Interview Four, Jennifer Thrift

"Explore: Discover and innovate in a growth mindset developed through experience and reflection."(AASL, 2018, p. 103)

I spoke with Jennifer Thrift, rockstar librarian at Charles Pinckney Elementary in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Ms. Thrift is a model collaborator, but this year she is "finally" getting into the maker movement, so she wanted to share her current passion - the EXPLORE AASL Shared Foundation.

Ms. Thrift has always been integral in each grade's curriculum, whether it be with her lessons within the library on research on ecosystems or engaging activities on the elements of nonfiction texts. Ms. Thrift is often inside her teachers' classrooms, too, most recently bringing the excitement of Get Your Teach On back to her school from the national conference. Her library theme this year is MAGIC, and Ms. Thrift looks to summon that daily in her library.
But, although Ms. Thrift certainly heard other librarians talk about makerspaces and a maker mentality, she never incorporated the makerspace into her library program. This year, she took a chance, and now she wonders what took her so long!
Actually, Ms. Thrift knows what stopped her for so many years, despite being a literal Mover and Shaker - she thought her program did not have the time or the space - but now she realizes what an important vehicle for EXPLORE the maker movement is. Ms. Thrift transformed her

back office into a true makerspace. Her busy schedule means it is not always possible for her to closely monitor the students in the space, but that only adds to the growth mindset - students survey the options (and there are a lot, thanks to the district rotating Tinker Tub program) and choose an activity; their time in the makerspace is self-guided - there is even a shopping list maintained by the students, so Ms. Thrift can make needed purchases.
Ms. Thrift has come to believe that the makerspace, the unstructured time to create and innovate, and the assigned responsibility that accompanies student time in the transformed office, are crucial elements of the Explore Shared Foundation. She is even sharing the maker mentality with her teachers in a book study of Worlds of Making, by Laura Fleming. She's a maker-believer now!
American Association of School Librarians.(2018). AASL standards framework for learners. Chicago: ALA.

Interview Three, Carol Smith

"Inquire: Build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems."(AASL, 2018, p. 67)

I spoke with Carol Smith, long-time librarian at North Charleston Creative Arts Elementary, located in North Charleston, South Carolina. Ms. Smith feels that the INQUIRE AASL Shared Foundation forms the basis for all course collaboration she does with her teachers. While she connects with students to help them choose books, prepares activities that tie in with books with her library classes, it is when she works with teachers on their standards that she is able to foster the inquiry process with students.

Ms. Smith finds it challenging to collaborate with teachers, as her schedule is fixed and there is little shared time to plan; however, she often shares ideas with teachers when they bring their classes to the library, and she looks to connect to their standards. Ms. Smith loves working with elementary students to guide them to come up with the questions they need to ask (as opposed to giving them the questions to research with.

As an art-infused school, Ms. Smith considers inquiry and the creative process when leading students to a product; students at her school enjoy artistic expression, and there are so many different ways for them to share what they have learned in their research.
Ultimately, Ms. Smith feels, the students come to her as curious learners, and it is part of her role as future-ready librarian to cultivate that curiosity and guide the students to becoming curious adult learners.
American Association of School Librarians.(2018). AASL standards framework for learners. Chicago: ALA.

Interview Two, Gina Scott

"Collaborate: Work effectively with others to broaden perspectives and work toward common goals."(AASL, 2018, p.83)

I interviewed Gina Scott, the librarian at Laing Middle School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Before becoming a librarian, Ms. Scott was a Social Studies teacher, and she prides herself on the ways she implements the COLLABORATE AASL Shared Foundation in her building.

Ms. Scott reaches out to all ELA teachers in her building and schedules them into the library each week or every other week. She does not wait for new teachers to approach her or to pick a time, in her experience, those teachers begin the year overwhelmed and if she waited for them to make time for the library, they might not come in. This is a strategy which might work in my building, where teachers are stressed to the point of skipping emails, and often do not take advantage of library offerings - perhaps scheduling their classes into the library on a regular basis would increase traffic. Ms. Scott says that although there are some weeks when certain classes do not make it into the library, the times that classes do come in provide not only time to connect with students, but also opportunities to touch base with the teachers.
In an additional effort to reach out to teachers in her large building (Laing has about 1200 students), Ms. Scott disseminates a regular library newsletter with tools, tips, and ongoing and upcoming events, such as book fairs, raffles for readers, author visits, and more.

When working with teachers, Ms.Scott requests feedback and uses that feedback to inform on future lessons, activities, and resources. She reports this to her teachers so they can see that their feedback is valued and to model the effective use of feedback within her community. I love this! While I always ask for feedback after working with a teacher, I have never considered explicitly sharing how their feedback impacts future lessons.
Finally, Ms. Scott carefully considers her role as collaboration facilitator; whether it be by establishing group work norms when classes are in the library, to modeling collaboration for the students when co-teaching lessons. Ms. Scott places importance on this foundation and instills it within her students.
American Association of School Librarians.(2018). AASL standards framework for learners. Chicago: ALA.

Interview One, Melanie Crumpton

"Curate: Make meaning for oneself and others by collecting, organizing, and sharing resources of personal relevance." (AASL, 2018, p.93)

I interviewed Melanie Crumpton, one of the librarians at James Island Charter High School, and asked her how she interprets the CURATE AASL Shared Foundation in her library. Ms. Crumpton spoke about the work she has done with her fiction collection, nonfiction, databases, and resources she has compiled in response to teacher and staff needs.

Several years ago, the librarians at JICHS chose to genrefy their fiction collection. Ms. Crumpton said the process took a few years, beginning with a consensus among the librarians and clerk as to the genres they would organize into, and including the classification of each book. As books are added to the collection now, the three staff members discuss the genre and the media clerk labels accordingly. Ms. Crumpton feels that genrefying has increased circulation in her library, and she has the stats to prove it. She feels that especially as students read less and less for pleasure throughout high school, genrefying helps to get the books students want to read into their hands more readily.
The librarians at JICHS have done extensive weeding of their nonfiction collection, but carefully consider each title as they weed; Ms. Crumpton noted that is isn't just about the last time a book circulated or even its publication date - she pointed out that some older titles contain what is still the best published information on subjects, so to weed the book based on simple data would be a mistake. This observation is an important one for me to take note of - coming into a library that has never been weeded (in 20 years!), I was eager to weed the majority of the nonfiction section; however, careful consideration of content should give me pause before eliminating the entire nonfiction section!
Ms. Crumpton believes that an important part of her role of 'curator' is to select appropriate databases

for use by the students at JICHS. The librarians spend library funds on high-level databases and put a lot of effort into sharing them with teachers, encouraging their use in course content, and teaching students how to use databases. Yearly subscriptions make it possible for the library to reevaluate annually the needs of their community and which databases are working for them.
The librarians offer a menu of adaptable lessons to teachers as a means to foster research skills in the students at JICHS. In order to accommodate these lessons, which include a 'health fiction unit', where students read a fiction novel that includes a health topic, Ms. Crumpton looks to add or remove resources as needed for these projects.
Finally, Ms. Crumpton spoke about the diversity audit they conducted in their library last year. This audit is her most important work - in 'making meaning' for her school's population, the audit forced the librarians to consider the windows and mirrors they offered in their collection, and where it was lacking. Each addition (or subtraction) from the collection is carefully considered according to the results of the diversity audit, and records are maintained to assure integrity. While a considerable undertaking, the librarians made us of Destiny reports to compile data, and Ms. Crumpton suggested that any library built on the shared foundations must absolutely conduct their own diversity audit.
American Association of School Librarians.(2018). AASL standards framework for learners. Chicago: ALA.