Need Some Adventure in Your Life? Work Internationally!

With the bleak prospects for school librarianship in the U.S. these days, several people have emailed me about working in international schools.  So I decided to do a series of posts on teaching on the international circuit:  the good, the bad and the bits that make you pause!

Come With Me To The Casbah!

     Have you always pictured yourself on safari in the Serengheti, but never had the money?  Or fancied wandering through Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, on a leisurely Saturday morning?  With all the budget cuts, pink slips, calls for education reform that blame the teachers and just general economic downturn, now may be the time to make those dreams a reality by becoming an international school librarian.
 

            There is an entire circuit of school libraries out there, in all sorts of combinations K-12, secondary only, primary only, and more, many of them run by qualified media specialists.  Aside from the travel opportunities, international librarianship provides quite a few perks to make it an enticing change from working in the States, the UK or Australia.

TYPES OF SCHOOLS

            But first, what exactly is an international school?  Basically, there are three types of schools hiring ex-pat faculty.  The DODDS schools are run through the military, teach an American curriculum and only American students.  They are beyond the scope of these posts, but if you’re interested, you can find out more here: 

            Next are the schools that offer a curriculum based on American, British, German or other national curriculae, but the majority of students come from the country in which you are living (the host country).  For example, I worked in a school in Turkey where we taught, basically, a British curriculum (IGCSE) in grades 9 and 10, but 90% of our students were Turkish. There are also schools that teach a national curriculum for the children of ex-pat workers, such as the oil company schools in Saudi with an American curriculum run by ARAMCO for the benefit of its American employees.

            Finally, there are the “true” international schools, with students from around the world.  My current school in Mongolia, with a student population of almost 300, consists of around 40 different nationalities.  These schools may offer either various national curricula, the International Baccalaureate, or both.

That’s a wide variety of schools from which to choose, many of them housing a school library.

While much of running an international school’s library remains the same--promoting reading, teaching information literacy skills, running library programs, you will also find some significant (and exciting!) differences.

 Tomorrow:  The advantages of international schools

Libraries, Mongolian Style

One of my more interesting opportunities this year involved visiting the library of one of the universities here in UB, as well as the  Ulaanbaatar Public Library, and talking for a few hours with Begzsuren, a librarian and IT Manager for the  public library.

The university library (and libraries in general) are organized by department.  Thus, for example, the Languages library may be a room on the 2nd floor of the library building, while the Sciences library is a room on the 3rd floor.  And I do mean room.  Each room consisted of maybe 20 floor-to ceiling shelves.

Students go to the circulation desk, tell the librarian what class they are taking, then she tells them what book/s they need, and pulls them.  Students check them out, but only for in-library use.  They are not allowed to take them home.  In addition, the vast majority of the collection is textbooks, often old and often photocopied.  While the entire building had wireless, and there was an entire row of new-looking computers, they weren't actually connected to the internet, because they didn't want students going online.

A few of the computers had CD-ROM's of old textbooks.  There was one wi-fi laptop area that students could use with their own computer.

The Public Library was similar, though Begzsuren, an amazing man who really "has the vision" is working to change things; it's an uphill battle, however.  Mongolian libraries definitely have a culture of archival hoarding of resources.  Books are seen as a commodity and job security, with librarians the gatekeeper.  The various libraries do not share resources, even with each other, so forget inter-library loans!

This is truly unfortunate, as some of the libraries, especially in the western region, have important documents related to the nomadic tribes and cultures, but usually deny others (including visiting scholars) access to them.

In his own library Begzsuren, who had an internship with a public library in Maryland, has been able to bring about some change.  There are no free libraries in Mongolia.  Patrons pay a set amount to join the library, plus a fee per book if they want to take them home (for a 3 day checkout period).   I asked Begee about patrons using the self check-out stand, but he said they were checking out the books for in-library use.  One recent change Begee began is free book check-outs for children.  They still have to pay to join the library, but not to take a book home.

Now, western-trained librarian that I am, I was both amused and horrified by this parsimonious attitude towards librarianship....until Begee casually mentioned one thing. Shocked, I had to ask him to repeat it, because I thought I hadn't heard him right.  Librarians in Mongolia have to pay for any lost materials out of their own pocket.   Yes, you read that correctly.

Last year, the public library had over a million tugrik (about $800) in lost books.  They divided that among the five librarians, each of whom makes only about $250-300 per month.   I must say, if I had to pay for lost books out of my own pocket, I wouldn't let kids take them home, either.

I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the building when I was there.  I'll do that this weekend and post it later.

Google for Librarians

Want some specific ideas for Google in the library?  Well, Google has a periodic newsletter geared especially towards that.  You can find back issues here.

The Indispensable Librarian: Michelle Luhtala

I mentioned a few posts back that I had a wonderful opportunity to spend a few hours with Michelle Luhtala, winner of ALA's 2010 Library Program of the Year Award. She generously shared information about her program, and allowed me to do a quick interview with her on making libraries relevant for the digital age. I certainly learned a lot from her; I hope you will, too.
The transcript is below.

JH: The big thing in library circles these days is all the layoffs, districts thinking an aide can do our job. How can we help the public understand our relevance, because I don’t think we’re doing a very good job of that.

ML:  You’re right, and I think there are several things we can do.
First, if you are indispensable to the faculty, that definitely helps and pushes collaboration to the forefront of our role. Sara Kelly-Johns says our role as information specialists is being pushed down the hierarchy of our job description and our role as instructional partner is being pushed up.

Professional development is also where we really need to shine. If we are perceived as leaders in our districts on the PD front, if we’re on the schedule and we’re on the agenda, it helps us gain visibility in terms of “Oh, wow, this person is really an expert,” and that is a great thing. We should be on curriculum development committees and across the curriculum--we have opportunities in all the disciplines because we work with all kids and all teachers, with opportunities to embed technology and information literacy across the curriculum.

We must embrace our role as 21st century educators and embed 21st century curriculum across the board. In our district we’re very aware of the need to engage students not only as learners, but as collaborators and contributors to knowledge, to democratize the process of learning...to almost demote teachers in their roles as educators to facilitator, so that kids learn by doing.

It’s also really important that we not lose sight of our role as reading specialists, with, again, that same paradigm shift. Engaging students as contributors to the book selection process and democratizing the selection process is very important. We have so many technologies out there--BookShare, Facebook, VoiceThread--and if you use those tools you can really engage learners to not only participate in the booktalking process, but to be able to do it regardless of assigned face time with those kids. They can do it independently; you can continue your booktalking and reading throughout the summer months, because you can step back from the process and let it happen. If students are included in the selection process, they’re far more likely to participate and continue that discussion.

Finally, we need to be more aggressive in providing evidence for the impact of our instruction. Because we don’t have assigned class time, it’s hard for us to collect data from students, but because of emerging technologies, we have a plethora of opportunities and resources to be able to start doing that. We have access to students via email, Google Forms, polling with Poll Everywhere.

Even kids who don’t have access to internet outside school have cell phones, so if you pose a question, just text a number and your answer, yes or no. It feeds into a spreadsheet and you have collected data. We have so many tools to collect data that take very little time. All we need is imagination and curiosity. Also, read blogs, articles....we come up with solutions all the times just by listening to people. (laughs) A degree of selfishness helps--”How can I use that for me?” is a really good question to ask. Also, we don’t have to be experts in a certain technology before we try it and launch it. That’s going to push us into 21st century leaning.

JH:  You mentioned we need to embed ourselves in the curriculum and the schools. What are some specific ways you’ve done that?

ML:  One of the most effective ways we’ve done this is to use an online course platform [e.g. Moodle] for the library program. Two years into the process, we now have over 200 documented lessons for projects across the disciplines in our school. The first year was labor intensive, but the second year was enhancement and as we go they just keep getting better and better.

We have a block for each project, with associated resources and the actual assignment; we have suggestions for using the public library, our own resources, which search terms might be advisable, how to collect resources in a way that works best for this project, tips on tech glitches they may run into along the way. The beauty of this is, if twelve kids come up saying, “Hey, I’m having problems with blah, blah, blah,” put the answer on the Moodle and all kids can consult that.

By using Moodle in this way (I’m saying Moodle because that’s what we use, but there are other tools out there), we’re modeling for teachers how to use this technology in a way to really improve instruction. It’s been instrumental in terms of building collaboration. Teachers can see others’ work, so it has standardized instruction in a good way that helps students succeed. It doesn’t minimize the individual touches teachers add to their projects, but it does allow a certain uniformity. It also standardizes our library instruction--if we have 12 sections of history, chances are I may deliver instruction in a different way for the classes. But with this they all have the same set of resources, and it’s complementing and supporting the students. It also differentiates, because it provides extensions for the high achievers and allows reinforcement for the lower performing students.

JH:  Again, you mentioned involving students and democratizing the library. How have you done that in your library?

ML:  Two words: participatory tools.

The online booktalking has definitely part of it. (You can see the NCHS library VoiceThread booktalks here). We also have an advisory board of students. They advise us on things like, “How do we want to handle silence during exam study periods?” Usually they come up with pretty sound solutions. We lean on them as resident experts; they can help out with technology. We recently surveyed the students and use the advisory board as ambassadors to get the students to actually take the survey. We told them “If you tell 15 kids, and they each tell 3 kids, we will have had some reach.” It was the second to last week of school, we got 140 kids to fill out a long, 15 minute survey. Out of 1300 kids during exam week, that’s pretty good!

Also, forums. Anything that’s participatory online really, really helps. Using photos, videos of them doing stuff...they are THE most narcissistic age group out there, so anything that involves showing them, featuring them, show-casing them, gets them to participate. Very often we’ll just walk around, take pictures, and put them on our Facebook page. That generates buy in, builds a conversation, and we can use their narcissism and exploit it to engage them.

JH:  Now, you say “Facebook” to a teacher or school librarian, and most people’s immediate response to that is “It’s blocked.” Do you encourage librarians to take on that battle to unblock these technologies?

ML:  Yes, absolutely. I think it’s very important. Administrators, in many cases (not ours...we have very visionary leaders) need to understand the importance of teaching sound practice, teaching that social networking tools can be used for productivity, not just collaboration and networking. There’s a productivity factor to these technologies that is completely under-utilized.

The thing about this digital generation is that they’re free with information disclosure in a way that really creeps out the older generation. Those of us who’ve read Orwell are like, “Oh, my God, are you NUTS?” They’re really free with that in a way that puts them at risk sometimes, so it’s absolutely part of our 21st century responsibility to impart instruction on how to manage your profile online. It also raises the bar in terms of accountability. (laughs) They’re much more reticent about sharing their latest red cup extravaganza on Facebook if they know they’re going to be using Facebook in classes. So if they have access in school, they suddenly have to be a little bit more accountable.

Does it invite bullying? I don’t think it invites any more than they are faced with now. Email can be used for bullying. Are they more active on Facebook? Yeah, they like it better. (laughs) But maybe they’ll like it a little less if we use it for school and that might not be a bad thing!

[There are teachers who] don’t WANT the school to infiltrate kids’ social life. One of the things we’re learning with emerging technologies is we’re all having a hard time drawing the line between our personal and professional lives. If we want to be efficient, sometimes it’s easier to check our email all in one place and not keep them separate. That’s part of the process of being a 21st century human being--you need to be able to compartmentalize in your own head what is personal and what is professional, and if they happen to be delivered on the same platform, that’s not sacrilege. That’s just functionality.

JH:  I read an article somewhere a while ago making the case that we should definitely be teaching these technologies, but we should use education-specific apps, such as Edmodo or something similar, rather than Facebook, because if you separate the academic from the social, it puts students into a different, more analytical mindset, rather than merging with where they hang out socially. What are your thoughts on that?

ML:  I can see a point there, but I also really value the skills they’re learning in their social Facebook world. I want them to feel the same skills they’re learning in that world can absolutely cross over into their academics. How many times has a librarian gone into a class and taught them a skill, then gone into another class with the same exact students, and watched them going back to the way they did it before you taught them, because it’s a different class? Kids don’t necessarily make the leap. What’s working here, they know how to do this here, but then they change environments and they don’t think those skills apply to the other situation.

I LOVE the way they’re thinking in Facebook--it’s one of the reasons I love Facebook. In Facebook they tag pictures, they upload pictures on a weekly, if not daily basis. They change their statuses four times a week, they network with friends, talk to friends, they contribute to knowledge, they inform other people about stuff that is going on. They don’t do that in school. The reason I like going into their tools, into infiltrating that world, is because I want them to use those skills in school. Not enough teachers are getting them to do that, and it’s our job as librarians to bring them into that 21st century thinking.

JH:  These are great ideas for drawing in students. How do you draw in the wider community-- parents, for example? Is that something you work on?

ML:  I think it depends on your district, your demographics--it depends on how many parents you have involved. If you have really involved parents, in some ways you want to minimize their involvement because you have helicopter-parenting going on and you want to increase students’ independence. You want to communicate directly with kids and really work with kids.

If you’re in an environment where parents aren’t as engaged and are kind of disinterested, then you definitely need to find a way to rope them in. We happen to have really involved parents in this district, so there are places where I have actually kept it just for kids. One way I’ve done that is to make things available in our Google Apps world, which is available just for kids in the community and not for parents. That’s a nice way for me to work strictly with kids.

The Facebook page is open, we do have a number of parents visit our website, who are subscribers, so we can keep them up to date and current there, and I encourage that. I do stress--and I really believe this--one of the most important tools in the community is your public library. Collaboration with them, instructional partnership with them, really helps in terms of visibility. We have phenomenal data about the success of our collaboration with the town library. Granted we’re just one public library and one high school; it’s much easier than if you have seventy schools in your district and 30 public libraires. And don’t forget college libraries! If you can capitalize on nearby resources and community organizations, you really, really should.

UPDATE:  It just occurred to me, I should repost Michelle's webinar info. She is offering a year-long series over at EdWeb.net on Using Emerging Technologies to Advance Your Library Program.  While we've had the first session, it is archived, so you won't miss anything.  You can register here.

Four Traits of Great School Libraries

I'm doing some hard-thinking/reading about libraries as I start thinking about my program for the school in Mongolia, much of that related to the program I developed at my current school, what works and what needs changing.

More as a way of grounding my thoughts than in providing anything new (to quote Doug Johnson, I'm not a deep thinker, but I'm practical), here are my thoughts so far on what a truly forward-thinking library looks like. Please feel free to suggest additions for anything I missed!

A Great School Library Is:

SOCIAL: I don't just mean that students work in collaborative groups, sharing documents and information, obliterating that sepulchral hush that libraries used to be--though that's definitely part of it. But that the library program itself is social and interactive, whether it be through student blogging or book reviews on the library website, shared bookmarking through de.licio.us or Evernote or pathfinders, etc. More importantly, program content stems from student/faculty input and feedback. Do you talk to students about what they want and need?  Do you have a library suggestion box?  Do you use Google Forms to take occasional user polls/surveys?  Ask students for ideas on ways to add to or improve your program. Better yet, ensure that thoughtful students are on your library advisory committee AND LISTEN TO THEM.

CREATIVE: I mean this literally: we need to be creating content (or getting students to create content), not just archiving it. One thing I admire about Free Tech 4 Teachers Richard Byrne, is the sheer plethora of useful handouts he has available. I swear, it seems like he puts these things together overnight. It guilted me into preparing the SearchSmart handout for my students--the ones who keep claiming they don't need lessons on searching--and I almost literally can't keep them "in stock." It convinced me I need to do a better job of writing quick handouts on a variety of topics for students, faculty and parents.

We also need to be creative in its more imaginative sense (and this is harder, of course). Whether its pedagogy, technology use, or just looking for new ways to serve our clientele,  we must think outside the box in coming up with new ways to inspire our users.  Nor do I mean big, program-changing creativity, though that's great. Just the small things can make a meaningful difference:  I'd been putting pathfinders together for over two years before it occurred to me to create a Google Book Shelf for each one. A small thing, but students and teachers loved it, and it broadened the scope of the collection.

MEDIA NEUTRAL:  OK, I know this is an odd one. I had multimedia as the term, but the English teacher in me rebelled against the non-parallel structure, and the librarian in me said, "So what? We've been doing that for ages."  Yes, libraries go far beyond books these days: databases, Kindles, audiobooks, etc.  But come on, don't we secretly kind of privilege books?  How many of your teachers, when detailing the resource requirements, tell students at least two of them have to be books?  I've been guilty of that myself.  I've even told students to stop digging online and go check the shelves.

But I was wrong. At least, I was doing it for the wrong reasons. If books are more specific to what a student is researching, great.  We shouldn't require physical books just to require books, however.  First, we need to meet students in their comfort zone, not ours, and that means online. Second,  privileging books implies a value judgment, and students sense that. There are students who will never crack a book, for whatever reason, and I don't want them thinking I'm going to judge them for that, especially if that means they avoid coming to me as a result. Finally, with everything available to us in multiple formats these days, I'm just not that sure books are actually better any more. 

UBIQUITOUS:  Along with all of the above, we must provide multiple access points for library resources..  We need to get ourselves out of the library and make our presence felt. My first year,  I insisted teachers bring their classes to the library, but I was trying to change the culture of the school away from library-as-lounge.  Now, I not only teach in the library, I go to classes in teachers' classrooms, in the auditorium, in hallways, in the faculty lounge.

Move off your website. Create a library Facebook page, and a Flickr page.  I know, I know, it's blocked at school.  Kids don't need it at school; they need it when they're home. Take on that fight and make your case. Put a Twitter widget on your library page and update it with new events. Students don't use it much, but their parents do. What a great way to let them know about ongoing research projects their student is (or should be!) working on.

I have had a long-term goal--that I ABSOLUTELY VOW to finally complete this year!--of putting all my lessons onto vodcasts students can download onto their ipods or watch on the library website.

Those are my ill-formed thoughts, so far.  The one thing I really need to tackle is a reading program. I have done nothing with that so far, and it's long past due. I'm sure I'll post on it soon.

End of Year Reflections

I just watched Buffy Hamilton's  Animoto Annual Report, and it's fantastic.  I definitely plan to steal the idea...next year.  I have been absolutely horrible about taking photos throughout the year, something I plan to work on.

In fact, I really need to do a better job with the whole advocacy thing in general. While I write an annual report, I haven't done much else to keep my principal/s informed about what I'm doing.  Partly because we're a small school, so it's fairly obvious, though that's an assumption I make.  Frankly, my teachers love me,  and  I  rely on that more than I should for word of mouth.

If you can't tell from my slough of weekend posts, I'm working through my sadly backlogged Google Reader, which prompted my whole thinking about my abysmally bad job of advocacy when I ran across Doug Johnson's recent post, Nobody Can Save Your Butt But You.   In this day and age, no one can afford to be complacent.  Some resources I've been reading as I prepare to write my annual report, and continue my thinking about revamping my library program for next year.

Here's a link to Part II of Hartzell's article on advocacy in SLJ (the link to part one is bad, and it doesn't come up on a search.)

I'm also finding these articles helpful (you'll need access to the Gale databases).

A show of strength: written reports should convey how much your program has to offer. 

Breaking New Ground ,   Sharing Your Expertise,  Making Every Librarian a Leader.
In general, my personal assessment for my own performance this year?  I kind of fell apart. I had some great ideas that either never got off the ground or fizzled under a busy schedule:  tech workshops for parents, weekly faculty workshops, a monthly library newsletter, library displays to promote reading.

While the basic program hummed along, with the usual research units and technology projects, I didn't do much new this year.  When I'm being generous with myself, I view it as a year to consolidate and refine after two years of start-up.  There's definitely some validity to that.  With no library program in place when I arrived, I worked hard for two years not only to develop and build a program, but to develop a library culture within the school.  To give myself credit, that has been very successful.

My more self-critical side, however,  thinks I got lazy.  I was busy, sure, but didn't always make the best use of time. Nor do I think one should let a year go by without trying something new;  I owe it to the students and the faculty to always be striving for better ways of running the library.

So it goes.  All one can do is recognize the problem and take steps to improve.  It's an ongoing process.

Lifelong Role of Libraries

Stephen's Lighthouse reposted this slide from Bill DeJohn at the University of Minnesota.  Click to enlarge.

A Must Read...and It's Free.

Another reason to love Doug Johnson: He wrote a wonderful little book that every librarian should read...and made it a free download.

I can best describe Machines are the easy part as the "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" for the teacher/librarian.  These are  not detailed policies or how-to's for technology, but snippets of incredible and often-overlooked wisdom we would all do well to remember.  Basically, in an easy-to-read form, Doug encapsulates the philosophies that should drive both our technology use and our decision making.

I've been reading it this morning, and here is just one snippet that struck me as profound in its simplicity:

Change anything, and someone is not going to like it.  But some people will...the real key to getting people to accept a new way of doing things is the What's In It For Me factor.  Show people how the new policy, technology or plan is going to 1) make their jobs easier, 2) make them more efficient, 3) make them more effective.

If the change doesn't result in one of these things happening, you might want to question your motive for asking people to make the change.  To make YOUR life easier is not sufficient reason (p 25).

I have always been one of the "I enjoy theory, but give me something I can do in class tomorrow" types, and I try to show teachers how technology can make their lives/jobs easier...but I need to do a better job of that and this was a good reminder not to get carried away by my own tech-enthusiasm.

The book also gave me the title for my re-branded blog, which I hope will be up in the next week or two:  The Imperative Library   (which probably also gives a nod to Buffy Hamilton's The Unquiet Library/Librarian).  In these days of slashing libraries and jobs, how do we make sure we, and the libraries we run, are an imperative in the school?

Reading Doug's book is a good start for everyone.

Living on the Edge with Doug Johnson

I just finished Doug Johnson's new book, School Libraries Head for the Edge.  I must admit, I bought it a while ago, and it sat around for a few months.  I should have cracked it open sooner.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know Doug is a personal guru of mine.  Well, not mine personally, but.....oh, you know what I mean! I blogged about the thrill of meeting him at ISTE a couple years ago.

Anyway, I like his very down-to-earth  been there, done that, we're in it for the kids approach to libraries.  He's idealistic without being impractical, and he's willing to call out the profession when he needs to. I can respect that.

The book is a collection of his "Head for the Edge" columns for the Library Media Connection. And, as I prepare to start building a library program in Mongolia, it's really helping me think through what I'm happy about with my current program, and where I need to improve it.

He covers everything from values to technology, and is seriously re-thinking what it means to be a library media specialist in this age of increasing layoffs. As he says in the intro: "As education changes because of the information explosion, everyone's role in it will change, including yours and mine." The rest of the book explores how to make your library a meaningful, influential and integral part of the school.

This is a must-read, and ought to be on the reading list of every library school; in fact, I'm going to email a couple of my old professors at Pitt and suggest it.

Whining to Win Friends and Influence People

I've been thinking a lot about advocacy lately.

Who hasn't, really, with the library community in crisis mode over the downpour of pink slips across the country. Except I suspect I'm not on the same page as the majority of school librarians: We're whining too much.

I almost blogged about this a couple months ago when the ALA was up in arms because Obama's Race to the Top program didn't include specific funding for libraries. This reaction smacked to me of the tea-party set, who wax eloquent about the perils of socialized medicine, then threaten bodily harm to anyone who touches their Medicare. Everyone knows there are limited funds to go around, that their needs to be cuts...just not to my particular program.

Don't get me wrong. I am utterly, deeply convinced of the profound contributions library media specialists to schools and to students. I abhor the entrenched notion that we are book jockeys with a degree and an utterly replacable luxury.

But I also think we brought this on ourselves.

Library schools have touted advocacy for years now, if not decades--to little avail if current events are anything to judge by.  Look at any ALA website or catalog, and you'll find a plethora of materials shouting out the library...the importance of the library...the impact of the library.  Excuse me?  I thought it was about the kids?
 Looking at the ALA's Frontline Advocacy for School Libraries page, I ran across this telling phrase:

It’s important that you share the value of your impact as well as the value of your library media center’s impact on student success. 

"As well as..." our impact on students?  Since when did students become secondary to what we do?
Similarly, the ALSC's Issues and Advocacy page starts with the following:

It's more important than ever for youth librarians...to be able to advocate effectively on behalf of libraries (emphasis mine).

Houston, we have a problem.

Somewhere along the line, I think we confused advocacy with PR.  I've only been in the library for three years, but the one true thing I've learned is this:  REAL advocacy is bloody hard work.  Real advocacy--the knowing every teacher, what they're doing,  how I can make that easier, better, faster-- takes an incredible amount of time, persistence, and sheer cussedness. REAL advocacy--knowing the students, knowing their projects, teaching (often one-on-one) how to run a search rather than doing it for them (which would be infinitely easier and faster) takes more time and patience than I have some days.

You have to be a diplomat.  One of our 10th grade teachers offered his history class the option of NOT coming to me (as all the other classes do) for  search lessons.  Of course, having spent two weeks with me in 9th grade, they now think they can do it on their own.  So now I'm offering daily tutorials to students struggling to find fifteen sources, of which seven have to be primary.  They would rather NOT come to me, because it's more work than just finding the top hits on Google; thus I coddle and encourage and make it all seem fun.  Or try to.

You have to be patient. My first year here, I thought I would have the students and faculty whipped into shape by the end of the year, that I would move the library from a social lounge to a hub of active, engaged learning in mere months.   Three years later, I'm a quarter of the way there.

I could go on, but the point of all this is that none of this has anything to do with circulation stats or monthly updates to admin or that end of the year "state of the library" report I spend ages on, but (I suspect) nobody actually reads.

What it does have to do with is  the sheer hard work of knowing my students, knowing my faculty.  As I tell them both:  My job is to make your job easier.

You want to see some change?  Quit with the PR already.  Just do your job.



UPDATE:  Ha!  And here I thought I was all frontline and edgy on this!  A similar post on School Library Monthly   I love the Gail Dickinson quote.

Creative or Catastrophe?

The Mayor of Nashville announced the merging of public and school libraries in Nashville a few weeks ago. Obviously this is a Big Story in the library world.

According to the mayor’s letter, the intention is to begin the merger with high school libraries, a move that Bengel says is intended to “strengthen the schools."

I suspect the library community at large sees this as the opening salvo in a plan to abolish school librarians altogether. Fortunately, for Nashville this is the school board's decision, not the Mayor's; nevertheless, that it's even being discussed shows, once again, how little the public understands the nature of school librarianship.

I was even talking to my Dad over the weekend about helping students with documentaries. He looked at me kind of puzzled and asked, "But aren't you the librarian? Are you doing this for fun after school?" AARRGHH!

Here are the questions that leap to mind regarding the Mayor's decision:

1) Is this merely a co-ordination of resources? Will the general public have access to the school collection? Public collections contain considerably more 'questionable" material than a school collection might. Are they now open to more frequent challenges, since they're part of the school library system? And will the general public mingle with students in the school library? How does that affect safety issues?

2) A supposed "benefit" is longer library hours during the day and in summer. Does this mean the school library will be open? Who will supervise? And aren't there increased costs in keeping the buildings open and staffed longer, defeating the original purpose? If it just means students have access to the public library, don't they already?

3) Assuming this is all a way of ultimately removing the school librarians, who will instruct? With all due respect to our public sisters and brothers, they are not trained (or certified) teachers. Of course, anyone who can conceive of this as a reasonable act, doesn't see school librarians as necessary to the instructional process, anyway.

4)How will libraries collaborate with teachers if they're not even in the same building? It's hard enough when you are!

Those are just the questions that leap to mind. I'm sure I'll think of others. This is definitely an issue to watch closely.

Watch Out For Those Commie Libraries!

You gotta love Stephen Colbert! From my friend, Leah.