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Library
Information Services |
Spring Branch Independent School District |
| HCDE Librarian Leadership Meeting on Best Practices (2/25/02) |
| School District and Contact | Description |
| Spring Branch ISD Barry Bishop |
Library
Resources Page Monthly meetings Annual Book Exhibit and Review Catalog |
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Mary Ann Hearon from Clear Creek ISD presented the following 4 ideas:
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1. Created a curriculum based library program to fit the needs of their K-6 programs. They started with the program Richardson ISD developed and adapted it to fit the problem solving methods their district uses. They merged the traditional library program with an instructional program. They put together a notebook for every librarian, which includes: Scope and Sequence for K-6 Color-coded curriculum for K-6 Lesson plan templates Lesson ideas that have worked so those new librarians would have something to start with. The notebook was presented to the librarians the second semester when it was not such a stressful time of year and they will work with it for the next two years before making changes. Mary Ann has this information on disk and will email it to you if you are interested. 2. To help with the amount of time spent on constructive dialog during meetings, Mary Ann created a short Power Point presentation on Edward DiBono’s Colors of Thinking Hats She printed out the slides (6 per page), laminated them in the hard laminate, and put a copy in each librarian’s notebook so they may refer back to it as they meet throughout the year. It has helped them to set a limited time for emotional dialog and then move on to constructive dialog. Their meetings have become very productive. Mary Ann has the presentation available for anyone interested. If you email her, she will send it to you. 3. On their district library web page, they have created an “Ask a Librarian” link for anyone who needs assistance on their online resources, or if they have forgotten a password. The librarians in the district take turns manning and responding to the emails generated from this link. They work for a period of time on Saturday and Sunday responding to queries. They have 35 librarians in their district, so they are able to spread the task out. 4. Microsoft Classroom Tools is a must for every school. For a mere $6.95 a copy, you receive the right to load this program on all of your computers in your school. The program provides 14,000 graphics; templates for surveys, et al.; capabilities to print your own graph paper (a certain hit with math teachers); field trip forms and a myriad of other useful tools. Putting this software into all of their libraries have made the librarians leaders on their campuses. For more info: http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=tl |
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Glenda German from Houston ISD gave to all present this year’s catalog of the top teaching resource books created by surveying the different departments in the district. |
Each year Glenda compiles a catalog of titles to fit the District theme for that year. This year’s theme is “Mission Possible- Teaching”. The titles in the catalog were purchased and placed in the District Resource Center Professional library. Copies of the catalog are presented to all schools. Principals and departments have a great resource to guide them in purchasing professional resources for their campuses. To help promote the Professional Library and the resources offered there, Glenda encourages groups to hold their meetings there. She does a short presentation during their meeting showcasing resources of interest to that group. Each month there is a 2-hour Professional library orientation. Morning meeting is designed for nonprofessional staff and Afternoon meetings are designed for the instructional staff. Part of new employee orientation is spent in the Professional Library with an introduction to the materials offered and hands on applications with the various databases. Summer orientations are being designed with special groups in mind, i.e. principals, Special Ed., Interns foe principal’s program so that demonstrations can be designed with the specific group’s needs in mind. The next catalog Glenda is compiling will be “Book’s Librarian’s Cannot Live Without”. If you have any titles to suggest, please email Glenda with the bibliographical information. In Houston ISD they celebrate Librarian’s Day the Wednesday of National Library Week. Everyone else has a day, so they set aside that day to honor librarian’s. Principals and faculties are informed of the upcoming date and encouraged to recognize and honor their librarians. |
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Karen Flavin from Alief ISD shared what she did for her presentation on the role of the librarian to the principals in her district. |
She first presented the media’s portrayal of librarians throughout the years with clips from “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “The Music Man”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and “Seinfeld”. Then she took the roles of the librarian from Information Power and instead of just creating slides with just bullets for each of these roles, she had different librarians record a 15 second video clip telling what that role means to them. The principals did not just see the information; they heard the true voices and feelings of the various librarians in the district. She also included video clips from personnel who worked with librarians in these roles, i.e. Instructional Partners, Teacher, Informational Specialist, and Program Director. This way the principals could see examples of the many hats librarians wear. It also gave them an idea of what their librarian should be doing. Karen will present this again to the school board in March and to the AP’s in the district. She said it was a great way to promote the library and librarians. Karen also shared her “Secondary Literacy Project- Alief Reads”. She will be presenting this at TLA on Friday. The session is entitled “Reading Alief Style”. The idea came about from seeing citywide reading projects occurring in the big cities. They had some money from their author budget and were able to strike a deal with a publishing company to purchase 15, 000 copies of Paul Fleischmann’s Seedfolks. Everyone will read the book during National Library Week. Each school determines what they will do with the book. Karen’s school planned to read the first 20 minutes of every period on the Monday of that week to read the book in one day. Teachers will be provided with ideas to extend the novel with a book club style of book talking instead of analyzing, and it is their choice whether or not to do any of them. It allows for flexibility and for buy into the idea from everyone. They made bookmarks to distribute and received a wonderful letter from the author to share with readers. They tried to set up an author visit or distance learning session with Fleischmann, but he keeps to himself. They chose Seedfolks as the first book to use because it exemplifies life in and around Alief. For next year they are looking into the theme of bullying and tolerance. They would like to select books for each level- elementary, junior high, high school. If you have any suggestions please email Karen Karen has also started a Book Club with her high school students. They meet once a month after school on a Monday. It is open to anyone and as their schedules change, the members change. Food is provided. A note to remember when running a book club is to listen more than you speak. The books they have shared so far this year are: Witness, by Karen Hesse; Boys at War, by Mazer; Trapped, a collection of short stories compiled by Lois Duncan; and, books by Neal Shusterman since he was coming for an author visit. Students who participated in reading Shusterman’s books were invited to share lunch with the author on the day of his visit. |
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Connie Archer from Alvin ISD shared their 5-year plan for updating their libraries. They presented the plan to their school board and received money for the first two years of their plan. They have to present an update each year before the next step is approved. |
Weeding their libraries resulted in a large number of books removed from their collection. They called the Christian Alliance of Pearland at 281-412-2285 to collect the books. They send the books to English speaking communities in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. They work in conjunction with volunteer and church organizations to ship these books worldwide. They rely on volunteers to collect the books, so it may take more than a week for them to pick the books up. They do all of the loading and are so grateful. (Glenda has sent extra bookmarks, as well, to these groups who send books overseas.) In the 2nd year of their plan, they have implemented a library resource web page and are providing free training for community members on Tuesday evenings at one of their junior highs. They also provide adult computer classes on Monday and Thursday evenings and pay their instructors with Title funds. Connie also presented a flyer for her summer reading program. Two elementary schools in the district provide a summer reading program two or three days a week. You do not need to be a student at that school or a resident of Alvin to attend. They provide a variety of activities and checkout privileges. She gets Scholastic costumes like Clifford free during the summer. The Scholastic fairs are not busy during the summer, so the costumes are not in demand. You do not have to rent the costumes, but you do have to go to the warehouse a to pick them up and return them. |
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Diane Durbin shared a WEALTH of information regarding the resources you have available through the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. She provided a handout of the various resources, which included: |
· Library Developments Newsletter · Library Science Collection of books you can request either from the response sheet within the newsletter or online. That way you can preview a professional book before purchasing it. · 100 Library Lifesavers was a book she requested from the Archives and she shared a librarian’s idea for working on your inventory throughout the year. She did a portion of it every week and has the breakdown in the book. · At the Texas State Library and Archives Commission site there is a section about Texas with a wealth of information for 4th & 7th graders with a section on “Texas Treasures” · They have a tab for Services to Librarians. Within that section you can order one free copy of their publications per library. Examples of worthwhile titles: Nichol’s Core Reference Collection – she provides a list of reference titles that are reasonably priced for any library. Developing a CD-ROM Reference Collection. · There are links to the library standards revision committee. · Ann Ramos is the librarian at the Library Collection for State Archives and is a so helpful. · Workshops by request are offered. You need 20 librarians. If you want to tailor the workshop to better fit your needs, you need to allow 8-10 weeks for them to organize. |
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Diane Durbin informed the group that districts could now purchase Facts on File through Region IV for $99.00 per campus. A substantial discount from their school prices. Region IV must have 200 schools committed before they can provide the service. Diane is a volunteer on the Region IV Librarian’s Committee and shared some of the in-services they are planning and asked for further ideas. TLC Refresher Courses- (email notification for ILL) Copyright Issues Reading Programs Reference Refresher Course Children’s & Adolescent Literature Refresher Course- how the trends are changing Grant Writing for Libraries |
