Stellman the Librarian

Two resources in this section particularly spoke to me and enhanced my concept of a Future Ready Librarian. The graphic “ FUTURE READY LIBRARIAN SUPPORT STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING  (Links to an external site.) ” is exciting. Words like “data,” “strategic,” and “digital” jump out — these aren’t describing your stereotypical librarians portrayed in pop culture.  (The words that come to mind when I picture the school libraries of my past include “staid,” “quiet,” and “unwelcoming.”)  And then, during Mark Ray’s TEDx Talk , he pointed out that librarians need to “meet the needs of students and teachers today.” I hadn’t seen or heard it put quite so bluntly before. Do you want to be the person who is leading the pack? Or the person who everyone is looking back at forlornly as they push on without you? Do you want to be an active contributor or a dead weight in your school community? The answer is pretty obvious. But one problem is that these concepts are hard to plan f...

This week kicked off LBS 730: Managing & Evaluating School Library Programs. As far as I can tell, this course does not require blog entries. However, it looks like we'll have a ton of discussion posts/essays, and I'll post those here. The question this essay addresses: How much have the issues surrounding school libraries changed? Librarian at the card files at a senior high school in New Ulm, Minnesota, October 1974 Plus ça change... I explored with great interest the articles in Module Two that cover the history of school libraries. And while I read the articles expecting to learn about the halcyonic days of school librarianship, where school librarians were recognized and lauded for their role in schools…”plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.” For example, in “School Library: A Historical Perspective,” the following is written: “Although certification requirements were written, in many states, school districts often ignored them simply by not creati...