As I said in my previous post on this topic, school librarians often find themselves wearing the hats of “actor, caretaker, clerk, crafter, event planner, manners police officer, meeting goer, paper cutter, professional developer, sympathetic ear and window dresser.” Add to that list magpie, as we are always picking up and exclaiming over every shiny object we see, whether it be a new piece of hardware or a glossy coffee table art book. (Which is a myth, apparently.) We change direction constantly, depending on what the new trend, app, or gadget is.
Though some accuse us of being traditional or old fashioned, it is my experience that the opposite is true: most librarians I know are obsessed with the new, always learning, always seeking, always collecting.
Which is why it can be hard focusing in on exactly what I want to emphasize in my self study project. While my plan is to “study the work journals I kept for the first 5-6 years I worked at LREI, and compare them to library department annual reports and the journal I am keeping this year to consider how my job has changed,” then “examine the professional literature and identify the significant ways the role of school librarian has shifted and morphed nationally,” what is the best way to begin? There are so many bright shiny articles and studies accessible with the click of mouse, I hardly know where to start! Here is just a sample of some of my recent reading:
First, there are all those meaty, timely articles in School Library Journal, written in real time by my colleagues in the field about their best practices:
Augmented Reality. What’s Next? The Learning Potential of AR–Pokemon Go is Only the Beginning by Phil Goerner
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Eight Who Have Taken Librarianship to New Places by Jennifer Kelly Geddes
Looks Like We Made It: 11 Lessons from a Maker Space, One Year in by Kelly Jensen
New Year, New Ideas: knockout Programming for 2017 from Aeronautics to Poetry Slams by April Witteveen
The Smell Test: In the Era of Fake News, Librarians are Our Best Hope by Linda Jacobson
Then there are all those significant, yet popular articles about how to slow down the flow of information or limiting screen time in order to dive deep:
Do Teens Read Seriously Anymore? by David Denby, New Yorker, 2/23/2016
Hooked on Our Smartphones by Jane E. Brody, NYT
In Screenagers, What to Do About Too Much Screen Time by Jennifer Jolly, NYT
Literature in the Age of Google: Why Read Books When You Can Surf? by Janet Alsup, Independent School, Winter 2017
Teachers: How Slowing Down Can Lead to Great Change by Elena Aguilar, Edutopia blog post
And probably most important, those considerable resources about the role of cultural competency in libraries and library practice:
Considering Cultural Competence: An Annotated Resource List by Nicole A. Cooke and Renee F. Hill
Diversity Programming for Digital Youth: Promoting Cultural Competence in the Children’s Library by Jamie Campbell Naidoo, Libraries Unlimited, 2014.
YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Wiki: Cultural Competence Resources
While it’s hard sometimes to know where to start, what’s important is that I have started reading, researching and reflecting. Like any good magpie, I mean, librarian, I’ll keep collecting and hopefully somewhere in all those shiny objects I’ll come across some gold nuggets. Stay tuned…
With apologies for extending the metaphor, I find it really interesting to consider the items listed above that you’ve carried back to the “nest.” For me, they point to this interesting and evolving space that is defining what it means to be a librarian. In our conversations, we often discuss how these areas of emerging interest relate to the design of our learning spaces and the library itself. Your reflections also remind us that who we are and how we are as learners is equally important in defining how we work in the context of our positions and with our students and colleagues.