Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES: The Plagiarism Plague

from http://www.youthvoices.live

Talk to librarians and you hear how widespread plagiarism has become.  Talk to teachers and they know some kids do it but don’t recognize the scope of the issue, in part because unknowingly many of them plagiarize as well. How do you manage to convince students of the seriousness of plagiarism, and, even more daunting, how do you educate teachers without alienating them?

You can’t ignore it. That’s the first thing to recognize.  One of our jobs is to teach ethical use of information.  Because it’s so easy doesn’t make it right.  Everything seems to out there just for the taking.  And who will know?

Start with students. It’s best to begin introducing the concept as early as first grade.  When these primary students do their first reports, have them do very basic citations.  There is no need to worry about commas and periods and the details of an MLA cite.  You want them to learn that if they use someone else’s idea, they need to say where they got it from.  Young kids love it because it makes them feel grown up.

One of my students teaches the lesson by borrowing a pencil from one student and then letting another kid have it. She then asks if this is fair?  The whole class realizes it isn’t.  From there you can have them see this is a form of theft.

The same lesson can be augmented as students get older. Instead of telling them they shouldn’t copy, ask why it’s important not to do so.  This may take longer but keep them at it. Explain that it is allowed with “credit” and once again, have them figure out the reason that’s acceptable.

The big leap is in guiding students to recognize that images, video clips, and audio available on the internet must also be cited.  How would they feel if they posted a cartoon they created and someone copied it and used it as their own?  You must constantly make it personal or relate it to their own life in some way.

One of the ways to make it relevant to older students is to share some of the court cases involving famous musicians and songs. A few students may be aware of a one or two notable ones, but it’s important to bring the issue to all students’ attention.  Both Mental Floss and Rolling Stone cover some major ones.  No one goes to jail, but there are consequences. It’s worth a discussion.  If your school has a character education component, this falls within it.

Walk students through the various licensing shown under Tools on www.images.google.com and the filters Bing has on the right-hand side of www.bingimages.com.  Let them see how different choices affect the images displayed.

You don’t have to do this on your own. It is legal to use lesson plans that other have created for sharing on the topic. A quick search on Google on Common Sense Media turns up an excellent list of lessons and resources for teaching about copyright and using materials ethically. For example, you can find a lesson plan on plagiarism for Grades 3-5 and another for Grades 6-8.   Copyright and Fair Use is an animation for Grades 9-12.

Many students don’t even realize they are plagiarizing. Cut and paste is so fast and easy. Even when they “put it into their own words” they tend to just give a synonym for a word or two and perhaps switch the sentence around.  Introduce them to Grammarly’s Free Plagiarism Checker.  Rather than telling them they are plagiarizing, let them discover it for themselves.  This might be a good time to inform high school students of how seriously colleges respond to plagiarism.

Jennifer LaGarde, an outstanding school librarian, has a site called Copyright and Creative Commons that has numerous links to her favorite resources.  The inimitable Kathy Schrock also has resources on Intellectual Property including several on Creative Commons.

By standing firm for the principles of ethical use of information, you are demonstrating your leadership.

You may have a challenge in reaching teachers.  The problem isn’t new it’s just different and bigger.  Music teachers would copy sheet music because the budget didn’t allow for enough copies for the band/orchestra or chorus.  Teachers would copy worksheets from a book they had and distribute it to the entire class.  They would bring in a DVD of a movie from home and show it although they didn’t have the proper licensing.

How do you handle this without creating hostility between the faculty and you?  Hopefully, your district has a copyright policy.  Read it carefully and offer to help teachers stay within it. This way you are protecting them.

Next, express your concern to them about students plagiarizing, mostly unknowingly, and what challenges and problems this might cause them in college.  Run a workshop on how to check students’ sources.  Again, you are helping the teachers – not trying to make them wrong. Once you have done this, offer to show teachers how to use Creative Commons so they can “model ethical behavior for students.”  This way you make it about the kids, but the teachers learn.

How are you handling the plagiarism issue?  Does your district have a copyright policy? Who plagiarizes more in your school, teachers or students?

 

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES – Your Fourth Role – Program Administrator

In May, I did a blog “Role-ing Through Your Day” in which I highlighted the many roles we have both in and outside the library. Towards the end of the blog, I mentioned our role as Program Administrator. As I was covering so many of our jobs I didn’t spend much time on it, but it is worth paying it some attention.

In Empowering Learners AASL identifies the four roles we have as school librarians: teacher, information specialist, instructional partner, and program administrator.  The first three are our more visible roles, but all too often no one knows what we do or are even aware of our role as program administrator.  And when it’s the principal who doesn’t know you are doing it, it is a contributing factor in not understanding the full scope of what we do.

In the blog, I said of this fourth role that it “is far more than the basic management of the library program.  It comes to the heart of us as leaders.  It demands that we have vision and are willing to be a risk-taker in moving our program constantly forward so it’s not mired in the past. We incorporate the other three roles we have in order to create a program that is viewed as vital and indispensable to students, teachers, administrators, parents, and even the community.”

Here is what AASL says being a Program Administrator entails.

“As program administrator, the SLMS, ensures that all members of the learning community have access to resources that meet a variety of needs and interests. The implementation of a successful SLMP requires the collaborative development of the program mission, strategic plan, and policies, as well as the effective management of the staff, the program budget, and the physical and virtual spaces. To augment information resources available to the learning community, the SLMS works actively to form partnerships with stakeholders and sister organizations at local and global levels.  The SLMS also addresses broader educational issues with other educators in the building, at the district level, and at the professional association level.”

It is an exhausting description of your responsibilities.  And that’s on top of the other three. There is no way you can do more than the bare minimum of these without becoming a leader. My graduate students find this role intimidating and keep pointing to the small budgets as a barrier to making much of this happen.  And while budget issues are a problem, we cannot hide behind them to avoid doing a vital part of our job.

Let’s look at it sentence by sentence. The first does speak to a strong collection that represents diversity and curricular needs.  Not having sufficient funds to order new books can be a serious challenge to carrying this out.  But do you have interlibrary loan through your state or consortium?  Are you making effective use of it? Have you made students and teachers (and your administrators) aware of it?

The second sentence deals with developing a cohesive program based on a Mission (hopefully a Vision as well) and a strategic plan. That keeps everything you do on track.  If you don’t know how to create a strategic plan, look for a session on it at your state conference or check online for samples. If you can’t work collaboratively on developing the vision and plan (and you can possibly do it with other librarians in your district), try having some teachers and an administrator critique what you develop.  Most of you don’t have staff to manage, although if you do have volunteers they are included in this. High school librarians are accustomed to creating and expending their budgets and most elementary librarians are making do with what they have.

As to the physical and virtual space, you do need to look at your library with fresh eyes.  Is it getting tired?  How often are displays changed?  How much student work is present? Can the furniture be arranged better? Are your tables easily moveable?  If not, consider putting on casters. The virtual space is your website and other online presence.  How often do you update content on your website? Is it time to give it a new look? What do you have for parents on your site?

The last two sentences move you outside your building.  If you haven’t done so already, develop a collaborative partnership with the public library and reach out to any college in your area to work together. What businesses in your district would be interested in working with the library?  You may get funding this way as well.

And always, keep up with the trends and concerns in education in addition to libraries. This makes you a resource for your administrators and teachers. It also ensures you are ready for whatever the next “thing” is.

This is you as a leader.  Make the most of it.  And let your administrator know as part of your quarterly and annual reports.

How are rising to the challenge of this fourth role?  Where can you use some help?

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES: An Ethical Question

As librarians, we are accustomed to celebrating many months.  February is African American History Month.  March is Women’s History Month. And April is School Library Month, Poetry Month, and Math Awareness Month.  I am sure you have displays for all them, just as you do for the holidays in November and December.

June is GLBT Book Month.  Have you done anything to highlight it? I can hear a dead silence (crickets chirping) as I write these words.  Many of you won’t do anything.  Some of you have reason to believe you can’t do anything.  But what about library ethics?

Back in April I did a blog post on the “Many Layers of Diversity.” I was bringing ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee’s draft of the Library Bill of Rights Interpretation – Equity, Diversity, to your attention.  I dealt with all the aspects of the interpretation including meeting the needs of everyone in the school including LGBTQ students. (I am more familiar with LGBTQ rather than GLBT.) 

In June, these young people take center stage. Are you up to the challenge? Have you been avoiding books having LGBTQ characters?  I am not here to preach to those of you who are in untenable positions on the topic.  I know some of you work and live in communities where you would be vilified and possibly fired for purchasing these books. And you would not likely be hired anywhere else since the people in the surrounding towns hold the same views.

If you are sufficiently courageous, you might purchase some titles with your own funds.  Keep them in your office.  Your LGBTQ students in these communities are more isolated and fearful than in other more tolerant areas. When you have identified one of these kids, let them read the books you have in the library.  Taking them home could constitute a danger to you and possibly to them.  But you want your library to be a safe, welcoming environment for all your users.  And these students need to feel safe someplace.

Print

How far you go in marking this month is up to you.  If you are one step up from the most restrictive communities, consider an annotated booklist. In a more tolerant area you can put the titles on display and post it to your website.

Helen Adams, an active member in AASL and the Freedom to Read Foundation just did a blog for Knowledge Quest entitled “June is GLBQ Book Month.” In it she gives example of how to build a rainbow collection. She encourages you to include GLBT titles among others when you give a book talk, and offers suggestions for educating teachers.

Adams points out, “Of the 323 book challenges reported to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom for 2016, five of the top 10 challenged books for 2016 included titles that LGBT characters including two with transgender children.”  She reminds librarians if they are facing a book challenge, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom is ready and able to offer confidential support.

Do check out the resources and links she provides in the article. Some of you might be surprised by the experiences of one New England middle school librarian who reported, “LGBTQ inclusion has become a normal part of the everyday activities in the library, and I think this has had a positive impact. This year, I’ve had an eighth-grade student ask me a couple times for good coming out stories, and earlier this year a sixth-grade student came to me to ask about pronoun etiquette.”

GLBT kids can be found in every school in the country.  Some are more obvious about it—when they feel safe. Others are desperately trying to hide who they are. They all deserve to know they aren’t alone and your library is a safe place for them. If you think you have a challenge – can you even begin to imagine theirs?

What are you doing for your GLBT students this month – and every month?  How much of a challenge is this for you?

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES – Take Time To Replenish

How did you spend this long weekend?  Running around to complete a long list of tasks? Did you do things with family and friends that still involved stress – even the good kind such as hosting a gathering or making sure everything was loaded for a short vacation?

So, are you rested now?

Most of us are like hamsters on a wheel.  Whether at school or at home, we don’t stop running.

Some of you have now completed the school year.  The rest of you will be doing so within a month.  What are your plans?  Will you still be on the hamster wheel?  And how and why should you get off?

Back in December, I wrote a blog entitled “Make Room for Joy.” In that piece, I urged you to make time for family and friends, doing things you loved. Today I want to take this thought in another direction.

We need to take time for solitude and reflecting.

We live in a very noisy world.  It’s filled with people we like – and love – and along with those who annoy us.  Much as we enjoy what we do most of the time, we are spending so much time doing and giving we are exhausted.  If we are not careful are well of caring just might run dry.

What happens when your well starts to run dry?  You become increasingly irritable. You snap at family and possibly a student. You wonder when will it be your turn to be taken care of.  Most of the time we aren’t aware of this shift in attitude.  We are so focused on getting the thing done, It’s not till we get a reaction such as our kid crying because of something we said or a “conversation” with a spouse turning hurtful that we realize we are in overload.

I can remember driving home from work one day and shouting in my car, “I don’t want to be a wife, a mother, or a librarian.  I want an air-conditioned cave lined with books and my meals delivered.” My well was running dry.  I loved being a wife, a mother, and a librarian.  I just felt pulled in so many directions I wanted to tune out for a while.  I was on to something but didn’t fully realize it. 

What can you do to replenish your well? Anyone who has young children is familiar with giving them a “time out.”  We remove them from the situation that has caused them to overreact and have them sit quietly until they can find the calm that allows them to return to being themselves.

We need to find the best way for each of us to have that “time out.”  Some people are good at meditation and that restores their inner calm, replenishing them.  Yoga can work for others.

Some school librarians are putting coloring books on tables – sometimes as part of Makerspaces.  They have discovered that kids—and teachers—are loving them. They can sit quietly, concentrating only on what area to do next and what color to choose.  It has become a national craze.  I think it’s a form of meditating for some people.

You have to find what works for you.  I can’t seem to meditate. My mind starts whirling. And yoga doesn’t seem to be my thing.  Those coloring books don’t attract me, but I do love to walk.  When I walk I can greet people walking their dogs and continue my way. They don‘t want me for anything, not even a conversation.  I watch the seasons change, and it fills something inside me. I do think, but the thinking is so different from when I am home working on my computer. This thinking helps me put things in place. When walking, it doesn’t bother me when my thoughts are interrupted by a beautiful tree or a friendly dog. If I don’t get back to my original train of thought, no problem.

I decided on this topic because I was in danger of having my well drained.  I had a super busy month and there were personal stresses as well. As a friend of mine used to say, I was a Human Doing, not a Human Being.

Memorial Day was created to be a time of quiet reflection, noting those who gave and gave the ultimate sacrifice.  I hope you used it to replenish yourself.  If not, look for times to do it now.

What is your chosen method for giving yourself a much needed time out?

Meanwhile, I am going for a walk.

Posted on by hildaweisburg · 2 Comments

ON LIBRARIES: Role-ing Through Your Day

It is mind-boggling, and more than a little exhausting, realizing how many roles we play.  Away from our job, we may be wife, mother, friend, parent caretaker, and any number of others.  These roles carry assorted responsibilities and a myriad of duties.  We may love these tasks or feel some are draining, but we carry on.

It certainly doesn’t get any less complex in our libraries. In the years since I first became a librarian I have held many “titles.”  First I was a teacher-librarian which is what I was called in my first certification.  Then I became a school librarian as my state changed what the certification was called.

I went on to be a school library media specialist. That is such a cumbersome title we use the acronym SLMS. My state certification also offers an 18-credit concentration for which you get an Associate School Library Media Specialist certification which is even more of a mouthful.

Throughout the country, I’ve discovered there are more names for what we do.  Library Teacher is common as we strive to remind our colleagues that we have an important role as teachers.  Some places use Information Specialist.   Library Technician is another. I knew someone who billed herself as an Information Generalist, claiming “specialist” was too limiting since we cover so much territory.

At one time there was a growing movement for “Cybrarian,” highlighting our skills using the web. One of the newer titles that has emerged is Innovation Specialist.  I suspect it will last as long as Cybrarian. It’s nice, but vague in a time when we need administrators and others to understand and appreciate the value we bring.

Why all these different names for what we do?  No one has ever suggested changing what teachers are called.  They have been teachers for thousands of years. They need different skills than they did even fifty years ago, their classroom configurations have changed drastically since the middle of the last century, but they are still teachers.

The name changes have been caused by our ever-evolving roles as librarians. While we haven’t been as successful as we need to be in communicating what we do to our administrators and boards of education, our state certification departments have recognized some of it – hence those name changes. Librarians have done the same in an effort to show what we do.

Nope – you can’t read this. There’s too much crammed in to one space!

I have come to believe, along with AASL, that we have confused people more than we have clarified what we do. No one title seems to cover the entire territory.  I now embrace the title of School Librarian and feel we must show what huge, complex, and vital roles that encompasses.

In Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (2009), AASL identifies four roles of School Librarians:

  • Teacher
  • Information Specialist
  • Instructional Partner
  • Program Administrator

The first role places us similar to classroom teachers, and we use many of the same skill sets as they do in executing this role. But at the upper levels, our students are frequently disbursed throughout a facility far larger than a classroom and we need to be managers, able to encourage them to explore while keeping them on track.  And at all levels, visitors or teachers might drop in while we are teaching.  We need to juggle competing roles at that point, knowing when we can leave students to proceed on their own so we can attend to the interruption.

In the second role, we are tech integrationists futurists (isn’t that a mouthful).  We work diligently to stay current with the newest tech resources incorporating those that meet needs of our teachers and students. We are also mindful of the values and the dangers of technology. From preparing out students to be safe in cyberspace to teaching how to identify fake news, this is an unceasing role we play.

As Instructional Partners we are diplomats.  We find lures to entice teachers to incorporate our expertise and resources to develop in our students the habits, competencies, and dispositions to be lifelong learners.  This role often requires much patience and tact.

The final role is far more than the basic management of the library program.  It comes to the heart of us as leaders.  It demands that we have a vision and are willing to be a risk-taker in moving our program constantly forward so it’s not mired in the past. We incorporate the other three roles we have in order to create a program that is viewed as vital and indispensable to students, teachers, administrators, parents, and even the community.

Each of the four roles embodies others.  And I am sure we will be adding to them as new demands are placed on us and the educational community who depend on our program.

In Empowering Learners AASL predicted our first role would become Instructional Partner and then Information Specialist with Teacher coming in third.  What is important is that we do what we can for people to think of all these roles and responsibilities when they hear the title School Librarian. We can keep the name of our position simple as we build on the complex and multifaceted role we play in our schools and for our students and administrators.

Which role do you see yourself using most often? Which of your roles do you need to develop further? And how can I and your PLN help?

 

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES: Are You Confident

Confidence is a grounding leadership quality. It makes it easier to take risks, speak before groups, ask for help, and develop a vision.  What makes the title question difficult to answer is while you may be confident in how you do your job, once you consider leadership, all that confidence melts away.

How can you build the confidence necessary to become the leader your students and teachers need you to be?  You can start by employing some of the skills I have talked about in other contexts.  The first is having a positive attitude. Pessimists and nay-sayers are not confident.  They retreat by pointing to why something won’t work or why things are bad and getting worse. If it won’t work and everything is going downhill, there is no sense in doing anything differently.

Leaders don’t think that way. No one follows a pessimist. They may join in as justification for their own attitude but that’s not following.  Change your mindset and it will change your perspective. Look for the “chopportunity” or the positive challenge that can be found in almost every negative. For example:

  • Losing staff? Look for ways to enlist student help (and if you are in an elementary school you may be able to get high school students to help as part of their community service).  Identify what jobs could be eliminated and discuss with your principal. In the process you will be expanding his/her understanding of all you do. And he/she might come up with another suggestion.
  • New administrator who doesn’t see value of librarians? Use highly visual resources such as Piktochart to create reports featuring students at work and to make infographics. Invite your administrator to see a project you created with a teacher. Depending on the end product, you might see if one or more of the students’ work can be displayed in his/her office.
  • Heavy emphasis on STEM minimizing library use? Incorporate the many STEM-based programs into the library.  For example, connect a Makerspace to books and a research project.

Start a personal “Success Journal.”  Keep a small notebook at your desk.  Record each personal success.  Jot down when you get thanks from a teacher or student. Note when students show they really got a particular lesson or loved the book you recommended.  Once you start doing this you will be amazed at how many times you are successful during the day.

Back in September, I wrote a blog on Dress for Success. It suggested that if you dressed more like an administrator you were more likely to be treated like an administrator.  Dress also can build your confidence.  When you feel that you look good, your mindset shifts and you feel more confident.

You will also boost your confidence if you keep up with the latest ideas in school libraries and in education Be on the Facebook pages that will help. Read articles in education journals such as Educational Leadership.  Just seeing what the monthly themes are will give you a clue.  Being on state and national committees will do even more to keep you abreast of trends.  This keeps you ahead of the curve which will do much for your confidence.

Being informed in your field will also help you speak confidently.  Your ability to do so reinforces your growing confidence. Do be mindful as to whether you have picked up the habit of raising your voice at the end of a sentence as though you were asking a question instead of making a statement.  It makes you sound less sure of yourself, and mentally you pick up on that as well.

Another tool is to learn to have a welcoming smile.  “Smile and the world smiles with you” sounds trite, but there is truth to it. People respond positively to a smile, and that, in turn, makes you feel more confident. Let people see your engaged attitude.

Confidence is also linked to self-esteem.  Self-esteem is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a confidence and satisfaction in oneself.” Note the words “oneself” and “satisfaction.” It means, on the whole, you like the person you are—and you’re not waiting to like yourself until you become perfect. You’ll be waiting a long time on that one.

People in high self-esteem accept that they make mistakes and have bad days.  They don’t let those things change how they view themselves.  Although some may see confidence as a synonym for self-esteem, it seems to me that it’s more that the two terms reinforce each other. If you are in high self-esteem you exude confidence.  If you are confident in what you do and how you do it, you develop high self-esteem.

So how confident are you?  Do you regard confidence as a leadership quality?  How are you building your confidence?

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES: Reading is at the Root of All Learning

“Kids who read succeed,” was a slogan AASL used years ago.  It’s still true. There is a reason why the first Common Belief in the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learners  is “Reading is a window to the world.”  It explains “Reading is a foundational skill for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment.”

We can’t ever let reading become an “outdated” element of what we do.  Elementary librarians focus on it, but by middle and high school it often takes a back seat to tech and research.  But are we tuned into how students’ ability to read affects the quality of their research along with their attitudes about learning?

I was on ALA’s Committee on Literacy for several years, and one of the truisms of the committee was “the House of Reading has many rooms, (health literacy, digital literacy, information literacy, political literacy, etc.) but the entrance is through reading.”  And the first Common Belief recognizes all these literacies saying, “The degree to which students can read and understand text in all formats (e.g. picture, video, print) is a key indicator of success in school and in life.”   

Because technology is a large part of students’ lives and the school environment, it is easy to forget that being a good reader is at the core of effective use of tech (even if students and adults prefer to learn by experimenting rather than reading instruction). Our students—and we as well— often turn to Google for a quick search rather than delving deeper.  Then they open the first two results and use it.  Whether it is only partially on the topic and not as relevant as it should be.

Remember reading is not limited to fiction.  While it’s my favorite recreational choice, many students and adults prefer nonfiction.  Magazines are still reading.  So are comics and graphic novels.  Indeed, the last two require readers to combine both visual and text literacy to make meaning.

I am not telling you anything new.  As librarians, we are all aware of the importance of reading.  I raise the topic today because I have gotten the sense that many middle and high school librarians are not making time for it. They have heavy teaching responsibilities, virtually all of which are tied to research or teaching use of new tech resources.

It’s not easy to carve out space for reading.  But you owe it to your students to do so. Middle school students are still likely candidates for a Battle of the Books competition.  Book clubs have been proven to be successful in many places. But you usually must find a hook that will attract students. While reading is a solitary activity, most readers enjoy sharing what they read as shown by the success of Good Reads and other such online groups.

Have a “Books for ….” Club.  Use an interest group or pick a theme and, with your guidance as necessary, let students choose what they want to read on the topic. Then they can share it with the others and discover how they all inter-relate. This is another way to connect with the “specials” teachers that I mentioned in my blog last week. “Read with The Principal/Art Teacher/Gym Teacher/etc” can be a fun way to have these teachers and professionals use books as a way to connect them more with the students.  You could also consider an “Eat, Read, Stay” club with students bringing their lunch and reading while eating. (Do make cleaning up afterward a requirement.)

School-wide reading programs can be effective- again you need a hook at the upper grades.  You could consider connecting it to a fundraiser. Whether it is a give-back to the community or for something the school needs (not the library), students respond well to being able to give back when it’s fun.  And that promotes good citizenship.

Some librarians have been successful with “Caught Reading” campaigns.  They photograph teachers and students who are reading and post their pictures in the halls.  To get kids interested, you need to spotlight those from the many different “groups” in the school.

It’s pricey at $199, but with ALA’s Read  Design Studio starter pack you can make your own Read posters featuring student and a book they selected and favorite must have read.  Consider having it a Makerspace activity where students use it to create Read bookmarks and posters and whatever else appeals to them.

Then there is the One Book, One School program.  Go online and look for success stories to see the best way to launch one.  Or post it as a question on LM_NET and the other places you go to for help from your colleagues. Some towns do this a well – there may be a way to link with your public library for this and get parents and administrators involved.

By making reading a focus along with the other components of the language program, you bring it into kids’ awareness. They, too, have been inundated with the demands school places on them.  Help them incorporate reading into their lives.

Have you kept reading a part of your program?  What have you been doing?

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES: The Myth of the Lonely Librarian

I have written about the stories we tell ourselves that hold us back from being the leaders we need to be, but there is one other that too many librarians believe.  They see themselves as isolated.  As the only librarian in the building, there is no one who understands what they do and what their challenges are.

As with the other stories, there is a surface truth but it is far from the whole story.  What’s more, believing it turns you into a complainer.  Even if you don’t express your thoughts to your colleagues, you unwittingly communicate your attitude and it sends them a negative message.

Yes, you are likely the only librarian in your school.  Perhaps you have multiple schools for which you are responsible. Possibly you are the only librarian in your district. But you are alone only if you choose to be.

There are others who are “alone” in their jobs.  The school nurse is one.  At the elementary level, the art, music, and physical education teachers have no else doing their job. Then there is the computer teacher—and the principal.  Have you ever considered reaching out to them and seeing if you can collaborate on a unit?

Years ago, I worked in an elementary school where the “specials” selected a theme and each of us worked with all the grades, bringing our area of specialization to having students explore the topic in great depth.  One of the projects was on marine life.  While I had classes research different aspects of the subject, the art teacher had them making murals and paintings of underwater life, the music teacher taught sea chanties and other sea songs, and our very creative physical education teacher devised a series of game and activities dealing with the underwater realm.

We had fun planning together.  It was a great opportunity to find out more about my colleagues as people as well as their individual knowledge and discover how it could all be brought together. The complete project culminated in an evening presentation that utilized the halls and gym.  The walls were covered with student art and along the way, students performed and shared their new-found knowledge of marine life. In the gym, there were exhibitions of the activities they had learned. Parents were enchanted and the students loved it. I met a number of them later when I was transferred to the high school and invariably mentioned the “special projects” they had been involved in over the year. I am sure they remembered these far more clearly than any class assignment they had.

You don’t have to do something on this scale although perhaps you can build toward it. Choose one of these teachers whom you think would most probably want to take on this type of project.  See if the nurse has a health-related project he or she would like to do. It could include decorating the nurse’s office.

The same is true with the computer teacher.  What specific applications is he or she is teaching students.  Can you come up with a real-life project where students would have to use those applications to present or track their findings?

And then there is the principal.  Granted it’s harder, but administrators in small schools are likely to be the “only” one doing the job, and it’s a tough one.  Could you help?  You both see the big picture, knowing all the students and teachers and the curriculum. Perhaps you can offer to do any research he or she needs. If you read Educational Leadership, the journal of ASCD (the high school should have a subscription or check your periodical databases), you can keep current with the trends in education.  Then share any information you get on those topics.

But what about how you do your job?  Nobody in your building gets that.  But your librarian colleagues do.  Social media has made it simple to connect to them.  There are a host of school library-related Facebook groups from LM_NET to Future Ready Librarians, to my own School Librarian’s Workshop.

Your state association is likely to have a Facebook group as well as a listserv.  Be part of it. Ask for help when you need it. Your state association’s conference is another important way to connect with colleagues. And if you venture out further there is the AASL biennial conference and ALA Annual. If you haven’t reached out before you will be amazed by how willing librarians, including the leaders, are to help others in the profession.

If you feel lonely in your job, it’s because you aren’t making use of all the potential connections.  What are you doing to connect and show you are part of your educational and library communities?

Posted on by hildaweisburg

ON LIBRARIES: Giving Back

I know many of you take part in community service activities. You also give of your time to support functions at your school. Giving back is putting your thanks in action. It’s how you demonstrate your appreciation and your caring for others. Giving back to our profession is also important, and not enough of librarians do it.

(EDITORS NOTE: Much of this post comes from Hilda’s book, Leading for Librarians: There is NO Other Option from ALA Editions)

In becoming a leader you were helped along the way. A librarian mentored you or gave you some good advice. Your state and national organization provided resources from which you learned. No one emerges full-blown as a leader all on their own.
Once you have demonstrated your leadership abilities, are being taken seriously, and your program is regarded as vital to both student and teacher success, it is important to give back. Those starting out in our career need a trusted mentor. No one else in their building can do the job. Teachers and administrators assume new librarians learned everything they needed to know in library school. You know how far from the truth that is.


I blogged about Mentors in August of last year, but I will review some of the highlights.
Once you decide to become a mentor, you need to find a mentee. The first place to look is in your district. You know it’s vital that all the librarians are seen as leaders. If there is someone new, let them know you are available to help them over the rough spots.
If your state association has a mentorship program, join it. If it doesn’t propose one. You can get help in setting it up from other states that have done so. Go on AASL Forum and ask –or use LM_NET (or my School Librarian’s Workshop Facebook group). Get copies of Mentor/Mentee agreements to ensure that all participants understand their individual roles.

 

Your state association depends on volunteers even if they have a paid director and/or other positions. If you haven’t served on a committee as yet, volunteer to do so. If you have, step up to chair one. You might even consider running for an office. In addition to serving the librarians in your state, you will get recognition from your administration.
As a member of the board, you become aware of the state level political situations that affect librarians at the building level. You will see the scope of the challenges librarians are facing and become part of the campaign to make changes. Although you are doing this to give back, your own leadership abilities will grow as a result and it will impact your students and teachers.
Now take a deep breath and consider doing this on the national level. I am a very active member of ALA and AASL but you can also volunteer for ISTE or AECT if that’s your preference. I know some librarians who are active in AASL and ISTE, and they are recognized as leaders nationally as well as in their home states and school districts.
Working at the national level might seem intimidating at first but you will find everyone is welcoming and eager to help you settle in. It’s an eye-opening experience. You discover where challenges are similar across the country and what situations are developing that you haven’t seen in your state but now can be prepared to deal with them should they arise.
One of the unexpected benefits of serving at the state and even more so at the national level is what happens to your vocabulary. You develop a fluency in talking about the value of school librarians and what a strong library program brings to students, teachers, and the educational community. In talking with administrators and others you sound like the expert you have become. And you are taken much more seriously.
Some of you might have reservations about volunteering at this level because of the time and financial requirements. ALA has two meetings a year, Annual and Midwinter. ISTE and AECT have one. Their locations vary from year to year but inevitable require travel and sometimes days off from your job.
I consider the expense a professional expenditure, part of my job, the way I look at the cost of commuting to work or having an appropriate work wardrobe. For those who are already operating on a tight budget, ALA has a possible solution for you. You can become a virtual member and not be required to attend meetings in person. Much committee work these days is conducted on conference calls to get major tasks completed before in-person meetings.
These are all serious and important commitments as well as ways to give back on a larger level. Two quotes to keep in mind as you consider stepping up. The first is anonymous or attributed to several people with variations. “If serving is beneath you, leadership is beyond you.”
The second is also anonymous but was most recently attributed to Elizabeth Warren. “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you are probably on the menu.”
How do you give back? Are you serving at the state or national level? If you are not, what’s holding you back? What help do you need from mentors or other leaders?

Posted on by hildaweisburg · 1 Comment

ON LIBRARIES: The Many Layers of Diversity

An unquestioned tenet of librarianship is that the library collection will encompass diverse materials to meet the needs of all users.  Sounds good, but in practice this is not always easy to accomplish. There are challenges librarians must face along with difficult choices.

On the surface, a diverse collection contains fiction and non-fiction and all genres are represented in as many formats as possible. While it took a while in some places for graphic novels to be accepted, they now are in most if not all libraries. But there is far more to diversity.

As the liaison to ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) from ALA’s Committee on Professional Ethics, this topic is on my mind frequently. Currently, IFC has a draft resolution in the works on Library Bill of Rights Interpretation – Equity, Diversity, Inclusion. In fully defining what those terms encompass, the draft is a strong reminder of what libraries stand for—and the challenging decisions implicit in this stance.

Here are some highlights of the document:

  • Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. In a school library, this means you can’t be limited to what the jobbers make available. If you need books in languages other than English (and Spanish), you need to seek out those publishers who have books for whatever ethnics are represented in your school. Fortunately, this information is becoming more widely available. Your collection should also include materials representing difficulties many students face such as homelessness, a parent in prison, a parent serving the military, foster homes, learning and physical limitations of self or siblings, and the stressful situations.  It’s important they see themselves reflected in the collection.  Those who have more traditional lives benefit from being made aware of their good fortune as well as developing empathy for their classmates.
  • Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. Although those working in parochial schools which have a strong doctrinal view on certain subjects do not have to adhere to this, public school libraries are expected to follow this principle. Among the “current” issues that can cause a school librarian to pause before ordering would be climate change and evolution. In some places a sizable group does not accept the general scientific viewpoint.
  • Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment. This another area where it gets difficult for librarians, particularly those who are the sole librarian in their school. You are charged with meeting the needs of everyone in the school.  This means those who have same sex parents or are LGBTQ.  In some communities these topics are a red flag and are likely to bring forth challenges. It is easy to just not purchase them.  Who would know?  Your budget is limited in any case.  You can’t afford to put your job at risk.  All true statements. Each librarian needs to make a personal decision between doing what our ethics and philosophy require or taking the safe route. I can’t condemn their choice. But I do applaud and acknowledge those who face this head on.  We are supposed to create a safe, welcoming atmosphere for all our students.  Our LGBTQ students struggle to feel safe, in and out of school.  Countless adults have told stories of how important their school library was in giving them a measure of security and acceptance.
  • A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views. This is one is obvious, but it harkens back to the days of segregation. It’s important for students to know our history – the bad as well as the good- so they see injustice can be corrected. There is much nonfiction on the subject, but it’s in fiction—including picture books –that students can discover what it was like in those days, and develop empathy for those who lived then and extend it to those now who are targeted as being “other.”

It’s incumbent on every librarian to be familiar with the ALA Code of Ethics, the Library Bill of Rights, and the Access to Library Resources and Services for Minors. Protect yourself and your students by having a Selection Policy approved by your Board of Education. You can get help in doing so from the Workbook for Selection Policy Writing.

Also, celebrate Choose Privacy Week May 1 -7, and Banned Books Week September 24-30.

Have you been faced with a difficult choice in purchasing a book for your collection?  What did you do?  How do you make your library a safe, welcoming environment? What help do you need or can you offer to others?