Are You Ready To Liven Up Your Library?
38:59 Share

Welcome to Ask the Tech Coach, brought to you by the TeacherCast Educational Network. If you are in charge of professional development and looking to build an innovative digital learning experience, this is the podcast for you. Join us each week as we uncover strategies that tech coaches are using to drive their digital transformations one classroom at a time.

And now for your host, with over two decades of experience working with tech coaches and edtech companies from all around the world, Jeff Bradbury.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the TeacherCast Educational Network. My name is Jeff Bradbury. Thank you so much for joining us today and making TeacherCast your home for professional development. This is Ask the Tech Coach podcast episode number 190. And today we're talking about the role of the library media specialist. More importantly, a great book coming out by two amazing library media specialists from

from ISTE Publications, and we are so excited to work with them and talk with them today. But before we get into that interview, I want to remind you guys that we have a great professional learning network for instructional coaches. That's right. If you head on over to askthetechcoach.com, you can join up for our free membership sites over on Facebook and on LinkedIn. Join hundreds and hundreds of instructional coaches all coming together for some great things. And as the weather gets warmer, we're going to be doing some great professional development live shows together.

exclusively for our members. It is a free membership. Check it out over there, over at askthetechcoach.com. Also want to remind you that this podcast is a part of the Teach Better podcast group. You can find out more information and all the great stuff happening over on the Teach Better team over at teachbetter.com.

Better.net. Want to make sure that you guys check all that stuff out. We've got a lot of amazing professional development coming up as we head on into the ISTE season. And speaking of the ISTE season, I am excited that we are launching a brand new podcast for the ISTE community leaders and fans.

for you. That's right. Over the last 12 months or so, I've been a part of the ISTE Community Leaders Group. And over the last few weeks, we have been creating a brand new podcast called The Edge. All for you guys and about you guys. It is an amazing episode. We've got three initial episodes coming up before the ISTE conference.

The first one is going to be called What is ISTE? featuring our good friend, the CEO himself of ISTE, Mr. Richard Collada. In the second episode, we're going to be talking all about the ISTE conference as it is on the ground this year in New Orleans. And our third episode is going to be talking about ISTE Live, the virtual conference, how you can participate at ISTE this year if you're not able to make it all the way down to New Orleans and how you can participate in ISTE Live 22. So check it out. We're going to make sure that we're promoting

promoting all that stuff on social media as we go through here. But first, I am excited to bring you our interview with two amazing authors who just created and are just getting ready to launch an amazing book from ISTE Publications.

My guests today are the authors of a brand new book coming out from ISTE Publications called Liven Up Your Library, Design Engaging and Inclusive Programs for Tweens and Teens. I want to bring on first, Ms. Julia Torres. Julia, how are you today? Welcome to Ask the Tech Coach. Doing great. Thanks so much for having us. I am so excited to have you on. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I am currently serving as a language arts teacher in Denver Public Schools because my librarian position was cut and we're going to talk a little bit more about that tonight. But I am a librarian and language arts educator in Denver, Colorado.

One of my passions is trying to find ways to bring newly published literature into the classroom so that students can be engaged and develop lifelong reading habits that are fun and therapeutic and encourage them to be full participatory citizens of whatever nation or territory they are living in.

I'm just really happy to be here with Val tonight because we are going to talk about a project that we've been working on for over a year during the pandemic. And it is a project that is very near and dear to our hearts. So without further ado, I will turn it right over to Valerie Tago. Valerie, how are you today? Welcome to Ask the Tech Coach. Good evening. My name is Valerie Tago. I'm a high school librarian in Dallas, Texas.

And I'm excited about this project that we have coming out soon of Liven Up Your Library, designing inclusive programs for teens and tweens.

Again, I can't wait to talk about it and share it with the world. Well, I am so excited to have you on here. Anybody who's listened to Ask the Tech Coach over the last year or so knows, you know, an instructional coach's best friend in the school district is the library media center and the library media specialist. And making sure that we have these great relationships that work together, work off of each other. You know, I could not get through a day without working with my library media specialist and

I want to see if we can talk a little bit about these relationships. But before we do, I'd love to get your thoughts on this topic. What is a library media specialist and what does a library media specialist do? As the senior librarian, I'm going to turn it over to Valerie so she can say and then I'll add my part.

Well, a library media specialist is essentially a school librarian and a teacher. A lot of people kind of don't think of us as teachers, but we are teachers. We help advance learning, deepen learning in the library, and we collaborate with teachers on projects and projects.

And we do programs and other like literacy initiatives in our school libraries. Yeah, the only thing I would add is I would say that, and we'll talk more about this a little bit later tonight, but teacher librarians are kind of

the safe space for kids in these days of standardized testing. We provide a space where they're not quantified by the test scores that they can bring in or the grades for the work that they do. The learning isn't necessarily quantified in that way. If it is, it's because we've collaborated with their teachers

And we've decided that the work that we're doing needs to count as part of their grade, but a big part of library life is encouraging independent reading, which historically isn't necessarily quantified. It's just something that kids get to do because they like it. So we curate the space where that happens.

And I think that it's important also to recognize that the libraries across our country and world are some of the last places where people can get something and there's no monetary exchange. You can get a book by borrowing it and you do not have to give money. So those economic barriers or class barriers that sometimes exist in our libraries, we try to eliminate those as much as possible.

And that's so important. And, you know, over the last 15, 20 years, you know, the role of the librarian turning into library media specialist has changed so much. It used to be person who works with the books, but now you are a technician. You are a trainer. You are a teacher. You are a support professional. You are, you know, what, Hey, there's a great space. Can we use your room? You got some really neat thing. I mean, there's so many different hats you have to wear. Valerie, what,

consumes the majority of your day? Like, what do you really enjoy doing as a high school librarian? Well, I enjoy instruction, teaching students how to find information and evaluate information. Is this...

or picture or book, something I want to use in my paper or reference in my presentation. So I really enjoy connecting students to the information that they need to do their work.

And to produce work. And, you know, nowadays there's so many different things that are happening with libraries. And we're going to talk about a little bit the ups and the downs. But today we really are trying to figure out how can we liven up our library? What advice do you have for any school district out there, maybe even community that might be listening to this, that's looking to do something a little bit different in their library media center space?

Well, first we have to start with understanding and remembering that no individual has the right to make private decisions about public resources. So, you know, most librarians are very familiar with the concept of intellectual freedom. And we are experiencing in our societies across the globe at this time a lot of backlash toward certain things.

So if you want to do something different from what is happening all over, then defend intellectual freedom and make sure that our students have access to the books that they want by asking them, purchasing the books that they want, and then making sure that there is time in the day for them to be able to read what they want for pleasure.

That's so important. Making sure that the students have the ability to choose what is available to them. What's the best way to go about doing that? Is it conversation? Is it surveys? Is it asking the teachers that they work with what curricular topics? Like, how do you recommend making sure that you're purchasing the right information and the right kinds of materials for your students? I think it's a combination of the things that you just said. Surveys,

But for me, it's talking to students. You know, they'll they if you have a good relationship with them and talk to all of them on a regular basis, they will come to you with book requests or topic recommendations, things that they're interested in. And then you can go out and see what the latest publications are on those subjects or issues and put them on your order list. So yeah.

So, yeah, it's a combination doing the surveys, talking to the teachers, looking at the curriculum. But a big piece of that is talking to students. And are there any books right now that your students are asking you to purchase for next year? I haven't had a lot of requests as of late.

But Julia, do you have, are there any? Yeah, I have them asking me for manga mostly. You know, I had one that was just so excited to get manga and we're actually doing an independent reading unit right now. So students have been asking me for more of Rupi Kaur's Milk and Honey, which I know is controversial because there are a lot of people that

I think that that doesn't really count as poetry, but I'm a fan of anything that will encourage kids to read more. So I like the books that can serve as bridges between what they're experiencing in their everyday life, which Rupi Kaur, I think, started on Instagram, and where we want them to eventually end up, which is, you know, looking at the different forms of poetry that have existed for a long time and some of our, um,

you know, current poets that are producing amazing things. The first one that comes to mind is Ada Limon and Mahogany Brown. Those are two of my favorite poets. And then, of course, you know, I'm thinking immediately of a longstanding poet, Audre Lorde, who's been one that I've liked for a long time. So,

They're asking for poetry, they're asking for manga, and then they're asking for graphic novels, I would say. That's pretty awesome. It's nice to see so many students that are out there really trying to take an investment into the space that they have. One of the things that you are trying to do with your book is to help others, you know, really figure out how to make teens use the library to their advantage, whether it be a place to take out books, a place to meet, you know,

How do you recommend creating a welcoming and engaging learning space? Not just a place for books, but really a community where teenagers and all students can come and really make use of the space. So we have a chapter that's about making sure that everyone feels welcome. And I think that we both give some really important to us ideas that have worked in our libraries. And I know one of the most important ones for me

was genrefying my library because I moved from having it be a space where people had to know the author's last name and know kind of what they were looking for to a space where they could just come in and go to the genre section, fantasy or supernatural or horror, and then they could explore and find something that was just for them. And they could do it mostly autonomously. So they didn't need to depend on me being there because I had five schools using that particular library.

So there was only one of me and about 2,000 kids. So it was a little bit of a difficult thing to make myself available to customize the recommendations for every student. So being able to put the tools of selection in their hands was really important. And that's a big part, I think, of making sure that everyone feels welcome. Valerie, what do you think? Well, in addition to doing things like

Genreifying your library, but also making the space available because I know in some cases there's a lot going on in the school and you may have to close your library or close a section off. But making sure you're open, you know, before school, available after school, lunch, and

And then just welcoming the kids into that space, greeting them, building relationships with them. I think that's just like...

One of the good, the keys to making your library welcoming. I agree. You know, my office in my elementary school, my office is in the library. I have a chance every single day to watch kids, you know, leave their classrooms, come into this amazing space and just take their creativity to that next level, whether it be learning, reading, collaborating, STEM work.

Video work. I mean, we've turned this library more than a couple of times into STEM labs and video labs and studios and everything like that. I mean, there's so many different possibilities. One of the questions that we often talk about in instructional coaching worlds is how can a coach support students?

the library media specialist. Oftentimes they're somewhat seen as the same thing. You know, I've heard a lot of library media specialists say, you know, I'm the person that teaches digital citizenship and the coach walks in and says, I'm the person that teaches digital citizenship. Talk to us a little bit about how can we have a great relationship between the coach and the library media specialist so that we were both making sure that we're student-centered and student-focused.

I think it would be collaboration, doing some projects and even programs, because we talk a lot about programming in our book, doing programs together so that you're meeting the same metrics or achieving the same goals. So doing things together throughout the school year.

I think we'll in partnering on different initiatives and programs that will do it. I think that's really important. And I also think that, you know,

curriculum specialists or people who are in charge of making decisions for purchasing and just over curriculum and instruction, they're uniquely positioned to include the librarian in strategic initiatives that are vertically aligned or that happen horizontally across subject areas.

And one of the things that, you know, we are hoping to talk about tonight is the disappearance of school libraries and the disappearance of, or we could say the defunding, because that's really what's happening, of teacher librarian positions. So the curriculum specialist is really in a good position to advocate for a teacher librarian in every school.

secondary especially because they are being removed from secondary schools first because folks assume that we need to put a lot of effort and emphasis on early literacy. But then once students have that foundation, it's just going to continue through middle and high school. And there have been a tremendous amount of, there's a lot of work put into a report called the slide report that talks a lot about the way that

School libraries and school librarian positions are being defunded and young people are not necessarily guaranteed to continue that growth and continue to nurture their reading lives once they go beyond elementary school.

I couldn't agree with you more on that. I mean, my position, the way that I look at it is I I'm the one that's running from the classroom to the library, from the classroom to the library. And usually it's me saying to our library media specialist, Hey, this is what we're doing in third grade. Do you have any books? Hey, they're coming for you. Get these books ready, but you're right. And I I'm glad that you mentioned this and I wanted to bring this up. There are some things happening around the country where, and it comes to funding libraries, funding library media specialists, um,

funding or defunding the purchasing of certain book products. Julia, you seem like you have an interesting story to share.

Well, I can tell you that I was hired to be the librarian for a campus with five schools. And I was put on the cover of the Denver Post. There was a lot of hoopla or whatever you want to say about getting me into that position. And I think some of my identity markers made me uniquely suited to be able to serve the kids in that position.

role, but then also I feel sort of like I was exploited because it was very quiet when they removed my position and just said, the schools are closing. Your position has been removed. You will not be rehired. And I was told in October, as of May of this year, my job would be over. And that was a shock to me because I didn't hear about it. And when I went to HR, they just said, well, you missed the meeting.

So it was pretty upsetting to be told that that was the case. And I think that they're going to hire two. Last I heard, they were talking about potentially hiring a librarian again. But as of spring of 2021, the decision was made to get two paras in and to eliminate my parents.

position. And whoever it was that made that decision was sticking pretty firmly to it because, you know, paraeducators are frankly cheaper than school librarians. But many people don't know that you actually do a lot of work to get a library degree. And it is actually challenging. And there are a lot of elements to librarianship that folks don't know about. So it is more than just checking books in and out to kids.

The job itself is actually very complex and the learning behind the degree is actually very complex. I'm certainly sorry to hear that story. I mean, the one we talk about this a lot on the show. There is a difference between library and library media specialists, certified library media. I mean, there's so many aspects to that job. Julia, my heart is broken about that story. I'm so sorry to hear that. Yeah.

Yeah, it was upsetting. I was really upset about it, especially because I put a lot of work into building that library from scratch. Literally, it was an empty room and I had a lot of investment in the community. The good news is I was hired immediately, like literally the week after they told me you're not going to be in this role anymore. I was hired at a school down the street and I'm very happily teaching language arts to those students.

Their teacher quit in week two of this year. So I went where I was needed and wanted. And that's, those are two things that are really important to me. So, so, you know, I did find a soft place to land, but I think that that's not always the case for folks. So these days, especially, I think that we need to take care of and value the people in that role, not just, you know, throw them to the winds. Yeah.

Well, I'm certainly glad that your story has a happy ending or has livened up if we're going to use this as a phrase today. One of the other topics that I know has been hitting a lot of our educator friends is the concept of book banning, you know, taking things out. Obviously in a library situation, I would think every year you go through your entire stacks and figure out what works, what doesn't work, what's outdated, you know, um,

I always remember, you know, the sports books featuring Nolan Ryan from 1976. Like, okay, some of these things we can get rid of. But there is a lot of conversation right now of, is this book appropriate? Should these books have things in it? I mean, there's a certain state in the union right now that just had a bunch of math books thrown away. Talk a little bit about from your position, book appropriation.

and, you know, book banning. Let's just kind of call it what it is. What's your thoughts on this topic? Well, I think she's in Texas. So yeah, I'd love to hear from her. Wow. Yeah, it's a complicated subject. But I think librarians need to be aware, you know, be proactive, you know, before anything happens on your campus. Know what your district's policy is.

Be familiar with intellectual freedom, what that concept is. And that way you can communicate that to your school community. If there is an issue with a book, you're equipped to discuss the procedure, the policies and the procedures in place.

that parents or community members or whoever have to follow and stand your ground. I know it's a difficult time, but stand your ground and say, our students do need access to information.

We are uniquely equipped to make selections. As Julia said, a lot of us have gone to library school. We've studied. We're familiar with the curriculum. In my state here in Texas, most school librarians have to teach for two years before they can obtain librarian certification. So be familiar with the curriculum when you're making choices.

and make your choices based on that. But also look at your community, look at the community that you serve and ensure that you have titles and resources available for them that they'll they need for their education.

And I understand all that. And I'm just going to play devil's advocate here for a couple of seconds here. You as not you personally, but you as a library media specialist are an employee of the school district, which means you're an employee of the community. Ultimately, if I'm understanding this right, the books are in your library based off of the policy of the school district slash community. So I know you're saying things like stand up for what's in there, make sure you're supporting, but ultimately you,

Aren't you still just following the rules set forth by your district policy of what should be in there? And ultimately, who's responsible for those books? Is it the librarian or is it the Board of Ed? I'm not sure what the right term on that one is. So it definitely varies from state to state and it varies from district to district within those states.

But typically there are board policies for curriculum adoption. And then there are board policies about the acquisition of materials for libraries. And every library librarian is encouraged to,

think about and purposefully construct a mission statement, but also policies and also some document to communicate with the public about how we acquire materials for the collection.

The problematic thing happens when folks come in and either deface materials or just remove them or bully the librarian into taking them off shelves or putting yellow caution tape over sections of books.

Those are things that prevent access and also are threats to intellectual freedom. And I think that one of the things we would all do well to do is to read the Texas Librarians Association statement

in defense of independent reading and in defense of intellectual freedom because I think that they have a really solid statement that they've authored that explains the role that librarians do and do have and that libraries have and that the things that we should not be doing. And so, you know, I know that a lot of the conversation is about parents feeling like they need to protect

their children from educators or from folks who might have opinions about the world that are different from theirs. But again, going back to what we stated earlier, no one person, no collective group of people has the right to make private decisions about public materials. So that's where we have to understand where our, our,

We have decided that we want to live in a democratic society and in an egalitarian world. So when did it become this place where, you know, a group of people, no matter how big they are, can feel that they can enforce their opinions

on other people. I know that I'm saying these things and I'm thinking about the counter argument, which is saying that, you know, well, if you think this book should be in the collection, then you are putting your private thoughts and feelings and forcing them on, you know, curriculum. So

I don't want to get too far off track here, but I can just say that there's a lot that has been documented and written about what happens when intellectual freedom is tampered with or destroyed altogether. People are such huge fans of George Orwell's 1984. They love it, or at least they love saying that they've read it.

But we find ourselves in a very Orwellian future when certain things are starting to happen. So I wonder how many people actually read that book. How many people actually know what happened in that book? Because things are starting to happen right now. Mm-hmm.

It's interesting. It certainly goes beyond, you know, where we want to go in this conversation here, but it's, it's certainly a topic that's happening. I mean, there are, there are good friends of ours right now that are losing their jobs because of certain books that they're reading or have read or certain people have certain clues. I mean, you know, the other day I was having a conversation with somebody from California and they were mentioning in their library, they have this wonderful book about our ninth planet Pluto and,

Should they keep that in their collection? Should they not keep that in their collection? How does all that work? Like at what point in time do you look at these different topics and say, okay, science says this, science doesn't say this. That is certainly for another conversation that believe me, I would love to have on this show, but I want to get back to talking a little bit about our book to book focus for today. The new book coming out in June of this month is called liven up your library. Um,

What made you write this book? What went into it? How long did it take to write this? And I'm curious, what was the process of putting this entire thing together? Because it's a really interesting read. The book was originally a brainchild, you know, me and another librarian friend.

And we pitched that book to ISTE, but we just wanted to talk about programming and how it's essential to school libraries. It helps make your school library a hub. Programs help to bring students into the library. Sometimes students who wouldn't normally come there, but they want to participate in the program. And maybe then that will lead to

Eventually checking out books and e-books and using databases and accessing information. So that's how it initially came about. And, you know, partnered with Julia to write the text. And, you know, here we are. What did you learn from the from the writing process?

Oh, wow. It was really interesting because we went chapter by chapter. So it felt more to me like a series of blog posts in a way, because it was like we agreed on a word count. And then we agreed that we were each going to do around this many words for each chapter. And then we composed them separately. And then our editor helped us work to put them together afterwards.

And reading through it, I really like how it came together. I really do. I'm really grateful to Valerie because I would not be a part of this project without her deciding to, you know, ask me and being open to the idea of collaborating with me, even though we've never to this day met in person. I still just really value her as a colleague and as a friend and as a co-author. I think that

It's important to be of the same mind, but also it's important to push one another. And I think that like we kept each other writing throughout this process because like I said, we wrote through the pandemic. So neither one of us thought, I think we were, were we writing in 2020 at all? Or did we do most of this in 2021? Yeah.

We may have, ISTE may have connected us in 2020. I'm trying to remember the timeline. I'm trying to remember the timeline. But Desiree Alexander, who wrote the foreword of our book,

And we initially pitched the book, or she met with ISTE and got the idea going to get the book published. So we pretty much outlined some of the chapters and some of the content. And then she got really busy during the pandemic. And so that's how I was connected with Julia,

And then we met virtually and started writing together. So I want to say we met, we were introduced in some time in 2020. And then we got to, we, you know, Julia just picked up, right. You know, where we left, you know, the project kind of left off and continued. And, um,

Yeah, it's been great learning from her and her experiences as a school librarian and getting her input. And, you know, just for me thinking about ways that I can do things and approach things differently because I've been a school librarian since 2006. So that's a long time. And it's just refreshing to hear from other librarians and or talk to another librarian, you know, and work on this project.

And, you know, someone who's familiar with the literature and, um,

what's being taught in library school now, because it's been graduated in 2008 from TWU. So just getting that, the currency of everything. And, you know, that was most helpful, you know, in writing, in writing the book, you know, just learning from one another. One of my favorite parts of your book is all of the librarian stories. What was your favorite story out of this book and what did you learn from it?

Valerie, go for it. I enjoyed talking to the college librarians. Really? Yes. So I talked to the librarian at Dillard University, Dr. Cynthia Charles, and asked her about programming and what goes into programming at a college library, an HBCU library too at that. And then I also talked to a community college librarian, my friend, LaMoya Burks.

and how she approaches programming and what does she do in her library and, you know, what does she do to, you know, just help advance the learning of the students there? Because I think a lot of times we don't think about how our students will interact with information and, you know, learn things, you know, use the library beyond K-12.

But, you know, when we're doing our programs and initiatives in our libraries, you know, we're really helping to inform and prepare students for the future. And some of our students are doing college work right now. So I thought it was important to talk to those librarians and see what they're doing and maybe somehow replicate those things in my high school library so I can better support my high school students.

So I enjoyed, you know, the stories of the college library. That is interesting. I mean, I love that this book is not just for K-12. It is really for anybody out there. And of course, you said the book is going to be coming out in early June of 2022 here, but it is available for pre-order. Where can we go to pre-order the book?

I recommend just going straight to the ISTE website. There's a really cool empowered libraries page that gives all of the books in the series. So you can actually check out the other books in the series as well. And I recommend, you know, hopefully they'll do like a little box set. That would be amazing if they did that and made that available. But for now you can pre-order from just directly from the ISTE website. It's also on Amazon.

Barnes and Noble. We are going to make sure that we have links to all of this on all of our ISTE books over on our teachercast.net website. Ladies, I want to say so much. Thank you for coming on the show today, sharing all this stuff. Please invite yourself back on.

We instructional coaches love our library media specialists, love to support them. And I could do a show. I could do an entire series of shows of how library media specialists and instructional coaches really are the BFFs of a school system. Julia, where can we learn more about the great things that you guys are doing these days? Well, you can go to our websites. Mine right now is just Julia E. Torres dot com.

And Valerie, is yours going to be ValerieTago.com or .net? My website is in development right now. I'm still working on that. But I've set up a new Twitter handle at Bookmarks LLC. And then, so yeah, so once my website goes live, I will share that.

share that out to Valerie's from mine. So she'll probably link to mine from hers. I'll look for her from mine. So you can find us on our websites and you can find us on social media too. We will make sure we have all of those links over on episode number 190 of ask the tech coach. The book again is called live and up your library design, engaging and inclusive programs for tweens and teens. My guest today is Julia Torres and,

Valerie Tago. Ladies, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate you guys coming along and we hope you've enjoyed this episode of Ask the Tech Coach. We've had such a great time with our ISTE authors. This isn't the last episode. We've got plenty of more coming on today featuring all of our great ISTE authors as we head into ISTE season and pretty soon we're going to be launching a few great episodes

featuring ISTE friends like Richard Collada, ISTE's CEO, and Carmela, the lady who's really just behind that conference doing some amazing things. So continue checking out everything over here on the TeacherCast Educational Network, and we look forward to having you guys on our next show. And that wraps up this episode 190 of Ask the Tech Coach. On behalf of everybody here on TeacherCast, my name is Jeff Bradbury, reminding you guys to keep up the great work in your classrooms and continue sharing your passions with your students.

You've been listening to Ask the Tech Coach, hosted by Jeff Bradbury of the TeacherCast Educational Network. Please reach out to the show with all of your questions on Twitter at AskTheTechCoach or online at www.AskTheTechCoach.com. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. And please take a moment to write a review in the app store.