Former working partners who have faced the storm of adversity and flown to find new homes. Ann is now the Director of Instructional Technology with McAllen ISD and Cindy is the Head Librarian at an International School in Germany. We love connecting kids with books and incorporating 21st century tools into lessons. Follow our blog and we will teach you on the fly...
In my quick summation, it seems to be a Pinterest-type curation tool. Founded in 2010, it is not a new tool, it's just new to me. Given the number of curation tools, I find it noteworthy that it is still around.
I saw this infographic on What Librarians Do and I absolutely love it. With a little over a month left before school gets out and with the task of beginning an end of the year inventory - I challenge you to look at one box a day and reflect on that one thing. For example: Day One :Teaches - how many students were you able to reach via classes or in the library setting to see that they could locate and share information. Or, Day Two: Tweets - do you tweet and post events on twitter?
How many of these things can you honestly say you do? If you find yourself saying, "I want to do this more," take the time to make a calendar of those things. I found that if I make year long plan, I can plug in new things with the old things and I won't forget. (I have to give Cindy credit for getting me to make this year long calendar - she was the perfect partner!)
I would like to thank Mia MacMeekin for having it available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
On February 16th, 2013, The Daily Beast wrote about libraries trying to survive during this Era of cutbacks. They state, "Libraries are on the back burner in numerous states. Last year, Texas issued across-the-board cuts in library funding, reducing the budget by 64 percent. The overall state library budget is expected to shrink from $19.8 million annually to $7.2 million. In Michigan, many libraries folded under budget constraints. The state reported more than 20 closures last year. " Leaders and educators are trying everything to improve education, but instead of improving libraries and ensuring they have certified librarians, they would rather spend their money elsewhere. Of course, all this is happening at a time when families and students are reaching out to libraries for information resources and evaluating those resources. See the infographic below compiled by the 2013 Library Research Service and Colorado State Library.
What are your thoughts on library budget cuts?
Citations:
Beast, The Daily. "Can Libraries Survive in an Era of Budget Cutbacks? - The Daily Beast." The Daily Beast. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/16/can-libraries-survive-in-an-era-of-budget-cutbacks.html>.
"Make the case for school libraries with our new impact studies infographic | Library Research Service News." Library Research Service| Research And Statistics About Libraries . N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. <http://www.lrs.org/news/2013/02/27/make-the-case-for-school-libraries-with-our-new-impact-studies-infographic/>.
Our blog has been nominated for the TASL MVP Award for 2013! Cindy
and I committed ourselves to blogging about our profession and how we need to
be 21st Century ready for our teachers and students. Thank you to those
who follow us faithfully and thank you for those who have visited our blog.
This is a great way to start 2013!
There have been many articles and blog posts lately debating the future of libraries. It is hard to imagine a school without one of these learning centers (where else would faculty meetings, testing, and baby showers take place?), but this post focuses on busting the myth that librarians will become obsolete.
With the threat of Kindles, Nooks, and Google taking over the world of research and reading, do students need to be taught Information Literacy skills, or are they doing fine without librarians? I believe that as our access to information grows, the need for teachers of Information Literacy will only become more crucial.
In searching for data to back up my claim, I read three articles that highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly in the world of librarians and research:
THE GOOD
In the March/April 2012 issue of Knowledge Quest, published by the American Association of School Librarians, three teachers shared their co-teaching project at Prosper High school. The librarian (Stacy Cameron), the English teacher (Adria Butcher), and the instructional technology coach (Christine Haight) collaborated and co-taught a multimedia project in which student created their own public-service announcements that included evidence of ethos, pathos, and logos, contained correctly selected and cited copyright-friendly music and images, and used a variety of technology for the final product. After the initial collaboration meeting, Stacy and Christine created web pages together, with the links and tools students would need.
This article brilliantly outlines the power of co-teaching. Each teacher focused on her area of expertise while supporting the others, modeling for the students what a group project should look like. With three experts in the room, students were charged with taking responsibility for their learning, seeking out the support they needed for their personal areas of weakness.By bringing in the technology coordinator to instruct students at the beginning, much of the chaos that comes with technology productions was avoided. And throughout the project, Adria was able to focus on teaching the elements of english, rather than simultaneously become a resource and technology expert, to ensure all students learned the targeted objectives.
This is the ideal of teacher-librarian collaboration. Who would not want this type of instruction and learning for their students?
THE BAD
Moving from the ideal to the reality, at too many school libraries, is the article What Happens When Media Positions Are Cut? from the May/June 2011 issue of Library Media Connection. In her article, Mary Alice Anderson notes that librarians are often cut when budgets are tight, and then itemizes the cost to students when Certified Librarians are cut.
Less research takes place in the school. Teachers become frustrated by the growing burden of finding resources alone
Staff development provided by the librarian is cut or may not occur, leaving teachers without the knowledge to share online resources
Collaboration occurs by e-mail only
Library hours are reduced
Collection development suffers with less time for librarians to read reviews, seek suggestions, weed, browse, and perform collection analysis. This results in duplicates or holes in the collection.
Para-professionals, who may lack the necessary content knowledge to do so effectively, are left to locate resources and fill requests
Loss and theft of resources increases, costing precious dollars
Priorities shift... MARC records may or may not be accurate, making it difficult to locate materials
Websites and databases fall into disrepair, with dead links or unused subscriptions
Advocacy diminishes. "How do you spread the word when you are spread thin?
And worst of all, as one librarian said, "We have lost students and teachers seeing us as partners."
Ann and I have faced each of the consequences above as we moved from being responsible for one library then four libraries then six and now we each face the task of overseeing eight libraries for the upcoming school year. Yet, as the article concludes, librarians continue to make the best of their situations. In our district, we continue to work to build relationships and strive to fill all requests, but it is not the same.
THE UGLY
So what is the long-term effect of cutting librarians? What happens when students in grades K-12 are not being taught information literacy? Students enter college without the skills they need to be successful. Professors must teach skills that were once introduced in elementary school.
In her 2004 article for College Teaching, It's the Information Age, So Where's the Information? Why Our Students Can't Find It and What We Can Do to Help, Jill D. Jenson addresses students' inability to distinguish between types of materials for research. Unlike the differences between print journals versus print magazines, which can be seen and felt, distinguishing between online resources is difficult for students because one computer screen looks much like the next. Students lack the experiential background in a real library with real, print materials to make the jump from traditional research to electronic research without instruction.
Students rate themselves computer literate, but they are unaware of how much they do not know. Current teaching objectives need to include what students must learn to simply begin their research. Jenson explains that "Whereas students could previously get by with learning terms such as "periodical," "journal," "index," "bibliography," "citation," "card catalog," "Library of Congress Subject Headings," and "call number," they now must learn a whole new language in addition to that previously required: "Boolean operator," "meta search," "general database," "specialized database," "text image," "verbatim image," "full-text image," "access date," "marked list," "search wizard"the list certainly could go on."
I am happy to note that part of Ms. Jensen's suggested solution included collaboration with a librarian as well as taking students to the physical library building. As someone who sends high school graduates off to college, I feel it is my role to teach many of these terms and skills. Teaching freshmen or graduate students these skills so late in their education robs them of learning opportunities along the way. Information literacy includes skills a life-long learner needs to sate their appetite for knowledge.
What does the future hold for librarians? I wish I could predict. With so much more for students to learn, who is going to teach it, if not a librarian?
What do you think?
Works Cited
Anderson, Mary A. "What Happens When Media Positions Are Cut?" Library Media Connection 29.6 (2011): 16-19. Print.
Cameron, Stacy, Adria Butcher, and Christine Haight. "In Their Own Words." Knowledge Quest 40.4 (2012): 28-33. Print.
Jenson, Jill D. "It's the Information Age, so Where's the Information? Why Our Students Can't Find It and What We Can Do to Help." College Teaching 52.3 (2004): 107-12. Web.
It took two tries, but more than 25,000 people signed the petition to ensure every child has access to an effective school library program. After more than two months, a response was released from the White House on Friday, the 13th of April.
I have read this through several times since it arrived in my inbox, and while I am pleased we were heard, I am finding my initial optimism waning. There is much work yet to be done.
The first paragraph of the response highlights the broad roles the library fills in education. Wow! The White House understands the many facets of libraries and the programs they offer!!! This had me doing a happy dance, as changing the perceived role of the library (from just a room with books to an engaging learning/collaboration center) is half of our challenge.
Yet, as I read further, I found myself wondering what, if any, changes will be prompted by the White House. Nowhere does the response state that strong library programs will be required, nor highly recommended. Nowhere does it state that a certified librarian is essential for a strong library program.
Instead, libraries appear to be lumped in with other "literacy plans".
Libraries should, and do, support literacy instruction. But my concerns with this response are that librarians are not mentioned and libraries are thrown into the arena with all other aspects of literacy instruction - curriculum, materials, programs, pedagogies - and the library's role to support instruction in all other curriculum areas is overlooked. What about research skills, information access, evaluating sources?
Is a room full of books a library? If a child is literate (able to read and write) but does not know how to ask critical questions or independently find information to answer questions (whether for an assignment or to satisfy his/her curiosities), is he/she educated? What skills does a literate child need to be college ready?
This was a successful first step... but it is the first of many steps. With funding being flexible for states and districts to use as they choose, we must continue to spread the message and change the perception of the library. Books... literacy... MORE!
I love using Facebook to reach patrons. Updates come regularly and easily for me... but the blogs,wikis, and tweeting I started over the past few years all died within weeks.
Some of this stuff just wasn't working for me... Until Ann asked me to blog with her.
What are the benefits of a blog-partner?
PERSPECTIVE
Ann and I have different strengths. Instead of feeling the need to master EVERYTHING in order to have a successful blog, I blog about my area of expertise while Ann shares hers. I no longer feel overwhelmed by the tidal wave of technology coming at me, and I don't feel obligated to write about things that really don't hold my interest. Yet, I also feel motivated to stretch.
SHARED WORKLOAD
Our weekly tasks vary. Sometimes one of us is opening a new facility or teaching students to research, while the other has more desk time and flexibility. It is nice to know the blog will be updated by my partner when I'm swamped and she is not. Conversely, it feels good be able to sustain this project when my partner is busy with other tasks.
GROWTH
I learn from Ann, she learns from me. I like to discover new tools, but she is a master at applying them to our current situation. She continually inspires me to stretch my comfort zone and try new things.
ACCOUNTABILITY
When my last blog died, nobody knew and nobody cared. It was my little secret. But with this blog, I feel the need to do my fair share. We have no formal agreement to take turns or a monthly minimum number of posts, but I know Ann is counting on me just as I am counting on her.
TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE
We don't often proof each others' posts, but the option is always there. When topics feel controversial or something is difficult to express, we have another brain off which to bounce our words before they go public.
Is there a technology tool that intimidates you? Who do you know that is waiting for an invitation to stretch?
There isn't a course librarians take that doesn't promote collaboration with teachers. Unfortunately, teacher training doesn't promote the other side of that coin. Too many teachers still don't know what librarians do and how we support instruction.
Do YOU know what librarians do???
Scroll over this document to reveal info-circles with links and more information.
