The Space and Physical Access
The library is located in the very center of the first-floor “academic” wing of Stafford Middle School (SMS) and can be accessed by students and staff through doors on either side of the library. While the library has fresh paint, newer carpeting, and newer brightly-colored furniture, the short stacks and circulation desk are out-of-date and could stand an update. The library is one large space with stacks at the back of the longest wall and in five short rows on one side of the library. The other part of the space is devoted to large moveable whiteboard tables and chairs near a computer and LCD projector with a section of more comfortable seating (couches and cushy chairs) located near one door under a display case. Although the school has Wi-Fi and all students have Chromebooks, there are a few computers in the middle of the library dedicated to catalog use and two computers near the entrances for students to sign in and out of the space when on a hallway pass. The librarian’s office and work spaces are located behind the circulation desk with another door leading to a server room. On first blush the library looks dark (no windows), sparse, and in need of losing its clinical feel. It doesn’t quite live up to the other middle school libraries in the district with makerspaces, labs, windows, and lots of sections devoted to different tasks and classes.
Digital Access
The SMS library is accessed by visiting their homepage. The webpage is easy to navigate but lacks a lot of basic information I would expect to find. There is no link to the catalog or to any resources to help students and staff use and navigate the library. There is a short description of the library circulation policy, an introduction of the two staff members that work in the library including contact e-mail, an overview of the summer reading program, and a few links to student resources and programs. In addition, a widget on the side of the page displays tweets from the SMS library Twitter page. There are no pictures or videos and nothing else to really make the page standout. Students and staff do have access to e-books and the local newspaper from the site, and can access e-books and the catalog by using Sora by Overdrive and Destiny which are found using the Clever hosting tool on their Chromebooks.
Services and Intellectual Access
The library is organized using the Dewey Decimal system with non-fiction on one long back wall and fiction dominating most of the rest of the collection. There is a small section displaying the local newspaper and select periodicals. The library is also growing their graphic novel collection and has a section dedicated to them near the comfortable seating area. No maps or other resources available for checkout were evident during my visit. The library does advertise on their website a few special programs including Café Book and Battle of the Books. In addition, the library advertises that they will help you register for a regional library card for our CRRL system. A few rainbow stickers adorn the librarian’s office door and the display case presents a number of diversity-related themes throughout the year. Recently the library has purchased several large, lawn-sized games (Jenga, Connect Four, etc.) to make the library more entertaining for students to visit during lunch and increase student participation and excitement surrounding the library. The librarian has a huge interest in continuing and expanding programming that not only reinforces reading but also helps live up to the AASL’s former president’s statement she made when discussing the AASL’s new standards “We want standards of practice to help our students be innovators, creators, problem-solvers, and thinkers” (AASL, 2018).
People (Patrons and Staff)
The librarian and a paraprofessional make up the staff of the library. The librarian leads and co-teaches classes throughout the year and a library orientation with all students each fall. In addition, teachers may request to have classes use the library space for special projects and co-teach a lesson with the librarian by using a Google Form to request services. The paraprofessional handles most of the day-to-day operations of the library, greets students and teachers, and answers questions. The librarian teaches classes and runs the Café Book and Battle of the Books programs. She also runs the school’s daily announcements, teaches a daily teacher advisory block with a small group of students, and assists with state testing by serving as a proctor.
Collections
The collection is moving towards graphic novels and an expanded e-book service using Sora by Overdrive. Less emphasis has been placed on books, and the librarian has recently completed an extensive weeding of the library’s stacks. An emphasis is placed on small sets of Virginia Young Reader’s books and high-interest books for readers of popular fictional series. The librarian has stated that she would like to expand the collection with more books that have a focus on diversity as she pushes a personal “be a good human” campaign.
Other
Because I have worked as a teacher and instructional technology resource teacher at SMS for more than 26 years, I really enjoyed this opportunity to really dive into the library. The library has only had three different librarians in all those years, which surprises me with the amount of turnover we see in the rest of our building each year. The library has suffered because of COVID, a constant turnover of school staff who don’t know what the library can do for them, and a change in administration that has not really placed the needs of the modern school library on the top of their “to do” list. I feel that libraries, and the SMS library especially, are in the middle of a huge rebranding and reidentification of themselves, and that excites me about the possible changes to come. “School libraries today focus less on the collection and more on the learners” (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 168) is a mantra I see growing in our library. I would love to see our librarian get the funding and resources she needs to make the library everything it can be. While it may never have the natural light of windows, it can certainly still shine under the tutelage of our talented librarian provided she has what she needs.
References
AASL (2018, September). New national School library standards encourages students to explore, collaborate, engage. As Seen in District Administration. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/0918_AASL_DAadvertorial_pages.pdf
Rubin, R. E., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.
Major bummer that there are no windows, but I love the lawn games and the “be a good human” campaign! Tell Lindsay I said “hi” 🙂 It seems outdated that she’d have to run the announcements–kind of a relic from the “media specialist” days?
Your description really does make the space and resources sound dated but your pictures look the average school library. It sounds as though the librarian is open to diversity but it doesn’t sound like a priority. It also seems like the website it fairly limited. It seems like it should be hub of activity if students have chromebooks. I’d be interested to know how students view the library and what types of books they check out.
Yeah, I should ask to look at her circulation numbers and titles sometime. She works just down the hall from me and knows I’m starting on this degree, so I’m sure she would be willing to let me look and even sit with me to help explain what I am looking at.
You would think that a middle school library would be a bit more aesthetically pleasing. However, it does have all of the things that a middle schooler would need at a library. I like that they are growing their graphic novel collection as that is very popular right now with tweens and teens – I’m sure the students love that!
I agree with you on a lot of the things you mentioned about your school library. Like you, we have a huge teacher turnover(but not librarian turnover) at school and most of the teachers just don’t know what the library can do for them. I wonder if there is some way that our librarians could advertise to teachers more so they know what is available and how to best use them. I know personally, I haven’t used the library nearly as much as I could in my lessons.
I really liked the quote from the former president of AASL stating the new purpose of creating students to be innovative and problem solvers! That sound like goals from a class rather than a library. Very exciting to think that libraries are rebranding and inviting different sets of skills to be learned. So cool that they bought lawn games to attract the students. I can tell that your school Librarians love their jobs. I hope funding steps up to help them accomplish what passion they have for this rebranding.
OMG that statue is straight out of the Breakfast Club and I fully expect to see a piece of bologna stuck to the side of it!
I love that the librarian is doing programming to engage with the students and trying to bring them into the library BY CHOICE during free periods. While I can see some of the limitations you mentioned (lack of windows, short shelves), it’s a lot more inviting than the middle school library I endured.
The graphic novels collection seems like a great addition to the collections – I am seeing in a lot of these blog posts that graphic novels and manga are more prevalent in school libraries which is amazing. As someone who doesn’t work in K-12 education, it’s nice to see that these changes towards materials that students *want* to read are happening now – I know when I was a kid I would have loved to check out graphic novels from the library!