LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALISTS and the FUTURE: A Conversation with Ken Haycock
By Joyce Kasman Valenza
MultiMedia & Internet@Schools; Jan/Feb2006, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p11-15, 5p, 1c

You can do it – You need to do it seems to be the message being brought to teacher librarians in this article. Although it is a chapter taken from Joyce Kasman Valenza’s book Super Searchers Go to School, the article talks some about searching strategies, but more about how to promote your library within your school.

At first I felt put-down by the reality that teacher librarians don’t bridge the communication gap very well, but by the end of the article, I was agreeing that we need to avoid our information literacy jargon and get out there and promote and communicate and be the information experts that we know we are! As the article states, “We need to help people understand the tools that will make their lives easier,” and “If you can’t sell it personally, I don’t think you’re going to make a difference.” We need to be able to break through the busyness that teachers face and reach them with an aspect that they are interested in.

I also was encouraged to work with the faculty at my school at agreeing upon and reinforcing a research model. At this point, it is every teacher does their preferred way and the students are left not sure what the expectations or process are. I feel this would be easy to connect with the information literacy curriculum I am currently working on. Uh Oh! I am doing it – using the library jargon that the rest of the faculty doesn’t understand. I am going to have to change that title!

I also appreciate his point of using pre-assessment and then clustering those kids who need additional help. It certainly does make the most sense to target those kids to ensure mastery that doing a refresher for an entire class. I would like to develop this as well – pre-assessment tests in a variety of areas.