The Indispensable Librarian

These days a good portion of my day is filled with librarian cuts, staffing shifts and advocacy for positions. These School Library System activities are becoming ubiquitous throughout the state. If you read just one thing this year, read the two handouts from Doug Johnson, Director of Media and Technology for the Mankato (MN) Public Schools found on his blogsite:

http://dougjohnson.squarespace.com/dougwri/the-indispensable-librarian.html

I too am concerned that the paradigm has shifted in our schools these days from the status quo librarian, teacher/librarian or library media specialist. It is no longer enough to do a good job, to fulfill the teacher contract and to meet the educational needs of students and support teachers.

You need to become INDISPENSABLE.

Doug’s thoughts on the top 3 things that librarians can do to become indispensable follow:

1) Become the educational technology expert, the integration pro and the best person to go to when anything electronic needs to be addressed. Provide access, access, access and training in new modalities for students, teachers, administrators and families.

2) Become the interface between what is out there in the world, in the business world, in the IT world and between the new paradigms in education and your school environment. Become the expert in email, various technologies, networks, databases and all things digital.

3) Use your expertise in information literacy, digital literacy, technology literacy to set the standard for curriculum and lessons that are aligned not only to state standards, but also to AASL Learning Standards and the National Educational Technology Standards. Become connected to your local, regional, state, national and international professional organizations.

In other words, doing a good job is no longer enough. You need to take on not-necessarily-glamorous or well-loved work and projects that your administrator would love to get off his / her plate. When it is time for cuts, make sure that you are responsible for so many things that the administrator does not want to do, that your job is saved.

We don’t have to like it; we just have to do it. I am finding that the issue of mandated staffing of libraries is pretty slippery, often interpreted and definitely on the table this year. It is not too late to become indispensable.

Happy Holidays!

What a wonderful holiday before us--not too many strings attached, no big conflicted and conflicting religious significance attached and a tiny bit of downtime to think about how well off we really are.

Have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy.

C

Photo and Image sites

You might want to look at:

Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally
Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

and

The Library of Congress' photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/

Chuck

Kindle Comments

This summer, DCMO BOCES' School Library System purchase (3) Kindles for use by library staff. I hope that the comments from our various Kindleites will help to inform and inspire!

C

Middle School Library Classes

I am curious what, if any, library services are offered to middle school students at other districts?

"At our school, students are with me for K‑5 for instruction and then book selection. I am finding that at the middle school those services cease to exist. They never enter the library at all for three years; that's 6th through 8th. "

Could any of you with middle school students care to advise?

Thanks.

*This message has been posted through the SLS from a local teacher librarian

Staffing Issues: Over, Under or Just Plain Inappropriate!

Digital Copyright Issues

Digital Copyright Issues are one of the new kids on the block that directly affect school librarians. Students, teachers and librarians all bump up against ownership and fair use issues way too often for comfort. We are not lawyers. We are not experts in copyright law. We are a lot of things, but few of us are expert in the law that governs these new issues.

Why new issues? Haven't issues of plagiarism been around since students had to write essays and term papers? Yes, plagiarism has been around seemingly forever, but the ubiquitous World Wide Web and the interactivity associated with Web 2.0 has upped the ante. Digital images, audio and video are just a few of the newer technologies that are now in the forefront of copyright law. How much is too much to use? Where and when can they be used? How can we limit our liability to lawsuits?

These types of issues are dealt with in libraries today and will grow increasingly thorny and recalcitrant as media use accelerates and becomes more insinuated into all things electronic in the media center.