Just Doing My Job…

One of the most surprising skills I have had to develop as a teacher-librarian is how to talk about myself and to brag a little bit. I’ve never been one to do this, but I’ve come to discover that this is integral to my job. I recently read an excellent article by Debra Kachel (2017) on library advocacy, which informed me that the majority of what administrators know about the library comes from the librarian itself. I would say that this fact could easily apply to the perception of the library among students, teachers, and parents’ eyes as well. With such a specialized role in the school, it’s often easier to do it all yourself and ask that no one distract you from completing the many parts of your job. It’s also common to get caught up in fulfilling the constant incoming requests, which can end up feeling like you are doing so much without getting anything done, while no one has a clue how many things teacher librarians are actually juggling at once.

A simple inventory sometimes puts it all into perspective. I currently have large piles of books for:

1. Books that need repair
2. Books that need spines relabelled
3. Books that need to be redistributed to classrooms and other libraries
4. Books that are brand new
5. Books that are at various stages of processing
6. Books that are difficult to catalog
7. Books that are ready to be weeded
8. Books that are weeded and need to be donated or recycled

I currently have requests from:

1. Kindergarten for theme books
2. Kindergarten and Grade 1 for social-emotional picture books
3. Grade 2 theme books
4. Grade 5 theme books
5. Grade 7 websites for news

I’m currently teaching:

1. How to browse and take care of books in Kindergarten and Grade 1
2. How to choose books at a just right reading level in Grade 2 and 3 and how to make things with our hands to show our inquiry and learning
3. How to locate books in the library and use databases and our library catalog to find book recommendations in Grade 4
4. How to use the various databases available for different types of research to Grade 5
5. How to conduct personal inquiry in Grade 6
6. Research skills in Grade 7

I’m trying to advocate and hustle for:

1. Extended opening times for students in the library
2. Pro-D funding so I can attend workshops with Indigenous leaders in order to help teachers better integrate Indigenous perspectives into the curriculum
3. Business cards for myself to network with those in the book trade and other educators
4. Author visits that tie in with thematic units as well as represent a diverse and inclusive demographic
5. A more cohesive student sustainability plan between the junior and senior schools

I also have side jobs to:

1. Take care of my library plants and fish
2. Run the library social media account
3. Manage the budget
4. Keeping volunteers busy with jobs and procedures up-to-date
5. Prepare students for the upcoming Kids Lit Quiz competition
6. Organize and promote the Scholastic Book Fair
7. And more I am sure that I have forgotten!

When I document my job like this, I become acutely aware that there really can be no one else who understands my role unless they have been a full-time librarian. My mention of this is not to complain about the job or the lack of appreciation for all I do, but to remind myself that my future vision project completely aligns with advocacy and leadership in my role.

I really appreciate this document produced by AASL and how it frames the role of a school librarian in the eyes of an administrator. We truly need administrators to be our allies, but we need to advocate for ourselves in order for administrators to see us this way. I love how the document embeds direct links to articles, videos, and infographics so that people can get a quick yet comprehensive snapshot of what our role entails. This helps to inform the design and layout of my final project. To me, my library “website” should capture a similar essence, demonstrating what I teach, how I can be a leader, and providing evidence of the work I do for the greater school community.

Although I defined my audience in last week’s post as my teaching colleagues, it is becoming more and more clear to me that my purpose for creating the website is as much for advocacy among administrators as it is for teacher access and utility. Kachel proposes for librarians to work on advocacy within the framework of the principal’s school objectives. She cites Hartzell’s work in Building Influence for the School Librarian (2003), where he shares that “Influence is derived from the perceptions of the person to be influenced, not from the perceptions of the person doing the influencing. The key to building your influence lies in your ability to shape the perceptions of others” (p. vii). It is not going to be enough to build a library website to help teachers and to show administrators just how much I do. I realize I also need to demonstrate on the website how the work within the library aligns with my principal and vice principals’ objectives for the school. In order to accomplish this, I need to do a bit more work in these next couple of weeks to uncover any hidden agendas and goals that have yet to be shared with the staff. This will certainly not be easy!

Kachel suggests for librarians to develop SMART objectives in our strategic plan within the school’s. Interestingly, this is the precise framework that I give to students when conducting personal inquiries. Sometimes it amazes me that the very principles I use for teaching can also be excellent professional tools as well.

The technical process of building the website now looks to be the fun, easy part which I will be superficially assessed on by my audience. However, the thought and cohesion behind the website will be my true metric of whether I have achieved my advocacy goals in the eyes of the administrative beholders.

Works Cited:

American Association of School Librarians (AASL). (2017). School librarians as learning leaders: An administrators guide. [infographic] Retrieved from: http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslissues/advocacy/AASL_LearningLeaders_Admin_V2_FINAL_R2.pdf

Hartzell, G. (2003). Building influence for the school librarian: Tenets, targets, and tactics (2nd ed.). Worthington, OH: Linworth.

Kachel, D. (2017). The principal and the librarian: Positioning the school library program. Teacher Librarian, 45(1), 50–52.