Welcome to My World
If most adults were to close their eyes and think back to their own experiences in a school library, their memories would most likely bring back images of dusty bookcases, old encyclopedias, and a serious looking librarian peering over bifocals sitting on the end of her nose, just waiting to catch some unsuspecting student daring to raise their voices to anything higher than a faint whisper. For many of us, those were the libraries we knew when we were in school. |
But the technological revolution of the last century has reshaped our world and our schools, along with its libraries. They have been transformed into something much more dynamic than what we knew as students. Libraries no longer reside in a world where students have to search and search through multiple reference books to find enough information for a one page report. We now live in an accelerated 24-7 plugged-in world where the amounts of information we come across on a daily basis is expanding exponentially around us. (I suppose that’s why our era has been labeled as the "Information Age.") With one click of a button students can call up millions of pages of information on any topic. Wading though it all to find only the relevant information for their particular needs requires a whole different skill set and a whole different type of learner than what was needed in the past when information was scarce. (And this is not taking into account the challenges of using the much larger and more complex "Deep Web" vs the more common "Free Web" which most people are familiar with and use most often.) Today’s students are being taught to be inquiry-centered and not fact-centered. They must always be questioning...“How do I wade through and evaluate this large amount of information I found in order to select the best sources? Would comparative, keywords or boolean searches be most appropriate for my topic? How do I manage contradictory information and sources? How do I handle and use primary sources as opposed to how I use secondary sources? How do I verify internet sites for accuracy and freedom from bias? What are the guidelines that I use to cite these different sources? How do I avoid plagiarising my sources? How do I bring all this together so as to best weigh the piles of facts, observations, and opinions I found and mold them into ideas that are uniquely my own? And which media would be the most effective vehicle to present the results of my research?”
For much of the time the questions that today’s “digital” students ask have more educational value than the answers they actually find...
This is what students learn in today's library...
And this is what today's learning environment feels like. So it is within this framework that the school library (aka media center) has become the bustling academic heart of the school and the center of modern educational changes. That little old librarian from yesteryear would barely recognize it. Today's library is a sophisticated 21st century learning environment offering a full range of both print and electronic resources. My master's degree in Library Science included much more than simply mastering how to catalog and run a library. It focused on developmental literacy across the curriculum and on topics such as instructional collaboration with teachers and how to use the library to support them and the technologies they use in their classrooms. As one of only two media specialists in the Lakeview District, I realize the great responsibility that I have to our entire school community to provide a welcoming haven for learning and literacy as well as performing the role of an instructional support person to our faculty and staff.
Librarians are Educators
A good part of my time each day is spent introducing 4th grade students to the wide world of modern library skills and informational literacy. Besides those lovable and eager 4th graders, one of my most challenging and rewarding activities is collaborating with classroom teachers in the creation of learning projects that are aligned with the Ohio Performance Standards. Often a teacher comes in with some objectives in mind, and we sit down together to look at all the various ways that we can flesh out the activity by integrating the resources available in the library with the learning goals of the teacher. This is how I function in my role as a resource person. Sometimes I recommend and pull reference materials already available in our library, or I may search the internet for the teacher finding sites that align with the teacher’s particular goals and build a webpage on this library site for that teacher's project. (The latest such example was a career project for the 5th grade and Mythology unit for the 7th grade.) I have to admit, I love teaming with our excellent teachers. It’s always an extraordinarily good feeling when together, we develop activities and projects together that challenge students and make them excited about learning.
So as you can see, today's school library is not the silent little hideaway that it once was. It is a beehive of activity. In a more-or-less normal day it is not out of the ordinary to have two classes in the library at the same time; one working with reference books on one side of the library and another class working on the computers on the other side. Typically, it’s not unusual to have one student wanting to know how to summarize information from an encyclopedia without plagiarising; while at the same time another student has a question about citing her web site; while another one can’t print from his computer; while another one wants to know if I could recommend another book by a particular author. This is the general ebb and flow of my day, and most days, I love it!
Circulation
At the Middle School we currently have over 17,000 books in our collection. Other materials and equipment that range from computers to smartboards, multimedia carts, ebooks and streaming videos all provide ways in which the media center supports learning in the classroom. In addition to student materials, we also house an extensive selection of instructional support materials for teachers, such reproducible materials, and professional literature.
My aide (the indispensable Mrs. Yocum) and myself are constantly decorating the library and bulletin boards around the school to encourage reading or coming up with contests or games that we run to attract students to the library. I think we are fairly successful at it. Last year alone, our Media Center circulated just a little over 12,000 books and magazines. Without a doubt we stay very busy, (I won't even begin to tell you about re-shelving books.) but we are very proud to the extent that teachers and students come in and use the library.
Of course, our major literary event is our yearly 'Right to Read Week' in May. A good portion of my year revolves around planning and organizing all the activities that take place throughout 'Right to Read Week'. Even though it's a great deal of work, it is a week filled with exciting literary events for students and lots and lots of reading just for the pleasure of it.
Collection Management & Development
One of the more important, yet unseen, duties I perform is developing and maintaining our library's collection. It's important to keep our literary and reference collections in good condition, up-to-date, and to keep them growing both in the form of traditional books while also adding more ebooks and audio books to meet our students reading interests. Development of our collection is an ongoing process, and one that is never, ever "finished." I'm always reading journals to stay current and I also keep on the lookout for areas of our collection that needs updating or weeding based on the academic needs and pleasure-reading-wants of our students. We are fortunate to have one of the few administrations in our county to recognize the importance of our libraries and supports them in the way that they do. But we also owe a debt to our PTO which does such a fabulous job of promoting and running our book fair each year.
Encourage Reading
I suppose it is safe to say that one doesn’t become a librarian unless you have an abiding love of reading. Nothing, absolutely nothing, gives me a greater satisfaction than to be able to pass that joy on to our students. There is a special magic when you are able to pair the right child with the right book at just the right time, and when that happens, the child's life maybe forever changed. This is the goal of every school librarian. Often teachers bring in their classes for one of my “book talks”. This is probably the most fun I have in the library. I bring out a table full of books and tell ‘teasers’ about them to peak interest for both our more reluctant readers and our more advanced ones.
For our more avid readers, each year the language department and the library get together to promote the renowned YSU English Festival. Once a group of students makes the commitment to read the seven books required of the Festival, we have regular meetings to help prepare students for this exciting event. It's so very heart-warming to go to an academic event, such as the English Festival, and see students talking to real authors, discussing books, participating in competitive activities and just whooping it up, cheering and showing the same level of excitement as they would at some sporting event.
Even though we are always working on new ideas to promote reading, I must confess that even the mundane job of checking-out or checking-in books provides me with a great opportunity to talk to students individually about what they like to read, or what they thought about what they just read. This is a great way to connect with kids in ways that classroom teachers usually don’t have an opportunity to do. I love it when a student, or former student for that matter, comes up to me outside of school and starts telling me what they're reading. Not too many careers provide that kind of job satisfaction.
Peripheral Services & Troubleshooting
A lot of technology is integrated within today's classrooms, and, inevitably, things go haywire from time to time. When this happens, the library staff is, often times, the first responders. In the library, we have much more of an opportunity to work with various types of technologies than most classroom teachers. So we are usually very familiar with what teachers are using in their classrooms. We are able to assist teachers with minor technical difficulties like blown bulbs and broken switches. But if the issues are more complex, we will call in our capable technology department. In the area of technological support our major job is to do whatever we can to make sure teachers can concentrate on teaching and not waste their time serving as a repairman. In conclusion, those are most, but not all, of my responsibilities in our library.
For much of the time the questions that today’s “digital” students ask have more educational value than the answers they actually find...
This is what students learn in today's library...
And this is what today's learning environment feels like. So it is within this framework that the school library (aka media center) has become the bustling academic heart of the school and the center of modern educational changes. That little old librarian from yesteryear would barely recognize it. Today's library is a sophisticated 21st century learning environment offering a full range of both print and electronic resources. My master's degree in Library Science included much more than simply mastering how to catalog and run a library. It focused on developmental literacy across the curriculum and on topics such as instructional collaboration with teachers and how to use the library to support them and the technologies they use in their classrooms. As one of only two media specialists in the Lakeview District, I realize the great responsibility that I have to our entire school community to provide a welcoming haven for learning and literacy as well as performing the role of an instructional support person to our faculty and staff.
Librarians are Educators
A good part of my time each day is spent introducing 4th grade students to the wide world of modern library skills and informational literacy. Besides those lovable and eager 4th graders, one of my most challenging and rewarding activities is collaborating with classroom teachers in the creation of learning projects that are aligned with the Ohio Performance Standards. Often a teacher comes in with some objectives in mind, and we sit down together to look at all the various ways that we can flesh out the activity by integrating the resources available in the library with the learning goals of the teacher. This is how I function in my role as a resource person. Sometimes I recommend and pull reference materials already available in our library, or I may search the internet for the teacher finding sites that align with the teacher’s particular goals and build a webpage on this library site for that teacher's project. (The latest such example was a career project for the 5th grade and Mythology unit for the 7th grade.) I have to admit, I love teaming with our excellent teachers. It’s always an extraordinarily good feeling when together, we develop activities and projects together that challenge students and make them excited about learning.
So as you can see, today's school library is not the silent little hideaway that it once was. It is a beehive of activity. In a more-or-less normal day it is not out of the ordinary to have two classes in the library at the same time; one working with reference books on one side of the library and another class working on the computers on the other side. Typically, it’s not unusual to have one student wanting to know how to summarize information from an encyclopedia without plagiarising; while at the same time another student has a question about citing her web site; while another one can’t print from his computer; while another one wants to know if I could recommend another book by a particular author. This is the general ebb and flow of my day, and most days, I love it!
Circulation
At the Middle School we currently have over 17,000 books in our collection. Other materials and equipment that range from computers to smartboards, multimedia carts, ebooks and streaming videos all provide ways in which the media center supports learning in the classroom. In addition to student materials, we also house an extensive selection of instructional support materials for teachers, such reproducible materials, and professional literature.
My aide (the indispensable Mrs. Yocum) and myself are constantly decorating the library and bulletin boards around the school to encourage reading or coming up with contests or games that we run to attract students to the library. I think we are fairly successful at it. Last year alone, our Media Center circulated just a little over 12,000 books and magazines. Without a doubt we stay very busy, (I won't even begin to tell you about re-shelving books.) but we are very proud to the extent that teachers and students come in and use the library.
Of course, our major literary event is our yearly 'Right to Read Week' in May. A good portion of my year revolves around planning and organizing all the activities that take place throughout 'Right to Read Week'. Even though it's a great deal of work, it is a week filled with exciting literary events for students and lots and lots of reading just for the pleasure of it.
Collection Management & Development
One of the more important, yet unseen, duties I perform is developing and maintaining our library's collection. It's important to keep our literary and reference collections in good condition, up-to-date, and to keep them growing both in the form of traditional books while also adding more ebooks and audio books to meet our students reading interests. Development of our collection is an ongoing process, and one that is never, ever "finished." I'm always reading journals to stay current and I also keep on the lookout for areas of our collection that needs updating or weeding based on the academic needs and pleasure-reading-wants of our students. We are fortunate to have one of the few administrations in our county to recognize the importance of our libraries and supports them in the way that they do. But we also owe a debt to our PTO which does such a fabulous job of promoting and running our book fair each year.
Encourage Reading
I suppose it is safe to say that one doesn’t become a librarian unless you have an abiding love of reading. Nothing, absolutely nothing, gives me a greater satisfaction than to be able to pass that joy on to our students. There is a special magic when you are able to pair the right child with the right book at just the right time, and when that happens, the child's life maybe forever changed. This is the goal of every school librarian. Often teachers bring in their classes for one of my “book talks”. This is probably the most fun I have in the library. I bring out a table full of books and tell ‘teasers’ about them to peak interest for both our more reluctant readers and our more advanced ones.
For our more avid readers, each year the language department and the library get together to promote the renowned YSU English Festival. Once a group of students makes the commitment to read the seven books required of the Festival, we have regular meetings to help prepare students for this exciting event. It's so very heart-warming to go to an academic event, such as the English Festival, and see students talking to real authors, discussing books, participating in competitive activities and just whooping it up, cheering and showing the same level of excitement as they would at some sporting event.
Even though we are always working on new ideas to promote reading, I must confess that even the mundane job of checking-out or checking-in books provides me with a great opportunity to talk to students individually about what they like to read, or what they thought about what they just read. This is a great way to connect with kids in ways that classroom teachers usually don’t have an opportunity to do. I love it when a student, or former student for that matter, comes up to me outside of school and starts telling me what they're reading. Not too many careers provide that kind of job satisfaction.
Peripheral Services & Troubleshooting
A lot of technology is integrated within today's classrooms, and, inevitably, things go haywire from time to time. When this happens, the library staff is, often times, the first responders. In the library, we have much more of an opportunity to work with various types of technologies than most classroom teachers. So we are usually very familiar with what teachers are using in their classrooms. We are able to assist teachers with minor technical difficulties like blown bulbs and broken switches. But if the issues are more complex, we will call in our capable technology department. In the area of technological support our major job is to do whatever we can to make sure teachers can concentrate on teaching and not waste their time serving as a repairman. In conclusion, those are most, but not all, of my responsibilities in our library.
You are always invited to come for a visit us and see for yourself.
You can help! Keeping the links on a website up-to-date is a very difficult thing for one person to do. So I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know (by clicking here) if you find links that are no longer active. Plus, if you find any new cool educational sites, let me know about those too, Thanks.
~Mrs. S.
~Mrs. S.