Module 1 Reading Notes (by Katie)

Schultz-Jones, Barbara. "Collaboration in the School Social Network." Knowledge Quest 37.4 (2009): 20-25. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web.

• "Social Networks are fundamental to us all" (Schultz-Jones 20).

• Our social networks are relationships that form "through our association with parents as they volunteer to assist in the library, with administrators when they request a budget review, or with teachers whenever they request assistance finding resources" (Schultz-Jones 20).

• "as information specialists, school librarians develop a multidimensional social network that enables them to build a presence within the school learning community, and connect others to information services and resources" (Schultz-Jones 20).

My reflection: Fundamental is a key word here. Collaboration, in essence, is a building of social networks--little by little. The fact that this type of social networking is described as fundamental underlines how essential this type of networking is. We as school librarians will vary in the amount of collaborating/social networking we do, but how well and to what extent we develop these networks will correlate with the degree to which our "presence" is noticed within the school community. The third bullet above is a very key point.

School librarians when discussing their level of collaboration:

• One librarian talks about teaching a lot at faculty meetings for the purpose of showing what the " 'library can do to support the curriculum" (22) and find that while at first teachers are skeptical, that this librarian sees their attitudes change and them getting "'involved and having fun" (22) as he/she uses books from various disciplines, such as math, history, science, etc.
• Collaborating with other teachers helps the librarian to get ideas on how to reach the teacher masses (22). Ex. "'I've aligned myself with two or three of them so we have this ongoing communication where we trade ideas all the time. That's been really helpful to develop ideas for getting teachers into the library'" (22).
• By collaborating with librarians, the teachers are demonstrating the way that they want their students to work, so they are leading by example (22-23).
• Collaborating (creating social networking) creates "social capital" (24) for the school librarian. By building this capital, the school librarian is involved in helping to meet educational goals when the capital works the way it should (24).
• "'The high degree of interaction within these networks offers the prospect of professional dialogue that may translate into an inclusive collaborative culture of school library media specialists, administrators, and teachers'" (22).

McGregor, Joy. "Collaboration and Leadership." Curriculum Connections through the Library. Eds. Barbara Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. 119-219. Print.

• By successfully establishing collaborative partnerships with teachers (and other stakeholders), school librarians "view themselves as team members, and the other staff members see them in the same light" (McGregor 199).
• Loertscher (2000) "promotes collaborative planning as one of the keys to effective school library media programs. He links academic achievement to the program and he notes the importance of understanding teaching and learning styles in order to make the collaboration as effective as possible" (McGregor 201).
• "By collaborating, teachers and teacher librarians provide learning experiences that respond to learning needs, provide resources at point of need, give teachers a working partner, and promote academic achievement" (McGregor 201).
• School librarians "know that learning experiences are strengthened when both the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian work together to achieve learning goals and objectives" (McGregor 202).