October/November checklist

Information overload? These are the most important DLL things to know to stay on track: 

• Determine which MTAC member will attend Convergence with you. Register for Convergence and request a sub form by November 10 in order to have materials printed for you.

• Make sure you are meeting with your MTAC at least quarterly. If you need support with leading your MTAC, reach out to Library Media Services or consult the resources on the MTAC support page on the Library Media Services site. 

• Join a PLC to connect and learn with your colleagues. 

Convergence 2023

Have you registered for Convergence? Mark your calendars for November 28, 2023, at the McKimmon Center. As we have done in recent years, we are inviting all school library media coordinators, tech contacts, elementary tech teachers, and one additional MTAC member from each school to attend this one-day professional learning conference presented by Digital Learning and Libraries (DLL). 

If you will need a substitute, DLL will pay for the cost of the sub. To do so, you need to request a sub form (see link below). You’re responsible for securing the individual who will cover for you, and you may want to take care of that earlier than later.

Important Links:

• Registration in WakeLearns : Course #11467

• Sub Form Request

Please complete registration and request  a sub form by November 10.

Revision to Board Policy 3210

At the November 7th board meeting, the board approved a revision to Policy 3210. It was a minor change in wording in the section about the inspection of materials and in the legal references at the end of the policy. The change was made in order to align with recommendations by the North Carolina School Boards Association. Other board policies are undergoing similar small revisions. 

Additional language was added to state that:

"Parents who would like to inspect and review instructional materials should make a request in writing to the principal, identifying with reasonable specificity the instructional materials the parent would like to inspect. Within ten (10) business days of receiving the request, the principal shall either (1) provide access to the requested information or (2) provide an extension notice to the parent explaining that, due to the volume or complexity of the request, access to some or all of the information will be provided no later than twenty (20) business days from the date of request. Access shall be provided either by providing the parent with copies of the materials in question and/or by scheduling a time when the parent may inspect some or all of the materials in person or online."

Operationally for our libraries, very little changes. One, as we've continued to state, our Destiny catalog is publicly available, and parents may review the school collection online at any time. If, however, a parent requests to review physical materials in the collection, this new language thus means that they will need to schedule a time during regular business hours for the school to visit the library. Materials will not leave the room with the parent; they can access the collection as one would a reading room. If a specific title of interest to the parent is currently checked out, we will not retrieve the material from the patron. Rather, the parent will be told, if there are no other copies, that the material is with a patron and can be reviewed once returned per the item's normal circulation behavior. (aka we won't track a kid down and make them give us back the book just because a parent requests it)

If the parent wishes to challenge material in the school library collection, the process outlined in Section B of Policy 3210 continues to apply. 

Elementary Lesson Plan Support

There is a lot of sharing happening in the Thursday morning Elementary Library Instruction PLC and the related Canvas course. Check the Elementary Lesson Plan Bank for updated lesson ideas for Quarter 2. New content is marked with a ⭐. If you can’t make the PLC but still want to be part of the conversation, you can self-enroll in the Canvas course. (Note: This Canvas course is not set up to award CEUs for participation. It is a place for us to curate artifacts and conversations for this PLC.)

Similarly, if you would like to participate in this PLC but the 8am time is not convenient for you, please take a moment to complete this brief form. Susan is considering adding an alternate meeting time to the schedule  and would like feedback about what would work best. 

Secondary Library Instruction Support

Our Secondary Librarian Instructional PLC is going strong with a group of about 70 signed up and 35-40 regular participants.  We meet the last Tuesday of each month at 1pm at the Google Meet code secondarylibplc, but we will not meet in November due to Convergence.  Through this PLC, we are also busy reviewing many hot-off-the-press books.  We’d love to have you join us (Learning Central Course) either synchronously or asynchronously.  We had a great session on Chat GPT with Charles Patton last week.  A new resource that we will continue to grow is our Secondary Library Instruction Notebook (tutorial).  The hope is that we can build this resource into a lesson bank for secondary SLMCs. 

Collection Management Support

The Collection Management PLC is in full swing, but it’s also not too late to join! You can earn asynchronous credit for any meetings you missed by completing assignments in the Collection Management Canvas course. Content for the August, September, and October meetings is posted. 

Updated Report in Destiny

Follett recently made a software update to Destiny software with minor enhancements to reports. The Patron Statistics-Summary report can now be configured to show circulation by grade level, homeroom and other variables. BACK OFFICE>PATRON REPORTS>Patron Statistics-Summary.

📢Shout-outs

• Congratulations to Angie Headley who was named the North Carolina School Library Media Association School Librarian of the Year! 

• The following librarians presented at October’s North Carolina School Library Media Association (NCSLMA) Annual Conference. We’re so proud that they were able to share their expertise with school librarians across the state!

  • Linda Dextre (Middle Creek HS) - “Leveraging Digital Tools with Multilingual Learners”

  • Lindsay Santiao (Parkside ES)  and Ashley Clark (Scotts Ridge ES) - “MAKING Magic (on a fixed schedule and budget)” and “How to Run a Successful Junior Librarians Program”

  • Marli Boyd (Barton Pond ES) - “A Magical Way to FLIP Your Morning News Routine!”

  • Mary Hoyle (Joyner ES) - “Worries, Drama, and What Ifs: Dealing with Anxiety in Picture Books”

  • Chris Tuttell (South Garner HS) - “Listening is an Act of Love”

  • Christine Zaccardi (Farmington Woods ES) - “Supporting Our Queer Students and Battling Soft Censorship”

• Chris Tuttell from South Garner HS led “Legacy of Literacy” at the annual Greatness of Garner, an event that includes community partners and all the elementary, middle, and high schools in Garner. They partnered with Southeast Regional Library to sign up students and families for library cards.  Wake Up and Read donated books which enabled Chris, Melandie Matthews, Sarah Tronic, and Madeline Butler to pass out over 1000 books in the community. They received a special shout-out from board member, Monika Johnson-Hostler, for their efforts to engage the community and spread a “Legacy of Literacy” in Garner.

• Becky Ashley and Tammy Weller successfully advocated for a half time media assistant at Green Level HS using data from a time audit they did, a library snapshot, and a plan to align instructional support to SIP goals.  Their principal listened and made it happen.  Ask them how they did it!

• Several librarians have been advocating at our board meetings.  Cecelia Joyce spoke eloquently about Banned Books Week.  Check it out.

• We have some cute fall/Halloween/Banned Books Week displays, and we’d love for you to add your display pics to our slides, too.