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.