PLO 7

Reflection

Communicating and collaborating with colleagues and communities is something I feel personally connected to as a school librarian, because this is a fundamental part of what creates successful school media specialists. Dutta's observation that "to be successful in our professional life as a librarian, it is not enough to have knowledge of the specific area that we are dealing with — it is also important to have communication skills so that we can communicate with ease and sensitivity at our workplace" names precisely what PLO 7 asks us to demonstrate (expertise without effective communication is incomplete, and that the school librarian's ability to reach every stakeholder depends as much on how we communicate as on what we know).  Since the library should be the heartbeat of a school, all stakeholders must feel connected and welcomed, and the ALA's Libraries Transform LibGuide makes clear that each stakeholder group needs to hear from us differently. Parents need to know their students are gaining literacy skills and learning to love learning. Students need to know the librarian will help them find whatever they need. Teachers need to understand how library services benefit their classroom curricula. Principals and district administrators need data. Legislators, policymakers, and the broader community need both data and a clearer picture of what a school librarian and library program actually do. Communicating with that full range of audiences requires intentionality at every level of the work.

PLO 7.1: Oral Communication and PLO 7.3: Collaboration within a Library or Information Organization are most directly demonstrated through the Collaboration Teacher Interview, which documents how I actively invite colleagues into partnership with the library program. This artifact captures oral professional communication in its most consequential register: not a presentation delivered to a passive audience, but a structured, two-way conversation designed to build relationship, surface instructional needs, and establish the foundation for genuine co-planning. Effective oral communication in this context means listening as much as speaking, asking questions that open rather than close possibilities, and conveying through tone and presence that the library is a space where teachers are genuine partners rather than service recipients. The ALA LibGuide's observation that teachers are specifically interested in how school library services benefit their classroom curricula reinforces why this kind of direct, relational oral engagement matters — teachers are more likely to collaborate when the invitation is extended personally, clearly, and in a format that centers their needs. Ballard and Jones (2024) capture the standard this sets: "the best kind of sharing involves communication on a two-way street, with ongoing opportunities for stakeholders to provide input and assess their experiences." The teacher interview is that two-way street made visible as a professional artifact.

PLO 7.2: Written Communication is where the Gerb's Got You Info Sheet does its most deliberate work. This artifact reflects my intentional effort to open lines of communication with school staff by clearly articulating what the library media specialist can offer as a collaborative partner by removing the guesswork that often keeps teachers from reaching out. Writing a professional document of this kind demands everything 7.2 requires: grammatical precision, clear articulation of ideas, appropriate tone, and a format that respects the reader's time while conveying the full scope of what the library can offer. The ALA LibGuide's guidance that teachers need to understand how library services benefit their curricula, and that administrators need data and research, shaped the framing of this document.  It is not a general welcome but a targeted, audience-aware communication designed to make collaboration feel accessible and worthwhile. Together, the info sheet and the teacher interview demonstrate that PLO 7 begins internally within the school community before it can extend meaningfully outward, and that effective collaboration requires the librarian to take initiative in making that invitation both visible and welcoming.

PLO 7.4: Collaboration with External Constituencies is where the book talk and the diverse literature log carry the most weight, and both are rooted in a commitment to centering underrepresented and underserved voices in the library's outward-facing communication. The book talk was designed not simply to promote reading but to engage students, families, and colleagues in seeing diverse voices represented and welcomed in our Learning Commons space. This is oral and relational communication directed beyond the internal organization, toward the community audiences the ALA LibGuide identifies as needing to understand that their students are gaining literacy skills and that the library is a place where every learner belongs. The children's literature log, organized around award-winning titles that highlight diverse voices, serves a dual purpose: it documents my own professional learning and functions as a practical resource for colleagues and families who want to connect students with books that reflect a wider range of identities and lived experiences. The ALA LibGuide's reminder that parents need to know their students are learning to love learning — and that students themselves need to know the librarian will help them find what they need and gives both artifacts their community purpose. Communicating with underserved communities is not only about outreach but about the deliberate curation of content and experiences that say, clearly, that those communities belong here and that their stories matter. Ballard and Jones's (2024) insistence on two-way communication with ongoing opportunities for stakeholders to provide input describes the aspiration embedded in both artifacts: not broadcasting at the community but creating conditions for genuine, reciprocal engagement.

The professional standards connected to PLO 7 affirm that this kind of intentional, equity-centered communication and collaboration is a core expectation of the school library profession. AASL Standard 1 calls for school librarians to promote cultural competence, inclusiveness, and learner diversity, values that run through every artifact selected, from the inclusive framing of the info sheet to the deliberately diverse curation of the literature log.  The inclusion of all voices is central to my beliefs and focus as a school library media specialist.  AASL Standard 4 reinforces the commitment to equitable access and collection development that reflects the diverse needs of the school community, while AASL Standard 5 grounds this work in the broader context of leadership, advocacy, and professional networking on behalf of all learners. ISTE 4.3 calls for coaches to establish productive relationships with educators to support student learning, and ISTE 4.5 emphasizes building the capacity of educators and the learning community, both describing exactly what the collaboration interview and the Gerb's Got You Info Sheet were designed to do.

Reflecting on these artifacts together, I can see that PLO 7 has not only shaped individual projects throughout my graduate experience but has deepened my overall philosophy as a school library media specialist. Dutta's framing of communication as something done with both ease and sensitivity, and Ballard and Jones's (2024) vision of sharing as a two-way street, together describe the kind of communicator and collaborator I am working to become someone who reaches every stakeholder audience in the language and format they need, listens as deliberately as they speak, and builds the relationships that make the library the genuine heartbeat of the school community. I remain committed to creating partnerships and ensuring every voice is seen, represented, and heard.

References

• American Library Association . (n.d.). Communicate Your Expertise - Libraries Transform. https://libguides.ala.org/school-library-expert/communicate-expert#:~:text=Communicate%20your%20Expertise%20with%20Targeted,actually%20do%20on%20a%20campus  

• Ballard, S. D., & Johns, S. K. (2024, April 24). Show yourself: building library credibility through brand identity. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2024/05/01/show-yourself/   

•   Dutta, A. (2020, January). (PDF) Role of Communication Skills in Effective Management of Library and Information Centres. ResearchGate.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351587761_Role_of_Communication_Skills_in_Effective_Management_of_Library_and_Information_Centres