by Judi Moreillon, April 2015

Building collaborative relationships with library stakeholders is essential work for school librarians. It, therefore, seems most important to focus this collaborative work on those people seen every day: administrators, classroom teachers, and students. However, parents and community members may be an untapped resource. Growing a mutually beneficial relationship with these stakeholders is a worthwhile activity, too. Through collaborative efforts, these adults can become a rich source of support for the program and ardent advocates for the work of the professional school librarian and the central role of the library program in student learning.

Adult Library Volunteers

Enlisting adult volunteers in library management is a way to “make the ‘invisible’ work of the library visible” (Bogel 2013, 26). Parent, grandparent, and caretaker volunteers may sign up to work in the library on a specific day of the week for a regular number of hours. These volunteers learn library management routines and can serve the library program and school community in many ways. Other volunteers may stop by when they have a minute, pitching in to shelve books or check books in or out. Still others may provide one-time volunteer support through working at book fairs or other literacy events. In all cases, adult library volunteers, who are part of the library “in action,” will have a solid understanding of the importance of school libraries in students’ literacy learning.

Adults who volunteer on specific days and times can also support the teaching team in the library. For example, if classroom teachers and the librarian have planned a set of learning centers where students engage in various activities, an adult volunteer can be trained to facilitate one of the centers. Adult volunteers can also be trained to mentor individual students who may need extra support to navigate the Web or the library’s databases. Working with small groups or individual students can be rewarding for volunteers as well as beneficial for students.

At all levels, adult volunteers can be invited to read to individual or small groups of students. Librarians may organize parents' reading in the library or classrooms during special events or spontaneously. A volunteer who is in the library for the purpose of shelving books may notice a student who could use a little extra attention. For students striving to hear more fluent reading, these special moments can bolster positive associations with literacy and the library while they are also memorable for adult volunteers.

Parents, Caregivers, and Pre-K Children

School librarians are aware of the critical importance of family literacy to a child’s long-term schooling success. Across the country, public library counterparts are integrating the second iteration of Every Child Ready to Read® (ECRR2) into their programming. Sponsored by the American Library Association, the Public Library Association, and the Association for Library Service to Children, this program focuses on teaching parents and caregivers strategies for supporting young children’s literacy development. Based on the five activities of reading, singing, talking, playing, and writing, ECRR2 programs may be conducted during storytimes or in separate parent workshops.

It is a worthwhile endeavor to use this program as a vehicle for reaching out to families as partners in literacy education and to prepare children for kindergarten. Some elementary school libraries can use existing preschool or Head Start programs for this work; some secondary school libraries have programs for teen parents. Dallas (Texas) Independent School District elementary school librarian, Mary Thweatt, recognized a need for creating such a partnership between the families in her community and their school. Fifty families participated in the PK Parent Reading Academy that she co-developed with her school’s reading coach. These families applied the literacy skills they learned in the program to enrich their children’s learning at home. As Mary notes, school librarians are “constantly weaving webs of connectivity—webs between school, community, and home” (Thweatt 2012, 9).

Community Experts

Identifying assets in the community to support student learning can be a critical contribution of a connected school librarian. Many community members have expertise to share with individual students, small groups, whole classes, or with teachers only. If asked, experts who are speaking at the local public library branch or community center may be willing to share their presentation at the school site, too. School librarians may also invite local politicians on each side to present their platforms in a school event. Collaborating for such a visit with civics and social studies teachers can result in better prepared student questions and a richer learning experience. From training service dogs to the latest exhibit at a local museum to the work of political candidates, the information these experts share adds real-world relevance to school curricula.

School librarians can also connect students involved in inquiry projects with experts who can answer their questions. Through classroom-library collaboration, for example, educators can help students who are studying native peoples connect with members of a local tribe or nation. Students with questions related to chemistry may benefit from a field trip to a university lab or seek the guidance of a chemistry professor via Skype or in person. Elderly members of the community are a rich resource of history and help students better understand events that have shaped the present world. Many community experts will welcome this opportunity.

Community members with expertise in specific fields may also be essential members of the library’s advisory committee. A parent or community member who works in the technology industry may help guide the school’s or library’s technology plan. Another parent may be a bookstore owner, a grant writer, or a publicist. Giving these adults opportunities to help shape and develop the school library program can be a benefit to all.

Advocates All

When adult stakeholders invest their time and talents in the school library program and experience the library as a learning hub for young people, they will likely become ardent advocates for the work of the school librarian and the role of the library program in 21st-century education. These adults will be willing to speak up and out when the library program has unmet needs; they will be motivated to advocate for the program should it be threatened by budget or staffing cuts.

In Washington State, the Spokane Moms (Kaaland 2008) and Bellevue School District library advocate Jeani Littrell-Qwik (Kaaland 2013) knew the critical role of the library in increased student learning and college and career readiness. As a result, these stakeholders were willing to give their time and talents—over a period of years—to help the decision-makers in their school districts make the best choices, or reverse short-sighted decisions related to library staffing cuts. When parents, caregivers, and community members truly experience their place as stakeholders in the library program, they will be primed to engage in advocacy when and if it is needed. Collaborating with these stakeholders benefits students, educators, the library program, and the stakeholders themselves.

Originally published in School Library Monthly, 31, no. 6 (April 2015).