New on the Job

A School Librarian's Guide to Success

Hilda K. Weisburg, Ruth Toor

• Publisher: ALA Editions
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780838912645
• eBook ISBN:
  9780838912690
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

1

Your Philosophy

Begin by Identifying Your Philosophy, Mission, and Vision

Your Philosophy and the School Community

» Students

» Teachers

» Administrators

Your Philosophy, Mission, Vision, and Your Job

» Scope of Your Job

» Other Jobs

» Tech Takeover

» Added Teaching

Can Anyone Do It All?

» A Bit of Balance

» Reality Check

» Getting Help

Define Who You Are

» Roles

» Self-Perception

Who Am I?

» Your Title

» What Others Call You

Typically the workday for any school librarian (SL) begins as soon as the door to the library is open and ends when it is closed because, unlike teachers, you can always expect that someone will drop in who is grateful to see that you are there. Your job is often frenetic and disjointed as you move from one class, teacher, student, or parent to another with no logic and, most often, without being able to complete any one task before having to move on to the next. In such an environment, it is easy to lose track of a large overall design for what you are doing.

How you begin your new job sets the tone for everything that will follow. You do not want to launch your new position by plunging into its myriad details without something to anchor you and provide a framework for what you are about to do. You need to determine what your philosophy is and what vision you want to hold for your school library program (SLP). While you have a natural urge to get down to practicalities, having a philosophy and vision in place will serve as a foundation for the many decisions and choices you will be called upon to make.

Begin by Identifying Your Philosophy, Mission, and Vision

According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, a philosophy is “a theory underlying or regarding a sphere of activity or thought.” Philosophy is rooted in beliefs. Later you will craft your mission and vision. Mission explains purpose; and vision is about how you wish to be perceived. Keep these brief definitions in mind as you proceed as the terms are often confused.

Although not labeled as philosophy, the nine Common Beliefs presented in AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner offer ideas and language you should consider incorporating into your Philosophy Statement. Among these are “Reading is a window to the world”; “Ethical behavior in the use of information must be taught”; and “Learning has a social context.” The explanation for these nine Common Beliefs can form the philosophical basis for your program.1 Play around with the wording until you have something that fully expresses your philosophy about the SLP. It should be three to four paragraphs and not longer than a page. If there is an existing philosophy statement for the SLP it might be usable and not need any tweaking. In that case, all you need do is keep it in mind as you plan for the future and conduct your daily routines. If changes are required, make them for your own use until such time as you have established yourself. You can then suggest a small committee of faculty, parents, and, in middle and high schools, students to help develop a new philosophy statement.

A Mission Statement identifies your purpose—your reason for being. The mission given in Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs is clearly spelled out in two sentences: “The mission of the library media program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information. The school library media specialist (SLMS) empowers students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information.”2 The bulleted ideas beneath this passage detail what is necessary to achieve the mission. Note that the first sentence explains the purpose of the program while the second defines the critical role played by the school librarian.

As a new school librarian, you may be most comfortable in using this as your mission statement, citing the source, or modifying it slightly to better represent what you see as your purpose in your school setting. Whatever you end up with should be brief. You want to keep it as close to twenty-five words (not counting “the mission of the Blank School Library program”) and definitely fewer than fifty words, and then memorize it. If the statement is longer than fifty words, you will not remember it, and if you cannot remember it, you really do not have a mission statement.

At the ALA Annual Conference in 2014, the AASL Board approved the following new mission statement for the association, “The American Association of School Librarians empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.” This is probably the most succinct mission statement you will see. Consider incorporating the concept of transformed teaching and learning into your own statement.

Empowering Learners does not offer a vision for the school library program, but it can be an uplifting experience to create one. This is where you imagine an all-perfect world. With that in mind, consider what the SLP would look like. You will probably never get there, but it reminds you of what you are fighting to achieve every day. If it is sufficiently compelling, it can motivate others such as parents and teachers to help you reach your inspiring vision. As with your mission statement, your vision statement should be close to twenty-five words and not more than fifty. Once you have both written, print and frame them. Hang them prominently in the library so everyone can see them—especially you.

Before you complete your philosophy, mission and vision statements, check to see if there are existing ones for your school and district. Most have mission statements and many have vision statements. High schools evaluated by an accrediting agency invariably have a philosophy statement for the school and for the library program. Review all of these to see how well they are aligned with what is in Empowering Learners. You want to be sure that your program emphasizes the core ideas of the national standards, but you should also recognize that the SLP must demonstrate how it advances the school’s or district’s concerns.

Creating a Philosophy, Mission, and Vision

What words do you want to include in your philosophy?

What words do you want to include in your mission?

What words do you want to include in your vision?

Use these terms to create a draft of each.

Your Philosophy and the School Community

Once you have a working philosophy in place, keep it in mind as you meet and get to know students, teachers, and administrators. While your philosophy will affect your dealings with everyone, these three groups are the ones you will be working with on a daily basis.

Students

However you worded your philosophy, you undoubtedly indicated that the SLP needs to be student centered. What does this really mean? If you ran a business and you had just identified your most important customers, how would you treat them?

Chapter 5 of this book goes into detail about the relationship you will build with your students, but the first step is to acknowledge that they are the reason you are there. If they dislike you and hate being in the library, nothing you do will matter. While this statement may seem extreme, and many will not recognize its truth, the fact is that your impact on students is heavily affected by the way you interact with them.

When students withdraw from you, the cost can be high. You can teach, grade, and demonstrate that they have attained certain skills, but you will have failed to show them the role libraries can play in their lives. One of the underlying messages of every lesson you present is that learning is more than just something students do for a good grade. It leads to their growth as individuals. When they explore topics, the knowledge they gain becomes a part of who they are.

However, if students are disengaged, they will not hear the lesson, let alone respond to your ultimate goal. If they don’t hear the lesson, they are less likely to seek information for its own sake. If they don’t seek information for its own sake, they will not become lifelong learners.

Teachers

While being student centered is your focus, access to students is through teachers. Even if you are in a rigidly scheduled elementary school, teachers’ attitude toward you will affect how students perceive you. Connecting with teachers is an essential aspect of your philosophy and job. They need to see the program’s “dynamism” and to feel that you are eager to meet their information needs.

Although chapter 6 focuses on specifics for developing, maintaining, and expanding your relationship with teachers, you need to pay attention to this from the beginning. The first step is to acknowledge that you are the one responsible for creating this vital link. From their perspective, teachers are doing fine without you. What do you have to offer them? Starting on day one, you have to be proactive, seeking them out and establishing a collegial bond.

You will probably develop personal friendships with faculty members, but, unlike them, you must not actively dislike anyone. In order to implement your philosophy, demonstrate your mission, and achieve your vision, you must get along, at least on a professional level, with each teacher in the school. Every staff member is entitled to receive your best possible service.

Administrators

Principals and supervisors are usually not incorporated into your philosophy, but you will be more successful if they know and support it. You will frequently hear SLs bemoaning that administrators have little awareness of what they do. Large-group instruction, creating a budget, and buying books and supplies seem to be administrators’ concept of the sum total of your job. As a result, they observe only your teaching as part of the formal observation process, ignoring everything else you do.

In chapter 7 you will discover ways to bridge this gap in understanding, but, as with teachers, the responsibility is yours. You must be the one to reach out to administrators and do so in ways that will get you heard and respected. Complaining is easier than finding the right approach to communicating regularly and positively with your principal, but the rewards of the latter are well worth it.

Your objective in all your dealings with administrators is to have them recognize the scope of what you do and how it increases student learning and achievement. To be successful, you must present yourself as a team player and the SLP as a vital part of the solution.

The Big Three

With which of these three groups (students, teachers, and administrators) do you think it will be easiest to build a relationship?

Which of the three groups do you think will prov...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. Your Philosophy
• 2. Getting the Job
• 3. Finding Your Way
• 4. Getting Yourself Organized
• 5. Reaching Your Students
• 6. Reaching Your Teachers
• 7. A Matter of Principals
• 8. Advocacy and You
• 9. Planning
• 10. Technology and You
• 11. Ethics, Standards, and You
• 12. Looking Back, Looking Forward
• Appendix A. Essential Resources
• Appendix B. Jobbers and Vendors
• Glossary
• Index