Each summer, school libraries renovated by the Baltimore Library Project stay open for six weeks in the summer to offer drop-in programming to students from around the city. This programming is provided by staff and volunteers from MOST as well as community partners including Young Audiences Maryland, the Maryland Zoo, and Code in the Schools, among others.[1] During the six-week program, the libraries offer programming Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. On an average day, students show up at nine for a free breakfast from the Summer Food Service Program,[2] read aloud in the library until the first workshop of the day, followed by free lunch, recess, and a second workshop or other activity in the afternoon. The average program attendance this year was twenty-one students per day per location, with a wide range of attendance across the locations.[3]

In addition to the daily workshops and activities, participants in SummerREADS work on a long-term project at each library location. This year’s project was to create an Olympic stadium out of found materials. “We kept the description vague so students could develop, design, and be creative,” said Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST. “We ended up with ten very unique, different visions for what a stadium should include.”[4]

The libraries also play host to a small summer reading program. Students can log fifteen minutes a day of reading to earn prizes, and the schools give out ten self-selected books to all students, not just SummerREADS participants, through a grant from the Abell Foundation.[5]

Staffing SummerREADS is the hardest element to handle, said Mincarelli. MOST tries to keep the student-adult ratio at 15:1, so each of the ten libraries is staffed by the school’s librarian and two AmeriCorps counselors and supplemented by Foster Grandparents where needed. The AmeriCorps staff manages the daily programming, and the school librarian is on hand to operate the library, check out books, and be the connection between the schools and the students that participate.[6]  At Harford Heights Elementary School, librarian Hope Kimbrow also recruited student and parent volunteers to lead groups of students during activities.[7]

Although Baltimore is lucky enough to have support from big-name community partners, other libraries can and do put on similar programming during the summer. “What we’re doing is a model of what libraries can do,” said Mincarelli. “You don’t need a philanthropic arm to renovate libraries to do this.”[8]

And the program does more than just keep kids learning over the summer. “This program provides a safe haven for students. Students know they can come to a welcoming environment where they can be provide a fun, loving, and happy learning environment,” said Kimbrow.[9]

References

[1] Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST, in a phone interview with the author, August 19, 2016.

[2] Paul Mincarelli, “In Baltimore, The Library Is Open,” Huffington Post, July 22, 2016.

[3] Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST, in a phone interview with the author, August 19, 2016.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Hope Kimbrow, Library Media Specialist at Harford Heights Elementary School, in an email interview with the author, August 31, 2016

[8] Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST, in a phone interview with the author, August 19, 2016.

[9] Hope Kimbrow, Library Media Specialist at Harford Heights Elementary School, in an email interview with the author, August 31, 2016

The post School Libraries in Baltimore Don’t Take a Summer Vacation first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Hesburgh Library, located on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, houses over four million volumes, so it’s hard to imagine that a collection of that size that would be lacking in any kind of materials. However, Hesburgh librarians noticed that students were asking for more leisure reading material, as well as requesting more popular materials through Interlibrary Loan.

While the library does have some popular titles, including Harry Potter (available in English, Gaelic, Spanish, German, and French) the focus of their collection isn’t on bestsellers. Tracey Morton, Manager of Frontline Services, explains: “The Hesburgh Libraries are not immune to the financial limitations that have been faced by our peer institutions, so our endowments are focused on acquiring materials necessary for academic success. As we investigated vendor services and their costs, the St. Joseph County Public Library was brought up in conversation as a possible option. Their librarians are already experts on what our young people are interested in reading and listening to. They have the material, and Notre Dame is within their borrowing area.”[1]

SJCPL needed patrons and Hesburgh needed easy access to popular materials, so teams from both the public and academic libraries began a discussion on how to form a partnership that would work for both sides. It was decided that Hesburgh would be set up as a destination for holds pick­up where university patrons, after registering for a public library card, would be able to request materials from SJCPL online or in person at Hesburgh. These materials would be delivered to the university library for pick­-up five days a week. University patrons would also have access to the full range of digital materials that are available anytime.

While the partnership seemed like a win­-win for both libraries, there were a couple of minor challenges that needed to be worked through before the project could be given the green light. Morton explains, “Networking was the greatest challenge. We had to have a terminal connected to the St. Joseph County Library on a static network. Connecting to an unaffiliated server would leave the Notre Dame network vulnerable to malicious attacks. If the network could not be secured, it would have ended the project.”[2] Fortunately, the network was able to be secured and Hesburgh was given permission to use the ILS at a non­SJCPL location. SJCPL provided Hesburgh with the ILS software, a barcode scanner, receipt printer, receipt tape, label maker (for names on library cards), label tape, a delivery bin, and SJCPL welcome brochures for new patrons. Lisa O’Brien, Head of Circulation Services at SJCPL says, “We had a bit of difficulty setting up our equipment with their computer. The signature pad we use for library card registration was not working with their computer, and they had difficulties with the barcode scanner. IT worked hard on these issues, and we were eventually able to work through it.”[3]

Once the technology and equipment issues were resolved, the next step was training Hesburgh staff on SJCPL policies and procedures. “I first trained Tracey Morton, Head of Frontline Services, here at Main Library. I then visited Hesburgh to train their circulation staff. I gave them step-­by-­step instructions on each Sierra function they would be using. I also gave them an overview of our loan rules, as well as specific instructions on how to register a patron for a library card. I gave them copies of the training documents, as well as a FAQ document they could refer to when needed,” explains O’Brien. [4]“Taking time to input patron information into the ILS for a library card is a new experience. Our patrons are automatically downloaded into our ILS nightly once they receive their university ID” adds Morton.[5]

The program officially began on August 25, the first day of the fall semester. There was a brief mention of the new partnership in the local paper, The South Bend Tribune, but so far, news of the service has mainly been through word of mouth. “One professor heard about it and had his entire architecture class come and sign ­up for library cards.” says Morton.[6] The response to the partnership has been small but positive and is expected to increase as more students and faculty become aware of the new service. “In November we plan on doing more campus advertising in time for the Christmas Break.” [7] SJCPL is keeping track of the number of new registrations and holds coming from Hesburgh and will be regularly sharing the data with Hesburgh. Although there are no immediate plans to expand at the services offered at Hesburgh or to extend to other area colleges SJCPL is open to the possibility.

Sources

1. Tracey Morton (Manager of Frontline Services at Hesburgh), interview by Theresa Horn over e-mail on October 23, 2015.
2. Ibid.
3. Lisa O’Brien (Head of Circulation Services at St. Joseph County Public Library), interview by Theresa Horn over e-mail on October 12, 2015.
4. Ibid.
5. Morton, Ibid.
6. Morton, Ibid.
7. Morton, Ibid.

Further Reading
McKenna, Matthew. “Hesburgh Libraries announces partnership with St. Joseph County Library.” The Observer. December 9, 2015. Web. Accessed January 5, 2016.

The post Public and University Library Collaboration first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

We Need Diverse Book logo

According to their website at weneeddiversebooks.org, the organization defines diversity as recognizing “all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIApartn, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.”

In the last year, the WNDB campaign has established itself as a tax-exempt public charity, partnered with School Library Journal and the Children’s Book Council in promoting their cause, established the Walter Dean Meyers book award, and among other things, created the popular #WNDB. Diversity panels have popped up at conferences everywhere from School Library Journal’s Day of Dialogue to the American Library Association to the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

Part of what spurred Oh and Lo to take action was the all-white panel scheduled at last year’s Book Expo America (BEA) BookCon event. This year, BookCon and WNDB partnered for a panel entitled, “We Need Diverse Books: In Our World and Beyond.” Authors Sherman Alexie and Jacqueline Woodson were scheduled to be part of the event, but WNDB did point out that no authors of color were to be featured at the annual BEA children’s breakfast.

It seems the call for diverse books would begin with authors. In a recent interview, middle school teacher and first-time novelist Cindy Rodriguez talked about diversity in her new YA book, When Reason Breaks. While in the revision process, she took the time to add diversity to her novel.

Said Rodriguez, “Emily Delgado is Puerto Rican, Tommy Bowles is half-Mexican, Ms. Diaz is Latina, Kevin has two dads, and Sarah is black. The story, however, is not about being Latino or gay or black. It’s about teen depression, attempted suicide, and Emily Dickinson. When we talk about diversity in children’s literature, we often think about it in terms of books with an almost all minority cast of characters dealing with issues linked to race, culture, etc. I’ve read lots of those books, and I think we need more of them, for sure, but we also need more books with diverse characters tackling other issues. The characters’ culture, race, sexual orientation, etc. may play a part in the narrative because it’s important to who they are, but it shouldn’t always be the “problem.”

What’s next for WNDB? They recently developed an internship to help “diversify publishing from the inside out”, and will host the first Children’s Literature Diversity Festival in Washington D.C. in 2016.

Wondering what you as librarians can do at your libraries? Some advocates suggest not just buying books with diverse characters simply for that fact. They want you to buy books with diverse characters because they are good. For more tips, check out Marybeth Zeman’s two-part series on “Can Children See Themselves in the Books on Your Shelves?” here:

https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/07/can-children-see-themselves-in-the-books-on-your-shelves-part-i/

References:

https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/07/can-children-see-themselves-in-the-books-on-your-shelves-part-i/

http://weneeddiversebooks.org

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/03/people/movers-shakers-2015/we-need-diverse-books-movers-shakers-2015-change-agents/#_

The post “We Need Diverse Books” Campaign Gaining Momentum first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Salt Lake City Public Library is trying to do just that. Since 2011, they have been fighting the battle against illiteracy in early childhood with great results. “The library system’s Smart Start program, a community outreach project that serves more than 1,000 children each month, aims to cultivate children’s love of reading while giving parents and teachers necessary literacy-building tools.” (Oligschlaeger 2015)

Smart Start is active in seventy low-income classrooms throughout Salt Lake City. There are currently twelve librarians on staff who participate in the program. Basically they take breaks from their daily library jobs to travel to schools and programs, inviting the kids to participate in a full story-time and a selection of picture books. The classrooms range from pre-K to Head Start. “Smart Start’s reach also stretches beyond the classroom. Librarians regularly bring story-time presentations to children staying at The Road Home, the YWCA women’s shelter, and Odyssey House, a rehabilitation center with residential family programs.” (Oligschlaeger 2015)

One of the librarians who participates has said that he hopes the program will spur a ripple effect in other outreach areas, and I agree. Every library has its own niche with which to help the community. I work at an art reference library, and would love to create an outreach program that will help bring art into schools that may not have the funds for art education. I’d love to hear more about library outreach programs. Where does your library go in the community? Share your stories in the comments.

The post Smart Start Community Outreach first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The founder of Smashwords (Mark Coker) graduated from Los Gatos High School, making it the logical choice to begin a new chapter of libraries and e-publishing joining forces. Through a variety of connections, Henry Bankhead, the current acting director of Los Gatos Library, got in touch with high school English teacher, Tonya McQuade. They worked together to create an opportunity for students to not only write their own material but also be a part of the process of getting it published.  Thanks to a grant from the Pacific Library Partnership, two mobile labs were used to create these books. Each lab included 10 iPads, 1 MacBook air, a charging station, and Microsoft Office for all of the devices. The lab components were used mostly for creating art work but also for some of the actual writing.

“Last year’s students were the first to try this, and they really enjoyed being able to see their own work published,” says McQuade. Even more, the students enjoyed being able to be part of the process of seeing the whole book come together, from learning about self-publishing from Coker and Bankhead; to choosing a title and cover design; selecting poems to include and organizing them into sections; adding artwork; marketing the book, promoting the book through social media and news campaigns; and then finally, having our book launch party at the Los Gatos Library. There, several students read their poems for an audience of parents and students, as well as explained the process used to create the book. What’s more, on the day of the launch party, our book went to number one on Amazon’s Poetry Book List! The students were also eager to help out their freshmen class by contributing the funds raised to help support upcoming class activities.”

And the positive reactions didn’t stop with the teacher. A number of students during that first year learned not only writing and editing skills, but learned how the library can be an excellent resource. Aididh Finlayson said, “I’ve always loved the library, and this made me feel like the library was really trying to support our educational endeavors.” Another student added, “I do feel more connected to the library now.”  The success of the program is best summed up by Nitin Srivivasan, a sophomore who was in Ms. McQuade’s ninth grade English class last year. “Because of this project, I have developed a greater appreciation for literature in general, and I have grown more connected the Los Gatos Public Library.”

The tangible results of this collaborative work included the poetry anthology Windows to the Teenage Soul (available on Overdrive), as well as two short story collections, Stories to Remember and Collection of Inspirational Teenage Stories, both available on Smashwords. Due to the success of this project, Bankhead and crew will be working with the next class of ninth grade English students this year.

The post Teaching Teens Self-Publishing @ the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Everyone has their own style of doing reader’s advisory for children. In our library, one of the first questions we ask children is:”What do you like to do for fun?” The second question is “What do you like to watch on television?” For young children, that usually leads us to the genre that is based on the television or movie characters. However, once you reach “chapter book level” there aren’t as many of those types of books. Now what do we do?

For middle and upper elementary school children, we now ask straight out, “Do you like funny books?” Sometimes a child will mention having read one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books or that a friend of theirs has read one. That connection is frequently the hook we use to direct them to the Humorous section of books.

If we’re lucky the child will leave the library with a pile of books by some combination of authors including but not limited to Jeff Kinney, Lincoln Peirce, Jon Scieszka, Dav Pilkey, and Tom Angleberger. We encourage our reluctant readers to take at least three books, but we prefer four or five. If at all possible the books are all by different authors.

This push for variety is for different reasons. For the children, we want them to know that it’s okay to not like a book and to try another one. For the parents, we want them to feel comfortable with the idea that something will work. They shouldn’t have to make a “five minutes before the library closes because we need a book for school tomorrow” run because the one book they chose at the library the last time didn’t work. Fortunately for both parents and children, many authors write series of humorous stories. Therefore, if there turns out to be a book that a child likes, there may be several more that are similarly enjoyable. That ray of hope always brightens both groups.

We have an extensive collection of books for a variety of different age levels in the Humorous genres. We have books for the youngest readers through middle school — all of whom enjoy a good laugh. For children just learning to read, Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggie books are the mainstay of the section. In our chapter book area we have perennial favorites like Captain Underpants and the Time Warp Trio, along with a wide variety of authors all creating hilarious, enjoyable reads for our young patrons. Then we finish up with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and the many similar titles published since then for the middle and upper elementary school readers.

Share your humorous books for kids recommendations in the comments.

Melanie A. Lyttle is the Head of Public Services Madison Public Library. You can watch her YouTube channel, Crabby Librarian, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv5GLWsUow. Shawn D. Walsh is the Emerging Services and Technologies Librarian at Madison Public Library.

The post Humorous Books Can Appeal to Reluctant Readers first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

District 833, located southwest of St. Paul, formally launched the T3 Initiative during the 2013-14 academic year. This initiative is a key component of the district’s long range plan to move teachers and students towards a new digital curriculum. T3 is designed to help prepare students for twenty-first-century academic success by personalizing their education through self-directed, anytime/anywhere learning. Using a variety of emergent technologies, T3 capitalizes on the flexibility of digital communication and collaboration while helping students develop the critical thinking and evaluation skills necessary to function in an increasingly online world.

T3 was partially funded through Minnesota’s Compensatory Education Funding, which earmarks state education funds for schools with high numbers of students who have been unable to meet state and local performance standards for their grade levels. Schools receiving these funds are frequently located in areas of greater socioeconomic need throughout the state.

During the 2012-13 academic year—one year before the formal T3 launch—all District 833 teachers were issued a MacBook for classroom and home use. These laptops were intended to help facilitate the transition from print curricula to online learning models by familiarizing district teachers with the possibilities for integrating online material into their classrooms.

As the 2013-14 academic year approached, teachers were informed that textbooks for specific subjects, such as social studies, would be gradually phased out in place of online learning modules that teachers would be building for their classes. Textbooks would not be removed from classrooms. Instead, the district would simply stop purchasing them for specific subject areas. Funds for these textbooks would be reassigned to purchase access to online curricula modules (such as the Minnesota Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum) or for other specific online services teachers would like to access when constructing their class content.¹

As the 2012-13 academic year concluded, classroom teachers, media specialists, and public librarians contacted each other to investigate resource-sharing to support this new curriculum. WCL administration arranged to meet with District 833 administrators to investigate a more formalized collaboration that was preemptive rather than reactive to the upcoming changes.

What resulted was a multi-departmental approach involving library collaboration with a variety of district representatives and stakeholders over the course of the following year.

Library/School Profiles

WCL is a midsized suburban library system with six branches in a roughly California-shaped county. We share a western border with Ramsey County, which surrounds the state capitol, St. Paul, and we share an eastern border with the state of Wisconsin. Our annual circulation is approximately two million items for our six branches and we see approximately 800,000 visitors each year.

Two of our six branches are located within the borders of District 833. WCL’s Park Grove Branch Library was built in 1984, is 19,000 square feet, and services the majority of the lower-income students in the District 833 service area. The R.H. Stafford Branch Library was built in 2002, is 26,000 square feet, and services Woodbury, the largest city in Washington County.

District 833 has approximately 17,000 students enrolled in the district’s fifteen elementary schools, four middle schools, and three high schools. The district spans an eighty-four square mile area and has a population of approximately 94,000 residents.

A New Curriculum

Classrooms throughout District 833 have been incorporating online and digital components into their curricula for several years now. To encourage this, teachers are offered a variety of continuing education units (CEUs) on tech-related educational theories and applications. The most popular CEUs in recent years have been the Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) learning model, Moodle, Google Apps, and Notability.

Beginning in 2013, the district gained the capability to assign Google Drive accounts to the entire student body at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. This created a cloud computing environment which allows students to create, share, and modify documents online across multiple operating systems.

And an increasing number of teachers are incorporating elements of the “flipped classroom,” where students view a daily lesson online at home and then report to school the next morning to review concepts and to practice skills.

The portion of District 833’s T3 initiative that has received the most publicity, however, is the tablet-based learning project, which distributed iPads to every student in five of the district schools (three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school). Each of these five schools is located in the lowest income areas of the school district. The intent is to eventually provide tablets for all students in the district, but due to the availability of state funding for these five schools, the decision was made to implement at these locations first.

During the last weeks of summer 2013, each student at these five schools was issued an iPad preloaded with the following standardized suite of iWork apps:

• Notability: note-taking app that allows for note taking via typing or writing (with finger or stylus) and also allows for note taking on top of existing PDF docs
• Pages: word-processing app that is the Apple equivalent of Microsoft Word
• Numbers: spreadsheet app that is comparable to Microsoft Excel
• Keynote: presentation app comparable to Microsoft PowerPoint
• iPhoto: app for creating, editing, and sharing photos
• iMovie: app for creating, editing, and sharing movies
• GarageBand: app for creating, editing, and sharing music

Students are permitted to load additional apps to their devices, but the core apps above are required to remain installed on all tablets. There are also numerous apps currently being used by classroom teachers that are not part of this initial suite, including a variety of whiteboard apps as well as the Schoolology Learning Management System.

Teachers in all subjects were encouraged, but not required, to begin introducing new methods of accessing class content via tablet. Students are able to use their devices at home to view classroom presentations and to complete online homework assignments. Many of the apps used in class are linked to accounts managed by their teachers. This allows teachers to review student progress in real time as the assignments are completed at school and at home. Students also gain an online forum to ask questions, discuss concerns, or post community responses about topics pertaining to class or to homework.

Library Support

As WCL and District 833 staff corresponded in the months leading up to the start of the school year, library staff worked to develop a cohesive strategy for providing support to students as the T3 initiative went live in the fall of 2013. Over the course of the next several months, we established seven principal collaboration points where libraries and various school district departments partnered to better leverage our collective resources.

1. Library Card Drives

After discussion with District 833’s library and media center coordinator, it was decided that WCL would begin its support by setting up a series of library card registration drives at schools throughout the district. The primary goal would be to make the library’s dozens of subscription databases available to students, both in school and at home. The anytime/anywhere accessibility of these online resources fit nicely with the district’s general goal to expand learning opportunities for students beyond the standard school day. But to make these services available, we needed to distribute library cards to as many students as possible.

The first part of our library card registration drive strategy would be to send staff to schools to register students on site. The SirsiDynix Symphony integrated library system (ILS) that WCL currently runs allows for remote card registration via a secured HTTP connection. Library staff would take one or more library laptops loaded with SirsiDynix Symphony ILS to the schools. We would be placed in media centers, lunch rooms, or hallways to register students throughout the day. We quickly found ourselves in a time crunch, though. Students were unable to wait in long lines because they had to move along to classes, and WCL staff members were limited by how quickly they could do the data entry. We, quite literally, couldn’t register students quickly enough.

So we worked with library administration to develop a second process involving paper registrations distributed and tracked by classroom teachers. Students who wanted a library card would complete the paperwork and return the applications to the teachers. Teachers would review the applications for completeness and then forward the applications on to the nearest public library. Our staff would process the cards for return and distribution in the classrooms.

In order to make this process work, library administration approved a special dispensation for any students with outstanding fees on their account. Any student with late fees would have the fees waived, up to an amount of $50. A new library card number would be assigned to the account and the student would have a clean slate with the library.

This modified registration process allowed us to register students en masse, covering entire classrooms at a time.

2. Resource Demonstrations

As the library card registration drives were occurring in schools around the district, library staffers were also scheduled for off-site demonstrations of online library resources. Staff demonstrated databases and research products in classrooms, in media centers, and also at special school events such as new student orientations, family night for English language learners, and the Disability Resource Fair.

For high school students, our demonstrations focused on resources that current juniors might need to use the following year as seniors. The goal of these sessions was to emphasize that whatever you are planning to do after high school graduation (Going to college? Enlisting in the military? Job hunting?), we can help. Our staff demonstrated SAT, ACT, and ASVAB study resources through Learning-Express Library. We also demonstrated résumé building and interview skills via JobNow.

At our back-to-school sessions for middle schoolers, we demonstrated simple research products, such as Biography In Context, Gale’s Discovering Collection, NovelList K-8, and BrainFuse’s HelpNow. And at all of the schools we visited, we were asked to demonstrate e-book access. WCL subscribes to both the Overdrive and 3M Cloud library products. When visiting T3 schools where every student had a district-issued iPad, we asked teachers to load the two e-book apps in advance of our visit. This enabled us to begin the book selection process without the time-consuming step of loading the apps. At schools that did not have tablets, we demonstrated e-book apps using one of the WCL staff-training iPads.

3. Media Specialist In-Service

Before the 2013-14 year officially began, WCL was invited to do a general presentation on e-resources to the district’s twenty-plus media specialists at their summer orientation session. Our three goals in this presentation were: (1) to demonstrate ebook access, (2) to demonstrate just a few of our most popular electronic resources, and (3) to reinforce our desire to assist the media specialists however we can as they work their way through the T3 process.

By happy coincidence, the district superintendent and assistant superintendent walked into the media center as we were wrapping up. After finishing our presentation, we ran into both superintendents in the parking lot. Both made a point of expressing their gratitude for our support of the T3 initiative.

4. Access Cards for Media Centers

Following our presentation to the media specialists, we began discussions with the library and media center coordinator about the possibility of remote access to WCL databases at the school libraries and media centers. WCL staff had recently heard about a resource-sharing strategy in place at a northern California public library, involving the assignment of library card numbers to school libraries.

We moved this idea forward to WCL administration. After several discussions, what resulted was the creation of a new type of library card for WCL: the e-resource card. These limited-use library cards provide access to the library’s suite of online research tools but cannot be used to check out books.

We made one of these e-resource cards available to each of the twenty-five schools in District 833. Media specialists are now able to do demonstrations of public library resources to students—but, equally important, they can also do demonstrations to district teachers who are looking to incorporate online resources into their new class curricula.

5. Wireless Access at Public Libraries

One of the first topics discussed when preparing to support the T3 initiative was the matter of wireless access points in the community at large. Because the school district was distributing iPads to the lowest income areas of the district, there were initial concerns about students having access to wireless networks at home after school. Specifically, the question was raised: If a child is given a tablet because his or her family is unable to afford to purchase a tablet, is it reasonable to assume that they will have wireless access at home?

So we asked the district how students without Wi-Fi at home would be completing their online assignments. The initial thought was that students would be able to visit local businesses with wireless access (coffee shops, restaurants, and so forth). This again raised the question of affordability. Can a student whose family can’t afford to install a wireless network at home be reasonably expected to pay the price of a cup of coffee in order to do their homework? (Should they have to?)

A better alternative, we suggested, would be to market the public library as a resource for students who need to get online with their wireless devices. At the library, students are welcome to stay as long as they would like, there are no fees charged for wireless access, and there are meeting rooms available for any group projects the students would need to complete.

It was at this point that we realized that we had a problem. We had assumed that the district iPads would be fully compatible with the library’s county-provided network. They weren’t. Proxy configurations on the library network and on the district iPads were in conflict, so we quickly pulled together a meeting of county and district IT staff to discuss the situation.

After several weeks of discussion and testing, the school district offered to install district-owned wireless networks in both the Park Grove and Stafford branches.

At Park Grove, the district funded a quarter-mile cable run from their nearest elementary school to the library. The Stafford Branch is located in a multipurpose facility that includes the local YMCA, an indoor park, an amphitheater, numerous meeting rooms, and a branch office of District 833’s Early Childhood and Family Education (ECFE) division. The district was able to pull cable approximately one hundred feet from the lower level of the facility, where ECFE offices are located, to the upper level where the library is located.

Access points were installed at both the Stafford and Park Grove branch libraries. When these access points went online, each library now hosted two wireless networks: one from Washington County and one from District 833.

For students, walking in the front door of their local library is now the same as walking in the front door of their school. As soon as their tablets detect the school network, they are automatically connected and online. Library staffers are entirely removed from having to troubleshoot any compatibility issues between the school network and the student devices.

6. Cloud Storage

Prior to the 2013-14 academic year, all WCL Internet workstations were imaged with just two browsers for accessing the web: Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox. As the academic year progressed, staff saw an increase in compatibility errors associated with students’ Google Drive accounts. The Firefox and IE browsers installed on library workstations were several versions old. Both were missing key plug-ins and other components necessary to operate the newest version of the Google Drive product.

County IT did not have the time to create a new profile or to reimage the hundred-plus PC workstations at the library. But IT was able to push an installation of the Chrome browser out to our PCs. The addition of Chrome had the immediate effect of giving seamless entry into the Google Drive product for all students, while removing the staff need to troubleshoot compatibility issues associated with other browsers.

7. Staff Training

Throughout the 2013-14 academic year, library staffers have been receiving updates about a variety of T3-related concerns, including accessibility, Apple iOS upgrades, and miscellaneous hardware issues.

Initially, however, staff members were most concerned about the apps that were preloaded on the students’ iPads. All WCL information services staff had received general iPad (and Google Nexus) training in order to demonstrate e-book services to our customers. So our librarians were already familiar with the mechanics of operating tablet-based technologies.

However, none of our staff had any experience with the core apps installed on the district iPads. We also learned that the iWorks software was not an approved (supported) app with our county IT department so we were unable to load this suite of software onto our library tablets.

We contacted the district’s continuing education coordinator to request recommendations about training exercises for library staff. He responded with a generous offer: They would make available several online continuing education courses for library staff to attend. These included online sessions on SAMR, Google Drive, Notability, iWorks, and Moodle. With this offer, library staff members were now able to receive the same training that district teachers received in preparation for the 2014-15 school year.

Year in Review

With the 2013-14 school year coming to a close, library staff from the Park Grove and Stafford branch libraries began comparing notes on which initiatives worked, and what did not.

What Worked

We registered approximately two thousand students for library cards during the 2013-14 school year. Onsite registration was a popular option, but not an efficient one. We could process paper applications more quickly (and in bulk) back at the branches, using a team of circulation staff. Sending one or two individuals onsite to register students at the schools themselves was a nice bit of outreach, but did not net us the volume of registrations we wanted to achieve.

The presentation we made to media specialists established school contacts for each building in the district. This resulted in numerous invitations to present content at not just media centers but also at individual classrooms for teachers interested in demonstrations of library research tools, e-books, and more.

District administrative staff members were extremely grateful for the regular feedback from public library staff about student experiences with their tablets. This frequent exchange of information demonstrated both the frequency with which students visited the libraries and also our commitment to supporting this educational initiative. All of these factors contributed to the district’s decision to invest the necessary funds to install their wireless networks in two of our buildings.

The collaboration with the district gave us further insights into the scale of similar operations in other districts around the state. The collaboration has also given us a better picture of how technology and online resources were being used in the classroom. And by understanding how the technology is being used in the classroom, we are better prepared to market our services in a form that is both meaningful and useful to teachers and to students.

What Didn’t Work

Wireless access should have been tested well before the beginning of academic year. As project lead for WCL, this oversight was entirely my fault as I assumed compatibility would not be an issue, that students could use our county wireless network without any problems. Because of this, we didn’t do any testing until the school year had begun. By the time we found out that there were problems, we were unable to get to a solution until a large portion of the school year had passed.

Training was an ongoing concern for library staff, but ended up not being the problem that it might have been. Students with iPads were unexpectedly (but happily) very familiar with the usage of most of the iPad apps. And the core suite of apps loaded on the iPads were not utilized very heavily by district teachers this first year so we saw only a few questions about iWork apps.

What’s Next

The library’s watchword for the 2014-15 school year is “sustain.” We want to continue our support, including library card registration drives and resource demonstrations. We want to continue in our role as a technology access point for students. And we want to maintain the communication channels we’ve opened, not only with district administration but also with the teachers and media specialists who work in the district schools.

If staffing and time permit, we would like to duplicate our summertime presentation to media specialists and expand this area to include teachers in other disciplines as well. The district has also invited us to attend some of their in-service training sessions as audience members so that library staff can see what new technologies and learning strategies are being rolled out for the coming year.

Library staff may present on this partnership at the annual Minnesota Library Association conference and it has also been suggested that we consider a similar presentation at the state’s annual teacher conference.

Conclusion

Numerous other school districts in Minnesota are investigating ways to incorporate more digital resources into their curriculum. To date, fifty-plus districts statewide are actively engaged in creating their own peer-reviewed digital content for use in the classroom. Locally managed digital content has the potential to be more responsive to current trends, current events, and STEM advancements—which often date paper texts. And the cost of these digital curricula is less than the cost of textbooks, potentially saving districts thousands of dollars for other projects and programs.

Minnesota’s public school system consistently ranks in the top tier of many national surveys about public education. And Minnesota’s high school seniors have scored highest in the nation on ACT exams for the past eight years.² A key component to maintaining these performance levels in the future will be the ability of our school districts to stay in front of tech trends that have the potential to improve the delivery and comprehension of classroom content for students.

With a growing suite of online resources, public libraries are ideally positioned to demonstrate online content options to educators. Similarly, we are well positioned to support initiatives involving the digitization and distribution of previously printed resources because, as a profession, we have witnessed this digital migration of our print resources for the past twenty years.

By working collaboratively with school districts as they navigate their way through new digital learning models, libraries have a unique opportunity to demonstrate their utility to the next generation of students and educators. And having walked this path ourselves over the past two decades, we are in a position to assist school leaders in their planning and execution of the new curricula being launched in our service areas.

By forming these strategic partnerships with our local schools in the years ahead, we have the potential to raise the community profile of both organizations. Libraries that actively seek out these collaborations appear timely, responsive, and supportive of education efforts in our communities. School districts gain a recognized and respected ally to cite as a supporter of their efforts.

By observing how another important local organization is adapting to the technological developments that are changing the way services are delivered, we are given a frame of reference for mapping our own future. And we gain insights on how we might deliver library services in a way that is both familiar to students and relevant to their evolving academic needs.

References

1. Minnesota Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum (MPCC) homepage, accessed May 7, 2014. MPCC is actively engaged in the creation of open digital curriculum for more than fifty partner districts throughout the state of Minnesota. MPCC content is peer-reviewed, meets state education standards, and is designed by education professionals who support the collaborative creation and distribution of education resources.

2. “ACT and SAT Test Scores: ACT Scores of Minnesota High School Test Takers,” Minnesota Office of Higher Education, accessed May 7, 2014.

The post Supporting Innovation in Education: Digital Curricula and the Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Materials
Are both the school and public library buying the same databases?  Save some of that money!  In our town, each school library was separately subscribing to World Book Online, a resource that the public library also made available. Now, each school library directs it’s students to our library, recovering some of its tight budget. And as a public library, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in usage of this resource.

For the past few years, we’ve expanded our collaboration with school libraries to include borrowing their school library books during the summer months. At the end of the school year, the school libraries generously lend us their collection of Texas Bluebonnet books.  These wildly popular books are an annual list of 20 books selected to encourage reading for pleasure and aimed at grades 3-6.  We typically bought 12 copies of each of the 20 books to have enough to meet patron demand.  Once the school libraries started lending their copies to us, we were able to buy just 8 copies of each title. We estimate that this collaboration has saved us upwards of $500 annually.

Volunteers
Another good reason to build a strong relationship with your school libraries?  Free labor! Use your school libraries to recruit volunteers to help in your library. Our volunteer program has grown so tremendously that we’re able to outsource most of our shelving to volunteers.  And there’s always clerical and cleaning work to be done (I’m looking at you, grubby board books).In return, students get valuable work experience, and often, recommendations for jobs and colleges.

When school and public libraries team up, everyone in the community benefits.  Public Services Manager Cynthia Pfledderer shares, “Our school librarians work with the heart of our community – our families. Their insight and support for our public programs are key to tying the public library materials and services to the needs of parents and children. By inviting the public library into their schools, the school librarians are not only providing an avenue for us to better connect with the families but they are also giving an important endorsement of the public library.”[i]

Got a great story to share about your partnership?  Share in the comments section.

The post Work Smarter: Collaborating and Sharing Resources with School Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.