I was glad to see the HIT on collaboration. It seems that everyone is
finding the same thing in their schools. Some teachers collaborate, some
don't. It's frustrating when librarians are taught to do something that no
one else in education is aware of or wants to become a part of once they are
in the system.
I worked at Oklahoma State University as an assistant professor / librarian
for our Curriculum Materials Library which was specifically geared toward
education majors. Our library was a "model school library" which offered
tons of resources that "might" be found in school libraries. The education
majors loved the library but found it hard to understand how (or why) to
collaborate with the librarian. I would help perhaps 10 students personally
each semester in developing their lessons. It was exciting; however, there
were over 2000 education majors in the program. How many did I miss? Too
many!!
I enjoyed the opportunity that many of my professional colleages allowed
when they brought their students in for in-depth explanations of how to do
research for lesson planning. In my explanation to these "new teachers" I
encouraged them to make the librarian their "best friend" and tried to
explain how and why to work with the librarian. However, I still got the
feeling that many felt they knew it all and NO librarian would be able to
tell them HOW to teach a subject that they've just spent four years learning
about in college. (What do I know? I've only been in education for 20
years.)
My other fear was that many of these new teachers who did collaborate with
me would be excited about the idea of collaboration, find their first job,
and then learn that their school didn't have a librarian (or even a warm
body in the library) to actually work with during their first year.
Another fear that is realized each and every day is meeting librarians who
have administrators that don't have a clue about libraries and don't care
about libraries. Where do these people come from? (I've even had some of
these people smugly tell me that they "got their degree without having to
set foot in a library"---and boy, did I want to snap back at that comment.)
I think that one of the required courses of administrators should be one
specifically designed to teach administrators how to work with librarians.
That would include understanding what we do, how we impact schools
(students, teachers, parents), how we impact test scores, and why libraries
should be the heart of every school program. I think they should also spend
at least two weeks in a library working side-by-side with a librarian to
understand the problems and the rituals involved... (The best schools that
I've been in had administrators who supported and worked with their
librarians. I was so impressed with one school that I asked about the
educational background of the principal....she was a former librarian with
over 10 years of experience!) I wish we had more of these people out
there...anyone considering a career change toward administration? We need
you badly!
My opinion only...happy it's summer! Looking forward to my NEW library
position! Have a great week!
Shonda Brisco
FWISD Teacher / Librarian (formerly)
Trinity Valley Upper School Librarian (2002-2003)
Ft. Worth, Texas
sbrisco021@charter.net
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