What is the role of the library media specialist?

1. What is the role of the library media specialist? What your library can do for you!

2. Our school library media specialist’s roles and responsibilities: • To promote and reinforce student's interests and abilities in reading, listening and viewing. • Provides resources for students and teacher to effectively use • Plan, arranges, administers, operates, and supervises the library information center, developing policy for efficient operation and optimal service • Aligns library collection with curriculum development • Is a leader that stays abreast of new and current technologies and can provide information and media literacy to staff and students • Works to develop collaboration between students, staff and teachers

3. Library media mission statement: • to be an integral part of our school and community • to provide collaboration with staff to create authentic learning for all students • to provide quality resources and instruction to students and staff • to encourage staff and students in becoming effective users of ideas and information • to promote life-long reading and learning both for pleasure and for information

4. What resources are available for class research in our library? • Print Resources • Databases • Electronic resources • Library catalog • Digital media

5. Print Resources • Fiction/Non-fiction books – the collection is updated each year according to need. They are arranged by the dewey decimal system. • Reference books – Encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesaurus, maps • College Materials • Periodicals • Newspapers

6. Online Resources • World almanac education - http://www.waebooks.com. • http://www.noodletools.com • http://webquests.org • Grolier Online – http://go.grolier.com • www.teensreadtoo.com •  There are many, many more….

7. Databases • INFOhio – http://infohio.org • Search databases within this site

8. Library catalog and digital media • Go to school website and CAT and CATJr can be located under the librarian’s website. CAT and CATJr contain the school’s library catalog. Books can be searched in the school library without being at the library. • Software is available on the computers in the library. • Other media sources and technology are available for student and teacher use to be checked out of the library.

9. How can these resources be used effectively? • Collaboration!!! • Teacher(s) and library media specialist(s) planning together • Determining what students need to know • Teaching how to access information • Teaching how to evaluate information • Teaching how to interpret information • Teaching how to apply information

10. What is teacher/librarian collaboration? • Cooperative learning • Project-based learning • Instructional partner role of teacher-librarian • Ultimately it is the classroom teacher and librarian working together to help students learn.

11. Reasons collaboration does not take place between librarian and teacher… • You are short on information (i.e. you don't know how) • You are short on time (none of us has enough time) • You are short on confidence (you don't want to step into unfamiliar territory) • You are short on trust (you don't want to "share" the responsibility) • You are short on motivation (you don't have a personal desire to do so and there's no administrative imperative) *adapted from Toni Buzzeo'sCollaborating to Meet Standards books

12. Reasons teachers would want to collaborate: • You understand the benefits to yourself and, especially, to your students. • You understand that collaboration is actually working smarter (students learn more and more effectively in the same amount of time) • You are non-defensive (you trust yourself and the teacher librarian enough to step back and see what develops) • You are trusting (either by nature or by building a trusting relationship with the librarian over time) • You are motivated (either, again, by nature or because a wise administrator has put systems in place that encourage/require collaboration with the librarian)

13. Collaboration moves from… • Competing to consensus building • Working alone to including others from different fields and backgrounds • Thinking mostly about activities and programs to thinking about larger results and strategies • Focusing on short-term accomplishments to requiring long-term results

14. Stages of collaboration • Cooperation - The Library Media Specialist is primarily a provider of resources as requested.  No co-teaching, co-planning, or co-assessment is involved. • Coordination - The Library Media Specialist is primarily a provider of resources and teaches minimal introductory how to use the library lessons.  No co-planning and no co-assessment. • Collaborative - The Library Media Specialist plans, develops materials, teaches, and evaluates student work and the overall project collaboratively with the classroom teacher.Source: The Information-Powered School, Sandra Hughes-Hassell and Anne Wheelock, editors, 2002.

15. How can we collaborate to get students to use the library for active research? • Use lesson plans that have detailed information on teacher, student and librarian’s role. *See sample attachment • Use collaborative planning sheets to get maximum use of library time and resources* • Make the library a place where students want to use • Provide them with resources that are up-to-date

16. Student benefit of collaboration • Allows for active researching with the resources available in the school library. • Integration of resources to meet a wide variety of student needs. • Learning turned into action • Involved in learning • Excited about learning • Transfer of learning • Independent use of relevant, integrated information & technology skills • Connections between subject areas • Independent learner-information and technology literate • Improved student achievement

17. Teacher benefits • "Two heads are better than one" • Lightens teaching load • Makes teaching more effective • Renews excitement about teaching • Provides additional resources for classroom instruction • Assists with interdisciplinary instruction • Improves student achievement

18. Lets work together • This can be our best year yet! Collaboration + Information literacy = Improved Student Acheivement!

19. Bibliography Buzzeo, Toni. Collaborating to Meet Standards: Teacher/ Librarian Partnerships for K-6. Worthington, OH: Linworth Publishing, 2002. Hughes-Hassell, S. & Wheelock, A. Information Powered School. American Library Association. June, 2001. Thomas, Melody. "What Is Collaboration to You?" Library Talk 15, no. 2 (March/April 2002): 17-18. Wools, Blanche. The School Library Media Manager. 4th ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. 2008.