Elsevier offered free chapters of professional books for you to download. This one is Facing contemporary challenges in librarianship and whilst it is not directly related to school librarians I thought it looked very interesting. The chapter we are discussing in May is:-
Excerpt 1 — Marketing a Profession: Marketing the Future
Questions will be posted on the 1st May. Please come and join in when you can.
1. “The continuity of the profession [ ] rely on how well librarians educate our consumers about what we offer students’ academic lives” How do you feel about this statement? How are we already educating our consumers and could we do more?
@Rachel Chavez Thanks for joining in Rachel! I would agree our students are well catered for although I do feel that there may be a difference between what they want and what they need. They don't always look for the best information through the library resources and unless they have a great relationship with the librarian they don't really like to ask for help.
Teachers are another level completely and I agree that budgets are a problem. How do we educate those people? I think from reading this chapter it is more about finding out what they want rather than us thinking what they need and maybe there is a balance to be struck but finding that is hard. If the library budget was clearly linked to curriculum engagement then I am sure it would be handled differently. Maybe it is questionnaires and then a report demonstrating how it links...
I think we all try and educate our customers - I am working to ensure the library is highlighted to staff and students and I might have a spot at staff Inset in September
i have found a couple of departments to work with and am now building on those relationships to expand to other depts
@sbloomfield Thanks for joining in Sarah! Well done for getting time at an inset day. That is such an important place for the school librarian to be.
2. Which promotional methods are you using to market your library?
We promote our service through social media, twitter, Facebook and our own blog. We also meet regularly with other school librarians to share best practice and push ourselves forward to be visible during teacher training days. It is always hard work and sometimes it feels like a waste of time but it only takes one teacher to take notice and good things start to happen.
@Elizabeth I finally have my own library Twitter feed. But I also regularly attend assembly and have DEAR sessions in the library and will have induction lessons from Sept. Also meet with lots of other librarians to share practices
@sbloomfield Yay! Such a big step forward for promoting your service! What is your school library twitter name, am I following you yet?
3. How important are your customer service skills? Do you ever find this hard and what do you do when students or teachers are being difficult?
@Rachel Chavez I love this! 'giving users the opportunity to ask about something else'! If only we could manage to achieve this but like you say it depends on so many things, your personality, your space, the students and the teachers. You must find it impossible to interact with the students if you have a silent space! Is the whole library like this all the time? Can you maybe start having allocated times for silence and other times where a little noise is acceptable? How can you run book clubs, activities or research lessons if you are working in a silent space. Let me know how you get on with making changes to that.
@Rachel Chavez Ah, that makes a difference, although even 6th formers need to talk and ask questions and discuss their learning too. If they self manage then maybe they can have the silence on the days you are not there :) Sounds to me like you need a book club over one lunch time to kick things off... Follow the Carnegie award (if you are in the UK) the shortlist is out now and would be suitable for older students too.
How do you and your students mange on 3 days a week! Are your resources well used?
I find this hard sometimes. We also have a silent library at pupil's request, and it can be difficult to balance asking pupils to be quiet and building positive relationships with them. Discipline vs. a welcoming environment can be hard to do, however I work from the assumption that the other pupils will probably appreciate the library being quiet.
4. “If we can impart the importance of data verification they will learn to question their results”. In other words evaluation of sources. How do you teach this?
We use the FOSIL framework with all our teaching although most are unaware of this. I find that many teachers do not understand evaluation of sources themselves and believe that they can do this when they really can't. Evaluation is something that should be taught in yr 5 and above but many teachers want younger children to be able to do this and it is not possible.
We usually give the older students 3 websites to evaluate and giving them the tools they need to make a judgement we ask them to say which one they believe is the most credible and why. We then get them to find a website for a topic they are studying and they are asked to post it to a padlet and explain why it is credible. We then peer review and end up with a good collection of credible websites for the current topic. It works well.
@Rachel Chavez That is great! have you signed up to the website? You can join in the discussions on the forum if you do.
We do a research project with Years 7 and 8 in their library lessons, where they learn the steps to research (Planning, Locating, Using & Self-Evaluation) and skills to evaluate resources, including the 5Ws of website evaluation. It is supposed to be a whole school approach - I did an INSET session for teachers - but we only introduced it a year ago and it's not yet fully embedded within teaching and learning. I've just signed up to the FOSIL website and I think it would be a good framework to take forward. Though I am not sure it's wise to adopt a new system, there are lots of resources we can use to improve what we do now.
5. “We cannot expect patrons to use what we offer if it is not in fact what they want or need” How do you know that you have got it right in your library?
We have carried out Island wide questionnaires which has given us some idea of what the teachers want. We have yet to ask the students and I feel that this needs to be done at individual schools because every school is different. However this is time consuming! In one of our schools children are encouraged to ask for books they want and within reason they are bought. It has created a culture of ownership for the library which is great.
@Rachel Chavez I know what you are saying, they can't ask for what they don't know. How about adding a few suggestions that they can tick. That not only highlights what you can do but gives them ideas as well. Do you have support when you are not there? Who issues the books for example? Do you have a small group of students that you could use as a sounding board and could they advocate for the library?
We have a Library Committee of pupils which is really useful. I find they're often timid about criticism though, when I would love to hear what is going badly. I'm interested in developing a questionnaire, although the timings of doing so and actually having it be completed would be a challenge.
6. “Self promotion doe not equal self-gratification” How do you feel about promoting yourself and your service? Had reading this chapter changed the way you think about this?
I love this question (I know I wrote it! but...) I write a lot about school libraries and have always felt that advocacy is really important. If we don't talk about what we do no-one else is going to. I also find that the more I do it the more I want to. When I first started blogging about school libraries I really didn't feel that anyone would care what I wrote. However it has really grown and not only do I feel empowered to do it more but I do feel I am making a difference. It has also given me more opportunities to talk to school leaders as I feel more confident in what I have to say to them.
I'm really glad I read this section. I recently submitted an article to The School Librarian and instantly regretted it. I felt very exposed and thought librarians up and down the country would be thinking "So what? We all do those things, every day!" But now, I see that the bigger picture is the wider marketing of libraries and librarians.
It's encouraged me to be more confident in writing/ promoting what we do.
@rhodgson Thanks for reading and joining in the conversation! It is surprising the impact that something can have on someone just at the right time. I am glad it worked for you! I look forward to reading your article :)
7. Which partnerships do you currently have? How can you expand them?
I am currently working with our local public library which is great for bringing school groups into the library and the museum service is working with us on a yr 7 project. I also ran a training session alongside the museum service recently if we work together we can push work each others way which is great for both of our services.
My school is part of a MAT and I feel there is potential for the three secondary school libraries to work together. We have just started talking about what we could do together, in terms of getting pupils from different schools talking to each other about books, which is very exciting. However, if the three librarians team together and "focus on how useful, necessary and important" libraries are to the MAT, and each gather data on what pupils and staff want from the library, then that's going to be a more persuasive argument. We have so much to learn from each other as we will each have a different approach.
@rhodgson Can you let us know what a MAT is. I assume is it is some kind of group of schools but what does it stand for.
This sounds like a great partnership! Together you are definitely stronger! Connecting your students using Padlet, Flipgrid and Google Hangouts or Skype really ticks a tech box for teachers and can be an easy way into the classroom. I presented at LILAC on how we have done this and will see if I can add this to my website. If you would like a link let me know.
I am not sure if you have come across FOSIL but it is a great place to start if you are wanting to make sure that you are all teaching information literacy the same way. There are lots of resources and support from other librarians and teachers which you may find useful.
8. School libraries are ‘useful, necessary and important to educational research” How do we persuade teachers that this is the case?
This has to be through training. However this is easier said than done. I am about to meet with all our local primary headteachers to talk about FOSIL and how we are using it within their schools already. I am hoping to persuade them to add it to their school improvement plans so that they can question how their teachers are working with our librarians and using their school libraries. Watch this space...
This question interests me. It seems to me that NQTs are graduating from University with little to no knowledge of school library services or the value of school librarians. They are the digital generation where answers are all online/at their fingertips. They struggle to see the value of using “real” books and overlook the important role the librarian has to play in teaching and learning. Even just from the point of view of consulting with libraries and librarians re: PPA work where they might obtain useful links, e-resources and partnership working those new to teaching are very much in favour of taking the google shortcut. How can we, as information professionals, influence schools and in particular influence the school improvement plans from KS2 onwards to incorporate more information literacy into the whole curriuclum, and to use librarians and school library services, as specialists in this field, to support teachers in doing so.
@Frances Trimming Thanks for joining in Frances! I would agree with you that this is exactly the problem we have. We have to find a way to getting into the teaching courses whilst also supporting school librarians to engage in teaching courses. Bridging the gap between librarian and teacher would be a start to changing things round I feel. We need to all understand our own role in teaching and learning. Stop being frightened to speak out and be prepared to advocate for our profession. If we don't no one else will. Start at the top, middle and bottom. If the SLT are not currently listening then work with whoever will listen. Try again and again and share any best practice. Join groups of librarians trying to make a difference as a collective voice will be louder than a single one.
I wish I could wave a magic wand and make all this happen. I know I can't but hopefully discussions like this will help others feel brave enough to speak out.
9. This chapter was about university libraries, was there a message for you as a school library too? Was this a useful chapter?
@Rachel Chavez I am really glad that you got so much from this Rachel. It is great to question how we do things and how we look from a different angles occasionally. I am certainly going to focus more on making our resources more accessible. Our students have to jump so many hoops to get to the online resources it is no surprise that they go back to Google. Time for a change I think. Please let us know what your plan for induction looks like once you have figured it out.
@Rachel Chavez I had similar thoughts in making it reassess the 'data' I have to hand about the existing perceptions of me and the library itself. I found it useful in prompting thoughts about other areas of the service too, and how customer service is built on strong systems, and how I can improve those we have in place.
The chapter was useful in making me think and re-evaluate marketing tools I use. I especially liked the sentence saying: how do you know what to offer if you do not know what your users want/need?
A thing to consider further.
Read the chapter and feel that as a school library, to a certain extent we have a captive audience. The pupils come in to use the space and borrow books, use computers for homework. I promote initiatives by contributing to newsletters, informing staff via email or in staff meetings and plastering posters in parts of the school where I think they will be noticed more. From a customer service point of view the only difficulties I experience are discipline issues. Pupils come in and don't always use the space in ways outlined above. I have never experienced any difficulties with teachers. When verifying information I urge caution when students use Wikipedia and have Fake News posters on the wall which guide students on how to work out if a story is real or fake. We have a lot of resources in our library that are not used/rarely used reference books and a good percentage of the non-fiction books among them. Digital resource costs are often prohibitive so feel we need hard copies resources to fall back on though I do collect lists of websites offering free resources and promote these to pupils. I try to be as visible and as vocal as possible, communicating with staff at meetings, via email. I am present at Open Evenings, Year 6 Intake Evenings and Year 6 Taster Days. I also help out at school fundraisers and attend school church services etc. I am not involved with any partners as such but do liaise with other school librarians, subject leaders etc. I would like to become more involved with EPQs and do use research skills as part of my IL lessons. I found this chapter very useful, particularly the comment about not expecting patrons to use the service if you don't have what they want.
Thanks for joining in @s.holman and I am glad you found the chapter useful.
Can I ask you about your physical book collection that is not used. Isn't this what this chapter was about? Making sure that you have what your students and teachers need. Do you know why they are not used and if they are just taking up space should you not be thinking about removing them? What type of school do you work in and do you have any budget? It sounds like you have very little if any at all! Do you working in the classroom with the websites and teach website evaluation? Sorry for all the questions! I am just really interested in how your library works for yourself and your students. Sounds like you don't have it easy but are really trying to put yourself out there.
I am glad you are part of our conversation!
I have already removed a great many reference books and had a a bit of a move around. The problem is if I remove too much the library may start to look a bit sparse. At the moment I don't teach website evaluation but that is something I want to look into as I am always looking at ways to update my library workbooks. I hope to use FOSIL to help me with this.
What we've found really invaluable is inviting dept staff to do a stock weed. It's been an excuse to show off what we already have, get newer/more relevant textbooks. Then it's fed into suggested 6th form reading lists (recommended from the new stock). We've had members of staff then bring in students to see the refreshed stock and collect the leaflets.
This is a great idea @Alison Caller getting the staff involved is so important. They need to feel that the library is there for them as well as their students. This also helps with teachers advocating for the library by suggesting their students go and use it.
However, we do have a budget for this, so understand it might not be feasible in state schools. :(
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