Librarian Philosopher

A School Librarian has to know a lot of things. She needs to know the literature that meets her students’ needs. She needs to know the curriculum that the classroom teachers teach her students. She needs to know the research that identifies best practices for her profession. She needs to know the district policies that guide some of her actions. She needs to know the standards that guide her program. She needs to know the department goals that focus her efforts. She needs to know child development that helps her lead her students. She needs to know human nature that helps her build relationships with the staff she serves. She needs to know politics that guide her advocacy for her program. She needs to know some about technology and how to trouble shoot its workings because so much depends on technology these days. And she needs to know some about what to do with the technology that will benefit her students.

There are lots of ways to learn and keep learning these many things and many others. Summer classes are a way to learn. Summer academies give an extended time to learn and apply. After school workshops help keep current on some items. Saturday professional association workshops help introduce new topics. Annual conference help learn new best practices. Reading in journals helps know the literature and other topics. Mandatory staff development help learn things that others thing you need to know. Monthly meetings introduce many topics.

Now there is a new fun way to do a little Professional Development and enjoy it. Librarians all across the
USA are doing some structured, but self-paced online PJPD (Pajama Professional Development). The structure is created and the learning is self-guided. The concept is usually referred to as “23 Things” because over 9 weeks or so you will learn 23 things about social networking and/or Web 2.0. These are the tools we need to be aware of while we design the learning for our students over the next few years.

This concept of online development on 23 social networking things started in a Public Library in
North Carolina. Helene Blowers, Technology Director, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County devised a program called Learning 2.0 for the Public Library staff to catch-up with the Web 2.0 social networking tools needed to serve the public knowledgeably. Helen based her training loosely upon Stephen Abram’s article, 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - February 2006) and the website 43 Things. 

Over 9 weeks the staff would be given some instructions and assignments for 2 or 3 tools on the web each week and then asked to reflect and write about what they had learned. The learning was fun and a great success. Since the original “23 Things” several others have replicated the adventure. The California School Library Association created a “23 Things” learning opportunity for their members. The Harris County Public Library System did a “23 Things” for their staff and had so much fun and success they decided to do one for their patrons. And to mention one more, Mesquite ISD in northeast Texas started a “23 Things” for their Librarians this fall. All of these attempts to make learning fun seem to be successful from listening to their creators report and by reading the reflections of the participants. 

Now Spring Branch ISD Library Information Services Department is starting a “23 Things” for their Librarians, Teachers, and Community members. We will start on Monday December 10, 2007 and run until Monday, March 24, 2008. Although this is more than 9 weeks we wanted to include some vacation time (Christmas and Spring Break) because we know how busy our Librarians are. 

The process is very simple. The Librarian will go to the Blog that contains all the instructions for the 23 things to learn. The Librarians will follow the instructions for each of the 23 things. Thing #1 is an overview. Thing #2 is a little inspiration about learning. Thing #3 stuff really gets interesting because the participants will be guided into making their own blog to record their reflections and to post some products they will be making over the next 20 things. 

Now is the goal of this learning that every one becomes a blogger? NO! The goal is to expose Librarians (and others) to the social networking and Web 2.0 tools that many of our students already know. Many of these tools are used for manipulating information by our students. If we as Librarians do not at least know about these information tools, then our students will not respect us in areas of other information management tools because we do not know what the students know. 

So, in addition to having fun learning new things, the goal is to become aware of tools that many of our students already understand. If we discover ways to use these tools in our arranging learning for our students then all the better. If we discover ways to use these tools in our private lives then great. 

We anticipate the learning to take about 2 hours a week on your own time. In our discussions about how we will serve our students differently after adding new technology next year there were many who asked for more training. We have been offering training for many years after school and the attendance has dropped off to nearly nothing. And we are really not that bad of instructors (well Liz and Vaughn are not). And one thing is assumed in Professional Development is that it is for professionals. One definition of a professional includes staying current in a highly skilled occupation. No one wants to go to a doctor who has not continued learning after they graduated. Although we are concerned not with life but life-long learning, we still need to continue our learning. 

So, if you are ready to try a new way of continuing your life-long-learning example for you students go to Library2Play and have FUN!