Why do teachers need school librarians? 5 questions to ask yourself.

How often have you walked past your school library and never given a second thought to the person who works in that room? Or you notice that there are students in there reading books and working on the computers and think 'that's nice'. You may even encourage your students to go and choose a book occasionally and think that you are doing your bit.

What if someone suddenly said that your school library was closing and the room was going to become a gym. Would you really be upset by the loss of such a resource or would you secretly not be all that bothered? Do you ever think about the person who is working in there who is desperate to help you and your students? Do you ever wonder why that person is constantly trying to stop you in the corridor when you are busy? Do you understand the opportunities you are missing? 

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You have the power in your hands to open your eyes to change. Is it time to take stock and think about what your school library means to you as a teacher? The school library is there for you as well as your students and are you missing out on something that may make your teaching life easier?


Ask yourself these questions:-

1. When was the last time I went to the school library?
2. When was the last time I talked to the school library staff about my curriculum?
3. Do I know what the library staff can do for me and my students?
4. When was the last time I looked at the resources for my subject or encouraged my students to do the same?
5. Do I know what online resources are available for my subject?

If you don't know the answer to any or all of the above questions then I would encourage you to approach your library staff and start the conversation. Teaching was never meant to be something you do on your own and working with the library staff may just be the thing that is missing from your teaching.

Did you know that the school library:-

• Can provide you with free resources for your subject that will relieve the pressure on your departmental budget and even your own pocket.
• Can provide space for these resources in the library so that your classroom is not full of resources that you only need once a year.
• Can provide resources on request - yes, if the budget is there they will buy books for you!
• Can provide online resources that are subject specific. 
• Can provide a space outside your classroom for you to teach. 

Did you know that the library staff can:-

• teach research skills - referencing, plagiarism etc.
• teach digital literacy - online research, digital tools, Google searching
• teach digital citizenship - social media, online collaboration etc.
• connect you with other educators, schools and professionals around the world
• support and train you in using new online tools

If you need more ideas, don't just take my word for it there are many school library staff out there willing to share ideas with you. Take a look at these amazing blogs 

Read research rest repeat  by Kathleen Curry Smith

Library Media Talk  by Stony Evans

Library Stuff by Barbara Band

Heart of the School  by Caroline Roche

Over the last few years, I have noticed that teachers are being encouraged more and more to use technology in the classroom. There are those that have moved into this world comfortably, who can use Google responsibly and understand how to navigate it well, demonstrating to their students the skill needed to do this properly. Teachers who are comfortable in this digital world are also happy to connect their students through hangouts and online digital tools like Flipgrid and Padlet but there are so many more that are not. 

Are you a teacher reading this that has never heard of Flipgrid or Padlet? Does the thought of having another class from across the world talk to your students fill you with dread? Are you unsure how to teach your students how to access academic resources? Would you like more books in your classroom? Would you like support? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then next time you walk by your school library don't pass walk in and say hello.

My blog has moved to a new website. If you enjoyed this then head over to take a look https://ehutchinson44.wixsite.com/schoollibraries/blog

School librarians helping children become independent learners with parental support.

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As a parent I have always been able to help my children find good sources of information in order to do their homework. How do I know where to find the best information? Do I have some inside knowledge that most parents don't? Yes! How? I am a librarian...

I have long believed that if parents knew about the resources available from their school library to support their children's homework they would be relieved and happy. They would be able to guide them to use these good tools without worrying about quality or reliability. Many of our resources go unused for two reasons, firstly, many teachers and students do not know about these resources, how easy they are to use and reference and secondly, parents don't know they exist.

I spend a lot of my time talking to teachers about using online reosurces and offering support in the classroom, however, I am beginning to understand the importance of engaging with the parents. By offering support to the parents they in turn can support their children.

Parent workshops

The other evening we were invited to present a parent workshop in one of our secondary schools to inform parents about the online resources available from their school library. We are very lucky to be able to offer books, ebooks, Britannica on-line and many online resources. The idea was to inform parents about where their children could find the best information to do their homework.

Many parents are happy for their children to do a Google search because they do not know where else to go for the information. These parents were brought up before the internet was freely available, where most of the answers came from books from the library or, if you were lucky enough,  from a home set of encyclopaedias. There was never any worry about safety or being caught for plagiarism, The chances of the teacher having the same book, that you had copied the answer from, was very unlikely and at least you had to read it in order to copy it down. There was no 'copy and pasting' in those days.

We guided the parents to access the online library catalogue, talking to them about how their children could access the books. Telling them that if the homework was not for the next day they could help their children to find a book and get them to go to school the following day and borrow it. We talked about how to reference a book and why this was necessary. We showed them how to access the websites linked to the catalogue and talked about why they were better quality because they had been curated by the school librarian.  We then showed them Britannica Online and explained how to find articles, pictures, videos and more websites. We talked to them about the importance of using citation tool and giving credit and how easy it was to do this using Britannica and our other online resources. We showed them how easy it was to access our ebook collection and finally gave them the opportunity to use all of these resources on their own phones or hand held devices.

One parent asked about restricting their child's independence by guiding them to these resources. This gave me the opportunity to explain that independence was not about searching the internet it was about being able to know where to look for the best information to answer their question. Getting lost and bogged down by a Google search was not independence but being able to find quality information quickly was independence at its best.

What did they say?

• Why have we not been told about this before now? 
• Why are more parents not here listening to this? 
• Can we take a leaflet to share with other parents? 

Why do we need to work more closely with parents?

• School libraries can provide the safe searching that parents are looking for but are unaware exists. 
• School libraries can provide resources that are of good quality and age specific. 
• School libraries can provide support to parents looking to help their children. 

Teachers, 6 ways the school librarian can empower you to do it yourself!

A recent twitter conversation with @julielindsay made me really think about how I advocate about what school librarians do. Julie questioned whether my statement about 'what school librarians can 'do' for teachers' should not be 'doing it for them' but to empower them to do it themselves made me think about what I have been saying about a school librarians role in schools.

After thinking about this I still do feel that an important part of a school librarians role is  'doing' things for the teacher, and as a information professional it is part of our role. As I have said before, if a librarian can save teachers time by finding and supplying the best resources for a topic they are about to teach then we are doing a good job. This is better than teachers using books that have been int their classrooms for years or them spending hours Googling to find decent websites. I also agree with Julie, however,  that empowering teachers to be digitally fluent and connected is equally important and this is why advocacy for school librarians is important because we do that too.

New teachers induction day 

I recently attended a new teachers induction day alongside Ellie, one of our SLS librarians. Schools' Library Service (SLS) were asked to attend as a support service and were delighted to be able to to chat to new teachers about how our service supports teaching and teachers.  Many teachers had heard of SLS's having come from the UK and were expecting the book loans but were surprised when we started telling them about the support we provide within the classroom. This is where advocacy is essential because our role is also to 'empower the teachers to be digitally fluent and connected' through co-teaching in the classroom. We were able to talk to teachers about the support we give in:-

1. lessons, on using online resources, focusing on the importance of a keyword search. 
2. using current digital tools such as Padlet and Flipgrid within the classroom. We create the platform find a connecting school and help support it during the lesson. 
3. collaborations by finding and linking classrooms across the world.
4. bringing the outside world into the classroom thought Google hangouts, be that specialist on volcanoes or people talking about their own culture.
5. engaging ways to encourage reading, literacy and information literacy i.e breakout
6. book awards etc.

All of this empowers the teachers to do this themselves. Many teachers do not have the time to do much of this when it all seems so scary and new to them. Our role allows them to try these things with support. We show them how to find connections, what new digital tools to use, how to set up the  platforms and when they are ready, they do it themselves. 

So do I do it for them? Yes but only when they need me to...

4 ways the school librarian can save teachers time and help support independent learners

Independent learners

What makes an Independent learner?

•    The ability to understand which resource is going to help you find the best quality information and being able to use research skills to locate it.

•    Knowing and understanding the importance of referencing, copyright and giving credit.

Many teachers believe that if a student can find the answer via Google they have an independent learner. This is not independence; this is just the ability to type the question into Google. If this is the tool that teachers want their students to use then they need to be prepared to make them reference what they find and find time to check those references.  As many teachers do not have time to do this it re-enforces the idea that Google is the best way to find information quickly without looking at the quality of the resource. It does not ensure that students are evaluating or thinking critically about what they find. If students know that teachers are not going to check where the information came from why would they spend time on referencing or researching properly?

Independent learners start by connecting and wondering about the topic they are researching. They come up with keywords and create a question so when they sit in front of their chosen online resource they know what they are looking for. Research is not about finding the right answer but about collecting information to help you come to a conclusion.  Critical thinking has a huge part to play in independent research and is different from ‘finding the answer’.

Why does this happen? A teacher once said to me that they felt that the students knew more than they did when searching online and they did not feel it was right to stop their students ‘Googling’. I had to remind them that it wasn’t the case of stopping them using Google but it was important to use Google properly through good research skills. Google is only as useful as the persons research skills. Independence is not about speed but understanding the tools and having the skills to navigate them. Independent research skills is not about getting the students to the learning faster it is about knowing how to find the information in the first place.

School librarian’s curators of information and collaborators

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One of our roles as information professionals, is to curate physical and online resources that not only are age appropriate but also good quality. In order to access these tools, research skills are needed and school librarians are able to support teachers in helping students to access them. This is not about making it harder to find the information it is about ensuring that the building blocks are put in place so when they leave school they understand the difference between using Google to find the time of their flight and doing an in-depth piece of research for work or university.

Another role is using digital literacy to help make connections. Over the last year I have regularly use my social media skills, as Jennifer Casa-Todd says “to connect educators to educators who I think might work collaboratively together” (2017 p24) which has lead to some wonderful international connections. These connections have enhanced teaching and learning and have enabled me to help teachers use digital technology and support research skills in the process.

Our collaborations

This year we have been able to use and share both Padlet and Flipgrid with our teachers. Not only up skilling them in using these tools but demonstrating how they can be used within the classroom setting. One of my schools used both these tools to engage students in a literacy project reading the book Wonder by Raquel J. Palacio. The students were able to share their thoughts about the book with each other but also learn about the students on the other side of the world. Another group who were reading The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence were delighted when at the end we connected with her via padlet and were sending her questions and getting answers real time! It was fabulous and I was very grateful to Caroline for doing this. The students came up with some amazing questions too. This supported the curriculum in writing, communication, digital literacy, critical thinking and empathy.

Collaboration saves time and impacts student attainment!

In a literature review by the National Literacy Trust they state that “School libraries have been found to impact pupils’ general academic attainment, reading and writing skills, plus wider learning skills” (Teravainen and Clark, 2017 p3) and if this is the case it is important that teachers and librarians work together often.

The main challenge, regularly cited by teachers, is time. It is therefore important that teachers understand the positive impact that collaborating with a school librarian can have on themselves and their students and this will take some time but the benefits will far outweigh the initial input.

What can the librarian do for teachers?

1.  Find quality physical and online resources for your topic (teachers no longer have to spend hours on Google trying to find something suitable)
2. Co-teach in the classroom and demonstrate how to access the online resources (teachers do not have to learn how to navigate these resources beforehand
3. Help find the right educators to collaborate with (which teacher has time to do this?)
4. Learn the digital tools and then demonstrate their use in the classroom (allowing the teacher to learn about these tools within the lesson)

As the relationship between teacher and librarian grows the time the teacher needs to put in will be seen as a benefit rather than a problem due to the other opportunities that the librarian will bring to the partnership.

Creating independent learners is not something that happens overnight. The building blocks need to be embedded all they way through primary and secondary school. With the support of the school librarian not only can the student’s benefit but the teachers will too.

References

Casa-Todd, J. (2017). Social LEADia. San Diego: Dave Burgess Consulting Inc.

Teravainen, A. and Clark, C. (2017). School libraries: A literature review of current provision and evidence of impact. [online] London: The National Literacy Trust, p.3. Available at: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0004/1275/School_Libraries_2017_-_Final.pdf [Accessed 20 Jul. 2017].

7 skills you should be looking for in your school librarian #SLAYLG17

Having just returned from #SLAYLG17 conference where I presented a workshop on change management alongside school librarian Terri McCargar @liberryan, I was reminded of the diversity and expertise of school librarians, the need for us to help schools and teachers understand the benefits of working with us and the importance of our own advocacy. The list of our skills are vast but it still seems that many still have to fight too hard to get teachers to understand our role.

As far as I see it, the problem is that the skills of a school librarian have become so diverse and adaptable, at the point of need, that it is almost impossible to stand, one next to the other, and see the same thing. As schools do not understand the role, school librarians have had to find a way to demonstrate what they can do at every opportunity. If a teacher is interested in promoting literacy and the library the school librarian will focus on that, if the school wants to increase the use of online resources they can also do that, if research skills are the focus they can do that, if a school is interested in communicating with others across the world a school librarian will be able to set this up too. There is no set of expectations or understanding of the role from school to school. It's not even a statutory obligation for English schools to have libraries and qualified librarians. If the role has become so diverse how do we explain what we do?

If you employ any other professional you know what their skill set is and what they are being employed to do but this, sadly, is not the same for school librarians and is maybe why many schools still think that a school librarian is a keeper of books in a room. They employ 'school librarians' to issue and return the books, to keep the library tidy, buy a new book and online resources and to keep control of the students during lunchtime and they would not dream of giving them a budget to manage. This is NOT a school librarian this is a library assistant, who quite rightly should be paid term time only and on a support staff/admin wage. School librarians agree that you do not need a professional qualification to do this job.

If a school needs a Maths or science teacher they would not employ a teaching assistant and a law firm would not employ an unqualified lawyer, likewise a qualified teacher or lawyer would not work for low pay. If you want to be able to employ the best, you have to pay the right wages.

A qualified librarian has a degree in information and library studies and many have gone on to masters level too. Continuing their professional development you will find many librarians are also chartered. This high level of academia is important in the role of school librarianship as the skill set to support teaching and learning is critical but is sadly wasted in many schools. In a recent report by the literacy trust, they stated that "Evidence collected by Williams, Wavell and Morrison (2013) also shows that one of the elements of the library that contributes to the impact on learning is a qualified full-time librarian who is proactive and has managerial status" this can only happen if Headteachers and the senior management teams understand and support the role of the school librarian.

So why is it so hard to understand what a school librarian can do? Teachers have many different skills but fundamentally their role is to teach the subject they specialise in. This is the same for librarians. Many have different areas of expertise but fundamentally they are there to teach information literacy and encourage reading for pleasure. Both of which will make a difference to academic attainment.

What should schools be looking for in a school librarian?

First and foremost you are looking for someone:-

1  who knows and understands their role within the curriculum

2  who is happy to work alongside teachers in the classroom

3  who can help the school integrate information literacy into the curriculum

4  who can train teachers in information and digital literacy and support teaching and learning

Secondly, you are looking for someone:-

5. who will inspire your students to read more

6. who has ideas to engage your students and make your school library a welcoming place to be

7. who can empower your students to become independent learners through reading for pleasure and information literacy

However, if schools want this they have to ensure that the school librarian is paid equivalent to full-time teachers. That they are also supported and respected as a Head of Department with a departmental budget and in an ideal world have access to a library assistant to run the library on a day to day basis so that they can work alongside teachers and students within the classroom.

How to make sure your teachers know what the school librarian does?

•   Make sure you and your SLT understand the role of the school librarian. Have you employed a professional or a library assistant?

•   embed information literacy into your school curriculum policy

•   ensure your school library is mentioned in your literacy policy, how are they supporting your curriculum goals?

•   invite the school librarian into Head of Department meetings. If they do not know what is going on they will not be able to support the teachers or the students

•   Ask the librarian to run training sessions on how to use the school library and its resources for both teachers and students

There is so much more to do, to ensure that all students have access to good quality school libraries with qualified librarians.  By meeting and talking to so many passionate librarians with different skills at  #SLAYLG17 I am delighted to say that there is some brilliant collaborations going on out there and I am proud to be part of this profession.

Update: I have moved to a new website where you can read more blogs about school libraries and librarians. Take a look here

Reference

Teravainen, A. and Clark, C. (2017). School Libraries A literature review of current provision and evidence of impact. [online] National Literacy Trust. Available at: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0004/1275/School_Libraries_2017_-_Final.pdf [Accessed 1 Jul. 2017].

Williams, D., Wavell, C., & Morrison, K. (2013). Impact of school libraries on learning: Critical review of published evidence to inform the Scottish education community. Robert Gordon University. Retrieved from http://scottishlibraries.org/wp- content/uploads/2015/05/SLIC_RGU_Impact_of_School_Libraries_2013.pdf

Inset training - How librarians can support teaching and learning.

This blog was written as part of the #futureReadyLibs #blogchallenge which can be found here. I agreed to write about professional development and hopefully have demonstrated how we did this by providing training for our teachers in their inset day. Enhancing their skills through using the school library and its online resources and demonstrating how information literacy linked with the curriculum.                                                                                                                                                                                    #FutureReadyLibs #bloggingchallenge

10-week #FutureReadyLibs #blog challenge, where librarians are invited to reflect upon the different cogs of the Future Ready Librarians Framework. Please join in on the conversations by posting your own blog responses and by joining the Future Ready Librarians Facebook group, where a new weekly blog .

Making changes

St Anne's school library in Alderney has undergone some big changes in the last few months. Schools’ Library Service (SLS) supports this school from a distance as we are in Guernsey which is a short flight away. This means that we only visit twice a term. On one of our visits, last year, we discussed how we could support the school library and help create a space that was well used by both students and teachers. We agreed to weed and renew the resources and gave them some ideas to move the library around to suit the needs of the school. It was lovely to go back a few months later and see how they had been empowered to change it again.

Creating opportunities

This led to conversations about the importance of information literacy and how it can support and encourage students to use the school library to become independent learners. Exciting discussions have been had about embedding information literacy into the curriculum, meaning that the school library, its staff, SLS and teachers will become a hub of teaching and learning for the students of St Anne’s.

Will you run our inset day?

Early last month Martin Winward, headteacher at St Anne's, and I were chatting about how we could ensure the changes in their school library could continue to have an impact on students and teachers. We both agreed that after the initial excitement and interest in the changes, it was important that we found a way to continue engagement. Martin asked me if I was willing to run an inset training day about information literacy and the school library because it was apparent that unless we had teachers on board, who understood what we were trying to do, nothing was going to change. We needed to share out vision.  I jumped at the chance, how often does the librarian get the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of the school library and librarians to teaching and learning. This was especially important as the new Guernsey curriculum is due to be implemented in September.  It is very much skills based curriculum and this is what information literacy is all about. it was perfect opportunity to talk to teachers about how we can support them and have an impact on student learning.

Martin sent me an outline of the areas he wanted us to cover. Improvements in the school library, Information literacy and the framework, resources and tools to support learning and examples of best practice. We also wanted to demonstrate how this all fitted in with Educations ‘big picture’. After a couple of conference calls I started to create my presentation and shared it with Martin and Wendy, deputy head.  Luckily for me, Wales is currently creating a new curriculum and have decided to incorporate information literacy into it so I was able to incorporate their slides into my presentation. It was important for me to make sure that the day was full of information but hands on too so I made sure it  included :-

• Innovative games/ideas that they could use in their own lessons
• Google Hangouts
• How social media can have an impact

Inset training day

I felt It was important to start the day by demonstrate that this training and message was not just coming from me. That schools all across the world are using their school libraries successfully alongside the internet and that the two can and should work together, it is not about one or the other, it is both. It was also important for me to show that there are many school librarians out there doing inspiring things and working with teachers so I started with a demonstration of how social media was important to me and my own personal learning. I explained that I had sent a message out to my followers on twitter asking the following:-

I had some wonderful responses which I shared with the teachers but the one that I finished with was this one. A brilliant message!

I then moved onto information literacy and how the framework SLS are currently using links and supports the new Guernsey curriculum. We were able to show how the framework and SLS staff can support students to becoming independent learners through using the school library. We demonstrated how we could support and train teachers to use the school library in an innovative way, opening their eyes to the countless possibilities of using resources that were already in their school and just waiting to be used. All at no extra cost to the school and with full support and training included.

Kahoot

We played Kahoot an online quiz that you can create yourself. We wanted to demonstrate how easy it was to create a quiz but also use it for our own purposes. Our quiz made sure teachers knew about the support available from SLS and how to use the school library. It caused some great discussions especially around the thorny issue of using pictures without credit. We will be following up with some guidelines on this for teachers.

We had planned to play breakoutEdu after break but we began to realise that we needed to help the teachers understand what was available from the school library and how to access it otherwise they would not be able to play the game so we spent some time showing them how to find their way around the resources that we provide, how to access and use their ebook collection and their school library catalogue. We explained that they needed this information to play the next game.

BreakoutEDU

Julia created our breakout game for this inset day. Breakout is based on a gameshow in America where contestants had to break out of a locked room. As it is not appropriate to lock students into a room this game has been adapted by school libraries, especially in America, to challenge students to unlock a box, using clues.   Ours was set up to ensure that teachers used the school library in order to work out the clues but teachers can use this game for their own subjects too.  They had to work as a team in order to get into the box in under 30 mins. It was great to see how fully engaged all the teachers were.

The box is in the middle of the teachers!

They managed to breakout in 23 mins...

Photo's by Martin Winward

Google Hangouts

I am very lucky to had made some very strong connections with librarians from twitter, so we decided to invite a couple to our inset day through Google hangouts. It was important to demonstrate how easy it was to connect with others around the world but also to help them understand how other school librarians support teachers in their schools. We invited Stony Evans a library Media Specialist at Lakeside High School in Hot Springs, Arkansas and Caroline Roche , a school librarian at Eltham College, South East London to give a 15 min presentation about how they collaborated with their teachers. Both gave really interesting presentations and shared lots of idea with us. We were very grateful for their time and enthusiasm in sharing their best practice with us.

Stony, talking to us at 7am in the morning!  

Photo by Stony Evans

Finally

The day ended by giving teachers the opportunity to feedback on what we had covered during our inset day and to decide how they would include any of this in next term's lessons. Several teachers commented on trying to use the Kahoot and Hangout within a lesson. There was also a lot of feedback on using the SLS website more and asking for support.

“I feel more confident to take a more immersive approach to topic work. I will utilise the SLS website and will liaise more closely with them.”

"Loved the cross curricular approach / opportunities…. MORE / MORE / MORE PLEASE" 

We look forward to supporting St Anne's more in the future. We are very grateful for this opportunity and for your enthusiasm throughout the day.