My Interview with a School Librarian

2/8/2015

Discussion with School Library Media Specialist Buddy

For this assignment, I corresponded with a friend of mine who has been teaching for a number of years, and just started this past year as a school librarian in a small school district in East Texas.  

1. What barriers does he/she face in providing bibliographic instruction to the student population?

When discussing the issue of barriers that she faces in regards to providing bibliographic instruction to her students, she indicated that there were two main issues that hinder this goal. One of the first things that she mentioned is the fact that the current school schedule does not allow for enough time for instruction when the students come to the library. Due to these time constraints, she often has to choose between focusing on instructions or attempting to ensure that books get into the hands of the students. In her opinion bibliographic instruction is important, but as she stated “getting books into the hands of the kids always comes first”.

Although I have not had as much experience in the classroom/ school environment as some teachers/ librarians, I can certainly understand the issue of time constraints. In my current position as an elementary interventionist, I often feel as though the schedule does not allow me enough time with the students to accomplish what I want to within the given time frame. I can also understand the feeling that it is more important to ensure that the students are able to leave the library with books because these resources are an important part of their learning.

Another issue that she stated tends to be a barrier to providing bibliographic instruction is that the library is lacking in resources to assist in this process. Being a small school (1A) with only approximately 310 students in grades prekindergarten through twelve, the resources throughout the district are limited and especially within the library. She said that the library does not have any stations for students to look up information and while the students are learning some bibliographic information, the lack of stations hinders teaching and practice for the students.

 I can understand, as I am sure many educators who have worked in rural districts can also, how lack of resources can greatly affect an educator’s ability to provide their students with the instruction and learning opportunities that they envision. I currently work in a rural district where funding and resources are often barriers to educators being able to introduce new technologies and materials to their students. This is when teachers have to really “think outside of the box” and work with the materials and resources available to them in order to provide their students with the best learning experience possible. Although I have not worked in a school library setting, I did work in a public library for seven years and I was accustomed to having to work with the resources that were available. We often worked with limited to no budgets, but with creativity and help from the community, we were able to provide our patrons with a good learning environment.

2. Does he/she collaborate with teachers on student research projects? If yes, how do they collaborate? If not, why not?

When it comes to collaboration with teachers on student research projects, the librarian that I corresponded with has done some collaboration with the teachers in her district at the first of the year and it currently working with certain grade levels on different research projects. Being in a small (1A) school, she serves as the district librarian. The campuses within this district are located near one another and all of the students use one main library. As the librarian, whenever the students are assigned research projects, she talks with the teachers to get an understanding about the assignments so that she can assist the students in selecting the proper materials to conduct their research. This past week, she said that she worked with the kindergarten teachers to help their students complete an animal research project. Next week, she will be working with the junior class (11^th grade) and their teachers to assist them in completing a research project about the 1920s. While she does work to collaborate with the teachers on student research projects, she said that working in such a small district can often impact this process because materials can be rather scarce.

From our correspondence, I can understand and recognize how a lack of resources (both print materials and electronic resources), can greatly affect a school librarian’s ability to achieve the set learning goals for the students that he/she serves. While the school librarian that I corresponded with is faced with many obstacles, she is still attempting to ensure that her students receive some bibliographic instruction, as well as assistance in the research process in spite of the lack of resources available within her school district.