Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage edited by Judi Moreillon

Chapter 1: "Equity" by Erika Long and Suzanne Sherman

When school librarians are committed to providing equitable access, they have the courage to take action to ensure that all library stakeholders have equitable access to learning opportunities, including resources in all formats, technology tools and devices that meet all stakeholders' needs, and the work of a state-certified school librarian.

1. What steps will you take to ensure equitable access for all learners?

2. Think critically to discover which group(s) of learners lack equitable access. What or who can this be attributed to? How can you eliminate barriers to access?

Activity: Removing Barriers

Use an electronic tool to create a three-column chart.

Step One

In the left-hand column, brainstorm a list of library stakeholders (one per line) who may be underserved within the school or local community. Underserved students could identify as Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) and/or LGBTQIA+, learning English as a second language, new members of the community such as refugee students, students who are neurodiverse, or who receive or should receive special education services.

Step Two

In the center column and on the same line as each entry, identify the possible cause or causes (barriers) that result in each member or group of members of the learning community being underserved.

Step Three

In the right-hand column, note what barriers you can remove in order to provide equitable access to library materials, services, and programing. Bold the names/positions of other people who will work with you to take action to eliminate these barriers.

Example:

Step Four

As a place to begin, highlight the entire line of two or three underserved individuals or groups. Reach out to the person or people whose names or organizations you identified as collaborators for this work and together take action to remove barriers and achieve greater equity for underserved students.

Step Five

Repeat until you have removed all barriers. Periodically audit your equity actions to ensure that other barriers have not arisen that could disadvantage any students or other library stakeholders in your care.

Chapter 2: Diversity by Julie Stivers, Stephanie Powell, and Nancy Jo Lambert

1. How has your own cultural context influenced the books you've read—both within school and personally? How has this shaped your collection development frameworks as a school librarian?

2. What steps can you take to affirm diversity beyond the library and reflect on how you can influence stakeholders—and especially other educators—throughout your school?

Activity: Extending Diversity into the Classroom Curriculum

Step One

Identify a particular author, genre, or topic that is well-presented in the library collection but is currently lacking connections and use in the classroom curriculum or in school-wide events. Examples could include BIPOC authors, manga, or resources that address gender identities.

Step Two

Identify a colleague who is an ally for diversity. If appropriate, select a classroom teacher, specialist, counselor, social worker, nurse, or other member of the staff who may have a personal connection to the diverse author, genre, or topic. Ask to meet with them.

Step Three

Propose that you collaborate to develop a lesson plan, unit of study, or event for which this particular example of diversity (EOD) could be spotlighted or seamlessly integrated into the learning event. Together, notice and note the impact of this work on students for whom this EOD could make a personally meaningful difference.

Step Four

Collect and share with administrators and other faculty members anecdotal data and direct measures of student engagement and learning outcomes that correlate with the integration of diverse resources into the classroom curriculum.

Step Five

Repeat with this or other colleagues to further increase relevant learning opportunities for students and the reach of your sphere of influence.

Chapter 3: Inclusion by Meg Boisseau Allison and Peter Patrick Langella

1. In what ways do you reinforce inequities and injustices by choosing what you remain silent about?

2. How can you cocreate a sense of belonging for all students, across all intersectional identity groups? Note: Intersectional identities include overlapping and interdependent identity markers such as race, gender, socio-economic class, religion, language, and more.

Activity: Audit Your Welcome

Step One

Ask the library advisory team to write an introduction to the "Welcome" audit that shares why it is being conducted—to ensure that everyone across all intersectional groups feels welcome in the library space. Ask the team to create maps of the physical space of the library, including a view of the library from immediately outside its doors. The maps can be as detailed as the students want to make them. (If working with younger students, you may need to compose the introduction and make the map or maps in collaboration with the students.) Make copies of the maps.

Step Two

Invite the library student advisory team and students who represent diverse library stakeholders—such as elementary-age students from various grade levels, members of various clubs, sports teams, or who participate in diverse extracurricular activities—to serve as auditors to conduct a "welcome" audit of the library space. Be sure to include students who regularly frequent the library AND those who do not.

Step Three

Ask students to use a map to star signage, spaces, displays, furniture, and the like that make them feel particularly welcome in the library. (This may need to be a guided tour with younger students.) Ask students to write or draw in spaces that could be more welcoming or could use a refresh. Ask them to mark with an "X" features or areas of the library that are off-putting or unwelcoming.

Step Four

Review the maps with the student advisory team, the library assistant, and/or an administrator and make the needed improvements. If appropriate, ask your administrator for supplies—such as paint, shelving, furniture, and the like—to address the changes students have suggested.

Step Five

When the library space has been improved, collaborate with the student advisory team to design a public relations effort to let the learning community know everyone is welcome in the improved library space. A slogan such as "Feel at Home in the Library" could be part of an announcement, a celebration, and/or decorations that reinforce the message that "everyone is welcome here." Acknowledge everyone who participated in the audit and supported the library refresh.

Additional Steps

Conduct similar "welcome and belonging" audits with other educators, volunteers, or families. Change the focus of the audit to include library programming, including school-wide literacy and other initiatives, and classroom-library collaboration. In all cases, after gathering and analyzing the data work with others to make the necessary changes to increase library stakeholders' experiences of welcome and belonging.

Chapter 4: Intellectual Freedom by Suzanne Sannwald and Dan McDowell

1. What policies do you need to review and develop or update for your school and district? What do you need to read and learn more about?

2. In what ways can you more intentionally and actively maintain and advocate for intellectual freedom in your school community, both within and beyond the library?

Activity: Intellectual Freedom in Everyday Practice

Step One

Review the various ways Suzanne Sannwald and Dan McDowell discuss how school librarians and other educators enact intellectual freedom in their daily practice.

Step Two

Using an electronic tool, create a table personalized to your context with intellectual freedom (IF) examples such as the ones listed below:

Step Three

Collect data for a week or month that show how you, the library staff, your building-level or district-level colleagues are taking action for intellectual freedom in practice. Include names, dates, and notes that you will use in sharing this information.

Step Four

Celebrate your findings with a trusted ally because enacting intellectual freedom takes commitment and requires courage.

Step Five

Share your findings with colleagues, building-level and district-level administrators, and decision-makers. Write about this work for the library newsletter, school or district newsletter, or for publication in a school librarian or administrator publication. For a wider readership and greater impact, co-author the article with a site-based, district-level, or PLN colleague with whom you collaborated.

Chapter 5: Relationships by Jennifer Sturge with Stacy Allen and Sandy Walker

1. In developing resource collections and lessons, how are you building the necessary partnerships to ensure that young people are connecting with diverse, relevant literature and information that is accessible for all?

2. Stepping out of the library to build collaborative relationships with other educators takes courage. What steps will you take to build successful classroom-library partnerships and relationships that last with other library professionals?

Activity: __________ Relationships Graphic

Using an electronic format or a piece of blank paper, make a dollar pancake-sized circle in the middle. Make three concentric circles around the center circle. Starting at the center label the circles: A, B, C, and D. Then follow these steps.

Step One

Fill in the blank to title this activity by choosing a sphere of influence: School, District, Professional Network, or other network in which you have influence.

Step Two

Circle A: Place the library or other "place" such as the district office in the center ring.

Step Three

Circle B. In the first ring from the center, record the names of people with whom you currently have a mutually beneficial collaborative relationship. These are colleagues with whom peers gain reciprocal mentorship from working with one another. Draw two-way arrows between each person and the center ring.

Step Four

Circle C. In the second ring from the center, record the names of people with whom you currently have a one-way relationship. These could be colleagues who use your services such as resources without involving you in planning instruction, or administrators who direct your work without input from you. Draw one-way arrows as appropriate between each person and the center ring.

Step Five

Circle D. In the third ring from the center, record the names of people who currently have no relationship with the center space.

Step Six

Reflect on the strengths and areas for improvement in your graphic. Note where other formal or informal leaders are recorded on your graphic. Ask yourself questions such as:

1. What is the strength of my relationship with my administrator/supervisor or other formal leaders?
2. Which content areas educators or department chairs or directors are missing from Circle B?
3. How can I continue to develop the relationships in Circle C?
4. Are there any commonalities among the people whose names are recorded in Circle D?
5. Where did I place students, families, district-level leaders, and/or community members on this graphic?

Step Seven

Share your graphic with a trusted colleague and discuss your plan for strengthening relationships in your learning community. Answer the question: In what ways will you express and disseminate school librarianship core values as you further develop relationships within your spheres of influence?

Chapter 6: Principal-School Librarian Partnerships by Kelly Gustafson and M. E. Shenefiel

1. What opportunities exist for you to be a leader within your building and district?

2. How does a communication plan demonstrate your efforts to collaborate with the principal as an ally?

Activity: Know Your Administrator Ally

The goal of deeply knowing your administrators and developing mutually beneficial relationships with them is to colead school, district, or organizational change that results in improved outcomes for students.

Step One

Make an appointment to meet one-on-one with your site- or district-level administrator. Let them know you are seeking to codevelop a communication plan between their office and the library program. If appropriate and time allows, you may suggest an informal meeting at a coffee shop or some other place away from school.

Step Two

Set an informal or formal tone to the meeting depending on your current relationship with your administrator. Express your intention to make sure the library program is actively supporting the administrator's goals and initiatives. From the outset, make sure you are clear as to what those goals and initiatives are for the current school year and beyond.

Step Three

Determine the modality (email, text messages, phone calls, face-to-face meetings) and frequency (weekly, bi-monthly, monthly) of your administrator's preferred communication. Ask your administrator if they have specific needs for your reporting of library services and activities such as a quarterly report submitted to the administrator, a monthly contribution to the school newsletter, and/or email blasts to the faculty and families.

Step Four

Express your desire for their support to expand your leadership role within the school or district. Share how you can contribute in faculty meetings, provide professional development opportunities, and/or serve on school- or district-level committees. Ask for their advice for the best way for you to go forward in the leadership direction.

Step Five

Keep your commitments to your administrator and jointly revisit your communication plan as needed. Be trustworthy, proactive, and keep your administrator as a close ally for your work and for the library program.

Chapter 7: Leadership by Pam Harland and Anita Cellucci

1. How do you demonstrate vulnerability and confidence in your leadership practice?

2. What difference have you made/hope to make in your school culture as a school librarian leader?

Activity: Authentic Leadership

Vulnerability helps school librarians build trust with others and confidence provides support for leadership. It is difficult to determine which one comes before the other. In this activity, you may choose to explore them in the order that best meets your needs.

Step One: Vulnerability

According to author/researcher Brené Brown, vulnerability means demonstrating "uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure" (2012, 34). Reflect on times you have shown vulnerability in front of students, colleagues, administrators, and community. Use a chart similar to the one below to record examples of with whom you were vulnerable, what you did, and how you and/or they felt as a result.

Step Two: Vulnerability

Reflect on how showing vulnerability makes you more human, approachable, and trustworthy. Note how being vulnerable strengthens your relationships with others and results in leadership opportunities for you and for others in the learning community.

Step Three: Confidence

"Confidence is the feeling of self-assurance arising from a belief that we have the necessary support and resources" (Oxford University Press). Create a gratitude journal or chart such as the one that follows to record instances of confidence-building experiences in your library work life.

Step Four: Confidence

Reflect on how you can reciprocate with similar instances that build confidence in others. Record examples of both growing your own and building others' confidence in a gratitude journal. Note how confidence strengthens leadership in the learning community.

References

Brown, Brené. 2012. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. New York: Avery.

Oxford University Press. 2018. "Confidence. Def. 1.2." Oxford Dictionaries. Available at https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/confidence. Accessed November 1, 2021.

Chapter 8: Advocacy by Kristin Fraga Sierra and TuesD Chambers

There are three communication modalities commonly used in libraries and other organizations to improve their services. Marketing involves one-way communication to learn what stakeholders experience, want, or need from the school library program. Public relations (PR) is one-way communication in which the librarian shares the resources, services, and activities available through the library program that benefit library stakeholders. Advocacy involves the librarian and advocates for the library in speaking up for a specific "ask" that will benefit library stakeholders.

1. What is one method or example of advocacy described in this chapter that you are now inspired to get to work on? Why?

2. What types of advocacy have you led or been a part of in your career or schooling experience that had you nodding your head in agreement as you read this chapter? What were the outcomes?

Activity: Marketing and Public Relations Create Advocates

Step One

Use an electronic tool to create a table that records evidence of marketing, PR, and advocacy partners' efforts and outcomes.

Step Two

Curate and maintain records of these examples to use in library communications, including your quarterly report to your administrators. "It takes a special kind of curator to gather these voices for others to see and hear until our advocates' voices become impossible to ignore" (Sierra and Chambers, 137).

Step Three

Reflect on the marketing, PR, and advocacy work you are currently doing in your school. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I know how all library stakeholders are experiencing the library resources, services, and program? Whose perspectives, wants, and needs are missing?
2. Have I reached out to invite all library stakeholders to participate in guiding and improving the library program? Whose input is missing?
3. Are all library stakeholders given opportunities to advocate for the library program by asking for resources or services that could improve student learning and educators' teaching?

Step Four

Thank advocates via thank-you notes, a special event such as an advocates' breakfast or lunch, or public acknowledgement of the library advocates who have stepped up and spoken out on behalf of the library collection and program and the role of the school librarian in learning and teaching.

Chapter 9: Collaboration by Judi Moreillon

1. With whom in your school do you share your vision for building a collaborative culture of learning?

2. In order to achieve a school culture of deeper learning, what role have you played or will you play in bringing conversations and actions related to social justice to the fore in your teaching, school, district, and community?

Activity: Your Plan for Values-Centered Collaboration

"The very meaning of equity charges us to diffuse values, beliefs, and opportunities throughout the learning community" (Moreillon, 147). This activity is designed to help school librarians transform teaching and learning in their schools by reflecting on how they enact EDII in school libraries and then disseminate core values through collaborative actions in order to infuse social justice values and effective practices throughout the learning community.

Step One

Use an electronic tool or a piece of paper to create a two-column table with five boxes in each column. In the top column on the left, write the word "library" and write the word "community" at the top of the right-hand column. Write one word in each box below library in the left-hand column: "equity", "diversity," "inclusion," and "intellectual freedom." See the example below.

Step Two

In each EDII box, record actions you are currently taking to enact core values in the library space and through the library program.

Step Three

Consider each example. Brainstorm possible ways to enact collaborative work with others in order to disseminate the impact of that EDII action into the learning community. Choose one that you believe will make a positive impact on students, educators, families, or community. Record that future action in the right-hand column. Begin each entry with "collaborate with." For maximum commitment to these activities, identify specific students or colleagues with whom you will collaborate to disseminate each core value in action.

Note: If you have empty cells, use this knowledge to help you improve your practice through the library or enlist others, including your administrator, to help you identify ways to spread this value in the learning community.

Step Four

Share your collaborative work with your administrator(s), faculty, and professional colleagues. Celebrate and publicize the actions you've taken in co-creating a values-centered culture of deeper learning centered on equity, diversity, inclusion, and intellectual freedom.