Leading from the Library: Help Your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age

By Shannon McClintock Miller and William Bass

Written by a seasoned librarian and an education leader, this book guides librarians in becoming leaders in their school communities, with strategies on developing partnerships, empowering students and more.

The modern school library supports education in a variety of ways. One essential role librarians play is that of a leader who works collaboratively to build relationships, mold culture and climate, and advocate for the needs of students and the community.

In this book, a librarian and an education leader team up to reflect on the librarian’s ability to build connections in two ways. First, they discuss the benefits of bringing the outside world into the library through the use of social media, videoconferencing and other tools that allow librarians to partner with others. Then they expand upon these connections by addressing how librarians can lead in the greater educational community by sharing resources and strategies, and partnering with school leaders to tell the story of the school community.

This book will:

• Highlight the potential of librarians to empower their students, their schools and their communities, and be learning leaders in the digital age.
• Include stories of partnerships – from librarians and administrators – illustrating how they can collaborate to create change by harnessing the influence of the school library program to enhance the educational experience.
• Explore how librarians serve as mentors to their students, delving into many topics that define digital age literacy, including the librarian’s role in reading advocacy, information validity, digital citizenship and research.
• Make direct connections to the ISTE Standards for Students, Educators and Education Leaders in each chapter.

Through this book, librarians will discover the influence they can have on the school community as the library becomes the heart of the school, a place where problems are solved, content is explored, connections are made and discovery happens.

Audience: K-12 school librarians/media specialists, education leaders

• Language: English
• Publisher: International Society for Technology in Education
• Release date: Feb 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781564847072

Shannon McClintock Miller

Shannon Miller, an international speaker and author, is the K-12 district teacher librarian at Van Meter Community School District in Iowa. She also serves as the Future Ready Librarians Spokesperson working with librarians, educators and students around the world. Shannon is the author of the award winning The Library Voice blog. She has published two children's book series on libraries and Makerspaces with Capstone. She has a professional book with ISTE coming out in 2019. In 2014, Shannon was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. In 2016, she was awarded the Making it Happen Award by ISTE. In 2018, she was named the AASL Social Media Superstar Leadership Luminary. Shannon is the proud mom of three amazing kids and lucky wife of Eric.

Book preview

Introduction

We spoke to librarians and school leaders across the United States, and they shared a common feeling about the role of libraries in the digital age: It seems to be constantly in flux. The digital age has brought revolutionary new tools that have impacted our schools and libraries in dramatic ways. Access to devices and the internet has improved both at home and in our classrooms and we are utilizing digital content to engage students in meaningful ways. Contrary to the misguided beliefs of some, the work of the librarian is not merely reading books to kids and helping them check out materials. It never was. Modern librarians are curators of information, tools, and strategies; they see everyone who walks through the doors of their schools as a potential learner. They are masters of technology and understand the way computers and the internet have changed how we both use and value information. These are the librarians of the digital age.

Common perception may paint a picture of librarians as one dimensional, as only curators. We recognize that, to be effective, librarians must go far beyond resources and materials, finding just right books, and teaching research. In the digital age, librarians must respond to the challenges of the existing world and try to predict what the future will hold. In short, librarians must be leaders in the fields of education, technology, and information and be both willing and able to share their expertise. Only by embracing that leadership will we be able to begin to repaint the picture and change perceptions.

That’s why this book exists. We hope to share our insight, experience, and stories to empower change in our schools and solidify digital age library programs through the leadership of our school librarians.

Project Connect, Future Ready Schools, ISTE Standards and Librarians

In our work, we are regularly asked for advice and guidance about the changes that librarians and schools want to make in their library programs. In these cases, we point to a number of guiding documents that have helped us to pave the way for the changes that we want to see in our own programs. While not an exclusive list, Project Connect, Future Ready Schools, and the ISTE Standards provide structure for change and an understanding of the role of the digital age librarian. These three documents are the basis for the changes that we have made in our own schools and what we often point librarians to in their own work. As an administrator responsible for his library program at a district level, Bill uses these documents as a way to have common language with his librarians to make tangible change in the programming, mindset, and spaces that make up those school libraries. Throughout the book we will reference each of these documents many times, citing examples and approaches that we have seen make change to programs around the