What's in a name?

Fellow rabble-rouser Adam Janowski has given me permission to re-publish his LM_Net observation on collaboration here:

The word, collaboration, has been around for the last 30 years--all of my time in librarianship. I think it is time to ban the work.

No one collaborates. Especially teachers and librarians.

What we do is PLAN. Plain and simple!

Teachers develop and PLAN assignments, and then they come to the library media specialist to see what we can do to help them.

• A teacher wants us to pull books on Ancient Rome because they have information that the students use. This is a teacher's PLAN. We support it.
• A teacher wants us to review magazine databases with their classes for an assignment on world issues. This is a teacher's PLAN. We do the instruction.
• A teacher want us to provide links to famous photographers. This is a teacher's PLAN. We support it and instruct the students on how to access these sites.
• A teacher wants us to cover the elements of a successful PowerPoint  presentation. We do it. This is the teacher's PLAN. We do the  instruction.
• A teacher requests a rubric for evaluating a presentation. We PLAN with that teacher, offering several different options.
  

Planning can be 2 minutes, 5 minutes 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or more.  But what we do is offer teachers solutions.

But "collaboration" implies hours of work. I am sorry teachers don't have the time to "collaborate".
We are successful! We PLAN with our teachers, whatever time it takes, 2 minutes or more!
Time to dump the word collaborate! Just my two cents!

(I am not sure why the sentiment is related to collaboration, but I like it. This image is from <www.caughtatwork.net/>)

Collaboration - try, try again

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, and try again. Then give up. There's no use being a damned fool about it. - W. C. Fields

I really do know there are times when it is just better to keep my big mouth shut (or fingers still). One of those times is when "collaboration" is being discussed by librarians, as was the case over on the LM_Net listserv this past week. Collaboration, flexible scheduling and an integrated curriculum are sort of the three big sacred cows of the established school library world. And as Gail Dickinson once commented, I tend to commit indecent acts with sacred cows - in public. (Gail, if you are reading this, that was still one of the nicest introductions I've ever received.)

Let me say right off that I have no problem with collaboration. I endorse it heartily when it comes to planning and budgeting and policy-making. Sometimes it makes sense in the classroom. (See Collaboration and Reflection.) But my button is pushed when librarians start sounding like collaboration itself is the goal, not simply a means of achieving one - a sentiment I shared in a column published about a year ago, "Caution with Collaboration."

The following comes from Judi Moreillon, a highly-respected member of the school library profession. I hate getting criticism from people like Judi since she is smart, experienced, well-educated, caring, selfless, and definitely has her heart in the right place. Damn. Here goes:

You don't need to apologize, Doug. You are entitled to your opinion. Clearly, many of us, who have spent a significant number of years in classrooms and libraries teaching students, disagree with you. [For the record, I was a school librarian for 12 years and library supervision has been a part of my job for the past 15 years.]

1. I don't know anyone who views collaboration as a goal. As far as I know, no one has taken their eyes off the prize - student learning and achievement. My experience, the research, and common sense tell me that collaborating with a student's classroom teacher helps the teacher-librarian make a greater different in that student's learning. [Check the studies, like Library Power, that emphasize that a positive result of a library improvement effort is that it contributes to "more collaboration" as though it were a goal.]

It's math. In a school of 350, 750, or 1600, who spends more time with individual students, the classroom teacher or the teacher-librarian? [If the argument here is that when there is one librarian for 1600 kids, I will agree that the only way s/he can have a school-wide impact is primarily by doing staff development. If that collaboration, so be it.]

2. As part of a learning community, we should be interdependent. Non-collaboration assures isolation. Providing poor examples of collaboration does not make your case.

Like all educators, teacher-librarians should be constantly improving their technology skills and teaching practices and helping others improve theirs. We do not want to make students dependent on us. Why would we want to make teachers dependent on us? Learning is social. It's done best in the company of peers. [The last section of my column made this very point - that we need to be interdependent, not co-dependent. I would disagree that all learning is social for all people. A big mistake we make as teachers is assuming everyone learns in the same way we ourselves do.]

3. No, collaboration doesn't make us indispensable. My own career history is testimony to that. What collaboration does is make our work significant and meaningful. I would take that over security any day. [I know you walk the talk on this one and I sincerely admire your conviction. My own career has always been a balancing act between idealism and paying the mortgage. For many librarians I hope that collaboration is just one of things that make their work significant and meaningful, not the only thing.]

But I am concerned for the future of our profession. In Arizona, we have been steadily losing library positions. Being viewed as a critical part of the instructional team - as educators who get results - is the best way I know to reverse this trend. [Here's where my pragmatism kicks in. I always ask myself is it better to have a librarian working with kids in less than ideal circumstances or to not have a librarian at all. And I always come down on the side of having a librarian regardless of the circumstances. When budget cuts come, it is the person with specific mandated responsibilities that survives. It is the math teacher teaching math skills; the reading teacher teaching reading skills, etc. Why should the library teacher not be teaching library (technology and information literacy) skills? We know that best practices show both reading and math should be integrated/practiced/applied throughout the curriculum, but we still retain those teaching positions that have genuine accountability for seeing that the skills are mastered. One way of looking at a "team" is two people doing the job that could be done by one. Collaboration is NOT making us indispensable, as you agree, and after 3o years in this direction we as a profession must try something different or will no longer exist. As Mr. Field says in the opening quote, "No sense being a damned fool about it."]

I wish you would post this to your blog where people can comment in a public forum. Perhaps you have and I missed it. [Judi, if you would like a chance to respond to my comments, I will promise to publish them here sans my editorial comments next time.]

Thank you.

Best,
Judi Moreillon, Ph.D.
Literacies and Libraries Consultant
http://storytrail.com

OK, adding my replies probably isn't fair. I WILL give Judi the last word if she replies.

Blue Skunk readers??? Weigh in! 

What the public library could learn from Barnes & Noble

I was tickled to read yesterday's posting at the Information Wants To Be Free blog. In "It's not just the OPACs that suck," Meredith Farkas fesses up to not using her public library and suggests some pointers libraries could take from Nordstroms and other retail outlets.

What is the old expression; Great minds think alike? ;-) From my files... 

"What the Public Library Could Learn from Barnes & Noble," Mankato Free Press, June 3, 1996

My 10 year old son gave me pause the other day. He asked to if I’d take him out after supper to see if the latest book in his favorite Goosebump series was out. Normal kid-type request.

But then he added, “While we’re at Barnes & Noble, I want to ....” I don’t think it even entered his mind that the first place to check for a book would be his public library. In fact, it didn’t occur to me either until we on our way home full of cookies and cappuccino, and twenty bucks or so lighter in the wallet.

What has happened that this career librarian (and life-long library lover and supporter) would head to a bookstore instead of the public library to satisfy his family’s reading needs?

Maybe a comparison between Barnes & Noble and the local library would be useful?

1. Hours
My son wanted to get his book on a Sunday. B&N is open in Mankato every evening in the week - Sunday’s included - 95 hours a week. The public library is only open until 8PM four nights a week and on Sundays not at all. 38 hours less than B&N. Sort of convenient having a place to get a book beyond the workday.

2. Selection
If I want old stuff (which is sometimes exactly what I want), I’ll hit the public library, no hesitation. But try to find anything new at the library:
    Best sellers - out, and a long waiting list.
    Travel guides - 3 to 4 years old.
    New video tapes, audio-books, computer games - forget about it!
B&N not only has plenty of the newest stuff, they promote it. They revel in it. And when it gets old and stale, like bread, it gets discounted and never comes back to clutter the shelves. At B&N, I don’t have to wade through 8 old copies of Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide to get to this year’s edition.

My next experiment is to request a book inter-library loan on the same day that I order an out of stock item from B&N. Who will get the material to me the fastest? Oh, and I have to fill out my own loan form at the library; B&N requests the book for me.

3. Service
I’ve got to admit most of our public librarians know their stuff. And they are friendly, tenacious and willing to help. The fact that only a couple may be on duty during busy times does tend to diminish their effectiveness. B&N clerks are nice enough, and since they tend to be readers themselves, can sometimes recommend a romance or thriller. They can usually get you to the cookbook or auto repair section, but they have difficulty when you don’t know if the book might just as easily fall under the category of education, current issues, or political science. And they don’t do reference either.

The one terrific thing that the B&N could learn from the library is its catalog. Big bookstores really need public terminals which serve as guides to their stock. I get jealous when the clerk gets to use the computer, and I don’t.

4. Costs
Ah, you’re saying, now the real advantage of the library will shine through. Those books at B&N are at least $20 a piece, even $10 or more for a paperback. Library books are free, or more accurately, paid for indirectly by my city, county, state and federal taxes.

Library books are free when they are available (see above). What the public library really ought to do is charge patrons about $3 a week to read the latest pot boilers, and take that revenue and buy (here’s a concept) multiple copies. Sort of like at the videotape store. After the newness wears off, the novel goes back to the free shelves.

Library books aren’t free unless you return them on time. I hate due dates on books. Once upon a time I had a life which allowed me the leisure to read two or three recreational books a week. I never got a fine. Now I am lucky to get through one “pleasure” novel a month, and I am always getting fines. Still cheaper than shucking out a Hamilton, right? Yes, but along with the fine comes a little humiliation, a feeling that you just aren’t quite the citizen your momma raised you to be. If my novel of the month costs $20, so be it. I’ll be careful not to dogear it so I can give it to my brother-in-law for Christmas.

5. Ambiance and location
Here’s the place that the public library needs to sit up and take notice! Where do you go not just to read, but to sit in fine comfortable, clean chairs? Sip a cup of coffee and eat a cookie while reading? Hear a live string quartet softly play in the background? It ain’t my library! No food, no drinks, no noise, no nothing. Would it kill those librarians if I brought in my own thermos of coffee or can of pop? B&N owns its books. Why does its manager trust me not to slobber or spill there?

Our B&N is close to our Wal-mart, K-Mart, discount grocery store,and shopping center - places I get near to at least a couple times a week. Our public library is in our rather dead downtown - where I go on purpose once or twice a year. The library requires a special trip. B&N is handy.

6. Programming
Well, the public library still has a story times for children, I believe, but I don’t know exactly when. B&N, the flyer they send out tells me, this month alone has children’s stories, a children’s play, poetry readings, author signings, a singer, a storyteller, a book discussion group, and experts talking on subjects as diverse as women aviators and divorce. The technology side of the store holds computer game days, a Q&A session on Windows 95, and seminars on connecting to the Internet.

One of the primary missions of the public library in this country has been adult education. The public library, like the public schools, has been an educational equalizer between the economic haves and have-nots. B&N seems to taking on an educational mission as well - and the opportunities it provides are relevant, valuable, and (gasp) fun! And it doesn’t do it passively - it reaches out and grabs the public. Take notice, public library - just letting the books sit on the shelves until a patron is motivated to come and learn doesn’t cut it anymore, if it ever really did. You need an active, exciting, educational program, and offer, not just resources, but skills if you want to stay viable in this information-glutted society.

Poor financing is only one reason our public libraries have lost their eminence as the cultural and education hub of the community. Other reasons may include a lack of vision, imagination and willingness to serve the public in critical ways. Maybe the library board doesn’t need to do a nation-wide search for a new administrator. Maybe it only needs to see if it can recruit the manager from Barnes & Noble.

Ten years later, our public libraries in Minnesota struggle for funding. Barnes & Noble will be opening a new store here in Mankato this spring with double the floor space.  The public library still doesn't have a coffee shop and is open fewer hours than in 1996, including two fewer evenings.