Top Shelf

Julie Todaro, presenter

TLA recently conducted a public opinion poll of Texas voters to find out how much support there is out there for all types of libraries.

Other sources of data about school libraries:

AASL – Research and Statistics

David Loertscher’s web site

Michael Eisenberg’s presentations

IASL Online

Library Media Program: Data Sources, the School Library Media Specialist

Library Research Service

Resources for School Librarians

The TLA survey was a statewide telephone survey conducted in October – November 2008.

The survey found that nearly all Texans (99%) are an essential part of the educational experience and more than 9 in 10 agree that school librarians are critical to student achievement. The vast majority would support legislation that would require public schools to provide students with a school library and librarian that meets statewide standards. More than 8 in 10 voters across every demographic segment and geographic region support the legislation, including 88% of Republicans, 95% of Democrats and 96% of Independents.

Strong majorities support increasing public funding for school libraries!

Data from the survey shows that the general public feels that school libraries and professional give every child the opportunity to read and learn.

How can we use this data to promote school libraries?

Use it as a message to administrators, school boards, PTA groups, teachers, students, relevant associations and legislators.

Expand the Strong Libraries Strong Scores mini-conference model to other areas of the state, to other associations and organizations and with other related events.

TLA recommends focusing on the unique contribution of school libraries to round out and encourage student development and achievement. Instead of trying to be another classroom, focus on what makes us unique.

Jennifer LaBoon, presenter

The 81st Legislative Session ended June 1 with “partisan meltdown” and many bills died.

Two key issues for schools were the K-12 databases and a full-time librarian on every campus. The databases funding made it through, but was not increased as requested. The state library will be doing some “creative” budgeting in order to keep the resources at the existing level. While we didn’t get quite what we wanted, we didn’t lose any ground.

The full-time librarian issue is a difficult one. There has been discussion of this for a long time, but many have been reluctant to press it with the legislators. The hope is that we could possibly replicate the standard for counselors, which are mandated at schools of 500 students or more. The timing must be right to move forward on the issue.

HB 915 specifies that TEA must consider of a school district provides a certified school librarian on a campus as part of the accountability rating for a district. The bill was referred to the Public Education committee, but never got a hearing. Inquiries into the feasibility of a similar bill in the Senate were met with heavy resistance – no unfunded mandates.

HB 3/ SB 3 was the “accountability” bill. Rep. Dennis Bonnen worked to amend the bill to include certified librarians as part of the accountability ratings. The amended language was stripped by the Conference Committee, as were most floor amendments added in the House. Bonnen did not give up, though, and worked with Rep. Rose to add library services to her amendment 72. Unfortunately, all amendments that passed the House were removed by the Senate.

School library advocacy efforts are important and all are encouraged to attend TLA Legislative Day. Legislators really do not realize that every school does not have a certified librarian on every campus and need to be made aware of the situation.

The school library study mandated by the last legislative session was presented in December 2008. It was very positive towards school libraries. Other initiatives include the Shirley Igo Award for PTA members who are supportive of their school libraries. TLA had a booth at state PTA conference and PTA had a booth at the TLA conference. The Spokane Moms are confirmed to present at TLA 2010.

Take home ideas:

Vote! for school board, legislators, congress
Create an administrator of the year award for an administrator who advocates for libraries
Create a librarian of the year awar
Create a Friends of School Libraries grou
Reach out to your PTA group and other civic groups
Attend Town Hall events
Invite legislators to school literacy events
Send thank you letters
Reach out to smaller districts around you
Attend Advocacy Pre-Conference at TLA 2010
Plan to attend Legislative Day in 2011 and TLA in Austin in 2011

Volunteer to help advocate for school libraries at these upcoming events:

PTA Summer Leadership Conference
Austin, July 24-25

TASA/TASB Conference
Houston, October 1-4

Panel discussion

Fort Bend ISD offers summer training in electronic resources and information literacy. During new teacher orientation, new librarians meet and receive training on the automation system. New librarians also meet six times a year to discuss topics of particular interest to them.

Dallas ISD provides sessions in the summer and fall and has lots of resources for new librarians in a moodle/blackboard environment.

Northside ISD uses a mentor program. Mentors must obtain permission from their campus principal to participate. They make visits to the new librarian’s library and attend new librarian meetings. They are also provided with a monthly checklist of things to discuss with the new librarian and create a new librarian goodie bag.

Denton ISD has Librarian Fish Camp – 3 days in the summer before school starts in August. During this camp, they present sessions on literature, research, databases, and the automation system. They also provide pullout meetings in September and January. Topics on these days include research process, reading lists, book orders, budget, inventory, plus campus visits to experienced librarians.

Round Rock ISD also has a 1 day new librarians’ workshop that starts with asking about their concerns and what they want to know. They also have a mentor program. New librarians are carefully matched with an experienced librarian and are encouraged to meet often on a given timeline.

Region 2 provides training for library paraprofessionals. Title I specifies what paraprofessionals can actually do. They offer two strands of training for these paras: Zap! You’re a Library Aide for people who have come back from the summer and find that they are assigned to the library, covering the philosophy of library service. In the spring, a session is offered on school library management where the participants can present problems they have encountered and discuss solutions. Customer service strategies are also presented.

Presentation by Stella Farris, Austin ISD

National Board certification attests to the fact that a librarian has been judged by a peer group as one who is accomplished in the field. It gives credibility to a librarian as a professional and leads to leadership opportunities. More importantly, librarians who are certified by the National Board have a better understanding of their roles and make a bigger impact on student achievement.

The National Board standards for librarians cover what librarians know, do and how they grow as professionals.

Basic requirements:

Bachelor’s degree, 3 years teaching experience, 4 portfolios, 6 essays

Portfolio topics: Instructional Collaboration, Appreciation of Literature, Integration of technology, Documented accomplishments. The literature and technology portfolios require video component, in addition to the written pieces.

The essay portion of the certification is timed and taken at a scheduled time. Two prompts are given and the candidate must address both prompts in a limited amount of time.

Info on National Board Certification for Librarians

Cost is about $3000 total, but funding is available from various sources. Some districts pay a stipend for librarians who have national board certification.

A new option is Take One. It allows teachers to sample and learn the standards for a particular area, videotape themselves doing a lesson and provide written commentary on that lesson.

Resources:

Discussion groups

Achieving National Board Certification for School Library Media Specialist – A Study Guide by Gail Dickinson

AASL web site

Education World

Blogs: Teacher Sol, Certifiable, Teaching Safari

Only 12 NBCTs in Texas! Might be something to look into!

School librarians are in short supply across the state of Texas and certification options are limited to nine universities. Dallas ISD created an alternative certification program for librarians in their school district in order to fill some of these positions.

A school librarian task force worked behind the scenes a full year before the program actually began. The program they developed consisted of several components. Participants took 9 hours of university coursework in the summer before beginning as a school librarian. A job shadowing component allowed participants to choose from an approved job shadow pool at each level for 5 days during the year. Mentoring was also part of the program. Experienced librarians were invited to complete a mentor application and were selected by the alternative certification staff. The mentors received training and a $1000 stipend. The district’s moodle system was used to post information for the mentors to use when working with the AC new librarians. AC librarians also participated in traditional district new librarian training along with fully certified librarians who were new to the library/district.

The AC Coordinator met once a month with the AC librarians to discuss questions and concerns, made site visits, gave TExES preparation training, and offered cataloging and children’s literature courses.

AC participants also had to complete portfolios to show growth for the year. The program allowed participants to become certified school librarians in two years.

Participants were actively recruited through newspaper ads, information sessions, district web sites and other communication publications.

The program was funded by the A-Plus grant (Alternative Programs for Librarians in Urban Settings) and was awarded almost $1 million. The program added 45 librarians to the district over three years.

Approximate program expense was about $6000 (if a participant was not in the grant).

Applicants to the program had to provide an application, a resume, transcripts, 3 letters of recommendation. The web site for the program is http://teachfordallas.com/librarian.

Candidates who qualified for the program were interviewed with a ranking instrument. They also had to take a computer test consisting of basic Word skills, web searching skills, and basic lesson planning ability.

Most participants passed the state certification exam on the first attempt.

Presented by Terry Alegria Roper, AC Coordinator, Dallas ISD

Presenter: Marty Rossi, Region 20

There are some great new tools available to help us promote the online resources offered by the state. One of these is a great video in the style of the Mac vs. PC commercials featuring the Open Internet vs. the K-12 Databases.

In addition to these new videos, there are also some training modules called Mini 10s. These provide materials that you can use when presenting information about the databases to parents, teachers and administrators.

A recent survey found that 92% of librarians feel that the state databases contain the content that students need. Comments on the survey also emphasized the feeling that having databases provided by the state helps to address the equity issue and gives the same resources to student across the state.

Live blogged: please excuse awkward wording and misspellings.

If you’re like me, you’ve been so busy with your first life that you haven’t taken the time to investigate Second Life fully. Valerie Hill, librarian in Lewisville ISD, is studying Second Life for her doctoral dissertation. She came and shared a little bit about SL with TASLA attendees.

SL has many opportunities for school librarians. There are many professional development sessions, virtual classrooms, conferences, workshops, immersive learning environments, and research symposiums.

Valerie described participating in meetings with school library heavyweights, such as David Loertscher and attending conference such as NECC and TCEA virtually through Second Life.

There are other virtual worlds: Whyville is one in particular, for students ages 9-12.

Virtual worlds have many benefits for students. They are synchronous, participants can interact, information can be manipulated in ways not possible in the “real” world, and real time voice communication is possible. The learning curve and possible expense are some of the limitations.

Word of warning: Just as you stay away from the rough parts of town in real cities, there are parts of Second Life that you may not want to visit.

Have you tried Second Life?

The Texas Association of School Library Administrators will meet this week in Austin. This annual meeting is full of information and networking opportunities for the school library leaders of Texas. In addition to the traditional updates from TSLAC, TEA and TLA, attendees will hear presentations on web 2.0 technologies, staff development/training and using data to market the school library. Click here to see the full schedule.

If you aren’t able to attend, check this blog or follow me on Twitter for updates on all the happenings! If you’re a Twitter user who is attending the conference, use the hashtag #tasla09.

Looking forward to seeing everyone and learning lots!

A few weeks ago, I attended the 2009 Texas Library Association Conference in Houston. Every spring, TLA provides conference attendees with four days of learning, networking and team building and this year was no different.

I had hoped to live blog each of the sessions that I attended, but limited wireless Internet access spoiled that plan. Instead, I’ll give a brief summary of my activities for the week in this post.

Tuesday, March 31

23 Things: New Technologies Training – I presented at this session along with Dr. Barry Bishop from Spring Branch ISD. Both of our districts have implemented 23 Things programs, first for our librarians and now for other district personnel. We weren’t sure how the attendance would be at 4pm on the “preconference” day, but we ended up with a standing room only crowd in a room with seating for 250! The audience was interested and enthusiastic about our topic. I presented an overview of web 2.0 and why it is important, then Dr. Bishop told how he and his staff organized their program. The presentation was a lot of fun and it was nice to have it over and done with at the beginning of the conference!

Wednesday, April 1

General Session I with Paula Poundstone – Comedian and author Paula Poundstone is the national spokesperson for Friends of Libraries USA. She  opened the conference with humor and wit.

Gaming for Instruction – In this presentation, Jenny Levine and Chris Harris discussed the benefits of games as instructional resources. The presenters made a strong case for the inclusion of games in school by citing recent research that shows gaming can reinforce skills that employers want: willingness to experiment, persistence, collaboration, adaptation, prioritizing. Harris has started a game library in his district for board games that are aligned to the curriculum.

Communications Plan for K-12 Databases – In this session, staff from Region 20 described a communications plan they have developed for promoting the online resources that are provided by the state. Their web site offers videos and other promotional materials that can be used to promote these resources.

Thursday, April 2

Brokeback Mountain: An Intellectual Freedom Story – Staff from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin and author John Green described how educators, administrators, parents, authors and community members worked together to protect the rights of students when challenged by censors. Despite the loss of private donor funding, this group held true to the principles of intellectual freedom.

Using the Data You Didn’t Know You Had: TLA’s Public Opinion Poll Results – TLA has just published the results of an extremely successful public opinion poll. In this session, a panel discussed how to use that data to promote libraries.

Texas Bluebonnet Award Luncheon – Author Cynthia DeFelice and illustrator Andrea U’Ren were presented with the Texas Bluebonnet Award for their book, One Potato Two Potato. This book was chosen by the 3rd-6th graders of Texas as their favorite book of the 2008-2009 school year. The award is presented by student representatives from each TLA district and the presentation is always one of the highlights of the conference.

Planning and Hosting a Librarian Mini-Conference – Northside ISD librarians shared in this session how they put on mini-conferences for their librarians’ staff development. During a mini-conference, 8-12 district librarians make concurrent presentations for their colleagues. The session included sample mini-conference sessions about making book trailers, hosting a battle of the books competition, and an American Girl book club.

Friday, April 3

Collaboration 2.0 with Barbara Jansen – Barbara discussed how she uses wikis to collaborate and plan with teachers, resulting in motivating and higher-level research assignments for students. Using a wiki offers one-stop shopping for students’ task and information needs.

Exhibits - Between all of these sessions, time was also spent in the vast and wonderful Exhibit Hall talking with vendors of books, library technology and other library service providers.

There were so many good sessions that I didn’t get to all that I wanted. Some of the ones I missed, but would have liked to attend were:

1. Michael Stephens Talks Hyperlinked Libraries – Michael Stephens is a well-known library blogger (Tame The Web). In this session, he talked about how web 2.0 and user perceptions are changing libraries.

2. Doing Honest Work: A Model for Student Research – Debbie Abilock, founder of NoodleTools, did a presentation on how to get students to use ethical research practices.

3. Top 10 Technologies and Ideas to Improve Library Productivity – Michael Stephens again, this time talking about how technology can help streamline productivity.

4. Tagging Your World with Jenny Levine – an explanation of tagging and its advantages and disadvantages.

5. The Librarian in Black’s Strategies for Staying on Top of the Library World – Sarah Houghton-Jan, the Librarian in Black another prolific library blogger, talked about how to stay current in the library field.

6. Getting to Yes: Finding Web 2.0 in a Filtered World – Chris Harris presentation on how to get access to all the cool web 2.0 tools in a filtered environment.

So much to learn, so little time!

Well, there’s always next year in San Antonio, April 14-17, 2010!

The K-12 Online Conference is a conference by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A goal of the conference is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape.

This free virtual annual professional development event spans the next three weeks. Presentations appear in the form of streamable or downloadable audio or video clips, with each workshop lasting about 20 minutes. Presentations are archived so that you may return to them later or visit sessions from previous conferences. Scheduled live chats allow participants to also connect real time.

Read more about it on Joyce Valenza’s blog then give it a try!