Reading with Purpose

[Ernie Cox]

I recently spoke with School Library legend Dr. David Loertscher about the book we are reading. He is concerned about the absence of school librarians in much of the education literature. On scanning Comprehension and Collaboration it appears that the librarian and library receive passing mention and make fleeting appearances. One of my questions for this reading - where can we extend and elaborate the role of the librarian mentioned in these pages?

First appearance of the Librarian - Chapter 1 (pg 1 & 2) a teacher finds books for students with the assistance of the librarian. I like that the librarian and teacher are working together - why did the librarian not work directly with students?

[Kristin Fontichiaro]

Beth makes a great point when she mentions "scalability," and I think that has been an underappreciated element in many schools. There are other folks in the building besides librarians who partner with teachers -- counselors, school psychologists, reading support, special ed., etc. Institutionally, we have underestimated the power of these people to pollinate and cross-pollinate ideas. Often, sadly, these folks are left out of training for classroom teachers! It's an issue that's bigger than librarians. Savvy administrators know they can tap into additional "man"-power and expertise when they draw these other educators into the center of school reform.

[Barbara Jansen]

There is a nice collaboration with the librarian on pages 169-76. Just reading about it now. Hopefully, in the second edition, we can encourage the authors to include more of those. There are several places that they can add more than just a passing mention of libraries and librarians--especially Chapter 6 on Internet research in schools--that one leaves a lot to desire. As we know, a strong school librarian can collaborate with teachers to teach the range of ICT skills at point of need and to help students connect with the best resources including those delivered through databases. The authors briefly mention "Info-Bits, a subscription web service" on page 88. There are many fine opportunities throughout this book for the librarian to introduce students to premium content delivered by the school library's access to the subscription databases.