their research skills? 

A group of media specialists, teachers, and Hekman librarians met during the Fall 2008, on the topic of "Building a Bridge to College Research." We will meet again on April 17 at Holland Christian High School from 10-3 in the high school's new media center (see photo). Lois Smits, media specialist at HCHS, will host the meeting. Contact Sarah Kolk for more information about future meetings and/or about joining the hs2college listserv. The list's main objective is to bring together high school media specialists and college librarians to talk about and share ideas concerning the transition from high school to college and collaboration between librarians and classroom instructors.