Collaboration and Leadership

McGregor, Joy. "Collaboration and Leadership." Curriculum Connections through the Library. Eds. Barbara K. Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. 199-219. Print.

Follows the struggles that librarians have in collaborating with teachers. This is with teachers as well as administrators.

One should take advantage or create opportunities for collaboration. Create an agenda for collaboration. Discuss the expectation of said agenda. Identify the goals and objectives of the collaboration. Set priorities for the collaboration. Stick the goals and eventually evaluate the results.

  • "The teacher librarian must assume a new leadership role as part of library management, guided by a vision and a mission. The principal must support the changes necessary" (201).
  • "When collaboration is not received positively, teacher librarians need to consider whether the causes are internal elements over which they have control or external factors that will be changed only with consolidated and coordinated effort of many people. The source of the barriers affects strategies for overcoming them" (201).
  • "Teacher librarians who wish to work more closely with students and their teachers look for ways to introduce collaboration to administrators and teachers. They know that learning experiences are strengthened when both the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian work together to achieve learning goals and objectives. But because collaboration by definition requires more than one person, inevitably someone must lead that effort" (202).
  • "The teacher librarian interested in creating a climate in which collaboration takes place must be prepared to take the lead, since anecdotal evidence shows that the teacher librarian who waits for someone else to lead is not included in most collaborations" (202).
  • "Someone must lead the move [for collaboration], in conjunction with a move to coordinated what happens in the various classrooms to create continuity of learning. If the teacher librarian is not part of this leadership effort, he or she could be left out of the collaboration entirely" (202).
  • "They suggest that it is important for leaders to set priorities and have a clear concept of what they want to achieve" (204).
  • "Armed with a thorough knowledge of teaching and learning principles, the teacher librarian can present to the principal and teachers ways in which collaboration efforts can make a difference" (206).
  • "The principal's past experiences with teacher librarians and collaboration will also color the attitudes brought to the situation. The positive or negative nature of the past experience and the nature of the teacher librarian's role in that experience probably become apparent as the teacher librarians communicates with the principal about the concept of a collaborative school community" (208).
  • "Developing trust is crucial. Knowledge of the curriculum is an important aspect of the job of demonstrating to teachers that the teacher librarian can be trusted to teach collaboratively in the subject area" (209).
  • "They need to understand why the teacher librarian should be included before they accept this new endeavor. They develop an understanding of what information literacy has to do with their curriculum, they are more likely to accept this new player" (209).
  • "Teacher librarians can observe the overall needs of the school community and identify areas where problems might be solved by working together. Not many staff members are in a position to do this, because most people's views are limited primarily to what happens in their immediate classrooms" (210).

The School Librarian as Teacher: What kind of teacher are you?

Hamilton, Buffy J. "The School Librarian as Teacher: What Kind Of Teacher Are You?" Knowledge Quest 39.5 (2011): 33-40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Feb. 2016

A librarian describes how she collaborates with teachers.

The teacher and librarian incorporated forms of information into multiple formats.

Students can collaborate in small groups. This calls for them to be active participants in their own learning.

  • "Learning is a collaborative conversations" (35).
  • "A library that is a site of participatory culture is conductive to helping students create personal learning networks and environments that allow them to cultivate resources for accessing, evaluating, and sharing information locally and with the world" (35).
  • "Because we bring a mutual philosophy of teaching and learning to the table and areas of expertise, the students are the ultimate beneficiaries of our work as co-teachers" (35).
  • "Students deepen their understanding of information by participating in inquiry circles, small groups or mini-learning communities for exploring a shared research question on a common theme or issue" (37).

Collaboration In The School Social Network

Schultz-Jones, Barbara. "Collaboration In The School Social Network." Knowledge Quest 37.4 (2009): 20-25. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

A study was done on school library media specialists (SLMS) and there was a correlation between the length of service as a SLMS and the level of frequency of collaboration.

There was major value in building relationships and within in social environment.

SLMS actually seek out those who scam receptive to collaboration.

Networks can develop through the general community of the school environment.

  • "as information specialists, school librarians develop a multidimensional social network that enables them to build a presence within the school learning community, and connect others to information services and resources" (20).
  • "Over the years there has been a progression in the amount of collaboration. A lot of teachers think collaboration is going to be a lot of trouble so they resist investing the time to work together beyond requesting books that support what they are teaching. It's a matter of targeting the ones that you know are receptive first and then approaching the others further down, especially your math and science" (21).
  • "collaboration cannot be fully realized without creating a collaboration culture in which all partners see the importance and understand the benefits of collaboration to themselves, each other and their students" (22).
  • "planned collaboration improves teaching and learning as well as models the cooperation a teacher wants to use" (23).
  • "The ultimate vale of these social relationships is the benefit of being able to access these connections to meet educational objectives. In this study, the school library media specialists all identified the value of developing and maintaining professional relationships across grade levels and subject areas" (24).
  • "teachers are willing to collaborate if they can see the benefit from these efforts" (24).
  • "the school library media specialist's opportunities for cultivating authentic, information-based learning have never been greater, and the responsibilities are also more crucial than ever before" (25).
  • "Visualizing the school learning environment as a set of social networks provides the school library media specialist with a way to map interactions and think strategically about building relationships" (25).