Introduction

If you work in or around the world of children’s librarianship, it’s likely you’ve at least heard the term “Media Mentor.” Maybe it’s something you and your colleagues embrace, or perhaps you’re still unsure how librarians and libraries should be involved in family's new media use. In Maryland, we certainly see librarians along this spectrum. Many jump right into the world of screens, apps, coding, 3D printing, virtual reality, and more, but many still feel those activities don’t fit into the mission of libraries. The purpose of this toolkit and the project that created it is to reframe the conversation about media in the library – while new media might look a lot different from traditional library materials, librarians have always been evolving media mentors. And while libraries continue to include access to traditional media, access to and understanding of new media must be emphasized to fulfill libraries' core value of equity of access.

Libraries as Places of Access, Equity, and Mentoring

Encouraging media mentorship in librarians is key to the Library's sustainability. Libraries are not simply a physical location to find and check out a book - libraries provide access to information via multiple mediums. Some of these mediums are reminiscent of traditional media (electronic books, magazines, audiobooks, music), while others look very little like anything a library has provided access to in the past (coding tutorials, hot spots, tools). As we evolve our collections, it's vital for us to promote literacy in these newer mediums as well. Just as children's librarians offer storytimes and booktalks to demonstrate good reading practices and to curry excitement about our collections, so should we offer the equivalent services on using our newer, less traditional collections. If we do not, and circulation of traditional media continues to decline and new media continues to evolve, libraries will gradually lose relevance.

Beyond the Library's internal motivations, and perhaps more ideologically important, promoting media mentorship fulfills one of its missions. The American Library Association’s Core Values of Librarianship identifies access as one of those cores, stating that “all information resources that are provided directly or indirectly by the library, regardless of technology, format, or methods of delivery, should be readily, equally, and equitably accessible to all library users” (ALA Council). Information is increasingly delivered through forms of new media (i.e. websites, eBooks, virtual and augmented reality) and many schools are using technology to deliver lessons and assessments starting as early as Kindergarten.

Absence of experience with new media, due to “lack of knowledge, income, equipment, or training” may lead to children starting their education without the skills to succeed in today’s schools. Parents without this exposure may also lack the necessary skills to help their children. According to a recent study by The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, while "nine in ten (94%) families have some kind of Internet access [...], one quarter (23%) of families below the median income level and one third (33%) of those below the poverty level rely on mobile-only Internet access. And many experience interruptions to their Internet services or constrained access to digital devices. [...] Among families with mobile-only access, three in ten (29%) say they have had their phone service cut off in the past year due to lack of payment, and one fifth (21%) say too many people share the same phone for them to be able to get the time on it that they need" (Rideout, pg 5, 2016). Libraries have a role to provide equitable ways for families to “overcome obstacles to access in order to ensure fairness” (Kranich). If we provide access to books, magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, and more to create informational equity in our communities, then we must provide access to new media for the same reason.

But just providing the new media doesn’t satisfy the need for access. Librarians guide through the materials we provide. Whether it’s to assist someone in finding that material or to explain how to use it, we play a key role in ensuring the information isn’t just available, that it’s usable. When a child needs a non-fiction book for their homework assignment, we don’t just point them in the direction of the stacks – we bring them there, open the book, and show them how to use the table of contents and index. When we read a book in storytime, we’re not just telling a story – we’re modeling how to read and understand a book for the families. We already mentor library users on how to use traditional media. We don’t assume a child already knows how to use an index because maybe she hasn’t had access to that form of media elsewhere. And we don’t assume a parent or caregiver knows how to read books to their child. In the same way, librarians must be positioned to mentor families through use of newer media because we cannot assume that everyone who walks through our doors has access to those resources elsewhere.

Libraries are also the perfect places to provide not just equitable, but unbiased mentorship through new media. All media, be it a book or a virtual experience, is delivered through an item that comes from a profit based organization. Many of those organizations might offer tutorials, classes, support, troubleshooting, and more for how to use their devices and content. In fact, you may sometimes encounter families who express a dislike for the use of new media in libraries because they see it as too strong a tie between libraries and big tech. But unlike these big corporations, the focus for libraries should always focus on the content - not the device. It's not the book, it's the story or the information inside the book that a library is providing. In the same way, it's not the tablet, it's what someone can learn from or create with it that a library is providing. Being able to shift the focus from the tech to the experience, story, or information gained is what sets a library apart from a tech giant as the ideal media mentor.

Why Peer Coaching

So if libraries are, in fact, the best place for media mentorship, the next step is to ensure librarians have the needed skills and comfort with new media in order to be effective mentors. As with any new skill, learning it takes time. Many librarians feel media is not an important part of libraries, while others are on board but might not know how to tackle being a mentor. The audience of any training on this topic will, no doubt, widely vary. It's for that reason that we focused on a peer coaching model for training librarians in our media mentorship project, where six lead coaches work with individual staff or with small groups to train them in media mentor skills over time.

Perhaps the most important reason to use peer coaching for training of this kind is to differentiate the content delivered. Each lead coach worked with different staff, all of them coming from a varying perspective, skill, and history with library services. Lead coaches are able to help guide the individual through their personal needs rather than delivering standard information to a large group of people.

Peer coaching eases staff into long-term learning on this topic. Rather than presenting a one-and-done training, this model creates a culture of collaboration and internally motivated staff development in the organization. Rather than waiting for the next training, staff develop a relationship with each other and are comfortable asking questions, giving advice, and building programs together. It takes time, but it encourages continual growth.

Coaching each other through media use in the library will inherently model the skills they will need as they begin to work with families on the very same topic.

The Three C's, Three Ways to Be A Media Mentor, and Media Mentorship in Three Parts

Before peer coaching was implemented, we needed to assess the library staff's comfort level with media mentorship. We also needed to assess how the families in our community felt about media use and what they needed from library staff. Conversations with families in and out of the library about media use matched many of our suspicions - families in our county fall under a wide spectrum, from total abstinence from screen time to admitted over-use. All in all, parents sought guidance, but didn't look to the library for that guidance. In the staff needs assessment, while staff were more on board with libraries using new media than we thought, they identified a number of barriers before they felt comfortable incorporating these concepts into their daily work.

In the needs assessment, staff specifically identified a desire to simplify the concept of media mentorship. Many librarians indicated they did not feel equipped to be a media mentor because the concept of media just seemed too daunting. To address this, we focused on three specific triptych structures around media - The Three C's, Three Ways to be a Media Mentor, and Media Mentorship in Three Parts.

Staff felt overwhelmed by the barriers new media presents - competencies with technology and continually changing recommendations about children's screen time use to name just two. These barriers either stop staff from engaging with new media as librarians entirely, or limit the way it is discussed with families because staff fear contradicting the latest health recommendation. We decided to break down the way we interact with media into three pillars.

Media Mechanics asks "how do I work this?" This can be a real barrier for staff - if they don't know how to use something, it's difficult for them to discuss it with a family. If a librarian identifies this as a need, we can provide training for them in this area. Media Management asks "should I use this?" Parents typically ask this question and it's answered by organizations like the American Association of Pediatrics on Common Sense Media. Because parents respond so strongly to this piece, libraries sometimes focus most of their time on it as well (i.e. we shouldn't use apps in a storytime because parents are concerned about screen time). A library's role in Media Management does not involve dictating rules and regulations, rather pointing families to resources so they can make decisions on their own. Librarians instead need to focus on the third piece - Media Literacy - which asks "how do I learn from this?"

To address staff's concern about how to talk to families about media, we used The Three C's, borrowed from Lisa Guernsey's books Screen Time and Tap, Click, Read. Staff were coached to think about the Three C's when talking to a parent and a child about a needed resource. They were asked to consider: what is the content, what is the context, and who is the child? Often, when discussing the Three C's with librarians, most librarians immediately associate this process as a natural extension of the reference interview because librarians always ask these questions, regardless of what media is discussed with families. It is simply just a matter of extending those reference skills to a different form of media.

Finally, to address when and where these interactions should be happening in the library, we used Three Ways to Be a Media Mentor from the book Becoming a Media Mentor: A Guide for Working with Children and Families - Advisory, Programming, and Curation. When offered this framework, librarians again often realize they already demonstrate many of the skills needed to carry these out. Staff already engage in advisory - this happens during the reference interview. Librarians provide programming for families regularly - they know how to identify a need, organize, market, and present content. And finally, libraries have always curated content - it is the most basic element of a library. These three activities provide the structure behind the peer coaching process. Lead coaches sought opportunities to discuss, observe, and demonstrate all three of these activities with their peers.

Next Steps

The primary focus of this toolkit as seen here is to train and excite existing staff in the practices of media mentorship. But our staff needs assessment and parent discussion groups show there are further steps needed for our librarians to become known as media mentors in the community and to be comfortable with all aspects of this role. We have identified the following steps for continued development:

1. Continued Staff Training. We plan to continue training staff using the Peer Coaching model. Holding open houses in several library branches where staff and families alike could try out new technology and programming proved to be one of the most successful trainings. We will schedule more of these, especially as we acquire new technology in the library. After these open houses, we saw the comfort level of staff increase, and saw the desire to use new media in library programs increase.

2. Outreach to Community Groups. Families made it clear that they didn't necessarily see the library as a place to come ask questions about media use, but they did think of other community groups (such as schools). We will continue to build stronger partnerships with local faith groups, schools, businesses, and governmental organizations to emphasize that the library is the place to go for all things media and tech.

3. More Curated Resources. Staff and families were very interested in having more lists of recommended materials and resources on this topic. As staff build their confidence in media mentorship, we will expand the repertoire of recommendations.

4. Parent Tips and FAQs for Staff. Staff requested an easy "go-to" resource for how to talk to parents about new media. Lead coaches in our county will develop and maintain examples of how they might respond to specific questions from families as a good starting point for staff still gaining comfort around new media use.

5. Spread the Media Mentor Love! Lead coaches from our county will train staff in adjacent counties to replicate the project. We, furthermore, plan to continue training other library systems in Maryland to spread the skills needed to be a peer coach and media mentor in libraries.

We are excited to continue our growth as media mentors and hope you can join us on this journey!