Mar 06 2006
Librarian competencies
Doug Johnson talked about why librarians should be in charge of technology a while ago. He apparently received a lot of “not my librarian!” messages which he talks about in Totally divorced from reality?
I’ve worked in four school districts and five different schools in two states. In each position, there were librarians who were exemplary users of technology and there were those who were exemplary users of oxygen. I have to agree with Deb Stafford’s comment that a technology user does not a good librarian make—it’s possible to be too tied to technology (or books) to actually work with students. I think that it’s important that we be leaders in our school—both in technology and in information literacy. Those who’ve got a vision and can articulate it so that others buy in are the ones who will be successful. Those who can engage students in reading and learning will be viewed as helpful. Those who can help teachers teach students the information and technology skills that they will need to be productive members of society will be viewed as essential and relevant to their colleagues and students. Those who can’t, won’t . . . and frankly, they probably don’t care!
The librarian that I had in junior high made me want to learn, to engage in information seeking skills, to read (although, I was probably already a voracious reader without her guidance) the many books on the shelves in the library and any others that I could get my hands on.
My high school librarian was one of those people who “showed up” briefly to teach us how to use the library’s literary criticism texts and then crept back to her office to do whatever it is that she really wanted to be doing. The library was not an inviting place. There weren’t books that anyone wanted to read for pleasure. Frankly, there probably wasn’t the budget for it, so it may not be all her fault. But, when I was in junior high, I wanted to be either a lawyer or a librarian. When I reached high school, I wondered why I ever considered school libraries: who wanted to be in a place where no one wanted to come.
I interviewed a reference librarian at a local college to see if that might be the way I wanted to go. She spoke to me in a monotone, with absolutely no excitement or passion for her job expressed in her tone. In her attempt to encourage me to become a librarian, she convinced me that I never wanted to be a librarian. Probably from 10th grade until my freshman year in college, I didn’t set foot in a library unless a teacher took my class there.
I ended up working for about a year and a half in a public library. There, Katherine, the reference librarian was one of the most dynamic and delightful women I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with—and she was over sixty years old. She embraced the changes that were happening in libraries in the early 90s. She reminded me that you don’t have to be stuffy and uptight and can actually love your job. I remembered that school libraries could be great places to go—that it was the person in charge who decided how things would be in the room they supervised.
I vowed that I wouldn’t be like my high school librarian, that I would be like Katherine. That I would be accessible to my students . . . that I would reach out to my colleagues . . . that the library I was in charge of would be a thriving place where students wanted to come and where they could find something they wanted to read. Where the technology would help them to achieve their goals. Where they’d learn how to find information that they needed when they needed it.
I’ve worked to be viewed as skilled with technology, and I think that I am. I’ve provided technology training to colleagues, assisted students (and at times, administrators) in working out problems they’ve experienced. I think that most anyone who is willing to try can become competent at technology. At least for me, it was simply a matter of taking the time to learn. Trial and error is a great teacher. Most of my technology skills are based on just that: trying a new program to learn how it works and how it can be used and then sharing that knowledge with others.
I don’t know if I’m living up to the bar that Katherine set, but I spend every day trying. I do know that I’m not like that high school librarian that I avoided. I know that I will never be unwelcoming or dismissive of anyone who makes the effort to enter my classroom. I want them to discover the wonders of the library!
