Carl A. Harvey II

Prior to my current position, I was a school librarian for 4 years in MSD Warren Township. I have a B.S. in School Media Services from Ball State University and a M.S. in Education (focus on Educational Technology) from Indiana University. I have been active and served in various leadership capacities in both national and state professional associations. 

Mostly notably I’m a past-President of the Association for Indiana Media Educators, Indiana Library Federation, and American Association of School Librarians. I have written numerous articles for professional journals and I am the author of 4 professional books published by Linworth/Libraries Unlimited.


ABOUT YOUR JOB

I am the school librarian at North Elementary School in Noblesville, IN and the Department Chair of libraries for Noblesville Schools.

As I enter my 15th year in the field, I think the most interesting think about my job is that no two days have ever been the same. I am always looking for ways to do what we do better the next time around. 

Carl A. Harvey II

So, even lessons or projects that we’ve repeated year after year are constantly being tweaked and adjusted based on feedback from teachers, students, administrators, and me. One of the elements I like the best about being a school librarian is that constant journey to improve and get better and better.


ADVICE 

The most important advice I can give is to build relationships. The key to school libraries (and really any type of library) is building relationships with your patrons. They have to trust you. For school librarians, it is building trust with administrators about how you move your program forward; it is building trust with teachers that you can teach their students just as well as they can; and it is building trust with students that the library isn’t yours, but rather there for everyone…especially them! When you have those links and connections, the possibilities of your program are limitless.

Dr. Gary Hartzell has said that principals know about librarians and libraries from their days in school. So, every new administrator I’ve had, I have tried really hard to paint the picture of what I think a school library today should be all about. I think that is part of creating that 21st Century school library is creating that vision and then going full force to implement it.


JUST FOR FUN

As far as breaking stereotypes, I can remember interviewing for my first job, years later the principal said she saw this young guy get out of the truck, and she said, “Surely this isn’t the guy coming to interview for the librarian’s job!” I was…and I got the job!


E-mail Carl at carl@carl-harvey.com


And if you haven't liked/followed the Blog over at our Facebook page, I hope you'll take a moment to do that too! 

Andy Plemmons

[A note. I asked Andy to share his insights with you after reading an article he authored recently for Knowledge Quest. The article, "Opening the Space: Making the School Library a Site of Participatory Culture" (September/October 2012), highlights Andy's child- and learning-centered approach to school librarianship. I hope you'll seek out the article to read, as Andy's doing terrific work and more people need to know about it. You can also learn more from the related webinar notes.]

I am currently in my 12th year of teaching. I began as a 3rd grade teacher at Colham Ferry Elementary School for 7 years. Then, I transitioned into my role as the school library media specialist at David C. Barrow Elementary for the past 5 years. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, a Master’s in Children’s Literature and Language Arts, and a Specialist in Instructional Technology/School Library Media.

ABOUT YOUR JOB

I am currently the School Library Media Specialist at David C. Barrow Elementary in Athens, GA. I serve students PreK-5th grade on a flexible schedule as well as lead the use of technology in my school. 

What’s the best (or worst) part about working with young people? 

I love the fearless nature of students. When teachers are afraid of trying new technology, students show them that when they are given the space to play and explore, they can discover ways that technology and information can be used in education. 

I love the excitement generated by students when they are able to create information and then push those new creations out to a global audience. 

Andy Plemmons

How do you stay current? 

New technology, literature, etc. are created every day so it’s impossible to keep up with everything. Instead, I try to constantly model what it’s like to be a lifelong learner by talking aloud with students and teachers about what I’m doing to answer questions I have. I, of course, attend professional conferences, but I also read multiple blogs & journals as well as connect with other educators on Twitter. Developing a professional learning network is the best way to individualize my professional learning rather than rely only on what is offered at conferences. 

Who is your greatest ally and why?

I can’t just name one. First, my principal. I’ve been blessed to have two wonderful principals while I’ve been at my current school. They understand the importance of flexible schedules, collaboration with teachers, the role of the school library/librarian, and constantly look to me for leadership in technology and information. 

Families are also a big ally. I’ve learned that by presenting at PTA and inviting families to volunteer in the library that families begin to understand the many roles that I play in the school, which in turn develops families into big advocates of our program. 

Finally, I think students are becoming a big ally. I’ve worked to be more transparent with students about my hopes for our library and I think they are beginning to realize that a library is more than books. When they fully understand this, I think students can be the most powerful of allies. 

ADVICE

What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve been given? 

To really decide what matters most and devote my time to those areas. This advice has been very important this year because I no longer have a library paraprofessional. We also don’t have a dedicated instructional technology specialist at our school, so the demands for my time are constant and hard to manage. I constantly have to step back and make decisions about what gets my time so that it doesn’t affect the most important thing, which is my students and their learning experiences.

What’s worth fighting for? Why? 

Anything that involves student learning and their equal access to resources. I like to talk about barriers and bridges. When I see a barrier to students accessing what they really need in order to do their best learning, I think about what bridge I can help build to get over that barrier. I think being very public about the kinds of learning that takes place in our library is a great way to build a foundation for courageous conversations about internet filtering and access to updated technology. 

How can you get the most out of attending conferences? 

Being an active participant is crucial. So often, you attend a conference and the sessions don’t necessarily match what you need as a learner. However, when I attended my first AASL conference, I saw how using Twitter to connect with attendees helped me experience the entire conference without physically being in every space. The unconference feel of a learning commons at a conference allows multiple people to present their expertise without the formality of proposals and approvals. 

JUST FOR FUN

How do you defy the librarian stereotypes?

I try to do the opposite of every one of those stereotypes. Just by being a librarian, I’m already defying the stereotypes because I’m certainly not a shushing little old lady with glasses and my hair in a bun. Seriously, though, I hope that by modeling what a librarian SHOULD be and making our library program public through my blog that I’m slowly challenging people’s past experience with librarians. I hope my students will be the generation that grows up to understand librarians and libraries as something completely different than what their parents experienced. 

On a side note, this April I plan to crowdsource a poem with my students tentatively called “Our Library is not a Quiet Place” because I have heard the phrase “remember.....the library is a quiet place” way too many times this year from teachers and substitutes!

Email Andy at plemmonsa@clarke.k12.ga.us

Ben Waymouth

I graduated from Taylor University in ‘96 with a BS in Social Studies Education and then taught every subject I was licensed for at various levels, grades 7-12.  I completed my MLS from IU SLIS program in 2007.  I left the classroom in 2006 to work as Media Specialist for grades 9-12.

Due to attrition I served grades 5-12 as Media Specialist - 3 buildings - during ‘10-’11 school year.  This is my second year as K-12 Director for the entire corporation.  A strained budget and 1:1 implementation in my district has created my current position.

ABOUT YOUR JOB

I manage all seven libraries in our district with help from a staff of seven hourly assistants.  My duties revolve around information literacy, purchasing of print and electronic resources, 1:1 circulation, inventory, and tech support, library and reading program administration, managing a staff, and the daunting task of collection development at all buildings.

What would most surprise people about your current job?

The variety that each day brings: never boring, dull, or mundane!  The degree to which I have to know, use, implement, and leverage technology surprises people constantly.  

How do you manage your time?

I operate off a monthly calender that I share with admins and my assistants so they can see where I’m working, if I’m away from my office.  I work out of the high school library where my “original” office has been since I started in the library.  It’s the best environment for me as it allows me to get the most accomplished.  I schedule visits to each building to meet with my assistants face to face about every 2-3 weeks.

Who is your greatest ally and why?

English teachers and Social Studies teachers.  Those content areas are more apt to need research and require reading as part of a grade in their coursework.  Math people have very few curriculum connections to the library.  Science people in my district seek their resources elsewhere (not for my lack of trying!!)  

Also, students who are voracious readers. I bust my buns trying to connect and develop relationships with students as they’re THE reason our libraries do what we do!

How do you stay current?

Twitter is a GREAT tool to share and aggregate resources; both for staff and students.  I subscribe to several magazines to stay current in trends, tech, and practices.  SLJ, LMC, Teacher Librarian, School Library Monthly, Kirkus Reviews just to name a few.  Finding time to read each one is often a challenge.  Attending conferences is something I’ve been unable to do lately with my K-12 position.  I need and want to attend more conferences but worry about the value versus the time away from school.  

What are the most challenging aspects of your job?

Having to relinquish / delegate duties that a certified media specialist should be handling is tough on the soul.  It devalues my degree and the profession.  They [the paraprofessionals] are great, experienced, and mean well, however only one of my assistants has library professional training.  Their fixed schedules don’t allow them much flexibility to conquer tasks outside of clerical duties, and consequently I’m left to pick up what they run out of time to do that I’ve delegated to them.  Being spread so thin and being unable to perform deep rich work at each building makes me feel many days I’ve accomplished little if anything at all.  Disillusionment is a problem that plagues me as director.  Collection development is a challenge that I don’t feel I can truly tackle; I do the best I can relying on the help I have.

ADVICE

How can you get the most out of attending conferences?

Avoid vendors at conferences unless you have a specific need.  Attend as many breakout sessions as possible, that’s where mentors present, where ideas flow, where you gather insights.  Most beneficial is the confirmation that what your doing for your patrons is ahead of others in the room (pat on the back).

Map out multiple sessions for each time slot.  Some sessions are a bust; description doesn’t fit what’s presented in the first 15 minutes.  Jump to your second or third choice.

Ask about Twitter official hashtags at conference registration tables to gather quotes or links to resources; especially from people who attended sessions you didn’t attend.

What’s something you wish you had known when you started out in this profession?

Library staffing is first to cut when budgets get lean.  My two colleagues didn’t retire; their positions were ended forever.  I had to assume more and more duties back to back years while fearing for my own longevity.  Hard to complain when those around you are loosing their jobs.  

I wish I would’ve taken cataloging first.  Data is the hinge for library catalogs / automation systems.  Knowing how to properly add acquisitions early in your career is essential.  If you don’t know how the catalog works you can’t teach students or lead folks to your resources.

I also wish I would’ve taken collection development towards the end of my MLS course work.  I would’ve gotten more practical use out of the class I feel.  What was being offered and what fit my academic schedule was at fault.

What should you look for in a mentor?

Vision, experience, and wisdom.  Someone who shows the ability to conquer accurately many tasks in the framework of given amount of time.  Someone who sees the admin perspective and the classroom person perspective; balances those viewpoints and can advise what’s best for “kids” not what’s best for programs.  

How do you respond when someone asks you, “Isn’t everything online?”

Agree with them...then make the point....how do you trust that info for authority and fidelity?  How do you get multiple sources of information that corroborate the same opinion and or perspective?  Print resources often provide a checks and balances on digital sources due to the editing process.  However, authority and information fidelity reign supreme...regardless of the venue, platform, or format.

JUST FOR FUN

You can have any superpower; what would it be?

Would love to time travel - backward and forward in time - love the mystique of the Back to the Future films!

Paper or digital?

I’m having a hard time holding a book because I enjoy my single sided Nook Glowlight and iPad.  Having to jockey the book around is proving a small but big annoyance.  My fingers like to tap to flip pages - smaller motor skills.  Also I’m finding I’m highlighting and looking up words in the books I’m reading.  The fact I can push my Kindle highlights to my Evernote account for sharing with others has proven beneficial lately professionally.

Email Ben at bwaymouth@plymouth.k12.in.us

What does it take to be a youth services librarian?

Let's face it: working with young people in libraries can be fun and rewarding, but it is hard work. The major professional associations allied with youth services librarianship have developed sets of competencies to help practitioners, library and school administrators, students, and the public better understand the skills, knowledge, and dispositions necessary to be successful. 

Take a look at these competencies. If you are a current or retired youth services librarian, what's missing? How would you change these lists? If you are a pre-professional youth services librarian, in what areas do you need assistance?

• ALSC (Association of Library Service to Children) Competencies for Librarians Serving Children in Public Libraries
• YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth
• AASL (American Association of School Librarians) Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians

And if you're curious, see what you would have been learning had you been a student at the Carnegie [Library] Training School a hundred years ago!

Linda Diekman

What's your current job?

I am a National Board Certified school librarian at Roosevelt Elementary School in Park Ridge, Illinois. After over twenty years in the business world, I received my Masters Degree and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Library and Information Science from GSLIS at the University of Illinois. I also obtained my teaching certificate through their K-12 program. 

I have been an elementary school librarian since 2006 and previously worked in Lake Bluff and Glenview, Illinois. I have taught as an adjunct faculty member in National Louis University’s school library endorsement program concentrating on collection development and research methods. In addition, I have taught the non-fiction literature course at GSLIS.

I have recently started a blog concentrating on reviews of intermediate grade books. Check it out at http://msdreads.wordpress.com/

How do you manage your time?

At Roosevelt School, I work with an amazing group of students and educators. There are almost 700 K-5^th grade students passing through the library each week. The most challenging part of my job is, with a flexible schedule, to get books in reader’s hands while I work with teachers to plan and deliver collaborative lessons. With almost 700 students, there are just not enough hours in the week. In order to stretch the time available, I’m in the process of reinventing the LRC website so that tutorials and book recommendations are available 24/7. While I can’t clone myself, “going virtual” with my lessons, plans, and programs may help move the library beyond its physical walls.

What's the best professional advice you've ever been given? 

Linda Diekman

The best piece of professional advice I’ve been given came from Vi Harada at the University of Hawaii. When attending a conference session on assessment, she encouraged us to “start small and start friendly.” I think of that every day as I reach out to teachers initiating conversations that, I hope, will lead to collaborative opportunities. I incorporate that advice into my own presentations, hoping to spread that sentiment.

You can have any superpower, what would it be?

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what superpower I would like to have and I think I’d like to be a super-speed reader.  I’d like to just pick up a book, whiz through it, and still get the beauty of the writing, characters, and plot along with instant recall to be able to present a booktalk. That would take care of the problem of “too many books and too little time.”

Email: lmdiekman@sbcglobal.net

Kathy Bennett

What’s your current job? 

I became teacher-librarian at Lincoln Trail Elementary School in the Mahomet-Seymour school district in 1989, following stints in similar positions in Champaign, Illinois, and Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. Lincoln Trail has 650 students in grades 3-5, and I see all of them each week, as well as serving roughly 50 staff members. My job changed radically last spring when my full-time assistant’s position was eliminated and my budget was cut in half.

Who is your greatest ally and why?

The building technology teacher is a great ally. Classroom teachers have each other but we are both solos in our building. We use each other as sounding boards and help troubleshoot technology problems. Both of us help teachers integrate technology into their curriculum and our areas of instruction overlap so it creates a great opportunity for collaboration.

How do you stay current (in technology, literature, instruction, pop culture, etc)?

I’ve been a long-time member of the American Library Association, the Illinois School Library Media Association, and Illinois Computing Educators, and I frequently attend their conferences and conventions. The Illinois Education and Technology conference is another I attend.

Journals are a major resource; I read School Library Monthly, School Library Journal, American Libraries, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and Knowledge Quest.

I follow quite a few blogs. At the top of my “go to” list you’d find Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk, Joyce Valenza’s NeverEndingSearch, David Pogue’s Posts, and John Schu’s Watch.Connect.Read.

Another way I keep current and connected is by subbing in the children’s room at the Urbana Free Library. . . and perhaps my most important habit is that I read . . . read . . . read children’s literature.

Regularly offering staff in-service sessions is a way to force myself to be at the top of my game on whatever topic I've chosen to tackle.

Oh, and another thing I should probably add here is that working regularly with practicum students and student teachers helps keep me fresh.

Advice?

Think of your school library as an extension of the classrooms not your private kingdom. You are the caretaker of the space for the entire school.

How do you get the most out of attending conferences?

Attending a variety of conferences has been a main source of my professional growth. My school district only pays for one conference a year but I feel I need professional development in both the library aspects of the job as well as the technology aspects. So I have chosen to go to more than one conference a year, paying my own way.  

I read the description of the programs very carefully and I rarely have been disappointed in the sessions I chose. By being active in a variety of professional groups, you get to know the names of the movers and shakers in the library world. I always seek out their sessions. I often look for sessions in my areas of weakness.

How do you defy the librarian stereotypes?

I like cute shoes and refuse to wear Birkenstocks!

Paper or digital?

I’m afraid paper. . . but I’m shifting as a result of being in love, love, LOVE with my iPad.

Where can you find Kathy?

Website:   http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/linc/library/index.htm

E-Mail: kbennett@ms.k12.il.us

Kim Anderson

My current job? 

I’m happy to hold one of the best jobs in education—that of school librarian.  I spent my first seven years as a middle school classroom teacher (reading, language arts, algebra, social studies,  and science), but I didn’t find my true calling until I become a librarian eight years ago.  

My first library gig was in an elementary school but it wasn’t long before I realized my middle school heart could not be broken and I found my way back “home” to Jefferson Middle School (Champaign, IL).   I’ve completed my MLS and CAS at GSLIS (the best educational and professional experiences of my career) and earned National Board Certification in Library Media. 

  

How do you stay current (in technology, literature, instruction, pop culture, etc)?

This is the hardest and most exciting part of my job.  Staying current on all things tween can only happen one way.   Work.  I read constantly, I subscribe to tons of blogs—both book and professional, and I talk regularly with my nieces, nephews and the students at Jefferson.   I even scan through the different teen magazines to attempt to stay current (trust me—this only takes a second because they all pretty much look the same). 

How do I measure success?

It’s always nice when a teacher tells me I’m doing well, but my real test is feedback from students.  Sometimes I ask the students directly and we have discussions about the library as a group or they complete short polls or surveys.  

My favorite measure of success is the spontaneous one.  My heart sings when I see a student jumping up and down because the sequel to a book they’ve been waiting for is in.  Or when someone races up to tell me how much they loved the book I recommended and could I please, please help them find something else "just like it."  And of course, it makes my day when I get an email or visit from a graduate that says they miss having me as their librarian.  That’s a success. 

What’s the worst part of my job?

Lost books.  It makes me crazy.

Advice?

Have some passive reader’s advisory tools available for student to look through (lists, read alikes, displays, etc).  This is great for students who aren’t as excited about interacting with you as you are about interacting with them. 

I pulled out my most popular genres into special collections.  This makes it so much easier for kids to find the horror, mysteries and sports books.  It also frees me to help students that really haven’t figured out what they want.

You probably won’t have a budget that will allow you to purchase everything you want.  It was liberating when I stopped trying to purchase every book immediately and started waiting for paperback on some.  I also do a better job of purchasing more of what I know kids will read and fewer of titles I think they should read.  

How do I defy the librarian stereotypes?

I never, “Ssshhhh.”   I love fashion, have tattoos and have happily sported a range of haircolors (pink, red, copper, blue, teal, purple…).  And I try very hard to be helpful and friendly.  Smile. Smile. Smile!  I remember when I was just starting out and someone jokingly asked, “Well, how long before you become a b*@$%?”  It struck a chord.  I never want students or teachers to feel anything but welcome when they come into this space.  Now, don’t mistake my perky nature for being a pushover because I’ll also fight tooth and nail for things the library needs.

What fictional character would you most like to be for a day?

Ugh..this changes regularly but right now I’ll say Karou from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.  She’s amazing! 

You can have any superpower, what would it be?

Flight.

Paper or digital?

Paper.  Except when I’m traveling then it’s Kindle city sweetheart. 

Where can you find Kim?

Website:   http://jmslibrary.wix.com/jms-virtual-library

Blog:  http://furandspots.blogspot.com/ 
Twitter:  1KnowZChic