At the Richardson-Plano (Texas) Library Expo, Kristin Fontichiaro was the keynote speaker and presented a session on the roles of the school librarian. (She is a clinical professor at the University of Michigan iSchool in Ann Arbor where she directs the school library program.) Kristin talked about school librarians as “artisans,” who match their programs to the needs of their unique learning environments. Below I summarized my notes from her session related to the roles of the school librarian but you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s a link to Kristin’s “Active Learning” blog where her Expo materials are posted: http://bit.ly/fontblog

From my notes:

These are the five roles Ms. Fontichiaro identified for school librarians.

1.    Cultural anthropologist (who identifies and connects to local needs)
2.    Peace Corps Worker (who provides service in the form of teaching others to fish)
3.    Strategic Technologist (who integrates value-added technologies when appropriate to learning objectives)
4.    Builder of Strong Schools (who recognizes the power and capacity of children) – and I would add of educators, too
5.    Advocate (who shows – rather than tells – and leads the way to an appropriate 21st-century education for all students)

I am wondering how many of these roles you perceive of as germane to building a culture of collaboration.

Work Cited

Featherwolf. “Mybread03.jpg.” MorgueFile.com. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/79180>.

At the Richardson-Plano (Texas) Library Expo, Kristin Fontichiaro was the keynote speaker and presented a session on the roles of the school librarian. (She is a clinical professor at the University of Michigan iSchool in Ann Arbor where she directs the school library program.) Kristin talked about school librarians as “artisans,” who match their programs to the needs of their unique learning environments. Below I summarized my notes from her session related to the roles of the school librarian but you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s a link to Kristin’s “Active Learning” blog where her Expo materials are posted: http://bit.ly/fontblog

From my notes:

These are the five roles Ms. Fontichiaro identified for school librarians.

1.    Cultural anthropologist (who identifies and connects to local needs)
2.    Peace Corps Worker (who provides service in the form of teaching others to fish)
3.    Strategic Technologist (who integrates value-added technologies when appropriate to learning objectives)
4.    Builder of Strong Schools (who recognizes the power and capacity of children) – and I would add of educators, too
5.    Advocate (who shows – rather than tells – and leads the way to an appropriate 21st-century education for all students)

I am wondering how many of these roles you perceive of as germane to building a culture of collaboration.

Work Cited

Featherwolf. “Mybread03.jpg.” MorgueFile.com. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/79180>.