January is always a very busy month for me and so if you are like me you may have missed some of the great discussion here on the BACC blog.
As I have been looking back at the post from my co-bloggers this month several things resonate with me. I am teaching Administration of the School Library this semester and reading these posts I found that there are several items that need to be added into my course. First, I really like the term proposed “classroom collections” over “classroom library” and agree with Lucy’s assertion that “the classroom collection is not a library because it is missing the information literacy expert.”
And we need to prepare future school librarians for “classroom collections” and the challenges they may experience with these, but also how they can transform this into an opportunity for collaboration. Offering to help a teacher select books for their classroom collection is a great way to connect with them and then in turn as Judi talked about, always get input from teachers when building the school library collection too.
Whether it is through a library advisory committee, a survey of needs, and/or just informal feedback. The collection does indeed belong to the entire school community. If we want teachers to work with us and utilize the collection it only makes sense to promote this type of ownership through including them in the selection process. I know I teach this to my students, but we need to add more strategies on how to do this.
Because as Judy says “Resources for literacy should not be an either/or choice for investing in school wide literacy programs.” And she is exactly right – we all should be contributing to the same goal. Teachers and teacher librarians are partners for the literacy in their schools. I believe this is just one more collaborative relationship that we as school librarians need to cultivate. I well remember the strategies I utilized to maximize this opportunity and Judy expressed several of these in her post with a great list of some ideas to add to your toolbox and connect with teachers to serve as a literacy leader in your school.