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What a great piece!! As someone that has never interviewed in the education field it was really informative. I keep checking for openings in my area and they all require certification (many also want experience). I am hoping to see a district be open to the possibility of hiring someone that is in the process of obtaining certification. It was also interesting to get some insight on the interview process. I have never had to present or create something for an interview. Great piece and so helpful to those of us that will be embarking on the interview process...hopefully soon!

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I was really struck by this week's lecture about the difference between management and leadership. Although they were presented as 2 separate things, in my experience, they intertwind. Yes, you should strive to be a leader, inspire students and colleagues, and promote change. However, I do think that there is also a level of management involved, and it doesn't have to be a bad thing. Managers plan and execute, I can't imagine that a library would function well without an intent to execute what you have planned. However, good management skills means that you have the ability to adapt, change or possible get rid of your entire plan becasue it is not working in the way that you had hoped. I think being a school librarian will involve both management and leadership skills and the key is to find a balance between the 2 where you can lead, collaborate, plan, execute, and be flexible.

On a totally separate note....love, love, love this format!!!

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Collaborative leadership involves many moving parts in the school. You have a facilitator, many creators, students, staff and administration all moving together toward a collective goal. People's voices are heard and action is taken.

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Although this is from the Week 4 reading I think it also applies to leadership .

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Response to People Person-Personality of Librarians

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Response to People Person-Personality of Librarians

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I don't know if this is exactly what you said but in my head I heard collaboration with intent...I love that idea, kind of like a bullseye. Especially since I am so understaffed I need to leverage my time and efforts, so carefully picking the people to "target" who will most likely share and expand the replicate is critical.

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I think that part of it is knowing yourself and knowing what your strengths and weakness are. I've seen some people that can be great leaders and have great ideas. But as you pointed out others who seem to always fall in one category or the other. You need to know what your weaknesses are so that you can support yourself with people that can help in those areas. If you are a great idea person, but can't lead and can find someone who can lead...you are truly ahead of the game and can create a winning situation. If on the other hand you don't reflect or refuse to acknowledge your own weakness...well, it will be really hard to be successful and easy to cause your team , library, company, whatever...to fail.

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Response to Meg/Kristin
I agree that it is much easier to collaborate with people you see most often, and it also depends on the school environment. I have been in schools where it feels like everyone is on their own and it's not very friendly at all, as a result, not much collaboration at all.   Thankfully the school I am currently at does a pretty good job at collaboration.  Each grade level is set up as teams and every week the teams meet.  This leads to great collaboration between the teams but they tend to leave out the other "extra" areas.  The previous librarian was ready for retirement and didn't seem to care much if classes or students came to the library.  Now the new one is trying to rectify that.  She tries to join in on team meetings and "hunt teachers down" and get them to bring their classes to the library.  More are coming but theres still lots of work to be done.  This time last year the library was empty,  now it is bustling and we're helping classes with research projects.  We're lucky that teachers are so open to working together at this school, even then they still have to focus on their own classes.  It worries me for if I need to attempt this in a school that isnt so open to it.
-Catherine

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Thanks for an awesome discussion and allowing the creation of this visual/ collaborative/informational resource!

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I thought this was a great infographic to share some of the qualities that makes for a great collaboration leadership experience.

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INFOGRAPHIC: Leadership Qualities That Build Strong Teams

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The right leadership qualities can transform individuals, teams, and entire organizations. Check out this infographic to learn which qualities matter most.

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To me collaborative leadership might be the best kind of leadership. It is the type of leadership that knows that two heads are better than one. That there is strength in relying on others and knowing that you do not know everything. As Dr. Stripling said "Leaders do the right thing and managers do things right." So while procedurally it might be easier to not rock the boat, leaders know that change is good. It might not be popular but it will benefit the school community. This type of leadership from what I have heard is a change in culture. It will mean inviting yourself to department meetings and learning more about the standards of a discipline you are not familiar with. It will chaff. But the rewards will be a group of teachers that collaborate and see you as an equal much they do in the VPS District.
-Allie Comes

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As an outsider of the working world for lots of years, it seems like I observed my husband had leaders that were great managers or awful mangers, and no in between. Is it an all-or-nothing type thing? You can have great leadership ideas but horrible management skills and vice versa? Maybe in some cases it needs to be a two person position?
~Jess

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Good luck on your interview! I think that enthusiasm and being a life long learner far out way experience; those things cannot be learned on the job.

I am also going to save the library girl post for a future pep talk when I interview.

You got this!
Allie Comes

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I will be interviewing next Saturday morning for a library position for the 2017-2018 school year in the district I have been hoping to work at ever since I decided to become a school librarian. I am crazy nervous because it is a whole long interview process where I will be meeting district administrators and doing a lesson plan for them. I have very little real-world experience and so I have been slowly freaking out as Saturday gets closer and closer.

Library Girl's blog snapped me back a bit and reminded me that I will be fine and I have what I need to be a great librarian. I just need to make it through the interview!
~Jess

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I have found that collaboration is easier if you encounter the principals and teachers on a regular basis. It is easier to collaborate with the teachers who are in my corridor (second floor) than the ones on the first floor for example. It is basically a silo effect where they don't seem to think about collaborating with me, even though I would love to collaborate with them. The same thing goes for the principal, I have to attend after school meetings where she is in attendance/hosting (typically held in the a school library) so that I can get face time and share ideas and accomplishments. One thing I have found useful in my four month career is substitute teaching time in the classroom. I have been learning that I can bring some of the library skills/curriculum into the classroom while the teacher is out sick and then they are also willing to hear ideas about collaboration when they return. That doesn't mean that I don't teach what they've given me to do (typically a handout), but when the class completes it - we have time for information skills. - Kristin Culkowski Naiko

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Brynn, what an awesome infograph! It really highlights the shift in leadership roles in any workplace. This first year in the library,  we had a few changes in administration. The first few months we did not have a principal in the high school, but now that we do, they really display the collaborative leader. The new principal understands that communication with the community needs to happen. Being new to the community, they have really stepped into the collaborative leader role well. I am working on following their example!
-Kaitlin Patenaude

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The image below is from http://blog.innocentive.com/2013/11/21/8-differences-between-traditional-and-collaborative-leaders. It shows some of the differences between Traditional and Collaborative Leaders.

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Collaborative Leadership means working teachers and administrators to ensure that students receive the best resources and education possible. Like Library Girl said, it is important for everyone to work together and remember the reason we are all here: the students. We want them to be able to enter society after going through the system and be productive members of society. We want them to have all the tools they need to succeed in life.

I like the idea that teacher-librarians have different roles and are valuable to a school culture. I thought that the article about Vancouver Public Schools was extremely interesting. I love how the librarians there are working with the teachers to help students. I like that they are helping students and teachers to be understand how technology can be used safely and effectively.  My school has 1:1 iPads for 8th graders. They are used in the classrooms and the students take them home to use for homework. The only problem is that the students do not always use the iPads for schoolwork. However, they are teenagers so that is normal.

-Brynn R.

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Rebecca Hudson ... library girl response

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Rebecca Hudson ... library girl response

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All such good points, and not only saying what the principal should look for in a librarian, but also what a librarian should be. I love working with the elementary students and creating lessons. I hope I am able to encourage and support their love of reading and learning. One thing I see here that I will need to focus on is collecting data and documenting outcomes. I'm not sure exactly how I should do this. I attended a conference where Library Girl presented, and she is just as entertaining in person.

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super-useful infographic, thanks for sharing it!

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We've been hearing about collaboration again and again throughout different classes, but this week made me think of it in a new way.  Collaboration is not something that will happen automatically, or even naturally.  Green's article, and the Vancouver Digital Promise article both stressed the importance of not just reaching out to the closest teacher, but being perceptive and targeting people who would make powerful collaborators.  So to me, after learning this, makes me see collaborative leadership as working together with others with intent, and purpose to meet the needs of a school (or even district) and to make the librarian position as valuable as we know it can be.

I would also like to add that while Librarian Girl's letter was addressed to principals, I saved it in my bookmarks because it gave me a lot of ideas for when I have to interview for school librarian positions in the future. What a great resource.

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Working as a library assistant last year was an eye-opening experience. While I observed the interactions between the librarian and teachers I found that some teachers were easier to work with because of their openness. Our library really pushed technology integration and those teachers that we collaborated well with wanted to further integrate technology and inquiry into their class lessons. I found that there some teachers who did not want to collaborate with the librarian. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I think it was because the role of the librarian was not well articulated to the teachers. They saw her more as a manager to resources and not a leader in the actual curriculum,  which she was. It was very difficult for her because she was left out of the conversations of curriculum that grade levels were having.  I would say that as a first year librarian it would all about establishing your credibility to the classroom teachers and just building those trust relationships. I had one teacher state to me during one of our Twitter chats, that she did not collaborate to work with a teacher until they recognize and articulated what she had done. I think as librarians we really have to learn to be people readers and find out the best ways to approach people. Everyone's different so our approach will not and should not be the same for everyone.

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The 'teacher-librarian' role emphasizes the need for strong relationships with principals and curriculum leaders in order to produce a superb learning environment. The role as a teacher-librarian is a reflective, ongoing process (much like many other roles). From the readings, these statements seem like no brainers. I can imagine these relationships and awareness of ones self to be necessary in order to be a successful teacher-librarian--but never having worked in a school library, can anyone attest to the importance of these relationships and attributes? How difficult/easy is it to get principals and teachers to work with you? As a new librarian, what questions have you asked to get involved in the learning process?

-Meg G-A

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I completely understand your situation!  I went through the exact same situation with the school I last worked at.  Our administration were excellent managers, but were very poor leaders.  They had a lack of vision and were not able to translate their vision to parents and teachers effectively.  Trust also lacked with our administrations and many teachers were frustrated that their voices were not being heard and they were not being included in the decision making process.  With even trying to implement PBL in our school the administration was not willing to give a concrete definition that teachers could relay to parents.  It was extremely frustrating for teachers, but especially members of the leadership team who were trying to mediate between the two.  I had read in a George Curos's book that a bad manager and/or leader is better than a manger and/or leader that gives you no feedback at all, because at least you know where you stand with the bad manager and/or leader.  Our administration would just not acknowledge or communicate with teachers and it lead to a very distrustful and resentful culture at our school.

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and when leaders aren't good managers... 

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and when leaders aren't good managers... 

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Consider: Leslie Knope. She's a good leader -- inspiring, energy creator, dedicated, honest, hardworking, and genuinely committed to making her Parks & city the best they can be. Arguably, though, she's a terrible manager. What do you think? -- Claire

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So, in my organization, our "Library Leadership Team" is currently having a crisis of leadership. This has been going on for some time, but feels like it's coming to a head right now. Without giving any specifics (sorry!) what it comes down to is that our current administrators are managers -- employees have to follow their rules -- but they're falling incredibly short on authentic engagement and vision, so employees don't have any incentive to trust them and follow *them*. (All of this is leading me to think a lot about my organization and what leadership *could* look like!) --Claire

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Energy creators, formal and informal leadership, and choice! 

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Energy creators, formal and informal leadership, and choice! 

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Re: the lecture and Heather's great points about formal and informal leadership... I'm really holding onto the idea that the big difference between managing and leadership is relationships and choice. People choose to follow leaders, but they have to follow managers. No one has to follow any leader: it's entirely a choice. But unless you're willing to risk your livelihood, workers don't have that element of choice in their relationships with managers. -- Claire

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Two things I really loved about Dr. Stripling's lecture this week: 1) the idea of leaders as energy creators and 2) the idea of formal leadership vs. informal leadership. In my current building, these two definitely go hand-in-hand. We have the formal leadership - administration, union leaders, department heads - but we also have the teachers that everyone just seems to go to with issues, for pep talks, for suggestions. One of them is one of the more experienced teachers in the building but one of them is newer and I really think for him, especially, it's all about the energy he creates. He gets along with everyone, he can always find a positive note or some little point to encourage, he's always trying new things. There was a similar teacher in my last building where I was part of the implementation team for blended learning. I started with this particular teacher because I knew he would respond enthusiastically and positively to new things and that that would trickle down to more reluctant teachers. It's so important to be aware of this informal leadership.
-Heather

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"Leaders do the right thing and managers do things right" strikes me as a little too simplistic. I do think there's a distinction between leaders and managers but I think both halves of the quote probably describe a good leader.

(Unrelated: While I love, love, love Padlet and use it all the time, I have to admit, I'm not loving it for this. I personally find it really hard to follow the flow of the discussion, especially once people started replying to different posts. But maybe it's just me?)

-Heather

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In the last week here (for real-6 days) are some things happening in/through our school library and in my world.   SKowalski--come visit if you are local!

Assembly on India/Hinduism, student led clubs after school--LGBT, Coding, Gaming, Anime; planning with 6 teachers on upcoming projects, chaperoned a grade 6/7 bowling party on Saturday, worked with student group on trying to get our school street named, organizing SOUP-er Bowl Buffet for staff on Friday, advisor to weekly PG Ski club for 50 kids, meeting with task force about EPA air quality grant project, meeting with Barnes & Noble outreach mgr to plan events, science fiction book talks with 4 classes, hosted guest from a school doing major lib reno, working with SU intern, develop 4 resource guides, collaborate with student teacher in health, help promo elem school reading challenge, write and submit AASL grant, complete NYLA-SSL report for board meeting, attending training on Adobe Spark (LOVE!), worked with students to design floor plan for multiple lib events, working with 2 other lib to plan summer STEM camp for girls, putting stickers on books to help with genre, bought fake plants for seating area.....soo....I share this only to ask..."what do you notice abt leadership vs mgmnt? LEADERSHIP vs leadership?

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Soo many great ideas....and I have never gotten the voice to work, Heidi...awesome!

As an EVERYDAY school librarian, I had to shift my brain from mgmt to ldrship as a big goal years ago AND still have to remind myself that the STUFF doesn't have any impact I don't have a plan/goal that it connects to.... forever in my planner (yes, still a paper planner :) I have a column for stuff (mgmt) and a column for ideas (leadership). They BOTH must happen but easier said then done sometimes....

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Goodness, deja vu! I just watched that same TedTalk about a month ago during a new teacher professional development session. (Also, thanks for using Padlet! It's a great tool and perfect for discussions like this. It doesn't get as bogged down like Blackboard.)

The quote,  "Leaders do the right thing and managers do things right," resonated with me as we discuss collaborative leadership. Couldn't you argue, though that leaders, in addition to doing the right thing, are also managers by doing things right? By being proactive leaders we're doing the right thing for our staff and students, but in order to do that well, we need to be managers, and do it "right." Of course that's subjective, but with all of us in this class, I know that we share many ideas on what leading "right" looks like. We're part of the future of libraries afterall!

- Becky Fitzgerald

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I really liked this quote when I read it. It reminded me of the saying, "every square is a rectangle, but every rectangle is not a square." Meaning there are qualities that managers and leaders share, but that does not mean they are equal. I think the words leaders and managers are often used interchangeably. This quote is saying that leaders care about the outcome of their actions, while managers care about following the procedure in place. This does not leave a lot of room to navigate from the script and problem solve. I agree with the quote and I think personally I have become a manager of my library, but not truly a leader in my school.

I also really love this padlet tool!!

Sarah

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We addressed the same prompt, and I think we had similar ideas! I would love to see your sand tray quotes! I think the word "correctly" did help there, but we really are leaders and hopefully we will foster leaders too!
-Alexa Hirsch

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I have very little experience with Padlet- this is awesome! I think of library leaders as those who are moving the profession forward and constantly teaching and creating with students. I think library managers are more likely to work on circulation and hounding students for books. I know the difference isn't this stark and it will be necessary for us to do manager type duties, but the parts of this job that I love are the leadership part. I also think that connects with the fiscal part that Barb talked about in the video; we need to be applying for grants and using things like Donors Choose, because we need to be responsible for fiscally making the library of our dreams. I realize that it won't be easy, and for most of us funding is a huge issue. I'm living in dream library world for a little longer before I actually have the job :)
-Alexa Hirsch

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I'm glad you brought up Barb's point about pedagogical interventions. This point really stretches my thinking about our role as librarians. On the surface, we think about our resources and how they can support curiculum. This idea encourages me to think deeper about my role and how we not only will be providing resources, but also enhancing learning not through content but supporting how and why students should be learning. It really is mind blowing/bending when you think about it!
-Abbie Digel

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Instead of discussing the differences between management and leadership, i want to draw a connection between the two roles: teaching. While we can argue that LMS's are also teachers (and I think we all would agree this is true), , the good skills, dispositions, characteristics, and attributes that go into both good management and good leadership also apply to teaching practices. These include: (but are not limited to): resourcefulness, empathy, perseverance, life-long learning, planning and execution, high expectations, prioritization, and creating culture.(http://bit.ly/2l1uRuY) . If we focus on being good teachers first, we will have at our schools and in our libraries, as Barb said in her lecture, "a learning culture that will create the best possible impact." Further, focusing on positive teaching practices will help the skills that allow us to be effective managers and leaders fall into place.

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"Leaders do the right thing and managers do things right."

This is really inspiring to me. As librarians this is what we are about! We practice doing the right thing, what's right for our students, colleagues, and school. We also aspire to do our jobs "correctly", successfully might be the better word. Part of my job as a counselor is sand therapy. I unfortunately don't have access to mine right this second, but I would love to make a sand tray about this quote! This is my first time using Padlet, I'm very excited at the different outlets of expression. Next time I'll do my sand tray and upload pictures!

-Amanda

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I really connected with what Dr. Stripling had described as the two overarching roles for school librarians.  It would seem like deciding which hat to wear would take practice at first!  I imagine within the fiscal environment the management role would be more predominant, but even within that environment leadership is ever present.  With education and digital environment I would think that leadership would take priority with management being underlying, however that's looking at it in a generalized sense. One of the neat parts of being a school librarian is that every situation might be different, and so as we have to be flexible with our libraries as a whole, we should be flexible with the roles we put on!

-Amanda

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Thank you everyone for such amazing responses. I am so happy Prof. Kowalski had the idea of including PADLET as a discussion format. I think we are all finding new ways to share and comment on other's ideas. I am seeing a recurring idea in many posts giving off the feeling of "failure" in a way. Not to say we aren't being leaders or spending the time necessary to collaborate, but somehow there is always the feeling that we could have done more. I think many of us can relate to this feeling at one point or another. I thought I would share this video about everyday leadership. I think it is a good reminder to celebrate even the small moments of leadership. Small moments of success inspire one to continue leading. Let me know what you think!
- Katie McGinnis

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Drew Dudley: Everyday leadership | TED Talk

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We have all changed someone’s life -- usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.

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When I was a classroom teacher I was fortunate to teach in an inclusion program with strong Special Ed teachers.  This allowed me to really understand and practice collaborative teaching.  This has made it easier to take on the role of collaborator working in the library.  Reading Learning Leadership Through The School Library was helpful in getting me to think about how I have been collaborating with teachers and how I can improve, as well as the leadership role that I take on in school.  Two things stuck with me from the article.   "Leading others through the
collaborative process is challenging. It requires an ability to fuse together pedagogical expertise (Hay, Todd
2010), to have insight and empathy for the teacher’s needs, sound diplomatic skills to be able to reach an agreed
outcome, and ongoing reflection
of the learning process." (Green 2011) Indeed - I am thankful for my previous experience with collaborating with one teacher. School librarians have a a difficult job of figuring out how to successfully collaborate with many teachers, and in my case, how to collaborate on instruction from the pre-K level to 8th grade. For this reason, I also was impressed my the set of generic questions that Green offered to aid in collaboration. The questions would be very helpful in teasing out exactly what classroom teachers are hoping to gain by working with the library. I look forward to using them to guide those conversations.

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I'm enjoying playing around with this medium for a discussion. Find my response to this prompt in the audio link!
-Heidi Gramlich Bryson

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School Librarians as Leaders vs. Managers

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School Librarians as Leaders vs. Managers

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What really struck me in Dr. Stripling’s lecture, in terms of what it means to be a leader vs. a manager as a school librarian, is that we have to emphasize pedagogical interventions, not resources. Those are still very important, but the teachers and administration know that we have those, and in any matter, the resources aren’t our priority. Learning is our priority, and we want to show that we have the desire to collaborate “in the service of learning.” We need to not be managers, and live within our clearly defined roles, but rather leaders who are both proactive and reactive, constantly adapting according to the needs of our students and priorities of those with whom we are working.

- Heidi Gramlich Bryson

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I love that you decided to use Padlet as a medium for a discussion.  I've used it several times for students.  If this discussion goes well I may choose to use it when I lead my discussion!

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Library Girl's real talk is so refreshing, great people = great outcomes in a collaborative school setting. It seems like a pretty simple formula. "Your school librarian will work with every teacher and every student in your building" and there's no avoiding it! This truly emphasizes the many hats we have to be prepared to wear as school librarians. However, we are not alone, collaboration works both ways. Just as we are meant to act as a resource for everyone in the school, everyone in the school is a resource with untapped potential to help us accomplish our goals in the library and in the entire school. This is what collaborative research means to me! I found this cool infographic that I wanted to share with the class.  Check it out!

http://www.ala.org/aasl/research/ncle-infographic

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I don't know if my principal read the Library Girl letter, but yes, I was hired before completing my certification. Go out there fellow students - feel confident that you are worthy of applying and you can get the job! - Kristin Culkowski Naiko

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Response: Managers vs. Leaders.                                       I was reading an article to further delve into the concepts of management vs. leadership in libraries and there are a couple of quotes that struck me.  First, "Management is perceived as being the practice of dealing with rules, constructs and guidelines; leadership with vision, action and direction (Tyree and Hansen, 2001). Mason and Wetherbee (2004) observe that management is about what things get done, leadership is about how things get done; management involves accomplishing tasks, leadership involves influencing and guiding a course of action."  I believe this ties in beautifully what Dr. Stripling was saying about leaders being able to inspire individuals with how they interact with others in the job.  

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Response: Managers vs. Leaders.                                       I was reading an article to further delve into the concepts of management vs. leadership in libraries and there are a couple of quotes that struck me.  First, "Management is perceived as being the practice of dealing with rules, constructs and guidelines; leadership with vision, action and direction (Tyree and Hansen, 2001). Mason and Wetherbee (2004) observe that management is about what things get done, leadership is about how things get done; management involves accomplishing tasks, leadership involves influencing and guiding a course of action."  I believe this ties in beautifully what Dr. Stripling was saying about leaders being able to inspire individuals with how they interact with others in the job.  

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Another quote that struck me was, "The inference that leaders require vision and direction, and the ability to influence and

guide, suggests that effective leaders have more sophisticated personality

characteristics. Adair (2003) discusses leadership as an art form, as compared to the

science of management. As such leadership is associated with personality and vision,

management with methods, routine and structure. Management is essentially therefore

a form of business administration; personal attributes associated with leadership, such

as creativity, are the ‘added value’ that leadership brings to management (Adair,

2005, p. 62).   This passage suggests that innovation and creativity are what make a true leader.  As Dr. Stripling was stating in her lecture.  The ability to see a challenge as an opportunity and be creative in that process is what is going to set us apart as leaders within the school community.

Here is the link to the article I was reading.  It has some great information in it. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241698840_Developing_public_library_managers_as_leaders_Evaluation_of_a_national_leadership_development_programme

-Leah Stone

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There was an entire class that I took from Prof. Heckman about Managers vs Leaders back in 2000/2001. Managers are responsible for keeping the boat afloat, Leaders are responsible for making sure the boat is moving in the right direction. As it applies to libraries, a library manager is someone who makes sure that there are resources, that there are computers, that bills are paid and budgets are kept. A Library Leader is someone who looks beyond the individual library for trends and developments to make sure that the library will have a future. I do not think that the ideas naturally interfere, I just think it's a matter or understanding the need and importance of both.

I believe that some areas of the library are generally fine being "managed" and not led. The fiscal environment is one of those. The digital and educational environments require leadership. As the librarian, you need to be interacting with the students and teachers to make sure that educational needs are not only being met (which is management) but also pointed to the future (which is leadership). Similarly, the digital environment is clearly the future. And while it may not be something that librarians are comfortable with, you have to be an active participant so that you can lead others (students, teachers, and staff).

As to the final topic :  "Leaders do the right thing and managers do things right." I agree, but with the inclusion of the word "Good".  GOOD Leaders do the right thing and GOOD managers do things right. Any employee who has every had a bad manager, or has been part of a failing company, knows what I'm describing.

Kristin Culkowski Naiko

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Padlet is excellent for brainstorming and back-channeling. If you take advantage of the ability to upload custom backgrounds, it can be used as a digital collaborative graphic organizer, which is very cool!

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Collab Ldrship is when members of your school community "just assume" you will be at the table....lots of tables....library and beyond..

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These questions are derived from Dr. Stripling's video lecture from this week. Please feel free to comment one all or just one of the questions presented in this Padlet.

What is the difference between Management and Leadership? How do these two ideas interfere and where do they play a part in the library setting?

How do you tackle the management and Leadership in a library in terms of the three environments Dr.  Stripling discussed (Educational, Fiscal, and Digital)?

Dr. Stripling stated, "Leaders do the right thing and managers do things right." Do you agree? Why is this true (or not true)?

~Katie McGinnis

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Give an example of COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP & WHY it matters?  

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Give an example of COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP & WHY it matters?  

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What does COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP mean to you?  

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What does COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP mean to you?  

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Mark Ray, Chief Digital Officer, Vancouver Public Schools, discusses how librarians and the library can lead the digital shift to become future ready.

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Part of a series of case studies produced by Digital Promise examining the work of members in our League of Innovative Schools. Click here for more info on the League. To stay up to date on future case studies, sign up for our email newsletter.
Location: Vancouver, WA

Enrollment: 22,192 students

Superintendent: Steven Webb

Per-pupil funding: $7,447

Low Income: 53%

As school districts confront budget constraints and cuts, one of the first places administrators often look for savings is the school library. Numerous districts, large and small, have cut librarian staffing to half-time or eliminated positions entirely. The number of school librarians dropped almost 8 percent to barely 50,000 between 2007 and 2011, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That's one for every two schools.

These cuts can impact both students and teachers. Libraries may remain open, but they lack trained educators to support students. This despite a technological landscape that makes information literacy more important than ever. Student research increasingly occurs outside of the library and with the advent of digital content, new standards, and 1:1 computing, teachers need librarians to help navigate these new choices.

For these reasons, Vancouver Public Schools in Vancouver, Washington, is investing in its librarians while others are cutting back.

A cohort of 33 teacher-librarians is viewed as indispensable to the district's vision of a technology-infused path to improved outcomes for students. After the community passed a $24 million technology levy in 2013, the district began its weLearn 1:1 initiative, which by 2017 will provide all teachers and students in grades 3-12 with an electronic device in a flexible learning environment, and a personalized digital curriculum.

Teacher-librarians at VPS play a crucial role in this digital transformation and other strategic initiatives. As a result, they are expanding their role to spend more time in the classroom, curating digital content and lesson plans with teachers, teaching digital citizenship to students, and even emerging as technology experts within their schools.

VPS Superintendent Steve Webb considers teacher-librarians among the district's visionaries. Their story offers a blueprint for maximizing the impact of libraries and librarians on student learning.

Reasserting Relevance

While VPS has historically supported school libraries and librarians, the district still has faced difficult decisions. Vancouver is not a wealthy district; in a diverse, blue-collar community, more than half of its 23,000 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

A decade ago, after several librarians retired and the district's budget continued to tighten, it considered not filling positions at several elementary schools. At the time, librarians reported feeling out of the loop and disconnected from district leaders.

The teacher-librarian cohort banded together and came up with a plan to reassert their relevance in the district. Mark Ray, a high school librarian, was tapped to lead the cohort and better understand how librarians could fulfill the district's strategic goals (Ray is now the district's director of instructional technology and library services). For the first time, district leaders and librarians were in the same room, talking about topics of shared interest and importance, Ray says. Those conversations led to significant increases in responsibility for teacher-librarians, from digital literacy to support of instructional quality.
New roles for teacher-librarians in Vancouver

Leading digital citizenship

Guiding digital content decisions

Coaching teachers in educational technology

Building new courses

Curating educational resources

Teaching beyond the library

Supporting 1:1 implementations

Promoting Common Core

To replenish the talent pipeline for librarians, the district worked with nearby Portland State University to offer a one-year library certification program for educators as they worked as librarians. VPS also bolstered professional development, with Layne Curtis, the district's director of curriculum and instruction, and its former chief information officer, Lisa Greseth, leading efforts to involve teacher-librarians in key projects.

In 2007, teacher-librarians were heavily involved in a district-wide conversion to textbook automation and tracking. In 2008, teacher-librarians led the building- and classroom-level implementation of an educational video-on-demand service.

As these efforts began to prove effective, teacher-librarians increasingly assumed strategic leadership roles in their own buildings and on local and state committees. This tact aligns with Superintendent Webb's push to widen his circle of instructional leaders and foster ubiquitous leadership throughout the district.

Ray is a primary example of this, as a former teacher-librarian now working as a leader in the central office. The 2012 Washington State Teacher of the Year - the first librarian to win the award - Ray is a leading voice on how librarians can reinvent their roles.

In his view, the profession has changed significantly from when he began as a school librarian. In the past, many educators "ran to the library to get away from the classroom, to get away from kids, to get away from grading, to have order, to control their own domain, to have something that's relatively immutable," Ray said. "That's what the library of 25 years ago was. None of those things hold true anymore. You have to be open-minded, outgoing, flexible, be a change agent, and cultivate relationships with other people."

"It would be a horribly boring position if I sat in here all day and just checked books in and out. You aren't just the keeper of books now. You're the keeper of information."
Traci Chun, Teacher-Librarian, Skyview High School

Emerging as Leaders
What's in a name?
The term ' teacher-librarian ' is widely used in Washington state in lieu of school librarian or library media specialist. This title is part of Washington state statute and acknowledges the core teaching role of librarians in addition to library management.

Ray understands the value that teacher librarians can bring to the table. "By virtue of their training, relationships, systems knowledge and instructional roles ... teacher librarians are ideally suited to lead, teach, and support students and teachers in 21st-century schools," he says.

As such, VPS teacher-librarians are designated trainers for a new online teacher evaluation system in Washington state and are adapting that evaluation and instructional framework to their new and emerging role in the classroom.

Ron Wagner, the teacher-librarian at Felida Elementary School, is one of 15 teacher-librarians tapped by the Washington Library Media Association to help schools adapt to the Common Core State Standards. He leads day-long workshops to train other teacher-librarians as leaders for adopting the standards within their buildings and districts.

It is a natural fit for teacher-librarians, Wagner says. The workshops focus on how to teach students to understand complex texts, read for information, and conduct research.

"We said, 'Wow! This is stuff we already do,'" Wagner says. "Now we can make ourselves more relevant in our buildings by getting out and saying, 'Hey, you guys seem overwhelmed by this new thing. We can help.'"

"We know that if you put these kind of digital tools into classrooms and do not support them in the right way, it won't result in improved student learning outcomes. Just deploying a whole bunch of hardware and software into schools isn't going to translate into performance."
Steve Webb, Superintendent, Vancouver Public Schools

Many teacher-librarians say they now feel connected to something bigger than their own school, namely the strategic plan to redesign instruction across the district.

"If decisions are being made, we're involved," said Angela Vahsholtz-Andersen, teacher-librarian at Discovery Middle School and a former English teacher.

For instance Traci Chun, teacher-librarian at Skyview High School, is on a panel that designed the district's new social studies curriculum. Chun is an example of how the gap between librarian and classroom instructor is closing. She spends about half of her time in the classroom, co-teaching with other faculty, leading in-class lessons, and teaching research skills to students in social studies, language arts, and chemistry.

"It's important for students to see me outside the library so they understand, 'Oh, she's a teacher just like my classroom teacher,'" Chun says.

Her interaction with teachers is also changing. In the past, the conversation began with "I need resources. Give me a cart of books." Now it is 'Will you come in and teach with me?"

Some of the mainstays of the job remain. Librarians still introduce students to literature, manage book circulation, and in many cases manage a computer lab. But that is becomingly an increasingly smaller part of the job, Chun says.

"It would be a horribly boring position if I sat in here all day and just checked books in and out," Chun says. "You aren't just the keeper of books now. You're the keeper of information."

Rising to the 1:1 Challenge

VPS has always been open to innovation and eager to harness technology to improve instruction. A member of the National School Board Association's Technology Leadership Network for more than two decades, by the mid-1990s VPS boasted one computer for every four students, nearly five times the U.S. average. In 2008, the district began a five-year strategic plan called "Design II." One of the goal areas for the plan is the creation of 21st-century flexible learning environments, a prelude to weLearn in expanding digital access to students.

The district also boasts nationally recognized magnet schools. At Vancouver Schools of Arts and Academics, students access industry-standard stage production equipment, a recording studio, and film production suites. Skyview School offers an engineering academy within a comprehensive high school. In recent years, the district opened iTech Preparatory and Lewis and Clark High School, which both reimagine traditional ideas of school time and space through competency-based 1:1 learning environments and teacher mentoring. The nature of these programs requires support for teachers and students that create unique roles for librarians.

"It's much more of an active role. No longer do they wait for a question. They anticipate the needs. Their place is with the learners in the moment of learning, be that adults or students."
Christina Iremonger, Principal, iTech Preparatory

"We know that if you put these kind of digital tools into classrooms and do not support them in the right way, it won't translate into student learning outcomes," Webb says. "Just deploying a whole bunch of hardware and software into schools isn't going to translate into performance."

To that end, VPS is taking a deliberate approach to weLearn. Device rollout for the district's 23,000 students is staged over six years.

By design, teacher-librarians are playing an important role in implementation. And while they have received technology training for the last five years, the iPads posed new challenges for them.

Some were early adopters who owned smartphones for years and purchased their own iPads right after they came out in 2010. For others, the iPad was a new experience. Machelle Whitney and Peggy Hanes, the teacher-librarians at McLoughlin and Alki Middle Schools, respectively, fell into the latter category.

Whitney and Hanes' schools are among the first to go 1:1 and thus were "first to get hit by the tsunami," Ray says. "They are dealing with it in very different ways, but responding to it very well."

Whitney, who did not own a smartphone, called herself "very much a card catalog-, print book-" librarian. "I first touched an iPad in July when I went to training. I had to take deep breaths and I still do." Before the 2013-14 school year, she sought training on her own and participated in a summer iPad institute for teachers at her school. That "relieved my own worst case fears," said the former science teacher. Because of her preparation and because of her trial by fire, she now regularly troubleshoots iPad problems for students and classroom teachers alike.

Hanes, a librarian for more than two decades, plays a different support role in her school. "Our staff is young and very tech-savvy. They don't tend to come to me very much," she says. Requests for book carts have also dropped off to "basically zero." Instead she's found her niche in supporting students in their digital learning.

Hanes is thrilled when she looks out at students' busily working on their iPads instead of the library's bank of old desktops. "The amount of engagement is off the charts. Kids are teaching each other," she said. Before they'd sit in the computer lab "and there they'd stay. With the iPad, they're mobile."

Teacher-librarians now receive annual training in instructional technology leadership and going forward are considered key points of contact for schools introducing new technology. It is the latest evolution in VPS teacher-librarians reinventing their role several years removed from avoiding having their positions cut.

Even before the new iPads and laptops arrived, teacher-librarians were the ones principals counted on to spearhead efforts to teach students digital citizenship. Now, with students' doing more and more work online, in computer labs, at home, and in classrooms, the teacher-librarians' role as digital mavens is even more important. They are no longer isolated behind the library walls.

Rethinking Library Spaces

While Vancouver's teacher-librarians may represent a new breed, changes to the district's library spaces are changing more slowly across its buildings.

Some libraries are enclosed. Others occupy open spaces in common learning areas. Print encyclopedias still occupy space on the shelves and computer labs have not yet given way to mobile technology. Early shifts in the library program and collections are underway.

Ironically, what Vancouver views as a potential prototype for its future school library opened in 1995. That year, the district opened Discovery Middle School to support project-based learning. The library was part of a large, well-lit, and flexible space called the "Toolbox" that houses computer and science labs and an adjacent pottery room.

With some modifications to account for mobile devices and more collaborative space, the library could resemble "maker spaces," which foster hands-on, multi-modal learning and creation.

"Teachers love this space," said Vahsholtz-Andersen, the teacher-librarian at Discovery.

Columbia River's big media center is crammed with tables and bookcases but Shana Ferguson, the school's new librarian, says a planned redesign will make it amenable to many uses that take advantage of the library's role as a common meeting place.

"A lot of students do need this space," Ferguson says. "We have the reliable internet access they need. We're sort of a full service research hub/Kinko's." One thing on her must-have list: more electric outlets for students to plug in their laptops and devices.

At schools already embracing a mobile, tech-integrated learning environment, like iTech Preparatory Academy, libraries are difficult to recognize. The STEM academy features two sites - a standalone middle school and high school co-located at Washington State University-Vancouver.

In the middle school, the library consists of a table and several kiosks of books in a hallway. At the high school, teacher-librarian Katie Nedved works out of a corner of what is primarily the lunchroom. With this arrangement, students can access resources during leisure time (hence the proximity to the lunchroom) or, when the cafeteria is empty, there is ample space to work in small groups. With each student owning her own laptop, a full-scale library space isn't needed. iTech offers just 800 print books, mostly print counterparts to digital content the district offers.

Nedved, a former math teacher, came to Vancouver in 2013 from a small, nearby district that was eliminating its three library positions. She splits her time between iTech Prep and Lewis and Clark, a 1:1 school with a flexible schedule and open floor plan. The library there consists mostly of a cluster of shelves to hold its book circulation of about 7,000.

"I feel like my focus is organizing the online digital tools, which are so much vaster," she said. "Although I would love to have a full library, this actually works for the type of work I'm doing."

For Nedved - who, for all intents and purposes, is a librarian without a library - it is natural to view her role non-traditionally: mentoring students one-on-one, teaching digital citizenship, and helping both teachers and students curate the vast array of digital resources available online.

"It's much more of an active role," says Christina Iremonger, the principal of iTech Preparatory. "No longer do they wait for a question. They anticipate the needs. Their place is with the learners in the moment of learning, be that adults or students."

In the year iTech opened without a teacher-librarian, logs showed that students accessed the library's digital resources and databases only 400 times. In Nedved's first year, after showing students how much information was available to them, they logged on more than 7,200 times before springtime.

As the district moves forward, Ray says changes in teacher-librarians' role are what will ultimately influence changes to the library space.

"What we need to do first is redefine what teacher-librarians are doing to support student learning," said Ray.

Helping Navigate the Noise

With student research moving online and VPS progressing through its weLearn 1:1 initiative, school librarians have also emerged as key advocates for digital citizenship.

"We're committed to teaching students about digital citizenship and being good consumers of digital content," said Webb, the superintendent. "That doesn't mean a 14-year-old won't push boundaries, but we have systems and structures in place so when that does occur, we seize upon that as a teachable moment."

Like many districts, Vancouver employs policies to meet district, state and federal guidelines, and uses filters that apply to school and home technology use. Currently students cannot access Facebook and YouTube on school devices, or play games and download music. (Restrictions like these are common on most school computers. A 2012 survey by the American Association of School Libraries found that 88 percent use filters to block social media sites, 74 percent prevent instant messaging and online chats, and 66 percent cut off access to YouTube.)

Filters and policies only go so far, however, so to prepare students for college, career and life beyond high school, digital citizenship is an explicit component of VPS' flexible learning environments. Teacher-librarians completed a gap analysis to identify resources, develop a scope and sequence, and recommend policies and principles to the district. In addition to a focus on cyberbullying, students learn about online safety, digital identity and data security.

In collaboration with teachers, librarians create digital citizenship lessons and adapt curriculum developed by Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization that helps children and families consume and create technology responsibly.

Vahsholtz-Andersen at Discovery helped lead the districts' work on digital citizenship, shaping plans so teachers, students, and their families can "start figuring out what they need to know to use the power that's being placed in students' hands."

When Ferguson teaches research skills to students at Columbia River, for example, she exhorts them to "break the Google habit" and dig deeper into databases such as Questia for more sophisticated and better answers.

"We're fighting that," Ferguson says. "Students want immediate information. They feel like Google has it when that isn't necessarily the case."

A New Outlook for Libraries

In his blog called the Librarian-Provocateur and in columns in School Library Journal and Teacher Librarian, Mark Ray advocates for librarians to recognize the need to remake their jobs, programs, and spaces for the 21st century.

Ray said it has taken nearly a decade for teacher-librarians to get to where they are in Vancouver. It has been a long process of "changing hearts and minds," he said. "My strategy has been advocacy based on results rather than on some platonic form of what the library should be," he said. "It's not waving a flag for school libraries. It's about how they support student learning."

Vancouver is not alone in recognizing the critical role of teacher-librarians. Both at the state and national level, districts are increasingly promoting and investing in school libraries. Thanks in part to increased funding in Washington state, Bellevue School District, which cut high school librarians several years ago, has rewritten the job description to better align to district needs and is hiring more teacher-librarians. For the last several sessions of the Washington Legislature, teacher-librarians have crafted legislation to link school libraries to reform efforts.

At the national level, Follett's Project Connect has brought together both educational and library leaders to articulate the ways in which school libraries support 21st century schools. As part of this team, Ray has presented to both administrative and library audiences, sitting alongside like-minded superintendents, librarians, and other educational leaders.

While there is ample anecdotal evidence that teacher-librarians are positively impacting what happens in schools and the district, translating that into empirical and systemic success requires a new way of measuring their work. In the past year, VPS has worked to apply the district's instructional framework to librarians. Next year, a new evaluation system will be put in place.

Overall, Vancouver is like other districts in that it sees technology as an opportunity to empower learning for all students and overcome some chronic barriers to success. Given the infancy of Vancouver's instructional and technology initiatives, it is too early to say whether the iPads and laptops are meeting these goals, or what the results will look like when both students and teachers have years of experience with them in the classroom.

Webb thinks it will take three or four years for technology to transform the classroom, but he sees early indicators that things are moving in the right direction. Student engagement is up, absenteeism and disciplinary problems are down. In a city with wealth and poverty, Webb believes these digital learning tools "have the potential to be the great equalizer in public education."

Vancouver Public Schools is counting on teacher-librarians to help make that happen.

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The New Librarian: Leaders in the Digital Age - Digital Promise

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Part of a series of case studies produced by Digital Promise examining the work of members in our League of Innovative Schools. Click here for more info on the League. To stay up to date on future case studies, sign up for our email newsletter.

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Dear Principal,

I know you're busy, so I won't mince words: Hiring and supporting awesome people to work with the students who go to your school is the most important part of your job. Period. It's not school safety. It's not community outreach. It's not busses, instructional services or building maintenance. It's people. Because the better people you have, the more empowered and capable they are, the fewer problems you'll have in all of those other areas. Great people = great outcomes.

That said, I'm willing to bet you spend a lot of time thinking about this. Especially at this time of year when resumes, resignations, transfers and retirements start coming in. As a life long teacher, I associate the end of any school year with lots of things: kids waving out of bus windows for the last time, empty lockers, quiet hallways and an almost indescribable exhaustion. But for the principal, this time of year also means looking for and hiring new people.

In my experience most principals have developed a pretty good system for hiring new classroom teachers. They have a team of go to instructional leaders to serve on the committee, a list of finely tuned questions to ask and enough gut instinct to know when they've found "the one." When it comes to hiring new school librarians, however, the process is often a little less efficient.

And look, that's not your fault. I get it. Chances are, you've a) never been a school librarian b) never hired a school librarian, c) never collaborated with a school librarian (back when you were a classroom teacher) and d) you probably also missed that nonexistent lecture in principal school in which you were told what to expect from the school librarian you would soon supervise. But despite the lack of guidance you've received in this area, trust me, this is important. As important as hiring a new 5th, 8th or 11th grade teacher. In some ways, more important, because your school librarian will work with every teacher and every student in your building. She will purchase materials that support both your core curriculum and the interventions you design for your most vulnerable students. He will lead the way in technology initiatives and build the programs that help develop the literacy habits of your little learners. This is a big and important job. And you need someone who is up to the task. You need an awesome librarian.

And I am going to help you find one.

As you prepare to interview and select candidates for this role, here's what you do:

1. Look for someone who loves children more than books. Books are awesome. And your new librarians should love them. But they should love children more. Look for passion when you talk to them about their job, but make sure that passion revolves around what makes being a school librarian the best job in the world: the opportunity to match kids with the first book to change their lives.

2. Look for the right person as opposed to the right degree. Librarians reading about this are not going to like this suggestion, but the right person can earn the right degree later. That transformation rarely works in reverse, however. Besides, I'll tell you a little secret. I wasn't finished with my degree when a principal took a chance on me as a fledgling school librarian. And I turned out okay. (I want to be clear. You NEED a certified, degreed, school librarian. But if you find the right person who is willing to get that degree and certification, and your system allows you to hire such candidates, don't let their initial lack of credentialing stand in the way of hiring someone who is awesome).

3. Look for data and outcomes. Data comes in all shapes and sizes. Ask how your potential new school librarian uses it to make sure her work matters. Find out what kinds of data she collects, how she changes her practice to meet individual student needs and how she uses it to evaluate the effectiveness of her work.

4. Look for someone who can grow readers, not just reading scores. Developing reading skills and developing the habit of reading are two different things. But when we talk about the important work of helping students thrive (and achieve) one thing cannot exist without the other. You need a school librarian who can support the work of classroom teachers while also creating spaces, events, instruction and programming that help make reading an essential part of your students' lives.

5. Look for a leader (or one in training). I've said it before, but it's worth repeating, your school librarian works with every student and every teacher in your school. You need a coach, a cheerleader, a visionary, a risk taker and a rebel. You need someone who is willing to do whatever it takes for your students and who will inspire others to do the same.

6. Look for a learner. Ask them about their habits as a learner. Ask them who their instructional heroes are, where they go for pedagogical inspiration and how they continue to grow as a practitioner of the world's most important art. Look for someone for whom learning is a part of their DNA because only a "life long learner" can model that passion for someone else.

But that's not all. Finding the right person is only part of the equation. Once you've hired the perfect candidate, they are going to need you to do a few things to help them be the very best school librarian they can be. You have to support them. And here's how:

1. Have high expectations. In my experience, people rise and fall to the expectations that are set for them. So set your expectations high and watch your new school librarian rise. That said...

2. Give them meaningful work. Providing other teachers with a planning period is not meaningful work. Forcing students to select books within a certain lexile band is not meaningful work. Checking books in and out all day long is not meaningful work. Give them important work. Work that matters. To whatever extent possible, give them time to collaborate with classroom teachers, manage your school's collection of resources and work with students in ways that produce real outcomes.

3. Put your money where your priorities are. Over and over again, studies show that sufficiently and consistently funded school library programs positively impact student achievement. And I know, these are lean times. You won't be given enough money to fund all the programs you'd like, but an investment in your library program is an investment in your students. Ask yourself how much that's worth to you and then allot accordingly.

4. Be present. Be proud. Visit the library as often as you can and show off the great work being done there. When prospective parents, school board members or the superintendent stop by for a visit, make sure your school library is a stop on the tour. Together, you and your librarian are going to build something awesome. Be sure to show it off.

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An Open Letter To Principals (Before You Hire A New School Librarian)

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Dear Principal, I know you're busy, so I won't mince words: Hiring and supporting awesome people to work with the students who go to your school is the most important part of your job. Period. It's not school safety. It's not community outreach. It's not busses, instructional services or building maintenance.

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Future Ready Librarians - Future Ready Schools

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An essential component to becoming Future Ready, is making a digital learning plan before purchasing technology. The Interactive Planning Dashboard offers districts a five-step collaborative planning process. Upon completion, districts have a complete digital learning implementation plan, full of research-based strategies, including stakeholder input, local context, and district team leadership responsibilities.