5/6/13 Reflection on AASL Toolkits website

Post date: May 13, 2013 4:58:38 PM

"Toolkits | American Association of School Librarians (AASL)." American Library Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013. <http://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/tools/toolkits>.

I found this to be a very helpful part of the AASL website. There are “tool kits” for all sorts of circumstances that one might run into and need help with in a library. There are tool kits for parents who want to get more involved in the school system and it tells them how to find out more information about the school library and how to help promote it to others. There is also a tool kit that I found very interesting called the Crisis Tool Kit. The Crisis Tool Kit is for a school librarian who feels like the library or her job is being threatened and it shows precautions and steps that can be taken to help save it. The main precaution is advocacy. Advocacy should always be in place, but it is especially important when your library is being threatened. During my interview with Annette Bramstedt, the Assistant Director at the Hudson Public Library, she mentioned that the difference between a librarian who is certified by the state and a librarian with a Master’s degree is that you are taught in school to always justify your job and to justify your library’s use in the community. This way you have a list of reasons and documented proof of use to provide if anyone ever challenges your library’s existence. She said that it was all about memorizing your elevator speeches. This tool kit in particular lists a communication structure to go through that will help and also the key points that you should bring up to this list of people so that they will understand the importance of what your library is doing for their children and for their community.