ISCI 794 School Librarian Interview #3

 I spoke with a middle school librarian at an arts magnet middle school for my third interview. The school has an enrollment of 788 and is closely tied to a nearby arts elementary school as well as the Fine Arts Center, the public high school for the arts. All three schools are in Greenville County. 

Questions that guided our interview included: 

  • How do you embrace curiosity in your library? 
  • How do you encourage teachers to work with you? 
  • Has genrefying your collection changed students' checkout habits? 
  • What are some of the challenges you've experienced getting students to try new books or genres?
The Shared Foundation we focused on was Inquire. We began by talking about the fiction collection, which the librarian had genrefied at the beginning of the school year. He reported that it had been a huge undertaking initially, but that they got the actual moving of the books completed within a few days, and students have really taken to it. 

While student checkouts have increased, which is great, he said that one of the challenges he's noticed is that many students tend to "live in their genre." "They won't read anything but fantasy, or sports," he says. In line with the Inquire Shared Foundation, he has worked to encourage student curiosity about other genres by spending more time book talking one-on-one with kids who are browsing, relating new titles to ones they've read and enjoyed. When their interest is piqued, he waits for them to ask questions which can lead to a good conversation and more accurate book recommendations. This fits the domain "Think: Learners ask questions rooted in prior knowledge and curiosity."

He also works to inspire teachers' curiosity about the library and what he can offer them. During his first school year, he said he'd made a form for collaboration requests that teachers could easily fill out and email; during this year, his second, he is relying more on personal relationships and casual conversations to encourage collaboration. One question that he uses when talking with teachers is "How do you see research being part of this project?" If a teacher is willing to engage, this lets them go down their own "Inquire" path and brainstorm ideas with the librarian about different ways that students can find the information they'll need. This fits into the School Librarians Lead commitment, "Design systems that promote flexible and collaborative teaching and learning" (AASL, 2018).  

Throughout our conversation, I was interested to hear the ideas that he had floated with teachers about how he could could work with them. For example, he would suggest sending small groups of students who were struggling with a project down to the library, where he could give them more personalized support. He also emphasized that he always offers to come to their classrooms, rather than ask them to come to the library—being adaptable and flexible is key. 

References:

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards. ALA Editions. 

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