Library Media Tech Talk

This week I had a wonderful opportunity to present to my teacher librarian friends on a TL Virtual Cafe webinar. I have to admit that I was both nervous and excited to speak to colleagues across the nation using this presentation format. The topic I was requested to present was Future Ready Librarians . To prepare, I researched the topic online. I discovered a blog article by Joyce Valenza that revealed the background information on Future Ready Schools. Superintendents that take the Future Ready Pledge are agreeing to make meaningful changes in their district's curriculum toward a digital learning transition. I also discovered a lot of excellent information on the FutureReady.org Librarians Page.   There are numerous Future Ready components that we can strive to provide for our learning communities through our library services. In fact, if we could aspire to show evidence in each of these areas, we would have an exemplary school library program. In our school library pro...

Six Ways To Become More Indispensable It worries me when I hear that some schools in other states are doing away with their school librarians. This is a time when librarians are needed more than ever in schools since we have training in literacy, research skills, and technology. With these skills at our disposal, how can districts simply choose to eliminate these positions? I think there are many reasons; and among these are reduced school budgets and perhaps a perception that librarians only check out books. I want to make my position indispensable so that stakeholders never want to eliminate it. These six steps are simple and can help you change how your position is viewed. It doesn't happen overnight since it is a process. Please, consider making these six steps a part of your daily best practices, even when you may not feel like it. You WILL see a difference over time! I am not perfect at any of these points, but I try very hard to do each of them. Let's examine some pra...

I have started another educational adventure this summer. I have wanted to start an American Library Association (ALA) accredited Master of Library Science degree for several years. I finally took the plunge to return to graduate school since our high school will begin offering an associate's degree program this fall. I thought it might be interesting to pursue the training of an academic librarian to better serve our students at Lakeside High School. I began study at the University of North Texas today in my first graduate course since 2009. One of the first discussion topics the professor brought up in the Web Institute class was "Why are libraries still needed?" This is not a topic I generally ponder in my daily mission as a school library media specialist. It is one we all need to consider since there are many people that think technology and the Internet have made the library an outdated resource. Because of this threat, we should strive to make our library ...