Slides, photos, and sharing of ideas from our participants on the "ideal library candidate" from the AASL National Conference session, From Recruitment to Mentoring: Transformation and Evolution of Practices in School Librarian Preparation. School library staffing faces challenges from lack of candidates to cut positions. How do we prepare new "leaders to transform teaching and learning" in this context? District and state library leaders and library school faculty will share views on the issue, strategies to identify and prepare candidates, and innovative efforts to prepare a new generation of school librarians.
2. Presenters
• Mary Keeling, Supervisor of Library Media Services,
Newport News (VA) Public Schools
• Sue C. Kimmel, Assistant Professor,
Old Dominion University
• Karen Gavigan, Associate Professor,
University of South Carolina
• Rebecca Morris, Assistant Professor,
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• Cassandra Barnett, Program Advisor for School Libraries,
Arkansas Department of Education
6. High Poverty School Districts
Correlation with critical
need for Highly
Qualified Teachers
including School
Librarians
Source:
Arkansas Department of Education’s
Statewide Information System (SIS)
12. Compare Groups of States
Certified Librarians Sample
Low 25.2% – 45.8% 8 of 9
(88.8%)
Below
Median
54% - 68.5% 8 of 20
(40%)
Above
Median
73.1% - 84.5% 8 of 13
(61.5%)
High 89.3% - 97.6% 8 of 8
(100%)
13. Findings
• High staffing rate correlates to rigorous
requirements
• Most states require teaching license as well as
library certification
• States vary in
– License types
– Paths to licensure
14. Examples of students’ backgrounds
(USC):
• Over 90% are practicing teachers
• Career-changers from a variety of
fields
• Military or military family members
• A few come straight from BSIS
undergraduate degree
• Traditional and non-traditional
students – variety of experiences
knowledge
& life
experiences
16. Example of graduate-level
capstone experience (UNCG):
• Candidates produce
professional portfolio
demonstrating evidence &
reflection on nine Student
Learning Outcomes
• Portfolio serves as
documentation of program, but
process itself is learning
opportunity
skills
17. • Consider the four
areas we’ve
suggested
• Discuss with
small group
• Draw or write a
representation of
this candidate
• Share with whole
group
What qualities
do YOU think
the “ideal”
school librarian
candidate brings
to a position?
18. Contact Us!
Mary Keeling: mary.keeling@nn.k12.va.us
Sue Kimmel: skimmel@odu.edu
Karen Gavigan: kgavigan@mailbox.sc.edu
Rebecca Morris: rjmorris@uncg.edu
Cassandra Barnett: cassandra.barnett@arkansas.gov
Editor's Notes
As a library supervisor, I have been involved in the recruiting, hiring, and induction of new school librarians for about 10 years. My experiences with a high degree of turnover and the occasional mis-match of candidates to library career requirements have led me to wonder
How is my district’s experience like or not like library staffing other states; and
What kind of person makes a terrific librarian, where are they, and how can we recruit them?
As a library supervisor, I have been involved in the recruiting, hiring, and induction of new school librarians for about 10 years. My experiences with a high degree of turnover and the occasional mis-match of candidates to library career requirements have led me to wonder
How is my district’s experience like or not like library staffing other states; and
What kind of person makes a terrific librarian, where are they, and how can we recruit them?
Library supervisors know that getting the right people in the libraries is the most important thing we can do. The SPVS section hosted a discussion session at ALA Midwinter in January 2015 to explore this topic at Café WildCard, a WorldCafe-format discussion. We asked informal discussion groups to consider these questions:
What roles or tasks of the librarian are important in today’s schools and libraries, and how can they be measured? What can we stop doing?
Mary
Mary --To gain a better understanding of library staffing nationwide, I compared NCES school staffing data for fulltime, state-licensed school librarians to the School Library Media Certification By State (2015), a searchable database found on School Library Monthly’s web page.
Mary I discovered:
States with higher staffing levels have more rigorous credential requirements for coursework and content area testing (Figure 3)
Most states with all levels of staffing require librarians to also be licensed teachers
States with the highest rate of staffing and credential requirements use the PRAXIS II test for library media, although some states that require Master’s Degree do not require an additional test (Figure 4)
States clustered above and below median are more likely to use state-developed tests than the PRAXIS. (Figure 5)
Many states offer multiple paths to licensure. New York offers 6 paths. (Figure 5)
Some states have different license levels for building-level librarians.
Some states waive certain requirements for National Board Certified candidates
Karen – South Carolina
Sue – Old Dominion
Rebecca – UNC Greensboro
Rebecca will do this. Sue is bringing chart paper. Mary will bring markers. Rebecca will photo these and create a haiku deck. Will share with AASL Executive board.
