1. BUILDING STRONG INDEPENDENT
SCHOOL LIBRARY PROGRAMS
C A R O LY N S T E N Z E L
C H AT H A M H A L L
VA A S L C O N F E R E N C E
NOVEMBER 7, 2013

2. RULES FOR PRESENTING
 1 practical thing to take home
 Humor
 Food
 Prizes
 Out early for bathroom line and to get into
popular sessions

3. MY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL JOURNEY
 Education courses in undergrad
 2 years at a Henrico Co. elem school as Instructional
Assistant
 Grad school through Longwood (Go Audrey and
Frances!)
 1 year as High School Library Assistant in Henrico
 Student teaching and job search…

4. AND THEN..
Private school
Boarding school
Rural Pittsylvania Co.
1st Year Librarian renovating a library
Starting over after 30 years of problems
No full time Librarian, no weeding, no YA, no fun, no
usage

14. DIFFERENT BUT SIMILAR
 We are each unique




K-12? K-8? 9-12?
Boarding? Day?
Religiously affiliated?
Girls? Boys? Coed?
 However, our ultimate goals are the same
 Ensure that students are enthusiastic readers
and effective and ethical users of ideas and
information

15. UNIQUE ISSUES
 Standards- Common Core? AASL? Your own
thing?
 Evaluation/Assesment- who does it? How?
When?
 Advocating for libraries public and school
 Makerspaces
 Fixed vs. Flex scheduling
 Archives
 Databases vs. Google
 Budgeting
Wide variations?
 Ebooks/tablets/kindles?
iPad program at Chatham Hall

16. UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES
We deal with very similar issues to any school
library but we each are able to approach them
differently
Let’s Chat…

17. WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR LIBRARIES?
Fun
activities in
the evening
Self-Checkout
Strong relationships with
administrators
Collaborate for
author visits
Blogs/twitter/listservs
to stay up-to-date
Leadership in the
school
Google Drive
for
organization
Take
Surveys- stakeholder
requestsinput
try to say
YES
whenever
Join organizationsTake risks, do
possible
VAASL!, AISL,
something
AASL/ALA- ISS
new!
Reach out to
other
librarians in
your area

19. GREAT FREEDOM
GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
We are the luckiest librarians at this conference in many ways
No SOLs
Flexible evaluation
Smaller class sizes
Motivated students
With this comes great
responsibility
There are many things we can
do that public school
colleagues can only dream of!
We need to use our freedom
well!
Let’s not get complacent and
let our programs fall apart

20. WE ARE NOT ALONE
•
•
•
•
•
•
Twitter
Listservs
Nings
Blogs
Webinars
Face-to-Face

21. TWITTER
• Pajama professional development
• Connect to experts, colleagues from
around the world
• Connect to your patrons- share news,
share pictures
• Twitter Chats- follow a certain topic #
• Twitter Chat Calendar

24. LISTSERVS
Too many emails?
Set up a Digest or
Folders
How Can Listservs Help?
• How to set up library on
crutches
• Book/Tech Recs
• Challenge support
• Fun things like Recipe Day and
vacation advice
LM_NET
AISL
VAASL
AASL
ISS

25. NINGS
Similar to a blog, but with many authorscollaborative community space
Teacher-Librarian Ning
Independent School Educators Ning

26. BLOGS
 Practicing librarians/well-known Educational
figures
 Top 100 Blogs for Librarians
 Many options for subscribing
 Defunct Google Reader
 BazQux- what I use $9/year
 Follow by email

29. WEBINARS
Point of need professional development
Library 2.013- Archive of 3 days worth of
webinars
http://www.library20.com/page/2-013recordings
TL Virtual Caféhttp://tlvirtualcafe.wikispaces.com/TL+News
+Night+October+21%2C+2013+Archive

30. FACE-TO-FACE
 No matter where you are, you can find real
life library friends
 The best thing I’ve done for PD has been
putting myself out there
 Vacation library visits
 I’ve emailed librarians in my area at different
schools to get together for dinner, library
visits, etc.
 Serving with VAASL- so many more contacts
(and a lot of fun!)

31. STAY IN TOUCH
1. Write down the following
on your paper
Name
School
Grades served
Email Address
One goal for the year
2. Toss it in the air!
3. Pick up a paper from the
floor
4. Contact your person
sometime next semester to
see how they are doing
with their goal
If you’d like to stay
in touch with other
VAASL independent
school librarians,
please go to
http://tinyurl.com/VA
ASLInd
I will put the
responses together
and send everyone
the link next week!

32. AND THE RAFFLE GOES TO…

33. THANK YOU!
This presentation
can be found online
at
http://tinyurl.com/
Carolyn Stenzel
Follow on Twitter @LibraryCH
Follow the Library Blog:
http://www.librarych.blogspot.com

34. REFERENCES
Dunn, Jeff. "100 Helpful Blogs For School Librarians (And Teachers)." Edudemic, 10 July 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
Hargadon, Steve. "Session and Keynote Recordings." Library 2.013. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
LaGarde, Jennifer. "Why Become A Connected Librarian?” The Adventures of Library Girl: N.p., 5 Oct. 2013. Web.
01 Nov. 2013.
LaGarde, Jennifer. "PLN Starter Kit – LiveBinder. N.p., 26 Aug. 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
Lewis, Courtney, and Laura Pearle. "We Are Not Alone.” Independent School Libraries: Perspectives on
Excellence. Libraries Unlimited, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
Newman, Bobbi. "10 Ways Twitter Will Make You a Better Employee, Better at Your Job, and Benefit Your Library.”
Librarian by Day RSS. N.p., 15 Oct 2010. Web. 02 Nov. 2013.
Orlando, Demetri. Independent School Educators Network. N.p., 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
Robertson, Nikki D. "GISL Developing Your PLN at an Exponential Rate with Twitter - Google Drive." GISL
Developing Your PLN at an Exponential Rate with Twitter - Google Drive. N.p., 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Nov.
2013.
"TL Virtual Cafe - TL News Night October 21, 2013 Archive." TL Virtual Cafe. Tangient LLC, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 05
Nov. 2013.