School Library Media Manager, Chapters 8 and 10

School Library Media Manager, Chapters 8 and 10

Chapter 8 On the Job: Managing Access to Information

            Chapter 8 was a very interesting chapter, especially the part about the right to privacy. I knew about protecting the rights of our patrons and not handing over personal information without a subpoena because we had the FBI requesting customer information from our store one time and we refused. We told them they had to get a court order and they didn’t come back, thank goodness. But, I didn’t think there was anything one could do if a subpoena was issued. This chapter states that we are to go further—resist until they show just cause in a court of law. Wow! I hadn’t thought of that. I figured that once a subpoena was served, that was it. I do like that there is help through the American Library Association with issues like this. It’s great to know that a library media specialist doesn’t have to go through something like that alone. I also thought adopting a user-confidentiality policy was a great idea.

            The area that I didn’t know anything about was the filtering process. I found this information fascinating. For instance, I didn’t know (until I read one of the required articles) that one of the ways that school district filters is by word recognition. In the article, it talked about how a teacher couldn’t pull up real World War II photographs because they were taken on Bikini Island and the word bikini is a no-no. I didn’t realize “often this process is managed by clerks who pick out words that are on a list of possible offensive terms.” (Woolls, 129) Filtering by word recognition is a ridiculous way to filter. Frankly, I don’t think schools should filter at all, especially in the upper grades. This may seem radical, but students are smart enough to get around filters, that it is more important that students and their parents sign an Internet usage agreement that puts the responsibility for proper use on them. The other type of filtering is when they don’t allow access to Web sites like You Tube and Facebook. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop any new Web sites that crop up all the time. Personally, I think it’s a waste of time and money. I’d rather use that time and money to teach digital citizenship to our students and teachers instead.

Chapter 10: On the Job: Managing Services

            I have to say that after reading most of this book, I am a bit overwhelmed by all the things I’m supposed to know and do. Wow! It sounds to me like library media specialists should know how all the teachers think and teach, know how all the students learn and be able to solve learning  problems in every grade level. Again, wow! At Riverbend, I’m not sure but I suspect that most of the teachers think of the librarian as someone who checks books out to students, keeps track of equipment they need and someone who sets up audiovisual equipment for school assemblies. I doubt any of them except the technology teacher have ever thought of asking the librarian to collaborate on curricular projects or units.

            I did go to one of the history teachers and talked with her about some ideas I have for enhancing the Civil War unit and she was definitely receptive. We’re going to talk more in August. I’m hoping the new head librarian will be more in line with 21^st century library media specialists than my last librarian. She was very content to just fix technological problems and check out books. She wasn’t into helping at all with lesson plans or helping the students learn how to do proper research or to cite properly. I am eager to work with the new librarian to change the whole school’s attitude about our library. I think we can use some of the suggestions in this chapter to find out what our teachers and students know about the library and the services offered. I love the “Sample List of Library Media Center Service” found on page 172. I think we can use a similar form to find out about what teachers think are most important for our library to offer. (Woolls/172)

            I also love the idea of the library becoming a working classroom. We have a great computer lab attached to the library, so we can definitely hold some classes in the library without disturbing the rest of the library. And I want very much to work with the teachers to do in-service technology training. I love the idea of giving them new Web sites to check out or new tools to use and have them figure out how they could use them in their classrooms.  I want our library to become such an integral part of the school that no one there can imagine living without it or the librarian. (Or at least the aide!)

Citation:

Woolls, Blanche.  The School Library Media Manager.  Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 2008.