Colleen Simpson is the library media specialist at the Lester J. Gates Middle School in Scituate
and a 2018 President’s Award winner.
and a 2018 President’s Award winner.
The question of what the space of the library means for learners is something that is often posed to librarians and certainly we can come up with a lot of answers. Maybe you built a makerspace and now you are maximizing a portion of your library for hands-on student activities. Perhaps you’ve added flexible seating and movable furniture where students are working in both high and low spaces, standing, sitting, even cycling while they read. One of the elements of our job is to take the space we have, and see every inch to its ultimate utilization.
So what happens to the role when you no longer have that traditional space? This is the question I have been asking myself over the last year in our new building. Quite honestly, I’m often not even sure what more I can offer my fellow school librarians after my process piece on how I’ve organized our collection from last winter’s MSLA Forum. While I can articulate my management of our library collection, now that the overwhelming change is past I find myself in a different role than many other librarians. With that sometimes comes a feeling of relief at not being the sole person in a building responsible for meeting space, but it also often comes with a feeling of inadequacy. As if my lack of a need to create billboards or void of scheduling makes my role somehow “less than” what it was before. Most of us took a graduate class on managing the physical space of a library, yet now my whole school building is a series of learning commons for which I am a part of but hardly responsible for. We have and engineering and a robotics teacher each in charge of STEAM Labs (makerspaces) I would never have conceived of. Every team area has at least one, if not two collaboration rooms as well as open spaces with flexible future for group or individual work.
Yet somehow I’m just as busy as I was in our old school, if not more so because of my movement around the whole building (my Fitbit likes this), so why am I questioning myself and worried that I am not keeping up? Part of this is just general age and self-awareness, but also I read daily questions on various school library related social media networks about the role of librarian and I am continually reminded of how very different every library position is, so I am not alone in that respect. And it’s not just by grade level, but also school size, administrative philosophy, institutional pedagogy, cultural norms and school climate that all play a part in our role in the library.
While my title is library media specialist, I’m more accurately a teacher librarian, I teach a course called Research Media Projects to all 7th & 8th graders as a part of their regular specials rotation. Because we are in a learning studio for class, it often doesn’t register with students that I am the librarian until they are standing in front of my desk checking out a book during an enrichment block or before school.
I’ve been an educator for nearly two decades, and it was always very clear what my position was as a high school English teacher. Sure the classes I taught changed from year to year, but no one thought twice about what my job was. I’m confident that the departments that I now work with most, ELA and Social Studies, know the scope of my position, but just the other day a math teacher, who I see most days, seemed to just now realize that I am indeed charged with both teaching, collection development and all the other administrative duties of a librarian.
I suspect it is these deep differences in the roles library media specialist play that makes it a position that is often on the chopping blocks for districts; without definition the lack of understanding from decision makers provides an easy cut. This is my fifth year as an LMS and I feel like I am learning what more I what can do or can be for our students and staff, as well as how much that can change from year to year. With that said I want my role to be defined enough for my colleagues that the position is always seen as an essential component of our school, and not just because I fill a block in student schedules. I also hope that I will continue to be able to contribute to the greater school library community conversations as I recognize the commonalities my role continues to share with others’ and be able to offer insight into my varied role that might be useful to our collective experiences.
Yet somehow I’m just as busy as I was in our old school, if not more so because of my movement around the whole building (my Fitbit likes this), so why am I questioning myself and worried that I am not keeping up? Part of this is just general age and self-awareness, but also I read daily questions on various school library related social media networks about the role of librarian and I am continually reminded of how very different every library position is, so I am not alone in that respect. And it’s not just by grade level, but also school size, administrative philosophy, institutional pedagogy, cultural norms and school climate that all play a part in our role in the library.
While my title is library media specialist, I’m more accurately a teacher librarian, I teach a course called Research Media Projects to all 7th & 8th graders as a part of their regular specials rotation. Because we are in a learning studio for class, it often doesn’t register with students that I am the librarian until they are standing in front of my desk checking out a book during an enrichment block or before school.
I’ve been an educator for nearly two decades, and it was always very clear what my position was as a high school English teacher. Sure the classes I taught changed from year to year, but no one thought twice about what my job was. I’m confident that the departments that I now work with most, ELA and Social Studies, know the scope of my position, but just the other day a math teacher, who I see most days, seemed to just now realize that I am indeed charged with both teaching, collection development and all the other administrative duties of a librarian.
I suspect it is these deep differences in the roles library media specialist play that makes it a position that is often on the chopping blocks for districts; without definition the lack of understanding from decision makers provides an easy cut. This is my fifth year as an LMS and I feel like I am learning what more I what can do or can be for our students and staff, as well as how much that can change from year to year. With that said I want my role to be defined enough for my colleagues that the position is always seen as an essential component of our school, and not just because I fill a block in student schedules. I also hope that I will continue to be able to contribute to the greater school library community conversations as I recognize the commonalities my role continues to share with others’ and be able to offer insight into my varied role that might be useful to our collective experiences.