Real Talk with Mrs. D: Interview with a School Librarian

This morning I had the opportunity to hold a brief interview with my former elementary school librarian, Ms. Murray. (Fun note - she is also now both of my childrens’ elementary school librarian as they go to the same school I did!) Ms. Murray is in her 20-something year of holding this role so she had a lot of insight to offer. 

First, we discussed her day to day. She teaches 7 classes and has both a lunch and a prep period - this is a pretty standard schedule for a public school educator in the state of NJ due to laws. What was surprising, though, was that she now only fills this role part-time. She states this is due to the smaller district size. However, the district isn’t much smaller than when I was there and she was full-time then. So, she now splits her time between being an in class resource teacher (she is also certified special education) and as the librarian. 

Ms. Murray plans for instruction in a variety of ways. Always first, she is sure to align what is being taught to the national and state standards. Luckily, this is easy as the library program has recently turned STREAM (science, technology, reading, engineering, art, and math) dominant so she hits on multiple standards across subjects during any given lesson. Another method she uses to plan instruction is through facilitating relationships with her colleagues. I thought it was really cool to learn that she had access to all of the teachers’ curriculum guides as well as the pacing for the curriculum. In addition, Ms. Murray also has access to the weekly lesson plans for each teacher. So, she is pretty readily able to access a class’s potential needs and plan instruction accordingly.

Ms. Murray’s biggest lament was in the obstacle of lack of shared planning time. Each teacher is so busy in their own planning and data measurements that it is hard to find time to get face-to-face meetings in order to truly align instruction with another teacher. She says her best sources for collaboration are in casual conversations where she and another teacher realize that their lessons crossover and allow for intersectional instruction.

However, what really stood out to me in our 20 minute conversation was the software program she uses to serve multiple functions like cataloging and circulation but also that the software program has the ability to assess her collection. As Ms. Murray is preparing for the new school year, she uses that tool to help her see where any weak areas or voids are in her collection. I was impressed that this software was able to use the data from her library to help her make it better. She emphasized its easy usability and no fuss one stop shop nature. From there, she uses School Library Journal, The Horn Book, ALA award winners, Facebook groups and workshops to help diversify her collection.

Another key takeaway occurred during the end of our conversation and had to do with diversifying a collection. As we both acknowledged, diversity is a majorly hot topic right now in the field of library science but it is especially true for the school librarian. A point she made really stuck with me - diversifying a collection just to say it is diverse does nothing for anyone. Meaning, if the kids aren’t engaged with and therefore taking out these texts labelled as diverse, why would she take up shelf space? This is some very interesting food for thought. It has left me considering: What makes for a truly diverse collection? How do we get children to engage with diversity in materials? And, I think most importantly, how can we use children’s input to guide how we diversify our collections? 

All in all, I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to reconnect in this way with Ms. Murray. The insight she gave me into her day-to-day, her lesson planning tactics, how she facilitates communication with other teachers, and the run down of the benefits to both the software program she uses in her library and the effectiveness of actions behind diversifying a collection, have proved to be very fruitful. It also has inspired me to ask some important questions as well as save some practices for future reference.