Pew Again

Back In February, I wrote about a Pew study on libraries that revealed some interesting data on Gen Y and how much time they spent in libraries. This survey, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that young adults aged 18 to 30 frequent public libraries more regularly than older people.

It's just come to my attention that the news Hour with Jim Lehrer highlighted this topic of library usage in the age of personal computers and the Internet, by featuring essayist Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune, on March 13. Keller reflected on the road ahead for public libraries in the modern era. Go to: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june08/libraries_03-13.html, for the complete transcript.

One remark by Keller that really stood out for me was: "No matter how zippy our computers, no matter how much data is available to us wherever we happen to be, there will always be a reason to go to the library."

Yeahhhh.

Am I Still Making A Difference?

I had lunch with an old friend today. After we caught each other up on our respective spouses and children and others, we spoke about our professions. Melissa is a graphic designer of textbooks. Her husband teaches Biology at Villanova. Our academic connection is just one of the many reasons we are friends. Melissa has always been a great sounding board for me and I've spoken with her many times about my duel professions: librarian and teacher.

I've talked about how hard I have to work be proactive in staying connected to classrooms and other special area teachers. The rigid schedule of classes that we specialists deal with, is not conducive to establishing collaborative practice.

I've talked about budget cuts. It's a challenge to remain visible and vital, but I have to, in order to fight for every dollar. In this age of budget slashing, I'm trying harder than ever to encourage my students and teachers to use subscription databases and spend more time in the library.

I've talked about how hard I've worked to stay relevant: video conferencing, blogging, and podcasts are becoming an increasingly important part of my program.

I've talked about the efforts I've made to offer staff development to acquaint them with the library's resources, in the hopes that they will want to collaborate with me to plan lessons that will enrich teaching and learning.

Am I still making a difference after all these years? No Child Left Behind can be an obstacle to achieving the goals I've set out for my students and for myself. Or it can be an opportunity to shine a light on the library as the information hub of my school. NCLB includes a section that states that libraries are important: "... to improve literacy skills and academic achievement of students by providing them with access to up-to-date school library materials; technologically advanced school library media centers; and professionally certified school library media specialists" (NCLB, 2001).

I'm not a numbers person. I'm math- phobic. Thank goodness when I need to come up with statistics I can use Titlewise (from Follett). I'm never asked to produce data but I produce it every year at budget time. I'm learning to overcome my fear of numbers and plunge into the world of Excel in order to generate the data that I will most certainly need in the coming months and years for grant applications and for administrators who may not understand that the media specialist is still making a difference.

To Read Or Not To Read: A Statistical Study

Too Read Or Not To Read is a statistical study published in November 2007 by the National Endowment of the Arts. It is a study of the reading trends of the American public. This national study was based on data collected from various government agency studies and academic surveys. The study is disturbing because the data makes it clear that even college graduates are reading less. And reading less means we're reading less well. The cultural implications of this trend are alarming. The data doesn't show cause and effect, but the statistics do show correlations, such as reading does result in higher academic and professional success.

It is clear from the statistics, that reading is transformative. "Reading correlates with almost every measurement of positive personal and social behavior surveyed."

One of the many disturbing trends noted in this report is that nearly half of all Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure. Another is that reading among elementary students has increased measurably but this progress seems to halt completely when these students become teenagers.

The data contained in this report leads to the following conclusions:

• Americans are spending less time reading.

• Reading comprehension skills are eroding.

• These declines have serious civic, social, cultural, and economic implications.

This study is a must- read for all librarians. You can download the complete report at: http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html.

It is clear from the statistics, that reading changes lives. We librarians and teachers and parents must recognize this dangerous trend and develop plans to stop it.

Why Collaborate?

Collaboration is needed to enhance student learning. Integrating information literacy skills into the curriculum is the goal of collaborative teaching practices on the part of the media specialist and the classroom teacher.

I've decided to be more specific about why collaboration is important is important. I'm hoping that this list will help me persuade more teachers to collaborate.

I collaborate ...

1. To enrich and enhance student achievement
   
2. To integrate the library program with other curricula
3. To provide more productive student activities and learning experiences in the library
4. To make sure that library resources support student assignments
5. To enrich and enhance the curriculum
6. To promote the library program and resources
   

Taking Stock

I've been doing lots and lots of professional reading: Web 2.0 tools, media specialist as information literacy cheerleader and staff developer, collaboration, and other timely topics that concern our profession. The readings have helped me define and refine my role as an elementary media specialist.

For the past two months, I've been sharing a particular address in the blogosphere with other media specialists taking a professional development course on library advocacy and critical issues facing our profession. I've learned how diverse our school environments are- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kuwait. I've learned that our challenges are similar- and different. I've learned that we are all problem- solvers, willing to learn new skills in order to enhance teaching and learning.

People outside the world of libraries don't seem to understand the role the library media specialist can play as an educator. Unfortunately, these outsiders often include our principals and administrators- the very people who should be standing in our corners, cheering us on.

We work hard NOT to be invisible. We do this by providing staff development, participating in curriculum development and revision, becoming members of technology committees and collaborating with our colleagues in the classroom to enhance student achievement.

I was a teacher first- English, grades 7- 12 and then elementary classroom teacher. The readings and especially the lively discussions that I've participated in during these last 2 months have helped me understand the other hats I wear: as instructional partner, as information specialist and as staff developer.

As I reflect on what I've learned lately, I come back to this fact: as I strive to learn new skills, I have to integrate only those technology tools that best support learning, rather than adopt a technology because it is the latest thing.

An Early Morning Visitor

This is how my day started ...

It was my typical harried morning-- gulping coffee, turning on computers, checking in books, checking out books, gulping coffee, looking at my plan book, returning phone calls, making copies, helping a colleague use the scanner, gulping coffee ... Suddenly, I hear unfamiliar footsteps. Then, "This library always looks beautiful!" I look up from my computer screen.

"Well, hello, Dr. Kerr! Welcome to the library."

It's the boss of bosses, the chief of chiefs, the Big Cheese. It's the Superintendent. "You know, it's a really beautiful space. I don't have to do much ..."

"On the contrary. Your little touches make all the difference. I love your wall decorations and the beautiful books on display And the fish tank is great."

"Well, thanks!" Shes' walking out the door. We wished each other a good day.

I fixed a paper jam, gulped coffee, sharpened pencils, checked my email, double- checked today's schedule, time to get more coffee ...

A Good, Old- Fashioned Lesson

Since September, I've been at a loss to figure out how to reach my 3rd grade classes. (You know the kind of students I'm talking about- there must have been something in the water that year!) Frankly, I haven't known what/how to teach these kids since they were in kindergarten.

Today, we had a red letter day. The kids felt successful and they learned something. How did this happen? I selected several volumes of the World Book Encyclopedia and wrote the name of a woman on a 3X5 card that I tucked into the volume. I told the kids that ,working with a partner, they were going to look up and read about the woman whose name was written on the card inside their encyclopedia. Some of the kids struggled just to locate their woman, but we persevered, and they were anxious to share what they had learned. One thing that helped is that by this point in the school year, I know who the struggling readers are and I gave those students shorter encyclopedia articles. For instance, Tyrell and Charlie had Babe Didrikson Zaharias. The first line of the article states that "she is considered the greatest female athlete in sports history." They didn't have to read the whole article- the information they needed to share with the class was in the first sentence. (But they were happy to tell us that she was great at basketball, swimming, track and field, and golf.) Carly and Natalie had to read about Eleanor Roosevelt and, needless to say, there was a lot more text to read.

The point is, the entire class enjoyed this activity and asked if we could do it again.

Whewwww. That's me, breathing a sigh of relief and satisfaction because these rascals (did I mention this grade is very boy- heavy?) were engaged in active learning and their desire to continue down this path really is gratifying.

Upon further reflection, I realized something else: the hardest students to reach were engaged in a learning activity that did not involve technology of any sort. It was a good, old- fashioned let's-look-it-up-in-the-encyclopedia activity. Bulls-eye!