Week 4: A Balancing Act

Going through the readings this week, I thought a lot about balance. Related to what was discussed last week, it's evident that a school librarian accepts many roles in his/her position: manager, teacher, learner, librarian and facilitator (in no particular order of importance).

I chose to look at the "School Librarian's Bill of Responsibilities," a list of ten priorities professionals should undertake to create a positive learning experience in their school library. Of these, I thought #4, "Design student-centered learning experiences" was especially interesting. How can school librarians tailor instruction to their users when there are so many of them? Not only must librarians serve the entire student body, but they also must facilitate professional development among faculty/staff. Perhaps in conjunction with #4, the #3 responsibility is to "Support multiple paths to understanding for individual learning styles." Certainly, determining how to individualize a collective learning experience is an important task for school librarians.

"Bad business"--this is what Harada and Zmuda call weak instruction that school librarians provide in conjunction with another educator. That is, school librarians may be called upon to assist classroom teachers in designing/implementing lesson plans that are weak in critical thinking, inquiry, or real learning. What's a librarian to do? This certainly poses some dilemmas for those librarians who want to develop effective relationships with fellow educators but know that they must advocate for effective instruction first and foremost.
 
For her part, Ballard seems particularly concerned that the school librarians should be their own biggest fan as she argues for more public relations and written reports on librarian accomplishments. While her set of standards are commendable, it seems unlikely that every school/school library will value each of these priorities equally. In some learning communities, certain skills may be privileged over others, thereby influencing what school librarians are teaching. Similarly, some schools may not have equal resources to handle these responsibilities. Depending on the particular educational environment, a school librarian may find him/herself acting more as an administrator than a teacher or information specialist.


Another responsibility that a few of the readings touched upon was educating users to be ethical stewards of information. As new technologies emerge and social media becomes ubiquitous, I think this particular aim becomes more of a challenge--what exactly determines socially responsible use of information?


Harvey's short piece, "What Should a Teacher Expect a School Library Media Specialist to Be?" succinctly echoes many of the other issues mentioned above, as well as below.


To summarize, it seems that some of the most important goals of the school librarian are:

• Encourage students to be creative/critical thinkers
  
• Embrace collaboration with other professionals in the field (teachers, librarians, administrators)
• Create lifelong readers/learners out of students
• Establish a positive learning environment
• Keep current with professional development
  
• Teach students to use information effectively (whatever that means). 

Class 3: Mission Statement!

My mission statement for school libraries (and school librarians):

To foster a comfortable and collaborative environment that encourages a love of reading, facilitates both student and faculty learning, and promotes 21^st century information literacy and technology skills through the use of effective instruction and the selection of appropriate materials and resources.

Visual representation of school library priorities: http://prezi.com/80uporv6qtb6/edit/#0

Week 3: Scheduling

While school librarians are both teacher and librarian all rolled into one, they also have an administrative role to play. This additional responsibility can mean the difference between a well-run, effective school library with enough resources and instruction for everyone or an unwelcoming, ineffective environment.

In his article, Johnson takes aim at the AASL for its devotion to flexible-scheduling in school libraries. Johnson makes a lot of fair arguments in terms of fixed scheduling. Probably his most compelling point is that more structure means more opportunity to meet the needs of everyone in the school, not just those who happen to drop in at the library. He asks, "Do we give some kids great skills and other kids no skills, or do we give all kids the ability to learn some skills knowing that we could do better in an ideal world?" By reaching out and  dedicating time for everyone to be in the library, it is more likely that library resources will be accessible to all.


Johnson's point about practicality also bears repeating--if nothing else, school libraries are an ideal place for students to go when their teachers are preparing lessons. And while youngsters are being "contained," they also have the opportunity to gain information literacy skills or do some leisurely reading.

Likewise, Hribar discusses her thoughts on fixed scheduling in the school library, albeit with a slightly different approach. After attending a conference on AASL standards, Hribar decides to restructure instruction in her fixed-schedule library so that students are learning from each other and are able to grasp and synthesize the information they research. Her elementary-aged students were soon exploring on their own while positively interacting with one another. By reaching out to other professionals in the field, Hribar was able to leverage her own abilities with others' knowledge, resulting in a powerful learning experience for her students.


Meanwhile, Wools talks about the practicalities of school library management, including how to best decide on organization, how to assess progress, and how to schedule usage. Johnson and Hribar discuss the importance of scheduling, and has the details for how to actually do so. She also notes that planning is crucial to the well-being of the school library, and she advocates for multi-year plans into the future. While this seems like a good idea in theory, the realities of changing budgets, shifting student needs and evolving technology suggest that it may be more difficult to actually implement. 


Updated for Mission Statements!: What most resonated with me on the Zmuda and Lublin articles was how the mission statement of an organization can really provide an attitude framework. They should actually say something, though, as Lublin points out, not just use vague wording to convey an ambiguous goal. Especially as libraries adapt to meet the needs of a new generation of learners, having a mission statement can be a valuable way to expertly convey what the library actually does. To this end, the mission statement also needs to be reevaluated from time to time to ensure that it is written in a way that is consistent with the most recent objectives of the library program.

Class 2: More on Standards

Some of what I found most interesting from last week's class:

• It's important to distinguish between work that is done to improve the lives of young people and work done to improve products or processes. School librarians and educators are not the same as other professionals, and the standards they follow should bear this in mind. Standards can try to make a common goal for all, but the human aspect of the profession should always take precedent.
• School librarians are about helping all students, regardless of their career/life ambitions. Whether students want to be physicists, stay-at-home parents, cosmetologists, etc., students are well-served by a librarian who can connect learners to technologies and knowledge that will benefit them. Effective search strategies can help students research which college to attend or in finding online jobs to apply for.
• Not only are school librarians developing students learning, they can play an active role in facilitating staff learning. By staying current with educational and technology trends and standards, the librarian can become a crucial individual within the school system. Because librarians have to serve various populations within the school, they will need to be mindful of what their priorities are.
• I don't normally think about school librarians when I hear the term "globalization," but as educators of technology and information-seeking, there is definitely a connection. More than ever, students are expected to be engaged both at a local, community-based level and at an international level. Because technology is a key proponent of globalization, it makes sense that a tech-savvy librarian can help students find their place in the digital world. Similarly, librarians can help implement AASL and other standards through inquiry-based learning and other initiatives in the school library.

Week 2: Collaboration & Spaces

Reading Jeanna Walker's essay, "They said YES!", allowed me to think about how school librarians can leverage connections with other institutions (in this case, a university) to build meanigful connections. As her example pointed out, collaborating with other organizations can lead to powerful learning outcomes for students.  Related to this, Leslie Morgan's article about collaboration among librarians of varying types (school, college, public) makes a strong argument for why these types of endeavors should be pursued. In short, so much education that takes place at the K-12 level sets the stage for later learning and it makes sense to  utilize these resources together.
Arrangements like the one Walker initiated can be a great way for students to gain information literacy and relevant skills in a more hands-on, real-world sort of way. It can introduce young people to concepts and opportunities that they may not have been aware of, and it can do so by enhancing students' comprehension of various media capabilities (Prezi, Google applications, etc.) Perhaps more than any other faculty/staff in the K-12 environment, librarians are in an ideal position for impacting some of the most necessary and life-empowering skills for students: reading/literacy, technology use, and information literacy. These abilities are not only essential to academic success, but life success as well. In this way, thinking outside the traditional research/instruction model can provide some new ways of teaching students about technology and information literacy.
I also read through several articles that discussed the school library as a physical space. Of these, I found the essays by Washington-Blair and Sullivan (both of them!) to be particularly compelling. Their essays argue that school libraries of the future should be about doing, not being. As more and more content moves from a physical to a digital format, the library format itself should respond accordingly. Obviously, technology integration is a worthwhile goal.    Sullivan suggests a number of different interactive elements that could be worked into the design of the library and recommends developing the library as the central hub of school activity. All of these ideas would help refocus the library as a learning space, with a broader idea of what learning means. Moreover, redeveloping the physical space of the school library may attract new students to hang out there, creating more opportunities for engaging and building relationships.

Class 1: History of School Libraries & More

For our first class discussion, we were able to introduce ourselves and ask questions about the future of librarianship. While I think it's a scary time to be a school (or any kind of) librarian, I also think it's an incredible exciting time. Despite limited budgets, layoffs, and more and more standards, there are also new ideas, new people, new technologies, new energy.

To that end, what does being a school librarian mean? We went over the history of education and the school library's role in the past to the present. Certainly, a lot has changed over the years. The "stereotypical" idea of the school (or any) librarian has (unfortunately) stuck around, but the actual job responsibilities no longer reflect this. School librarians are tech-savvy, information literacy-teaching educators, but they aren't always appreciated for these skillsets--why??

I'm excited to learn more about all these things and more!

Week 1: School Standards & More

The readings for this week discuss some of the standards that school librarians need to be aware of to be successful in their work. In particular, these readings focus on the importance of literacy and technology in the lives of young people, and how integral a role librarians can play in improving these skill sets.

Overall, the American Association of School Libraries standards appear uneven. The AASL Common Beliefs are solid, presenting a clear case for how significant literacy is for young people. These beliefs argue that reading is fundamental to learning, information literacy is a crucial skill, and technology skills must be taught to prepare students for life after graduation. The individual standards (and there are plenty of them) are less solid, mostly because they are less clear. Some of them make sense and seem reasonable in terms of purpose and practice (“Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems”). Many, though, seem overly vague and are probably covered by other standards. While most of the individual standards probably have worthwhile intentions, the unclear language makes it difficult to expect that library professionals can follow them at all times. The AASL standards are commendable, however, for laying out expectations of access and equality for all students.

Meanwhile, the other readings this week discuss standards, history and legislation as they relate to schools, and particularly, school libraries. Learning more about the legislative standards that dictate what students learn when, it certainly becomes clear why school librarians need to be current on what forces are driving the learning in their schools. Because school librarians can be leaders in so many aspects of their school—technology adoption, improving reading comprehension, etc.—the challenge may be how to deliver services that not only support reading and math standards but also encourage other types of continuing learning.

With the mixed professional makeup of school library staff (paraprofessionals, certified teachers, librarians with graduate degrees, etc.), it is still a question how these standards can be uniformly and best applied to the profession as a whole. Overall, the important take-home message from reading about standards seems to be that school librarians contribute to the success of learners, regardless of how this is mandated. As supporters of school curriculum, it is critical that librarians not only know what students are learning, but understand why. One particular challenge may be how to incorporate government-mandated standards with professional objectives.