School Librarians Are Leaders - and Magnifiers

So far in this series, we have looked at the big picture of school librarians in Distance Learning situations, and at Librarians as Instructional Partners and Teachers. Today, we’ll consider Librarians as Leaders. [School Librarian Role in Pandemic Learning is the full document from which these posts stem.]

Think of school librarians as magnifiers: they have the knowledge and skillset to magnify the impact of classroom learning. When the librarian teams with a classroom teacher to build a stronger research component for the classroom topic, the learning is stronger and the academic effect magnified. Building on their skills as Instructional Partners and Teachers as they remain constantly aware of the big picture curricular needs, librarians bring curriculum design skills to the planning table - some include student research projects, but some “just” work behind the scenes to help the classroom teachers shine by offering additional content that spices up a textbook lesson. Especially in these times of distance learning, librarian knowledge of digital tools and resources can dramatically expand every teacher’s toolbox for great lessons. Librarians not only introduce new options to teachers to see if they are the right fit; they complete their leadership role by teaching the teachers AND the students how to use these new resources. 

​Leadership is stepping out of one’s own enclosed job space to help the broader community. Librarians are leading every day as they offer ideas to teachers, administrators, and students,  ideas that contribute to stronger student literacy skills and academic achievement.

School board members are leaders in our community. Strong elected leaders want to be sure the entities they supervise, in this case the schools, are filled with strong leaders to help forward the community (specifically the students) toward their goals of literacy and academic success, even excellence. Campus principals and other administrators should be able to rely on great librarians to help every teacher look great and every student be successful. But no one can rely on a strong librarian if there is none in place.

Your questions of the week today: 
Ask your principals: What is an example of leadership as defined here demonstrated by the librarian on their campus?
Ask yourself: Which librarian in an HISD school would I like to meet to learn more about how librarians might benefit HISD more? (No need to limit yourself to one. Set up a Zoom or Facetime conversation with as many as you like!)