Soft Skills for School Librarians

Course

Communication Skills [3:50]

Learn key communication skills to strengthen your professional relationships.

Professional relationships are built on strong communication, particularly in a school community where teachers, students, and administrators come together every day. Librarians are in a unique position to connect with everyone who belongs to that community, which means good communication skills are essential to the job. Let's look at three key areas to foster these skills: active listening, identifying common ground, and intentional use of nonverbal communication.

Active listening skills are vital for librarians, since you have the opportunity to learn about the daily challenges both students and fellow educators face. When people feel heard, they feel respected. The classroom teacher voicing concern about her students' reading habits, the student needing to talk through a difficult research assignment, and the principal seeking data to support a new program proposal can all benefit from someone who listens to them, rather than someone who immediately jumps into problem-solving mode. To strengthen listening skills, try repeating someone's statement back to them after they've finished. Simply start by saying, "Let me make sure I'm understanding correctly..." Once the speaker feels understood, the conversation can move forward.

Another area vital to productive communication is identifying common ground with others. There are likely to be different opinions in your school community about the best way to teach, support, and assess. That's ok. A lot of great insights can come from comparing different viewpoints. The key to doing so with respect is to start the conversation by identifying the perspectives you share. At the start of a meeting, try posing a few questions first: what do we agree on? What's most important to us? What outcomes do we want to see? Beginning a conversation with these questions can help start collaboration off on the right foot by pointing out what values and ideas people share, rather than immediately getting into conflicting views.

Finally, remember to be intentional with using all of the communication tools at your disposal, including nonverbal communication. Significant portions of our daily communication are presented in ways other than words, including tone, volume, body language, and facial expression. Developing greater awareness of how we may be inadvertently using those tools can help us avoid sending any "side" messages unintentionally. When having conversations, start thinking about how your voice sounds when you speak: is your tone soft or hard-edged? How high is your volume?

Also think about what your expressions and posture might be saying. For example, when we give someone direct eye contact, we tell them that they deserve our attention and respect. When our eyes keep straying to something behind the speaker—or worse, if we look down at a cell phone during the conversation—we may communicate a different message altogether.

Strong communication skills will help you build an inclusive and welcoming community. By focusing on active listening, identifying common ground, and intentionally using tone and expression, you not only grow your own leadership, but you also model effective communication skills for students.

Listening to the Voice of the Customer

As the video discussed, active listening is a crucial component of clear communication. In her article "Leadership Is about Listening," Sharon Coatney gives examples of how active listening can lead directly to better services for students and provides tips for how to create a record of what you hear when you listen to stakeholders. Read the article in the Resources below, then complete the Reflect & Practice activity below.

RESOURCES:

Activity 2.1_Soft Skills for School Librarians

Form

Article

REFLECT & PRACTICE:

In "Leadership Is about Listening," Coatney describes strategies for better listening, including building a "voice-of-the-customer data repository" to capture what you hear. Start your own so that you have a go-to place to record the needs your stakeholders describe; use the above form to help.

Begin by identifying what stakeholder you would like to learn from. Consider parents, students, administrators, teachers, or other school staff members. What about them or their experiences would you like to know more about? Write out some preliminary questions you could ask, then set up time for a conversation. Alternatively, you could arrange a focus group. Let the conversation go in a direction that feels natural, but focus on listening, not problem solving.

MLA Citation

"Soft Skills for School Librarians: Listening to the Voice of the Customer." School Library Connection, April 2019, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2194640?learningModuleId=2194635&topicCenterId=0.

Entry ID: 2196945

Additional Resources

Bibliography.

About the Authors

Rebecca J. Morris, MLIS, PhD, is teaching associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. She earned her master's degree and doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh and her undergraduate degree in elementary education at Pennsylvania State University. Rebecca has published articles in journals including School Library Research, Knowledge Quest, School Libraries Worldwide, Teacher Librarian and the Journal of Research on Young Adults in Libraries. She is the author of School Libraries and Student Learning: A Guide for School Leaders (Harvard Education Publishing Group, 2015). Rebecca is a former elementary classroom teacher and middle school librarian.

Email: rmorris@schoollibraryconnection.com

Twitter: @rebeccajm87.

Carl A. Harvey II, MLS, MS, is associate professor of school librarianship at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Harvey received his master's degree from Indiana University and is the author of six books, most recently The 21st-Century Elementary School Library Program: Managing For Results, 2nd Edition. He is a past-president of the American Association of School Librarians, and his school has been the recipient of the National School Library Program of the Year.

E-mail: charvey@schoollibraryconnection.com

Twitter: @caharvey2

Casey Rawson, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a PhD in 2016 and an MSLS in 2011 with a concentration in school library media. She also holds an MAT in middle grades education from the University of Louisville and is a former sixth- and seventh-grade science teacher. Her research interests include teacher-librarian collaboration in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content areas, diversity and equity in youth services librarianship, and portrayals of scientists in children's literature. Her articles include “Are All Lists Created Equal? Diversity in Award-Winning and Bestselling Young Adult Fiction,” which received the 2012 YALSA Writing Award; and “Rethinking the Texts We Use in Literacy Instruction with Adolescent African American Males,” written with Sandra Hughes-Hassell, which received a 2013 Virginia Hamilton Essay Award Honor Citation.

Seth Taylor, MFA, has 20 years of experience in education as a teacher, administrator, and professional development specialist. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Rhetoric, Composition and Research Methodology at San Diego State University, Colorado State University, and the University of Redlands.

Jane Cullina, MSEd, is the professional development manager for School Library Connection and ABC-CLIO. A former children's librarian and humanities teacher, Jane earned her master's degree from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City and has taught in Boston, New York, Maine, California, and South Africa.

MLA Citation

"Soft Skills for School Librarians. Communication Skills [3:50]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, April 2019, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2194640?learningModuleId=2194635&topicCenterId=0.

View all citation styles

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2194640?learningModuleId=2194635&topicCenterId=0

Entry ID: 2194640