Things are Looking Up

The Texas Association of School Librarians has put us firmly on the right track.  Their idea is simply to plan on posting a message via social media as to our jobs on the 17th of each month.  Conveniently, monthly samples have been provided for us.  There is no excuse not to participate in this event.

This awareness campaign has distinct advantages over random efforts.  A significant factor is that we are all sending the same message on the same date.  The result should be a sensory overload difficult for our funders to ignore.

The second aspect of the campaign that I like is that it is focusing on the leadership role of school librarians.  We need help in this respect, as many of us do not think of ourselves as leaders, and even if we do, others may not, despite the fact that our leadership is in their faces on a constant basis:  the preconceived idea of a school librarian that permeates the brain tends to overrule the reality of the situation.

As librarians, oftentimes our leadership is not overt.  Much of what we do is considered "leading from the middle."  We might suggest certain purchases to administrators that leads to product implementation; we test and familiarize ourselves with a myriad of devices and decide their instructional value before we suggest teachers integrate them; we bring people with seemingly diverse goals together in collaborations that would otherwise not have been broached.  None of these activities scream, "Hey! Look at me! I'm a leader."  Unobtrusive leadership is so subtle that often we miss our contributions ourselves.

The monthly themes suggested by TxASL are generally enough to apply to all school librarians.  In keeping with the theme, we should drive home the message with pictures and library-specific evidence.  What we have done, what we do, is what will deliver the message.

I appreciate TxASL's sharing of this campaign.  I trust we will all take advantage of their leadership and make this campaign a permanent feature of our advocacy plans.

What I Did At the West Virginia State Technology Conference.

In all honesty, I work on "school stuff" all summer.  It is ridiculous in some ways, and I am sure my family is more than annoyed when I hibernate in my room and concentrate deeply on some programmatic scheme.  I know they don't understand, although they sometimes grudgingly accept, that I get my energy from learning, sharing and considering new possibilities.

Even so, it is hard for me to give up three days in my last two weeks of summer to any organized professional development activity. It's as if I suddenly realized on July 29 that summer, in every meaningful way, is almost over for me.  I had a hard time following through with my commitment to attend the West Virginia State Technology Conference, even though it was held just four miles from my home.

I am very glad I made the decision to attend.  For starters, I have had the privilege to network with some wonderful people that I have known since library school, my colleagues in the Monongalia County School system, and friends I made while participating in the library media TIS cohort in 2008.  I also connected with a couple of our state's new library media specialists.  From this standpoint alone, the conference was a success.

The presentations were equally satisfying.