“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader” – Margret Fuller
Standard 4: Advocacy can Leadership
Candidates advocate for dynamic school library programs and positive learning
environments that focus on student learning and achievement by collaborating and
connecting with teachers, administrators, librarians, and the community. Candidates are committed to continuous learning and professional growth and lead professional development activities for other educators. Candidates provide leadership by articulating ways in which school libraries contribute to student achievement.
When I started this assignment, I wasn’t much into it; then I came across some news feeds on the number of classics that are still being banned today. It got my attention. I can understand how transgender books can be challenged because it is a subject that is at the forefront of society right now and it makes a number of people uncomfortable. However, classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or “The Diary of Anne Frank”; these have to do with our history and what did or could have happened. Living with a houseful of teachers can bring up a number of discussions about school topics and when I brought up the argument that teaching these types of classics in English class could make someone uncomfortable by the language used, everyone had an opinion. In the end, the Junior High Science teacher, the middle school reading teacher, and the elementary ELA teacher all agreed on the way you prepare your students and how you teach the book goes a long way to curtail how the book is perceived.
The American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom has a number of links to articles and journals that address the question “What type of impact do you believe intellectual freedom has on the management of school libraries?” The School Library Journal’s columnist, Pat Scale, fields questions from readers on how to handle a number of scenarios. The short answer is “a lot.” However, I feel you want a little more than that. The biggest impact comes from the number of people involved in school libraries that believe they have a say in how the school library is run. First, there is the school board at Island Tree High School, who after attending a conference, pulled books from the school library at night when it was closed. Next, we move to parents who want Harry Porter removed because it encourages the student to practice witchcraft. Then you have the Principal who requires librarians to have a “Restricted” shelf where the students who have parent permission are only allowed to check out books from there. Also, you have the teachers who believe children should only read books at their reading level. Lastly, the student that takes books that were banned from the school library and starts a library from their own locker.
Having only been a church librarian where the focus of what is offered was limited, it is hard to know how to promote and protect the intellectual freedom of my students. I think offering a variety of books to choose from would be a start. Also, displaying different books to encourage students to try new genres and subject matter would be a good idea. Most students don’t know what they like until the try it. Reading is no different.
There is so much gray area when it comes to intellectual freedom that the number of challenges is outrageous. One of the challenges I see is how to keep the variety of books for children on the shelves without having to deal with parents that don’t like what you have to offer. One of the ways I see to handle that challenge is to send out a survey to the community asking for what genres and themes of books that they would like or ask for them to suggest what titles they would like to see added to the library. This would give documentation to the principal and school board, backing up one way that you use to pick the new books each year. Another challenge is one I would have not have thought about, it comes from the Intellectual Freedom Blog’s article “Overdue Fees: Barriers to access in School Libraries’. In most schools, if you have an overdue book before you can check out any more books you have to return the book and pay a fine. This is understandable, we want to teach the students responsibility and keep books from staying out too long, but is this the best way to handle it? Isn’t part of intellectual freedom, having the books available to the student? I know in my school, when a student doesn’t turn in their book, they don’t have to pay a fine each day it is late, but they are banned from checking out any other book. If by the end of the year the book hasn’t been returned, the parent pays a replacement fee. The problem with that is when I have a student that keeps leaving their book at home, they can’t replace it, so they can’t participate in class reading time. A way I feel I could deal with this as a librarian is to use donated used books from the community to create an emergency box. This box would be used for those students who are unable to check out books to borrow them for school and home. If the book isn’t returned, the school is not out money for replacing the book and the first lost book can be replaced with the end of the yearbook fee.
The biggest thing I learned through this week’s discussion is that you could read for weeks and never come up with a specific right or wrong answer to intellectual freedom.
Discussion Post: Library Stakeholders
The public library is a school library stakeholder.
The school library offers the public library insight into the curriculum and what students are learning. They offer public libraries access to students and parents during school hours. The school library serves as a collaborative partner for promoting public library events. The school library serves as a collaborative partner in the planning and promotion of literacy (traditional and digital) to youth (this relationship is reciprocal).
The school library receives insight about resources and services offered through the public library to the school community. The school library receives access/information about the public libraries summer reading programs that supplement the school library program for students when school is out. The school library receives access to additional resources through the public library (digital resources particularity which can really help enhance the school library budget).
Parents/Guardians and Families
Parents/Guardians and families
The library can offer a variety of support and opportunities for the entire family of students who currently attend that school.
Access to a computer and the internet
Workshops on school-related software so parents/guardians are better able to assist their students in learning related tasks
Opportunities to check out books/materials for younger siblings who are not school age yet
Story-time for younger siblings
Family night in the library (can be centered around a theme or co-inside with another school event so parents can attend both)
Opening the library after school for tutoring for students or GED studies for parents who are working toward completing their studies
Helping families get library cards for local public libraries and helping them familiarize themselves with the procedures of the public libraries vs the school library system
While the library can offer multiple benefits and opportunities to the parent/guardians and families, they, in turn, can give back to the school library.
Support the library programs by encouraging their students to use the library
Volunteer in the library (help checkbooks in, re-shelf books, etc)
Help set up and run the book fairs
Help new families to the school become comfortable with the school library and programs by showing them around and discussing the activities of the school
Teachers
Stakeholder: Teachers
What do school libraries offer the stakeholder?
School librarians are teachers and leaders on their campuses. They support teachers in many ways. Librarians offer teachers professional development in best practices, new technologies, and research strategies. Librarians work with teachers as instructional partners. They may provide support through collaborative planning and as co-teachers in collaborative lessons. Librarians offer technology integration support, assisting teachers and students with digital tools. Additionally, librarians are innovative leaders – offering training and support in the most current, relevant tools and practices. This support leads to increased student achievement which ultimately benefits all stakeholders, including teachers (Burns, 2018).
What do school libraries receive from the stakeholder?
When librarians work to build positive, impactful relationships with teachers, they will, in turn, improve the overall perception of the library. Teachers will act as vocal advocates – sharing the positive impact of the library with other key stakeholders – administrators, parents, and community members leaning into the library program and seeking the support of the librarian more and more often (Burns, 2018). This reciprocal, collaborative relationship results in a shared vision for the library – and empowers the librarian to lead the school forward.
Students
The primary stakeholders for a school library are its students.
School libraries offer programs and services that directly benefit children of all ages. According to ALA(2013), the library services include accommodations for the needs of special populations such as immigrant, religious, disabled, LGBT and foster children. Resources, clubs, and programs are all geared towards providing for the students that the library serves.
Children are the school libraries’ front line advocates. The library can evolve and continue serving the community because of the children that visit and use the library. In the educational data-driven environment that prevails today, much of the decisions made at libraries depend on the student’s needs and interest.
PTA
The stakeholder I looked at was PTAs.
Libraries receive numerous benefits from PTA. Benefits include parent volunteers to work in the library, help implement library programs to engage families to get involved and help with funding (National Parent Teacher Association, 2019).
The number of benefits PTA gets from school libraries are just as impressive. School libraries offer reading programs for parents like ESL classes, provide workshops on how to read with their children and provide places to have their meetings. The importance of the school library and PTA partnerships can be found in The Igo Award. This award recognizes an outstanding collaboration between a PTA organization and the school library media center. This award is giving out each year at the TLA Conference. (Texas Library Association, 2019). Working with stakeholders is not easy, especially when there are so many that affect school libraries, but it is worth it in the end.
Administrators
Stakeholder: Administrators- this includes “principals, superintendents, curriculum directors, and department heads.” (“Five ways,” 2015).
Administrators rely on the school library and librarians to provide up-to-date resources, tools, and collaborative instruction to support curriculum and instruction in the classroom. Administrators today also rely on libraries and librarians to provide technology training on use and best practices for the entire school population. Administrators rely on the library and librarian to provide and organize programming and events that support school curriculum and goals. This includes seeking funding and grants as well as volunteers support for the library resources and programs. Likewise, administrators rely on libraries and librarians to have the necessary skills and abilities to determine the necessity for, purchase, organize and care for the resources for the school and the school community.
Administrators support school libraries and librarians by “being key decision makers regarding educational technology in their schools” (“Five ways,” 2015). As decision-makers, administrators must also have up-to-date knowledge on what trends and practices are available to help librarians to make decisions regarding funding, purchasing, and implementation of these resources that best meet the needs of the school’s users. Likewise, administrators can be an advocate within the community to not only set a vision for these acquisitions but to also support the program implementations in the school community.
Does the unspoken policy at the Petty Library to leave the collection as is and add new books as money allows benefiting the students or the school community?
Does book talks of outdated collections increase student reading interest and book circulation of those collections?
Is the outdated collection so old that regardless of the increased interest in the books it needs to be replaced due to physical book conditions?
Existing research does not speak specifically about outdated collections. It does support the facts that book talks do increase student interest in reading books they would not normally check out.
Does the book type (new or old) affect the increase in student reading interest?
Deborah Gibbs 