Hello library friends,

It has been several months since my last blog post. I have missed interacting with you, my colleagues and friends, on this space during my hiatus. I am happy to now be back! I missed blogging not only because it offered a professional way for me to connect with and build friendships in the library world, but because it provided me a tool to reflect on my work. After a program or new initiative, I would sit down and ask, “Did this program accomplish my goals? The goals of my audience? What went well? Do we want to offer this program again? What can I do differently next time to make it work better for different ages?” Blogging gives me a reason to reflect.

I have been reflecting a lot lately on the differences between public and school librarian’s work. This is due to the fact that during my blogging break, I went through a job change from Brewer Public Library to Ithaca School District school library. I went from serving a service population of 15,000 to now serving a community of 450 4K-12^th grade students, all in one building. While I deeply miss the staff, families and children that I developed wonderful friendships with while at the public library, I am also so thankful for this change and the work I am doing now in schools.

I wanted to use this space to communicate some lessons that I wish I had known when I was in the public library world about the work that school librarians are doing.

First of all, even though it now seems obvious, I did not realize at first that school librarians are teachers. At the public library, on certain days I might organize and run as many as four programs a day, but mostly I only ran one or two. In the school library, I have six to eight classes coming into the school library every day. I do have freedom to organized how I teach the Library curriculum, but the time is limited.  My classes run every day, and I have only 40 minutes with each class each week to reinforce concepts of reading that are also being taught by other teachers in their classrooms. That means that my lesson plans need to be very focused with specific learning goals in mind. It also means, that my lessons plans build on each other for a long term.  Unlike the public library programs that are usually presented as completed block of learning to students who may (or may not) return, the school librarian teaches the same students for an entire academic school year.

I always wondered where the “shushing librarian” stereotype came from, but now I know. It is the school librarians who were the first, and sometimes, the only librarian in the lives of students who become parents. At the public library I was blessed to have a director who let my youth programs be as loud as needed. In the school, that is simply not an option. My school is so small that there are not enough classrooms to fit everyone, so one study hall per period is in the library. I will teach a class of 4K-6^th graders in one half of the library while a study hall is held in the other half of the library room. I can not let my students be loud because only a few feet away are middle or high schoolers trying to get their homework done. This means that I need to do something I never asked students to do at the public library: I ask them to speak quietly and I have to “shush” them when they do get to loud. I also need to speak quietly myself when I am reading a picture book aloud now. It is really hard. Learning and reading should be exciting, and when we are excited, we naturally talk louder. It is hard to put a damper over that fire.

Another consideration is that school librarians are not able to leave the building in the same way that public librarians can. I know that this can differ from one public library to another, but it is a consideration that school librarians are expected to be in the building with their time accounted for each minute. Leaving the building is often just not an option. For collaboration between the public and school librarian to happen, often, it will work best if the public library can reach out and meet with the school librarian through video or phone meetings, or going to the school, if possible.

School librarians see the practical problems of literacy needs within a wide variety of students they serve. For most of the children I serve in the school, the school library is their only library. Many of my students do not have many books in their homes. Many of my students have never been to the public library.  I do my best to have great books available, including books that are required in classes, but it can be challenging when multiple students want or need the same copy of a book. It can take weeks for the new books I order to arrive since I also order processing. For the student waiting, those few weeks can be the difference between encouraging reading and losing momentum.

I realize that many of my students may never visit their public library or a physical bookstore, for a variety of reasons. For these children, the school library is their only access to books. Can this be changed? Can visits to the public library become as normal as stops to the grocery store or the laundry mat? I know that they can. I see great work happening in public libraries to address inequities, including eliminating fines and doing outreach library programming in the community. I also know that public and school librarians have great insights because they see challenges from different perspectives. Let’s use that knowledge we both have in our libraries to creatively imagine solutions to barriers.

I want to take a moment to applaud my public library colleagues who have advocated diligently to begin making a cultural shift in libraries away from collecting fines. Unintentionally, I think that in public libraries our actions communicated that we valued fine money more than relationships with our patrons. I know this was never true, and yet, I often have parents talk to me that they did not use the public library in the past because they felt unwelcomed, or shamed, because of past fines. Thank you to everyone who is working to communicate the message that one of the libraries’ first priorities is to put books in the hands of kids.

Another success story that I hear is public and school libraries working together so that families can return their books at either location, and the books will eventually make it back to their home. This is a powerful partnership that communicates to families that libraries are working together to make accessing reading material, and retuning books, easy.

In the public library world, I worked hard every day to find ways to promote our library services and resources in ways that reached more people and were more effective. In the school library, I do not need to worry about outreach in quite the same way because the children are coming to me on a daily basis.  At the same time, I work just as hard to make sure the library remains a magic place in their imagination.

The outreach programs at public libraries serve the same function of creating that sense of magic for children who attend them.  But these “magical moments” only work when the children and parents come. We know what the challenges are. Thank you to everyone who is working to turn deficit thinking around, and see challenges as possibilities for positive change and growth. Neither the school nor public librarians can meet the reading needs of our community’s students alone. Students need literacy warriors willing to imagine ways to team up together to address challenges.

When I was in the public library, I wish I had know how meeting with the school librarian could go a long way toward finding ways for us each to do what we do best, but differently. And, I believe now, more than ever, that public and school librarians have power to effect great change in the reading habits of the children they serve, especially when we can partner together. We are going up against decades-old challenges and barriers to literacy access.  For the families and children we serve, we are literacy warriors.

Keep reading, my friends!

Emily 🙂