Digital Bookends

Recently I was asked to provide our district with year-end information regarding the library.  There were the basic questions:

**Number of books in the collection?

**Number of books weeded this year?

**Age of the collection?

**Total circulation for the year?

**Number of lesson taught?

**Number of students served?

While the information is interesting to a librarian who wants to know exactly what materials were circulated or how many items were added or deselected over the past few months, I knew that this was not the information that would show administrators, teachers, or parents exactly what happened in my library.  In fact, I’d hoped for a form that asked for lesson plans, evidence of assessment, and teacher-collaboration evidence.  Obviously, I was way ahead of myself.

During the year, I’ve been reading about teacher-library collaboration and how it impacts student achievement.  While the Ross Todd, Keith Curry Lance, and Carol Kuhlthau studies that show that providing up-to-date library materials, as well as additional support staff  can add to the librarian’s ability to actually impact student achievement, the evidence still shows only the statistical quantities within the library— (How many new books were added? How many certified librarians? How many support personnel?  How many hours is the library open?).   What about the quality of the instruction?  How can you determine if the students are learning? What evidence do you have to show that instruction and collaboration has improved student achievement?

Maybe I’m just a professional student (my kids call me a “library geek”) because I’m always reading library research, but recent articles (and books) by Dr. Violet Harada (from the University of Hawaii) have intrigued me.  Her work centers on Evidence-Based Practices or how we can provide the information that administrators need in determining that libraries (and librarians) impact student achievement.  (See articles:  http://www2.hawaii.edu/~vharada/Jounals.htm )

While teachers are being asked to show evidence of student achievement through grades, test results, and classroom activities, librarians are still counting books, calculating the number of hours the library is open, and determining the age of our collection.  We pull all the information together and share it with lackluster responses from those who have the power to determine our futures.  Then when library programs are cut and positions are eliminated, we wonder why others don’t see our value to the instructional curriculum.  We are teaching important skills!  We know we’ve taught some wonderful lessons with outstanding results….but does anyone else know?

What evidence do we provide to show that our students are learning?  With state academic content standards, as well as Information Power standards, librarians should be collaborating with teachers to design instruction that provides evidence that students can demonstrate what they know and what they can do.  At that point, librarians can collect that evidence that demonstrates that the library has made an impact in student achievement.

The big questions that still loom are: 

Are librarians being provided the opportunity to work as instructional partners?  Can they collaborate with teachers to design instructional content that will help students demonstrate what they know?  If so, what evidence is gathered and shared?  These questions hold the key to determining what impact libraries make on student achievement.  It’s time to stop collecting quantities of “things” in our libraries and start collecting the evidence of “quality” of student learning.

A recent discussion on LM_NET about the use of Wikipedia by students as a resource site made me wonder why WE (as librarians) haven’t begun using Wikipedia as an Advocacy Tool?  Librarians talk about what they do, how they do it, and then they write about it for one another—but very few of us actually write outside our professional journals.  If Wikipedia is used by millions daily, why not advocate for our profession (and our impact on student achievement) on those free pages that are read by everyone outside of our profession?

Sure, we’re adding to a forum that we are so often fighting against during library research sessions; however, because Wikipedia is a “living, breathing entity” that contains immediate information about events around the world, why not take advantage of a free, flexible, and instantaneous site to direct others to what we are doing on a daily basis…why not showcase our mission, our talent, and our results? 

Check Wikipedia for the term “librarian” and you find a lengthy description of the profession that would make any encyclopedia publisher proud.  Then, search for the terms:  school librarian or school library media specialist and you won’t find an entry.  Look for the names of those librarians who are creating history today by changing the face and function of school libraries, and you probably won’t find them either.

Can we send users to the resources, sites, and materials that showcase our NEW abilities as teachers, instructional partners, information specialists, and program administrators through Wikipedia? (By the way, Information Power is not in Wikipedia either.) 

Will a hyperlinked term about a popular novel direct a student to the YALSA website and then to some incredible programs that school librarians are doing?  Can a terminology search by a teacher who did not ask a question during the librarian’s copyright presentation bring her to the pages where new ways of collaborating with librarians is described as ways to freshen-up those tired (and plagiarized) research projects?

Can we share with administrators (who secretly browse Wikipedia), how we implement technology, research, and collaboration skills in the classroom without sending articles that we know they won’t read?  If we add information about our changing profession to Wikipedia, can we provide the average reader with information that they never knew about us or what we do? (Okay, maybe not everyone wants to know everything about us….but we do have some interesting characters in our profession that we need to share with the general public!)

Can we advocate for the importance of school libraries and school librarians by using an online tool that we have disregarded as being unworthy for research?  If we do, what will others think? 

 What do others think (or know) about us now?

I don’t know if it’s the profession, the people, or a combination of both, but it seems that there are many school librarians who are completely frustrated with their situations.  Throughout the year as I monitor several listservs for school librarians, I see the same thread of frustration stemming from librarians who must re-educate (or perhaps initially educate) administrators, teachers, and others, about their roles within the school’s educational curriculum.   Although the profession is demanding and requires flexibility, patience, understanding, and tolerance, it seems that school librarians are really being relegated to the lowest level of professional education through the ignorance and apathy of their educational peers.

After nearly 24 years of professional experience as a librarian, I’ve encountered several unique situations that were frustrating; however, within the last ten years I’ve watched, listened, and experienced myself, how demoralizing (and damaging) the educational profession has been toward librarians.  What is even more interesting is the reaction and response that many librarians have taken toward those who completely disregard librarians as educators.  Rather than administrators utilizing former classroom teachers who have taken the challenge to gain additional certification (or perhaps even a Master’s degree) in Library and Information Science, as an expert in the field of information literacy, technology, reading, reference, and collaborative instruction, most are expecting those educators to return to their schools to perform the duties of clerks in order to circulate materials or babysitters to provide teachers with lesson planning time.

Without question, many librarians who show outstanding potential as educational leaders within a school are forced to remain hidden in many curriculum programs.  And while most librarians tend to be “non-confrontational” regarding their placements within their school programs, it is no surprise that they spend many years in positions where they achieve some success but find little satisfaction professionally.   As a team player, most librarians work harder than their peers –even those librarians in elementary schools where the “golden halos” are usually always awarded to elementary teachers for their tireless efforts to work with 30 students on a daily basis, but are seldom offered to the elementary librarians who work 12-15 hour days without lesson planning periods to meet the needs of 500+ or more students each week.  In high schools, those librarians are the ones that classroom teachers envy for being able to “read books” all day rather than teach and yet, those librarians are the ones desperately seeking instructors in hopes of collaborating on those “yearly projects” that have grown tedious and boring for both the students and the teacher.

Most school librarians watch each year as their responsibilities outside of the library grow and they assume the duties of lunch room monitor, playground assistant, crossing guard both before and after school, or a myriad of other activities assigned by administrators.  No one sees the over-worked librarian who takes 200 books home (little by litte) in order to catalog them remotely each night because there is no library assistant and definitely no time during the day.  No one sees the librarian who evaluates the best sources and writes purchase orders over the weekend for materials needed by the English teacher later in the semester.  No one sees the time devoted by the librarian during the holiday break to tediously write a $5,000 grant to increase the library’s budget, but everyone assumes that grant writing must be easy once the funds are awarded.  No one (except the student) realizes that the librarian is monitoring the school’s email on a nightly basis to assist students in their research assignments, suggesting databases, resources, and places to locate information online, all the while encouraging the struggling student writer to continue writing.

No one sees this because most librarians don’t post the Friday night ”score” on the school’s website.  

Books Circulated:  753    Students Assisted:   453      Questions Answered:  245

Librarians don’t “toot their own horns”…they don’t brag about the number of questions that they’ve answered each week or the number of students who now understand how to use the online databases.  They instruct, guide, re-teach, and listen.  They promote, share, give, and watch.  Their success comes from the success of others….regardless of whether that person is the kindergartner who, alone, can find Curious George on the bookshelf or the science teacher who suddenly was able to locate from home those journal articles that she didn’t realize the library provided through the online databases.

Although librarians are not Clark Kent-like personalities who hide behind their Superperson identities, saving others from information overload or intellectual illiteracy through swift and thoughtful intervention, they are often the ones disregarded by those who have the power to best understand what it takes to make a mediocre school program a powerful institution of learning.  As more and more administrators go through certification programs, fewer and fewer are aware of the importance of school libraries or school librarians to a successful school curriculum.  Even while studies, research, and powerful messages are being presented to the educational profession, few administrators are taking the time to read beyond their own professional journals and even fewer are taking the initiative to listen or gather facts about this subject.  Rather than reading the research materials that demonstrate how to create a successful academic program through the use of librarians who collaborate with teachers, or librarians who implement new ways to incorporate technology into the curriculum, many administrators are swayed by glossy advertisements in “fluff journals” that showcase the latest technology programs that guarantee academic achievement.  Few see the strengths of the person in the library as the answer to their academic conundrum.

So, as librarians ponder their places within schools…as they discuss and complain about the problems that they see, can they truly make an impact in an educational program that may completely disregard the largest investment (the school library) and the most diversely educated and trained individual (the school librarian) within the school’s program? 

As they question their roles in the school and wonder about their futures, many feel that they are becoming “burned out” with the profession.  What differences can they make when they are limited by others who do not (or will not) allow them to truly showcase their expertise and talent?   What importance can they bring to the curriculum when they are not allowed to participate as an educator —a position they once held during their time as a classroom teacher, but not now as a librarian? 

Who is responsible for making administrators understand what librarians can do for student achievement when a philosophy of ignorance toward libraries and librarians permeates both the administrative and teacher-education programs at the university levels?

As librarians ask these questions and work continuously to make things better in their own “corners of the world,” they will continue to find situations that make them question if they are becoming “burned out” with the profession.  What else can they do to make their skills, knowledge, and abilities shine? 

Perhaps the better question to ask is whether school librarians are burned out or are they just fed up?  At that point, will they continue to remain hidden and do their jobs quietly, or will they demand the respect given to others within the field of education and brag to teachers and administrators that they provide the best solution to a stagnant and unsuccessful educational program?

I’ve recently had the opportunity to speak with three different administrators about what they expect from a school librarian.  Specifically, I asked, “What do you want your school’s library to provide to your students and teachers?  What is your vision for the school’s library?”

One administrator refused to answer the question.  He responded that he didn’t think it would be a good idea to give that information to me — a librarian— (as if I would expose HIS vision as THE answer to the question that all librarians were waiting eagerly to hear.)  While he stated that he would often tell the librarian what she should be doing in the library, he did not offer any significant goals, objectives, or even visions for a school library and did not say what he felt the librarian should provide to ensure student success.   My guess is that he had no idea what he wanted from his school library or from his school librarian, but could interject suggestions about what he thought “should be happening” if he didn’t see it happening.  In fact, if the program functioned without any problems, complaints, or questions, then he said he would be happy with it.

The second administrator had visions of students using the library every period of the day.  She spoke of the librarian teaching reading and library skills instruction on a daily basis (as she was once a reading teacher herself and felt that the librarian should also be a reading teacher)….however, that librarian would need to develop individual lesson plans for 7 grades on a daily basis to teach each week—(the librarian did not have a daily “lesson planning period” like the classroom teachers, but would still need to write detailed lessons that included the state’s instructional objectives for each group.)  Because the librarian would teach isolated “library lessons” (circa 1980) that did not relate to anything being taught in the classroom, there would not be any need for teachers to collaborate with the librarian.  In fact, the teachers would “drop off” their students at the library before taking their well-deserved (second) lesson planning period each day.  (And with no library assistant, this librarian would also be required to do all clerical duties after providing the “canned library program” for over 700 students each week.) 

When I suggested that the librarian work collaboratively with the teachers to assist in developing a lesson that related to the topics being taught within the classroom, this principal insisted that the teachers knew more about teaching these skills than the librarian.  In fact, she encouraged the teachers to tell the librarian “how to teach” the library skills since many of the teachers on her staff had been classroom teachers for fifteen or more years.  When I suggested that many librarians coming out of library programs today would have not only the classroom experience, but also the information literacy skills and technology skills to share with both students and teachers, she insisted that the classroom teacher was “always” the best person to teach information skills, that the technology skills should be taught by the computer instructors, and that librarians should focus on teaching reading and the Dewey Decimal system.

The third administrator sent me in a completely different direction.  Her response to my question included the statement, “I do not want my librarian to spend her time checking out and reshelving books.  I expect my librarian to be in the classroom and with the teacher.  I want her to collaborate with each of the teachers, to share information about what resources are available and to teach students information literacy skills.” 

 In amazement, I listened as she continued, “I want the students to learn the Big6 skills and I want all of our teachers to use the same jargon.  When we talk about Task 2, we all understand where we are and how to move forward.”  Her comments included more than just information literacy and collaboration.  In fact, she included the librarian in the curriculum development committee, in technology utilization and instruction, and in staff development (of which, the librarian would be one of the instructors).

After listening for over an hour to this administrator’s vision for her school’s library, I wondered just what DID most administrators expect from their librarian and WHY was this administrator’s vision so much different from the other two?   How could one administrator speak directly to the issues that most librarians now face (and answer the questions in the manner that most librarians wanted to hear), while the other two ignored the library program and the changes that had occurred over the past twenty or thirty years?  I later discovered that this administrator wanted a powerful educational program and had done her homework.  She specifically located materials that addressed the areas of libraries and information literacy.  She read “library” books and journals to learn what the hot topics were and how librarians impacted student achievement.  She knew the “library lingo” and discussed those topics with me as if she had just finished her Master’s degree in Library Science.

I was then reminded of my recent opportunity to hear Gary Hartzell speak at the Texas Library Association conference.  During his presentation, Harzell stated to the audience (of mostly librarians) that the majority of administrators envision a school library program to be the same as they saw them when THEY were in school (either as a student or as an early educator).   Because many administrators’ early educational experiences were formed during the (gulp) 1970’s, 1980’s, and the 1990’s, what these administrators have seen from (good or bad) school libraries then is how they expect libraries to be NOW.  Unfortunately, things have changed and no one is re-teaching these administrators what to expect NOW.

This made me wonder if we are to blame for not re-educating our administrators about today’s libraries….or are administrators at fault for not taking the initiative to learn more about one of the most significant trends in education?  Information literacy and the impact of libraries / librarians on student achievement. 

 I can’t help but think that most administrators DO try to understand the latest trends in classroom instruction and testing….that they are aware of how athletic programs have changed in terms of safety and health-related complications for students who participate….or how bus laws require different types of driving skills and training for those in the transportation department.

If administrators have been made aware of these changes during the last 30 years, then WHY do they not understand the significant changes in libraries….in instruction by librarians…..in collaborative efforts between librarians and teachers….in information literacy skills?  Who is responsible for teaching administrators about these changes and who is responsible for their continued learning in this area?

Are WE to blame for administrators not knowing more about our libraries and our program changes OR are administrators just not listening (learning, or reading) about these topics?  What makes the difference between an administrator who understands the importance of an outstanding library program and an administrator who doesn’t realize that she’s only encouraging a mediocre library program with a fixed library schedule that isolates the librarian from interacting with other educators?

Who’s to blame for what administrators expect from us today?  Is it time to stop blaming ourselves for NOT educating (or re-teaching) these well-educated adults and start demanding that these academic leaders take on the responsibility of doing their homework and learn more about school library programs?  If there are “some” administrators who can develop a vision for their schools that include the librarian as an integral part of the educational team, then maybe it’s time to demand that the rest of the “administrative class” take some responsibility to do their homework too.