Episode 02: Teacher Collaboration

When I was a middle-grader and a young adult, I spent most of my time in the library. My mother was in the military and I now see the change in my personality, my social ability, as a weariness with the constant disconnection. The library became a place where I could find connection in books and poetry. The writers mirrored so much of what I thought and felt. Whenever I felt lost, I would find my way back to the library or bookstore. James Baldwin famously said, “You think your pain and heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” It’s a quote I see stenciled on bookstore and coffee shop walls often. It is a somber reminder of the way expression, of getting whatever is in you it out, is both cathartic and communal. The rest of the quote goes on to say, “It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

This is the power of reading and the library, and yet…

In the world of school librarianship, it cannot just be about the love and joy of reading. We will always create opportunities for students to read books and love books - and see books as an important part of personal development - but as school librarians, we have to continue offering opportunities for develop technology and research skills, critical literacies, and digital citizenship.

Librarians are duty-bound to uphold democratic principles of free access to information. No barriers, no censorship. We facilitate open access to all resources available. As school librarians, our programming must include lessons to build skills to help students grapple with the abundance of information available - online and in print.

To that end, there are resources linked to this blog that will help librarians collaborate with the classroom teachers to make classroom content and library resources relevant.