Category: Leadership

Social Justice League: Youth in Action

2/23/2021

Michelle Raszl is the Librarian at Mt Everett Regional School (6-12) in Sheffield, MA (Berkshire County).

"As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears." - Rumi

Our small, rural, predominantly white school district in Western Massachusetts has its share of racist and homophobic incidents. And like many other educators, I took these on headfirst, trying to find some common moral ground with students, trying to appeal to their humanity before referring them to the Dean. And then Covid happened. And our ongoing social uprising. For summer enrichment I organized a Community Read of Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and the remix Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds. Concurrently, I was approached by a couple of students who were disgusted by the injustices that they had been seeing perpetrated across our country and dismayed by curricula that neglected to represent the full scope of American perspectives.

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Consider Your Legacy

2/23/2021

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Maria D'Orsi is the Teacher/Librarian at Medford High School and a recipient of a 2020 MSLA Super Librarian Award.

When I consider the Covid Era, what comes to mind is a list of changes none of us were prepared for; school and library closures, remote teaching, supply shortages, business closures, event cancellations, lost jobs (and lost stipends!), social distancing and mask wearing, to name a few.

And then there are those other, more personal things; fear of Covid, fear of any kind of illness, testing positive (something I have managed to evade so far), loss of family and friends, coworkers and neighbors (something I have NOT been able to avoid), isolation, screen fatigue, weight gain (yup!!), vaccination anxiety, etc.

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Leading From the Library

2/11/2020

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by Amy Short and Kendall Boninti

Amy Short ([email protected]) is the Assistant Director of Library Media Services at Cambridge Public Schools and a 2019 recipient of the Peggy Hallisey Lifetime Achievement award.
Kendall Boninti ([email protected]) is a Library Media Specialist at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

“It's no secret that teacher librarians are leaders. Teacher librarians work with all members of the learning community--students, teachers and administrators. They are uniquely situated to be educational leaders within their school communities. They have a valuable skill set as instructional leaders” (Kleinmeyer).

According to the AASL Position Statement, “The Strategic Leadership Role of School Librarians”, “School librarians provide strategic leadership in instructional design, collaboration, and co-teaching through their global perspective. Because their work impacts all disciplines and grade levels, school librarians are in a unique position to leverage their skills and implement cross-curricular initiatives.” An example of this level of leadership is the work that Kendall Boninti and Emily Houston, Librarians at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), have undertaken in collaboration with colleagues to lead programmatic and instructional changes at CRLS.

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Because I Said "Yes"

10/2/2018

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Jennifer Kelley Reed is the Library Teacher at Mason-Rice Elementary School in Newton
and received a 2018 Service Award from MSLA.

It was my honor to receive the Massachusetts School Library Association Service Award this past spring. I’ve been thinking about this award that recognizes school librarian dedication and leadership at the state and national level and why I received it. I can sum up my thoughts in four words: because I said, “Yes.”

Because I said, “Yes,” I have had fabulous opportunities and experiences.

My “yeses” have taken me on some fabulous state and national leadership journeys: serving on the MSLA Executive Board; being an representative to the AASL Affiliate Assembly; presenting at local, state, regional and national conferences; writing articles for journals and publications; and, serving on the Schneider Family Book Award Jury.

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History of School Library Programs in Massachusetts

10/2/2018

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Kathy Lowe is the Executive Director of MSLA
and a 2018 recipient of the Peggy Hallisey Lifetime Achievement award.

My association with our professional organization goes back to my early years as a school library media specialist in the 1980s, when I joined MAEM* for the same reason that colleagues join MSLA today – to connect with others doing the same job for ideas, support, and professional growth. Many things have changed in our profession since then and continue to do so at an ever-increasing rate, but this is one of the things that has remained constant since the inception of this organization – whatever its name over the years and whatever we’ve called ourselves at the time. And our core belief – that all students deserve equal access to a strong school library program overseen by a professional school librarian – continues to be the foundation of our mission and vision for school library programs in Massachusetts. As we start this important year of advocacy for our students and their libraries, I thought it might be helpful to share the history of our organization.

ASSOCIATION NAMES

1960s: MSLA - Massachusetts School Library Association (Exact date of inception is unknown)

1975: MAECT - Massachusetts Association for Educational Communications and Technology
1983: *MAEM - Massachusetts Association for Educational Media
1992: MSLMA – Massachusetts School Library Media Association
2006: MSLA – Massachusetts School Library Association

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Advice Column: Ask a Library Legend

10/15/2016

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Valerie Diggs is the Librarian at Lowell Catholic High School
Questions may be submitted for this column using the confidential link at the bottom of this post

Question:
"My school has a new principal for the 2016-2017 year, what and how should I go about convincing him to increase my very small budget?"

How to make inroads with a new principal? How can I get her/him to understand what I do and how important a decent budget is to achieving my goals?

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Rebranding the library...as a library

10/15/2016

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Amy Fiske is the Librarian at Wellesley High School and winner of a 2016 MSLA web seal of excellence award

As I sit down to write this article, I am partway through a multi-year process to change the culture in our high school library. I am changing it in a direction that will surprise some, who may remember me presenting at MSLA on the subject of Innovation Centers in school libraries. However, not every new trend is appropriate in every setting. What I and my colleagues have learned in the last three years is that it may be far more effective to find the niche that is empty at your school...and then fill it.

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Future Ready Librarians

10/15/2016

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Reba Tierney is the librarian at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, MA

Attending ALA is always intense, but attending ALA as an AASL Affiliate Assembly representative for the New England region brought that intensity to another level! Yet, it was a good intensity, as it gave me the invaluable opportunity to work with school librarians from around the country. During one of the AASL Affiliate Assembly sessions, the Future Ready movement was brought up and discussed. At the time, I had not even heard of Future Ready, but it quickly became evident that this was something for school librarians to be excited about. According to the Twitter account for Future Ready, it is defined as developing the capacity to transform teaching & personalize learning using digital tools. The Future Ready Schools website states that the plan helps district leaders plan and implement personalized, research-based digital learning strategies so all students can achieve their full potential. But what does all this mean? And even more importantly, what does it mean for school librarians?

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Making Waves: Connecting Community, Inquiry, and the School Library

5/7/2016

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Samantha Whitney is a librarian at Gloucester High School
and a winner of a 2016 MSLA President's Award

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, and find your eternity in each moment.”
― Henry David Thoreau

While completing course work in my school library teacher program, one of my professors advised us to lay low, observe behaviors in leadership, identify those with influence and to not make waves in the first couple of years on the job. I often reflect on this advice as I pass the ocean every day on my way to school and how happy I am that I did not completely follow that advice. Getting involved in my community and making waves helped to advance my school library program initiatives and position the library as an integral learning resource. Most importantly, the decision to jump in quickly has made me a confident, knowledgeable, and effective teacher.

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ALA Annual Conference - San Francisco

11/15/2015

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It’s always a treat when an ALA Annual Conference is in a great city - and what city is greater than San Francisco?

Library Pride!
The annual ALA conference is always an opportunity to develop librarian pride. The keynote speaker opening our conference this year was attorney Roberta Kaplan, who was instrumental in arguing the Supreme Court case that overturned the Defense of Marriage Act. Kaplan spoke to librarians on the day that the Supreme Court nationally legalized same-sex marriage, which also happened to be the start of Gay Pride weekend in San Francisco. To say there was some excitement in the city would be an understatement.

However, an even greater source of library pride might have come from listening to Representative Nancy Pelosi present an award to the librarians in Baltimore, Maryland who kept their branch library open as a safe haven for residents during rioting this spring. As seen in Ferguson, Missouri last year, Baltimore librarians provided a gathering place for children, food, diapers, and computer access throughout this tumultuous period. Librarian Carla Hayden received a standing ovation when she told us, “the library was doing what libraries do.”

Another highlight of the conference was Saturday’s opening speaker Gloria Steinem, inspiring leader of the feminist movement in the 60s and 70s. Sporting her iconic hairstyle and seemingly ageless, she urged the standing-room-only audience to commit to some form of activism throughout life and cited the accomplishments of many early American female activists who inspired her to become a catalyst for change. Her new memoir, My Life on the Road, is due to come out in October.

And as always, we spent a fair amount of time in the vendor halls getting swag to ship home to our friends in Massachusetts. ALA swag will be part of the fun at our EdCamp event in late September.

Leadership Summit:
A highlight of the conference was the AASL Leadership Summit, a day-long workshop organized by AASL leadership to both help this organization work more closely with its state affiliate organizations, and to help AASL develop national leaders for the school library community. Anita Cellucci and Judi Paradis attended this event as MSLA representatives.

After a welcome by outgoing AASL President Terri Grief and Executive Director Sylvia Norton, we spent the morning digging into the work AASL is doing to support school librarians and their state organizations. Members of the AASL Board explained how the organization is structured, and described how concerns from each region could be heard and addressed at the national level. There has been a significant restructuring of AASL representation and committee work over the past few years, and the Leadership Summit provided a good opportunity for school library leaders from around the country to see how they could most effectively work with AASL.

In addition to helping delegates understand new AASL governing structures, the Leadership Summit provided helpful information about building state organizations with tips for growing and maintaining membership, using AASL’s advocacy tools, and using AASL online discussion groups and professional development materials to strengthen statewide support for school librarians. We concluded the event by rotating through a series of “best practices” discussions that focused on everything from communication strategies, conference and professional development ideas, and legislation.

Much of the work AASL takes on at national meetings is done through the Affiliate Assembly, a group comprised of representatives from each state that meets in regional groups at the Midwinter and Annual ALA meetings. Regional groups elect directors, representatives, and coordinating teams to organize their delegations and work on specific initiatives. Affiliate Assembly delegates are expected to share information about library concerns from their region through a formal process that culminates with an annual vote where affiliate assembly members ask the AASL national board to take specific actions on member concerns. For example, this year Region 1, which is comprised of the New England states, put forward a concern regarding the time and space required for online mandated tests. After coordinated discussion over two meetings, Affiliate Assembly members voted to ask the AASL Board to examine the impact mandated online testing is having on access to library materials and services. Please see the related Forum article for details about all of the concerns and commendations that were forwarded to the AASL national board.

Meetings:
Kathy Lowe and Judi Paradis participated in the meeting of the AASL National Conference Committee. Kathy is Conference Co-Chair, with Debra Kay Logan of Ohio. The conference will be held November 5-8 in Columbus, OH. Judi is co-chair of the Program Sub-Committee, which reviewed, selected and scheduled the conference sessions. The conference committee is made up of school librarians from around the country. It has been meeting for the past two years at ALA Annual and Midwinter conferences and holds monthly conference calls to plan all aspects of the program. You can find all the details on the conference website. We hope Massachusetts will be well-represented at this bi-annual conference exclusively for school librarians.

Amy Short attended the AASL Supervisor’s Section (SPVS) meeting. SPVS focuses on issues of and collaboration between school district library supervisors and directors. In addition to discussion about many AASL organizational initiatives, SPVS also agreed to begin contributing monthly posts for a Supervisor’s Corner blog as part of the Knowledge Quest online community. These posts will be written from the perspective of supervisors advising building-level librarians on best practices. Upcoming topics will include supporting literacy, diversity in collections, organizing author visits, and crafting annual reports.

President Takeaway - Anita Cellucci:

The AASL Affiliate Leadership Summit was a valuable experience, as the new president of the association, in that it allowed me to look at MSLA conceptually - through the lens of myself as a leader and also through the lens of development of leadership from within MSLA membership.
In order to do this effectively, in my opinion, it is necessary to understand the psychology of leadership development. The Summit was helpful in understanding the key components of leadership development, membership development, and how AASL can support through these efforts.
Here are my big takeaways from the Summit:

Lead by example:
- Respect different points of view
- Trust others to do the job
- Know the big picture
- Have reasonable demands and provide support
- Delegate
- Help to develop individuals
Think about MSLA as an avenue to leadership as well as recognition at AASL
- Nominate our New Librarian Awardees to AASL Emerging Leaders
- Actively seek out the talents of our membership
- Stay open to innovation
Think about MSLA membership as a community
- Ask for engagement and provide opportunity that is meaningful and influential to members
- Invite members to become part of our community in ways that give value to our members

My hope is, throughout my term as president, that members will reach out with ideas and innovative thoughts about how we can continue to make MSLA relevant, productive, and important, to the role of school librarians in education.

Anita Cellucci is the Teacher Librarian at Westorough High School, Judi Paradis is the Librarian at the Plympton Elementary School in Waltham, Amy Short is the Assistant Director of Library Media for the Cambridge Public Schools, and Kathy Lowe is Executive Director of MSLA

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Social Justice League: Youth in Action

Consider Your Legacy

Leading From the Library

Because I Said "Yes"

History of School Library Programs in Massachusetts

Advice Column: Ask a Library Legend

Rebranding the library...as a library

Future Ready Librarians

Making Waves: Connecting Community, Inquiry, and the School Library

ALA Annual Conference - San Francisco

Forum Newsletter

Co-Editors
Luke Steere and Michelle Fontaine

Categories

Archives

Forum Newsletter

Co-Editors​Luke Steere and Michelle Fontaine

Categories

Archives

Co-Editors
Luke Steere and Michelle Fontaine