Monthly Archives: May 2009
…and the horse you rode in on
I was in Perry, Georgia last week for the Region XII Arabian Horse Show. My daughter and I qualified for regionals on our horse, MWF Ultimate, so we were excited to be there. My daughter is a beautiful rider with nerves of steel and she confidently rides “Timmy” into the arena with 19 other horses. I, on the other hand, am a somewhat nervous rider and I always breathe a sigh of relief when I find out that my “49 and over” age-group class has less than 15 riders. It’s not that I don’t know how to ride because I do. It’s not that my horse is not a contender because he is. It’s because I am a worrier by nature and I’m always thinking about all the things that could go horribly wrong while I’m stuffed into a pair of skin-tight riding jods and a dress shirt with a strangling hunt collar. Not pretty.
Well, I rode into the arena with 13 other riders for the championship. I did a decent job with a few minor mistakes but I felt pretty good about myself and my horse’s performance. The judges did not agree. My number didn’t make it onto the board, much less onto a judge’s card. I went out with a smile on my face, though. Why? Because I faced my fear, did the best I thought I could do, and came out still in the saddle – three good things. It wasn’t enough for a ribbon but, for now, it’s enough for me.
Now I’m sure you’re wondering what this has to do with libraries. Perhaps very little but when I thought about that show and then thought about this past Legislative session I saw some parallels. For one, the competition for funding this year was tough. The pie was significantly smaller but it still had to feed the same number of programs. While we did not see a per-pupil reduction we did see our funding rolled into the general operating budget – thus disappearing for many, many libraries across our state. The legislators I spoke with believed that system administrators would not actually re-route their media centers’ money. They did not believe that expenditure controls currently in place are being routinely ignored either but you and I both know that is not the case. It did not matter that we rode in on a beautiful horse and that our talking points were on target – we didn’t make it to the final round and all our hard work seemed for naught.
I’m disappointed that we worked as hard as we did to get the word out to our administrators, our supervisors, our teachers, and our parents and the uproar fell on deaf ears. I’m angry that there is constant pressure on teacher-librarians to prove that we are educators and to prove that we have an impact on student achievement. I’m dumbfounded when I see that media center budgets and staffing are consistently on the chopping block when our governments begin looking for places to save money.
I don’t know about you but I am not one to go home with my tail tucked between my legs. If I don’t get what I want I try a little harder next time. I’m not going to sell my horse to a Girl Scout Camp and I’m not going to throw up my hands, say “oh, well,” and stop fighting for recognition, respect, and funding in Georgia’s school libraries. It’s the right thing to do – and I need your help. Don’t sit back and wait for others to do the work for you, my library friends. Every single librarian that works in a Georgia public school needs to step out of the comfort zone and start being the squeaky wheel. If we remain silent for fear of losing our jobs then, I believe, we will quietly lose them.
Sign up for Summer Institute and help librarians from all over the state align Information Literacy Skills with GPS. Make time to attend COMO XXI to learn something new that you can bring back to your school. Volunteer to be a judge at the State Media Festival to see what students are doing with, in many cases, some very basic equipment. Sponsor a Reading Bowl Team. Show up to Leadership Team meetings whether you were invited or not. Show up to grade and department level meetings with a notebook in your hand and a smile on your face. Invite your principal to have lunch with you in your media center once a month and build some rapport that may go a long way towards getting to deliver the program you want. Whether you’re a proven dynamo or a fledgling that is a little bit afraid to fly you need to take a hard look at yourself and your program to see where you can plug in something new. I know it isn’t easy but excellence doesn’t come that way.
I’m stepping off the soapbox now. The legislative season is over; however, show season is not. I’m going to spend the summer reading Toni Buzzeo’s new book about collaboration and working with media specialists on aligning Info Lit and GPS and reading Librarians as Learning Specialists and looking at CRCT data for holes to plug. Then I’m going to get on my horse and see if I can figure out how to improve our partnership so I can ride into an arena full of horses and know that we are going to shine. Practice makes perfect.
Thanks are Welcome
Being a lowly graduate student in an SLMS program has made me realize how important good mentors are and how important it is to thank them. While we toss around buzzwords like “PLN” it’s good to remember that these are indeed people and the help they give newbies like us to the field is invaluable.
So whether you have mentored by writing articles, blogging, teaching or taking on the job of working with an intern know that you are appreciated. If you are a fellow SLM student, don’t forget the thanks!
Buffy posted about a thank you she recently received from a fellow SLMS student in my program, Jennifer Lewis. She said the email “absolutely made my day” and goes on to thank other librarians she’d worked with.
On my own blog not too long ago, I wrote a post thanking many of my commentors and got this response from someone who is a mentor to so many of us, it’s hard to believe he has the time for this kind of thing:
“You are one of the freshest voices in the field right now and I never miss one of your posts. When you get to be a geezer like me, you’ll find that encouraging new leaders and thinkers is what it’s all about.”
I’ll be living off the high I got from that one for years to come…
So yes, Appreciation Weeks are all fine and all, but it’s the personal thanks from those of us being encouraged that can also be part of what it’s all about.
Thanks!
Jim Randolph
Weeding the Professional Collection
I often get interesting questions from alumni. This question came earlier this month, and since it’s a little different than the typical, I thought I’d share it with you:
What criteria should you use when weeding the Professional collection?
Back in my media specialist days, I inherited an incredibly messy jumble of dusty, unorganized things in the professional collection. It hardly qualified as a section, and I ended up throwing most of it out. I’ll bet many of you can identify with this!
Things I might consider weeding:
- things involving expired educational “fads” more than 5 years old
- things involving outdated standards in any subject area
- things that haven’t been used much, despite reasonable efforts at promotion
- books that cite old research that has been superseded, but keep until updates are purchased
- tech-related items having to do with now-unusable technology (Windows 3.x, anyone?)
- anything raggedy or yellowed, although I might keep worn things longer in this area than I would for students
Things to consider keeping:
- classic educational theory (like Piaget, etc.), if not too moldery
So that’s a start! Would love to hear additional ideas, especially if they apply particularly to Professional items.
Mary Ann Fitzgerald – University of Georgia
Introducing: The World Digital Library
UNESCO and 32 partner institutions have recently launched The World Digital Library. The Library of Congress joins libraries from around the world including the National Libraries of Brazil, China, France, Israel, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Uganda, and more to provide free access to multicultural materials. These primary sources include manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. The World Digital Library functions in seven languages―Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish―and includes content in more than 40 languages.
Tawhiao
