The Innovative School Librarian: Thinking Outside the Box

Citation

Tvaruzka, K. (2011), "The Innovative School Librarian: Thinking Outside the Box", Collection Building, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 68-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604951111105050

The Innovative School Librarian: Thinking Outside the Box is a practical guide for school librarians looking to promote their libraries and literacy and branch out from traditional roles and methodology and re‐envisioning the library as a centre for teaching and learning. The intent of the book is not to give solutions to day‐to‐day problems and operational responsibilities, but to challenge school librarians to think broadly and to become involved as a centre for teaching and learning in their schools. The book is a collaboration among five school librarians in the UK and a lecturer in higher education, and is written primarily for school librarians; but administrators, library school students and those in library administrative positions will find valuable information as well. The text is enhanced by a variety of vignettes presenting ideas and suggestions from real‐life school librarian experiences.

The work is broken into three main parts. Part 1 (Who Is a Librarian?) focuses on professionalism and how the profession is seen by others inside and outside the school community. Part 2 (Your Community: From Perceptions to Practice) stresses the importance of identifying and embracing one's library community, which likely encompasses parents and community members, and the importance of responding positively to situations and work relationships. Practical ways to improve communication among library constituents are presented, as is the importance of knowing how students learn and how to assess their needs. Part 3 (Moving Forward) focuses on the importance of keeping oneself inspired amidst chaos, frustration and change. It also stresses the importance of becoming an integral part of the school by becoming a part of the teaching team, and moving beyond demonstrating traditional library information skills. An extensive reference list and nine appendices that include helpful activities such as self‐evaluations, SWOT and field analyses, wrap up the book. The ideas presented in the book are not new, especially for academic/university librarians where the importance of integrating information literacy into the curriculum is prevalent. However, for the school librarian set the ideas in the book may help to pull struggling, frustrated librarians from despair and give them practical ideas for change and factual information to support their claims and proposals. A relatively quick and easy read, it could also be useful for those new to the field as a manual to help navigate the changing roles of school librarians. It is recommended for professional collections.