Library Media Tech Talk

Beginning Again: The Journey Back to School Librarianship I accepted the opportunity to return to a public school as a middle school library media specialist in July 2025. Since 2020, I've enjoyed a long stint as an Army National Guard Warrant Officer, both full-time and part-time. Most recently, I worked in public library management full-time. During the entire journey since 2020, I've missed the interactions I had as a school librarian. So I've come full circle. It is exciting to be back after 5 years away from this part of the profession.  Beginning Again It is overwhelming in many ways to return. At the time of this writing, I've only spent 8 days with students. There are new books, new authors, new standards, new teachers, and new technologies. I'm also in a newer school facility. I actually worked in this district years ago during my last year as a school band director before transitioning to school librarianship in 2008. The facility is new and updated compar...

I've been thinking about how our school library program is different from the programs I experienced as a student. I've also been wondering how many other programs are moving away from the traditional "old school" library stereotype of yesteryear. How many movies have you seen where librarians are portrayed as people whose main mission seems to be stamping books and shushing patrons? How can we change this perception? I wonder how many school librarians are moving out of their comfort zones for students but aren't telling anyone about it. What might happen if these teacher librarians told their stories?  I'll share three methods that could change everything if we adopt them. 1. Embrace and Practice the Future Ready Librarians Framework I've written about this previously , and I still think the Future Ready Librarians Framework is a key component to librarians/ libraries staying relevant. (I'm also beginning to dig into the new AASL Standards- m...

Do you ever stop and think about what the school library can be for your learning community? It is easy to get caught up in the daily activities and forget about the endless possibilities that exist for our learners. As I prepare to begin my tenth year as a school librarian, I've been thinking about how the library spaces and resources can transform our students' lives. I would like to share some recent happenings that have illustrated this to me. A Safe Place We loved seeing new students discover the library! Recently we hosted an 8th grade school wide orientation. It was a busy day of meeting countless new students. As these young people arrived at the high school as new 8th graders for the first time, I thought about how intimidating this transition must be for them. It was also easy to see which students were new to our district since they were usually standing by themselves. How uncomfortable this must be for new students. I enjoyed seeking these studen...

We have made several exciting connections via Skype during the fall of 2016. I want to share about three connections we have made in the last few weeks. These are all special to me for different reasons, and I will share about the significance of each. What is amazing about each of these events is that they wouldn't have happened if not for the magic of social media. If you are not a connected educator, I hope these stories will convince you to start connecting (for your growth and for your learning community). Connecting With Shannon Miller I have previously shared that Shannon McClintock Miller inspired me to create this blog and to become a connected teacher librarian. I heard her speak at the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference in 2014. Since taking up these practices that year (and learning more about Twitter through our assistant principal, Mathew Thornton), my professional life has forever changed. I've been blessed with thousands of new educator f...

Twitter never ceases to amaze me. In August, my wife and I were enjoying a Saturday clothes shopping trip. I remember we were in JCPenney picking out our new school clothes. (This is an annual pilgrimage for us every August.) At some point during that shopping session, I received a Tweet from Leigh Morris. As I recall, she was asking me about Breakout EDU. When I looked at her Twitter profile and realized she was a teacher in Cape Town, South Africa, I immediately followed her and told her I would love to connect our learning communities together this year. It was a delightful visit via my iPhone Twitter app as I followed my wife around the store. It was easy to tell that Leigh was a passionate teacher, and I was so glad she reached out to me! These are the motivated educators I consistently encounter on Twitter. Skype Antics If you have been watching this blog and my social media, you know I love connecting our students and teachers via Skype. Recently, we have been experimen...

I have been active on Twitter since the summer of 2014. During that time I have connected with thousands of passionate educators. We all share common bonds; we want to improve for our learners, and we love what we do. This summer, I had the opportunity to meet some members of my PLN (personal learning network). One would think this would be an intimidating event since we have never truly met in person. We had only sent short Twitter messages to each other, exchanged Voxer voice messages, and Skyped a few times. Read on to see what happened with each meeting. Lynn Kleinmeyer @THLibrariZen I connected with Lynn Kleinmeyer during the fall of 2015 during a Twitter education chat. Lynn is a teacher librarian in Iowa. We ended up connecting again in the spring semester. I remember our first webcam session was on one of her snow days. During the session, I gave her a tour of our newly renovated library. Lynn and I connected immediately. At a district library media specialist professional ...

The last quarter of this year was full of PARCC testing. It was a challenge to have our usual library collaborative programs due to the library being used as a testing center. However, Mr. Brian Johnson, Library Media Specialist at Springdale Junior High and I managed to squeeze in one last Google Hangout before the school year ended. Last year we successfully started these Hangouts with our two schools. Brian appropriately named them "Lakeside Squared" since both of our schools bear the name Lakeside even though they are located more than 200 miles apart. We had been messaging each other for weeks trying to come up with something unique to bring our two schools together. We finally settled on bringing Spanish classes into our libraries for the Hangout. Springdale students peform their Telenovelas for us The goal was for the Springdale Spanish classes to share their Telenovelas (brief dramatic skits) via webcam. Over the course of our messaging and planning, it develope...

"Alone we are strong... together we are stronger." As an educator, I have learned that it is impossible to be an expert in all areas. We must have resources to help us in our weak areas. It is not a sign of weakness to ask others for help or to reach out to those resources. In addition, we should share what works for us with others. I encourage everyone to share your best programming locally at your own school and also at professional conferences! We all have programs that connect well with our learning communities, and we should share these to inspire others! What if we all connected with great teachers on social media and shared our best ideas? Here is an example of how these concepts can benefit everyone: During the summer of 2014 my LHS teacher librarian partner (Mrs. Misti Bell) and I had the privilege of presenting at the High Schools That Work c onference in Nashville, Tennessee. We presented our most successful common core library collaborations with a...