AASL Standard 4

AASL 4

Organization & Access

Candidates in school librarian preparation programs model, facilitate, and advocate for equitable access to and the ethical use of resources in a variety of formats. Candidates demonstrate their ability to develop, curate, organize, and manage a collection of resources to assert their commitment to the diverse needs and interests of the global society. Candidates make effective use of data and other forms of evidence to evaluate and inform decisions about library policies, resources, and services.

4.1 Access: Candidates use digital tools, resources, and emerging technologies to design and adapt learning experiences. Candidates engage all learners in finding, evaluating, creating, and communicating data and information in a digital environment. Candidates articulate, communicate, model, and teach digital citizenship.

4.2 Information Resources: Candidates use evaluation criteria and selection tools to develop, curate, organize, and manage a collection designed to meet the diverse curricular and personal needs of the learning community. Candidates evaluate and select information resources in a variety of formats.

4.3 Evidence-Based Decision Making: Candidates make effective use of data and information to assess how practice and policy impact groups and individuals in their diverse learning communities.

HOW IT ALIGNS:

The Passport to Multicultural Literature provides a roadmap for teachers, parents, and administrators to follow to understand the rationale behind creating a multicultural collection as well as resources for building a collection.

The Collection Management and Analysis Plan utilized data to prove the need of not only an updated collection, but one with additional multiculturalism to help reflect the population of students at the school.

My Goal Project showed that in order to give equitable access to students, we had to do more than simply put books on the shelves. By incorporating signage and mini-collections students were better equipped to find the materials that they were looking for.

WHAT I LEARNED:

Utilizing data to make decisions about how to build and expand your collection can also be a powerful tool for advocacy and understanding as well as a way to make tough decisions when on a budget. While in the past I have relied on observation and generalizations, the collection management and analysis plan made the process more transparent for those not in the library on a day to day basis.

The library that I did my final practicum in had just moved in a few weeks before I started and there had not been time to get everything organized and to put up any kind of signage. It was evident early on that the students were struggling to locate books and part of the issue was they did not know where things were. Many of these students are struggling readers and when we put some of the books face out, the visual aspect of seeing the covers made access to the books easier.

IMPACT ON STUDENTS AND CONNECTION TO BEST PRACTICES:

The way a library is organized impacts the way that students locate books. It is the ultimate example of access. School libraries should be a place where children can find things with ease as well as learn to be independent library users (Johnston & Mandel, 2014). The AASL has even written access into our standards. This is more than the books being on the shelves, the facilities must be organized in such a way to "enhance the use of and ensure equitable access to informational resources and services for all learners" (AASL, 2018 p.60).

On my practicum site, I walked into a situation where a librarian had had no time to do more than get books out of boxes and onto shelves. I even had problems figuring out where things were and how they were organized on my first few visits. This led to my goal project of fixing signage in the library, though I wound up going deeper in how things were organized and displayed. My goal was to help the students and avoid the frustration and sense of helplessness that can occur when students can't find information on their own (Johnston & Mandel, 2014).

The CAMP project provided data to a personal opinion that there were some massive holes in the library. Numbers and data are incredibly important when making big decisions and when discussing the state of the library with other stakeholders. Follett Destiny has a number of ways to drill down into the collection to see how the students are using the books and which books are being used. Programs like Titlewave are also creating new ways to analyze your collection, such as diversity audits, but these are add-ons that your school district has to buy into. While doing a diversity audit by hand was not something I loved doing, the data that it produced gave numerical values to an understanding that certain books were missing from the collection and helped the library get $2,000 to fund those books. Those outside of the library, especially those in administration, need to see this data to understand things that we as librarians intuitively understand.

The books that we offer also must give equal access to all. Diversity in children's literature has long been a passion of mine. The Passport to Multicultural Literature was just a way to put it all in one place. We need diverse books in our libraries. Not just for the marginalized, but for everyone so that there are mirrors as well as windows that might help us create a more inclusive and empathetic community (Reynolds; Dodge, 2015). In the same way that much of the history that has been taught in our schools has really only taught one reality, a wider array of realities represented in literature benefits everyone (Dodge, 2015).

References:

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. ALA Editions.

Dodge, A. (2015, June 16). Diverse Books Means Literature for All. Literacy Now Blog. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2015/06/16/diverse-books-means-literature-for-all.

Johnston, M. P., & Mandel, L. H. (2014). Are we leaving them lost in the woods with no breadcrumbs to follow? assessing signage systems in school libraries. School Libraries Worldwide, 20(2), 38–53.

Reynolds, J. (2015). Hear Diversity: Author Jason Reynolds "We need ALL the stories". uploaded by Penguin Random House Audio, 18 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gKwHWrUfE.