Wisdom from Hartzell and Professional Death Wishes

People who resist change are sometimes right. G. Hatzell

In his usual engaging and humorous style, Gary Hartzell* presented a day-long workshop on library advocacy last Monday. I am not much of a note-taker, but these comments struck me as important. (My remarks in italics.)

Before the notes, I have to get a little rant off my chest here. Out of 500+ school library media specialists in Minnesota, fewer than 30 came to this workshop. Why?

• Does the school library profession have a death wish? 
• Do we all believe that some magic thing will step in and save all our jobs? 
• Are we so personally convinced of our value that we cannot conceive that others may not think so highly of us?

I gotta tell ya, it's damn tough working for a group who do not seem to make an effort to work for themselves. When the next MN school librarian comes to me crying about his/her job being cut, my first question will be "Did you go to Hartzell's workshop and apply any of his ideas?"

Yes, there was a fee to attend. Yes, it's summer. Yes, we have families, obligations, etc. But just remember - nobody picks our priorities for us - so own up to the consequences of choosing yours.

Thus endeth the rant.

From Gary:

Why do we need to capture the principal's support? (Seems like a "well, duh" question to me, but if it were the profession would not be in jeopardy.)
 - The principle controls opportunity (money, staffing, scheduling, space)
 - There is no quality library programs w/o principal support

Advocacy realities:

- School level advocacy is "micro" advocacy with no effect on the entire field and the results are temporary
- Macro advocacy means altering general perception of libraries via teacher and admin training
- Current danger in interpretation of research - asking and promising too much - don't overstate impact of libraries

My sense is that we have to continue to work at BOTH a micro and macro level of advocacy. Working on either alone puts the profession at either short term or long term risk.

50+ years of research on libraries:
- consistent but not compelling (correlation not causation)
- not recognized elsewhere (why not seen other non-library publications)
- can be it strengthened by examining the impact of schools that have cut library programs?

Many of us are beginning to view research with no small degree of skepticism. It's a nice advocacy tool, but HAS to be supplimented with local data and communications.

Research cannot show that
- Libraries have values in their own rights
- Libraries undergird other programs
- Libraries teach skills that are not measured on standardized tests

Read: Karl Weick on small wins, Gerald Lanier's You are not a gadget, and Robert Evans Human side of school change.

Libraries MUST support other programs (People love those who make them look good - we need to make teachers look good)
 - working with gifted
 - special education
 - at-risk (make connection with individuals_
 - counselor
 - new teachers
 - "veteran" newcomer teacher
 - out of assignment teachers
 - changed teacher schedules
 - restructuring teachers
 - staff development

Triangulate support - get teachers and parents to talk to principal about the importance of libraries. YES!

Success flows to the visible. - make yourself visible.  We have advantages - our skills, our resources, etc)

Why do we not now have principal support? Ave age teachers 49 -  age admins mid 50s - lack of experience. knowledge and training about good libraries.

Principals learn about good libraries from librarians themselves.

To get principal's support we must do four things:

1. Get library reconceptualized as investment, not a cost
2. Job understanding - mutual understanding
3. Professional trust
4. Build targeted influence

"This is your 2010 to retirement project."

"Librarians must have an enterprising attitude."

Get positive comments about the library from principal in writing.

How much does eliminating a librarian's position influence class size? Not very much.

* Gary's a friend and has been a big influence on my thinking about school libraries. He's contributed these guest posts to the Blue Skunk:

Librarian-proof libraries? Guest rant by Gary Hartzell

Guest post by Gary Hartzell

and has written a "must read" book for all school librarians, Building Influence for the School Librarian.

Suit Yourself - Paul's customizable world

As a good grandfather, I try to be a source of information and wisdom to my grandsons. (See The Grandpa Assignment.)  This weekend I showed Paul the world's largest (and possibly oldest) popcorn ball, above. I  taught him about the joys of swimming in abandoned gravel pits, below. We explored some Indian mounds, stage coach roads and really old comic books down in my hometown in Iowa. All good.

But I believe I learn more about the world from Paul than he does from me.

This trip I showed Paul the Maps app on the iPad and how as we drove, he could track our progress via the little blue dot. Paul quickly discovered how to change the scale of the map just to suit him. He figured out how to switch to GoogleEarth for photographic point of view. Next trip I'll show him AroundMe so he can track down the nearest DQ.

Grandpa as a boy was lucky to have a road map - one map, one scale, one function. Nothing customizable about it. That didn't prevent me from developing map reading skills and a love of maps themselves. But it was pretty much "my way or the highway" when it came to maps.

Paul has grown up with lots of customizable information and entertainment sources. A couple years ago he got mad because the TV remote in the hotel we were staying wouldn't allow the program to be rewound, fast-forwarded or paused. Paul expects DVR-like TV customizability including time-shifting. Soon it will be the expectation of portability of video content via iPad/iPod type devices. Music became portable with transistor radios back when I was a little boy on the prairie, but ubiquitous access to the world's music is relatively new. And we've all gotten a little accustomed to information on demand via our web-enabled phones and other portable devices.

Whether it is cell phone rings, game difficulty, new feeds, or font size in e-book readers, many children of Paul's generation will experience a world that conforms to their preferences.

Everywhere, that is, except in school. We're still pretty much one-size-fits-all and you'd better conform to us.

Any bets on whether drop out rates from traditional schools continue to climb? Or on whether "customizable" eduction will be the next big thing in education?

It's summer and the procrastination is easy

The topic of procrastination has held some fascination for me. See:

• How we spend our days
• Productive procrastination
• I will conquer my procrastination problem. You just wait!

Jeri Hurd in her insightful post, Blogging as Avoidance Behavior,  writes:

It  occurred to me a moment ago that the hours and hours I've spent on the blog the past few days is actually procrastination--my excuse for NOT working on packing up the house for the big move. 

OK, been there, done that, got the t-shirt. I've just added "Check my Twitter stuff" to check my e-mail and check my RSS reader to my list-of-things-to-do-before-I-get-to-the-hard-work. Just what I needed.

But why I thought of Jeri's post again was Seth Godin's report this morning:

A good preacher ought to be able to get 70% of the people who showed up on Sunday to make a donation.

A teeny bop rock group might convert 20% of concert goers to buy a shirt or souvenir.

A great street magician can get 10% of the people who watch his show to throw a dollar in the hat.

Direct marketers used to shoot for 2% conversion from a good list, but now, that's a long shot.

A blogger might convert 2% of readers to buy a book. (I'm aghast at this).

And a twitter user with a lot of fans will be lucky to get one out of a thousand to click a link and buy something. (.1%)

and concludes

If all you're doing is increasing the number of digital spectators to your work, you're unlikely to earn the conversion you deserve.

Most of write to persuade (to convert, if you will). Once again I am challenged to ask myself where and how my writing may have the most impact - in a magazine or journal, in a book, on this blog or in Twitter feeds?

I'm not selling products, but I am selling ideas. Aren't you? How is your time best spent converting the great unwashed?