Getting Out of the Box with School Libraries

Welcome to my first post since retiring as a Library Media Specialist.  Or Teacher-Librarian.  Or Information Consultant.  Throughout my 28 years in education, I've worn the label of all of the above while serving as a school librarian for 25 of those years.  The label doesn't really matter.  The passion, commitment, and those we serve, do.

The topics chosen for this blog are a reflection of my thoughts.  My posts will reflect my observations from the the standpoints of being a parent, community member, educator, classroom teacher, and, of course, the school library media specialist.  I invite comments.  The ability to post comments is the best part of a blog, since they provide feedback on which we can further reflect and grow.

Let's begin with a question.  What does a school library media specialist do?  I'm willing to bet that most people will give an answer similar to, "checks books in and out," "shelves books," "reads to students," and "hold book clubs."

How sad.

The professional school librarian in this state is required to hold a Master's Degree in a field such as information science or educational media.  Here is another thought.  School librarians have standards to teach, just like teachers, preferably through collaboration with classroom teachers during research.  Our state also has standards for cyber literacy, naturally connected to our national standards. In addition, the school librarian prepares and oversees a budget, selects and manages materials (both print and nonprint), serves on school wide and district committees, oversees adult or student assistants, may (and should) serve as the school's instructional technologist (helps teachers implement technology into lessons), and is frequently assigned other technical duties. School librarians do basically what a school administrator does, on a smaller scale, except they also teach.  Many also sponsor programs that offer students experiences for growth in reading, special interests, and computers, and also are responsible for the morning live (or recorded) closed circuit news broadcast.

Now, here is another question. What field has shown possibly the most growth in the past decade?  The answer is the field of information!  You knew that though, didn't you?  So, where am I going with this?  Hang on, I'm almost there.

Let's take a quick look at some concerns we have about schools and our young people in general. 1) poor test scores 2) students' lack of knowledge about how to access, acquire, and use good information 3) poor reading skills 4) and how students practice risky behaviors in cyberspace.

Now, what do these concerns all have in common?  They are all areas that the school's librarian has the power to foster improvement.  So, in many cases, this isn't happening.  Why?  Because when it's time to lower costs in a poor economy, we cut an already minimal library staff.

Because this is what has always been done.

FACT:  Students know how to entertain themselves with technology by downloading, uploading, texting, viewing, and listening.  But, ask most teachers, and they will tell you that they do not know how to access and utilize information, or what sources to use to gather information.  They do not know what is legal and not legal.  They do not understand that a posted photograph cannot be deleted, even though they remove it from a site.  It's in cyberspace forever.  In other words, they do not possess the life skills necessary in the world we have today.

The school librarian can "fix" this problem.

School librarians have free online tools such as TRAILS to assess student knowledge, and obtain individual scores before working with classes.  They still teach how to use a dictionary or encyclopedia, only now, it takes longer, because we teach how to use both printed and electronic ones.  21st century librarians reach their communities through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, podcasts, online photo sites, and it takes time to update those.  21st century school librarians collaborate with classroom teachers, bringing together an expert in content, and an expert on information, to provide the best quality experience for the students embarking on research projects  School librarians still pull requested materials from the shelves for student and faculty use, but also utilize Web 2.0 tools to create helpful links for online resources.

This sounds wonderful.  So why are school librarians on all levels often frustrated?  Because instead of  conducting the types of professional activities listed above, they must circulate and shelve materials, process new materials, repair worn labels or book spines, keep the batteries charged for the  myriad of electronics, check in and stamp magazines, because they have no paraprofessional to assist them in the daily activities.

School librarians do the same tasks as 30 years ago, plus the added tasks involving technology, information literacy lessons and research projects, keeping up with the latest and greatest online tools, and share them with students and teachers.  In other words, the work load has increased about three fold, but there is still one person doing the work.  My work week went from about 45 hours (including work at home), to about 60+ hours per week.  If I see this correctly, that is not enough added time to conduct 3 times the workload.  And 30 years ago I had a paraprofessional.

School librarians are the only educators whose standards include the lifelong skills of locating, accessing and utilizing valid and appropriate information, and working together as students to create new information.  Our standards also  promote lifelong growth through reading through individual interest and selection.  

Cutting library staff, or having a minimum level of professional staff is not only hurting our student communities but is no longer acceptable in the 21st century.

In closing, I challenge a school district to go "outside of the box" by piloting a program where there are MORE than the minimum number of professional and paraprofessional staff in a school library, by conducting a 3 year research study to demonstrate an increase in test scores,  teachers empowered with technology knowledge and digital tools to use with instruction, and information literate students, with lifelong skills to help them be successful for life.

Investing in qualified, creative, and  knowledgeable school librarians is a sound investment in our future.

Comics as Tutorials

One frustration I've had is how to get middle school students to understand that the Web 2.0  tools used to create a web presence for the library's patrons are actually useful to them.  As my customers, I feel obligated to introduce the library's various tools and have them use them during research and creating.  My hope is that they will utilize these outside of the school and adopt some of these tools for their own use.  Through observation, stats, and conversations with students, I have come to the conclusion that many students just don't want to read a lot of text (neither do I), so I explored some ways over the last year to create some excitement using comics, animation, and Glogster. 

Now, that being said, my creations are rather basic, but I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment exploring various tools and creating these.  First, let me give credit to Gwyneth Jones, the Daring Librarian, who graciously shares her very professional creations and how to create them, working under a Creative Commons.  Check out her blog post with tutorials. 

And here are some of my own.  Using Comic Life software I experimented with a page on the library's wiki page linking to the Delicious site.   The beauty of this is that I threw this together in only 10-15 min. after downloading the software.  It's so easy.  The avatars are some that I already had, so if time is an issue, this will not hinder you.  We all know that Delicious is not very attractive and has lots of text, so students were not enamored with it last year.  But, I have caught students reading the comic explaining how to use Delicious, so the traffic is increasing.  The home page of the wiki was done using Glogster.  It took a while, but only because I had too much fun looking at the widgets and deciding what to use.  And guess what, students are using the wiki!

At book fair time I decided to get their attention on the morning news show by using a couple of other tools that were easy and fun.  Here is one using GoAnimate.  An even easier animation tool is Domo.  The videos definitely got their attention.

If I can do it, so can you.  If you try something, please consider sharing how you are using it and what successes you are having.  Good luck!

Cyber Smarts

Media specialists in my district are implementing cyber literacy programs at their schools. This involves sharing a wiki of resources with faculties, planning lessons, and devising ways to teach the lessons to all students.  Each year at least 4 lessons will be taught, one for each of the four South Carolina Internet Safety Standards K-12.

For our first lesson, I chose the topic of cyber bullying from standard 3, dealing with ethics.  This lesson produced lively discussions and many positive comments from teachers concerning students' engagement and reactions. 

I was intrigued by a recent blog post from Billings Beta on the topic "The Hurt Square."  So, I borrowed the idea and created a bulletin board so students could react to a scenario.  The scenario is that a friend posted a photograph of you with him at the age of six, running through a sprinkler wearing cowboy hats, and nothing else.  Is this intentional or unintentional hurting, and to what degree is this embarrassing or hurtful to you?  Here are the results in the photograph below.

Most students thought it would be hurtful to see this photo posted, though most also thought it was unintentional.  Only a few thought it was totally intentional.  And, even fewer thought it it would be not hurtful or embarrassing at all.  To my surprise and delight, students are asking for the next scenario!   When middle school students voluntarily participate in something, it makes you feel somewhat successful.  My plan is to use a different color dot for each scenario until it runs it course.  I will post another photo of the end results.

"The Hurt Square." Beta Billing/Notes from the Tech Lab http://www.billingsmiddleschool.org/beta/2010/10/05/the-hurt-square/