Hey everybody, we are back. are kicking off the new year and I am excited. I've got a new friend to talk to today and I'm very excited because Lindsay is here with some really interesting thoughts and ideas for us, but I'm going to not get it too far ahead of myself. I'm going say, Lindsay, welcome and why you take a second to tell folks about who you are and where you are. Well, hello, Steve. Thanks so much for having me on your podcast.
My name is Lindsay Kimmery, and I am coordinator of library services for Metro Nashville Public Schools. So this is a role that I have been in for five years, and it's a role that puts me in the central office. And I'm able to support 130 librarians and 40 library clerks through this opportunity, which I greatly enjoy. And prior to this, I spent 20 years in a middle school, first as a seventh grade language arts teacher and then 17 as the librarian. Nice, man.
I'm middle school ELA into the library. That's where I came from too. So we are on the same path. They are something, I tell you. Before we got started, we were talking a little bit about the middle schoolers and just sort of how they just never know what you're going to get with a middle schooler, but you got to love it. Absolutely not. Every day is new and exciting and interesting. Mm-hmm. So I'm kind of curious, how did you end up in school librarianship?
Like what was your path to the library? So starting out as an English teacher, one of my favorite activities with my class was just our read alouds and our novel studies. And at the end of the year, I remember having the class just gather their chairs. Let's just pull our chairs in close, you know, semi-circle, whatever order, doesn't matter. And I'm just gonna read a book to you. And that's what we did for the last couple of weeks of school. And we just...
That was just such a fun time to share story and to discuss along the way. And I saw the impact that it had on the students. And it made me think, you know, what could I do that is English adjacent for a school that more so focuses on, you know, the power of reading and just spreading that love and. and supporting all of the students. And I had never once in my life previously thought about being a school librarian, but here I am. And it was like the best decision ever.
And I'm so glad that I did it because I was able to support an entire school, staff and students for those 17 years and just Each year had a different little flavor of its own, but just being able to just really connect and provide that leadership with reading, with literacy, just was so enjoyable to me. Awesome.
So you took your hard earned experience in the library and now you've taken that up to the next level and so now you're kind of helping to share some of the wealth across the different schools and the different libraries. That's great.
Yeah, and it gives me such a unique perspective because with 130 librarians, that's 159 schools all across Metro Nashville and each school is very unique because each school has a unique administrator, unique staff members, unique librarian and students and so Each school has its own kind of set of needs and it is such an honor to get to work alongside the librarians and help them, you know, be a thought partner, be a coach, come
in and provide physical support, just anything that they need to help them be successful in supporting their students and staff. awesome. Man, that's great administration. That's great supervision when you've got someone who is there to really do whatever they can to make sure that you're getting the job done, like whatever that takes. And I really appreciate that.
We had sort of conversed previously just about, you know, where you were at and what you were doing and just talking through some ideas.
And I was really impressed with how... thoughtful you were about the ways that you can offer that support because you've gone from, in my mind, the school library is the place, like the place in education to be because like you said, you're working with all the students, all the teachers in the whole building and you've sort of taken that to even the next level and you're spreading it out
to all the schools and all the school librarians and you're supporting them so thoughtfully and I hope that they appreciate, I'm sure they appreciate all the support that you give them because it really just sounds amazing. It's really cool to be in a district that has a role like mine and I'm fortunate to have a small team. So I have three other individuals on my team.
So a training and development specialist, Commie Sharp, a district librarian, Alyssa Littrell, and we have our administrative assistant, Clay Jeffries, who's actually a former student of mine from my middle school days. which is great. So the four of us do whatever we can to support this larger team. And I came from a district that didn't have someone like me, meeting my role in the central office. So we were, the librarians were completely on our own.
So I know the difference and I'm just grateful. that there are a handful of districts in Tennessee with a role like this. think it makes a huge difference. Yeah, you know, it's unfortunate there. does seem like there is a real scarcity of a role like that to help kind of keep everybody on the same page across different buildings. I mean, my district is only four schools, but we're still sort of all doing our own separate things.
And we there's the supervisor has multiple responsibilities and library is sort of and I get it, but sort of last on the list because there's only four librarians and four schools and she's got.
huge departments that she's also in charge of so there's only you know so much time and attention to go around and I totally get that but when a district realizes like this is an area we can really just do so much we can get so much accomplished it's great when they recognize that and provide that support like you're able to provide that's really awesome. because two of our district goals, I number one is literacy. And then a second goal is just diversity, equity and inclusion.
So I think having this position in our central office just helps further tie librarians into being able to meet the needs in literacy and in providing. know, equitable spaces and equally accessible spaces and just how that all works together, not only in their own school, but just across the district as a whole just really helps further elevate, know, further help us reach, you know, the goals that we are trying to achieve.
And I think you just gave us a real great piece of ammunition to put in our toolkits to go to our own administrators and say, hey, here's a reason why we should be thinking about this as a position. Here's a reason why we should have this. Man, we're gonna definitely put a little an asterisk on that one so that we make sure we come back to that. That's great.
So usually we talk about a lesson or a program or an activity, but you and I were gonna... maybe take a little bit of a step back from that because in talking, we had kind of circled around a couple of different ideas and you had pointed out something that I think is so incredibly important and something that it had really occurred to me before, but you put it so perfectly.
So I wanna let you kind of run with the ball a little bit here and maybe you wanna just kind of lead us into where we're going and talk through a little bit of where we're going here. Okay, well, with all the ideas that we tossed back and forth, something that really stood out was just kind of working around the barriers to access. And so in thinking about that some more, I came up with just flexibility and how that can be a superpower of a school librarian.
I know that as a former middle school librarian, That is one of the ways, just being flexible, was one of the ways that I kept the library just at the forefront of just high importance in my school and relevant.
And so it is just sort of breaking out of just what we traditionally think of as, you know, we go to the library to get books to get resources to go and see the librarian, but how as the librarian can we bring the books and resources to the class and you know get out into the school building so that we can provide the services at the point of need because I see a lot in my district you know the point of need is stuck in class.
We have scripted, very scripted curriculum sometimes, and so no students are allowed, you know, out of class. We have, maybe we're in the rotation for certain grade levels, but not for other grade levels. So scheduling really can become a challenge. So, you know, how do we manage all the different barriers sometimes that were given. And it's just part of being part of a school community. We know that learning is being prioritized and sometimes student free time is very, very minimal.
And the more that we can be flexible and think outside the box as needed. You know, it's certainly not the solution that we're seeking, but it's a tool that we need to have at the ready to deploy. And I think you raised sort of an interesting point too, the idea that there's sort of this tension for school librarians because the library is the place where your resources are and the library is the place you want people to come so they can take full advantage of all the resources.
But like you said, sometimes that's not possible for some classes, some teachers, some students. So then we're sort of in the position of what can I bring that will at least do some of the outreach. Like maybe they're not gonna have access to every tool, every resource, every item, but maybe we can cherry pick out some stuff. And I love the idea. You put it as flexibility is your superpower.
And I absolutely love that thought because I mean, we all know school librarians are superheroes, but I think that flexibility element of it is so incredibly important. So we've got to be flexible in how we think about ourselves. and our spaces, but also how are we being flexible in our connections? So that's a great point. I really appreciate you bringing that up.
So we've got this really important idea and you've actually got several different elements about different barriers that we face and you've listed them out really nicely here. You know, I'm gonna jump a little bit here, but we're talking about interruptions to the schedule and time constraints and rotations and just, there's all these things that can kind of hem us in.
and make it real tough to deliver the stuff that we know we have that we know would be so great, but you've gotta make that connection between the stuff and the people who need the stuff. That's not always the easiest thing to do. So you've got some great ideas here. Do you wanna maybe share off some thoughts on how we can engage that flexibility a little bit? Definitely. And I think something that happened in our recent history just really forced our hand to think outside the box.
And that was the pandemic. We've got thousands of books sitting in these libraries collecting dust. I see that the school is organizing. pickups for different materials for students? Could I make the books available? How can I? And so many of us deployed, know, hold systems and we got those books out there. And so what I've seen is a lot of leftover from that particular time period. I see a lot of my librarians still doing mobile checkout, for example.
So I'll talk more about that in a moment, but One of the things I think that is so important to do, obviously, synchronously and asynchronously, is just book joy. mean, the librarian is the number one literacy leader in the building, in my opinion. You are reading the most books. You are reading what the kids are reading. You're ordering. So you are the most knowledgeable. about what is going to most appeal to students and support them in their journey of becoming a reader and a lifelong reader.
And so think of all the different, yes. Yes. as a long time ELA teacher, like I get it, there's pressure, there's this feeling of accountability, and we've got to make sure that if the kids are gonna read it, we've got to use that time so they've got to be tested on it. And so I worry that we press some of the joy of learning out of kids with some of the things we feel like we need to be accountable for as educators.
And that's one of the things I love about the school library is it takes so many of those. accountability pressures of grading away so that we can just be there for the kids to engage them with like book joy as one particular area, you know? right.
Yeah, so think about all the different opportunities that you might have in your school to share books, whether that is coming from you talking with students in the hall during hall duty, or it is, you you have commandeered a loan bulletin board that no one ever seems to update, you're going to make it your own, you know, you've claimed some territory. Absolutely. There's all kinds of possibilities.
So find what works for you, but never let a moment go by, even if it's just you're working with a class on learning how to log into the computer. It might be a kindergarten class. As you're doing so, always start out with a book talk or two, because you never want to bypass an opportunity to give them some ideas about what to read. That's a great idea.
actually have not been doing enough book talks lately and today I was sitting at my desk and the way our library set up the kids pass through on their way to classes and they're walking right by me and there's a brand new, there's a display of all brand new books right there and they're walking right past it. I'm like. I need to make this connection.
like I said it in my head starting tomorrow, I need to actually during passing, gonna just pick up a book and I'm just gonna book talk it for whoever's walking by until somebody takes that book and then we're gonna book talk the next one that's on the stack. Cause we gotta make the kids, we gotta help them make those connections. Cause they don't even know, they don't know what they don't know. So we can help them see those things. But that's a great point anytime we've got them.
yeah, I've had the privilege to see Mr. Shue speak many times, met him personally many times, and always think about, you know, what would Mr. Shue do with face faced with, you know, the scheduling issues, this, that and the other, I think he would find a way. So I put on my Mr. Shoe Hat, you know. That's right. That's right. Exactly. So you had mentioned that your teachers, I'm sorry, some of your school librarians are still doing mobile checkout. I'm so interested.
Can you tell us a little bit about how that continued or why that's continued? Yeah. So it all stems from just being faced with more scripted curriculum and just less time for students to come to the library. We tend to think of maybe the ELA teacher as our most natural partner in the school setting because we're both trying to accomplish the same thing and support students with literacy. In my district anyway, there's less and less time for the librarian and the ELA teacher to work together.
And so it's not like the ELA class is coming for their library day. So the librarian is either looking to partner with the social studies or science teachers, just kind of looking for other opportunities.
Or it may be the kind of thing where, you know, ELA can come to the library every you know once in nine weeks or every month but there are smaller opportunities more frequently for the librarians maybe curate a card of books or pull holds for students or maybe send down a menu of ideas maybe just genres even for students to circle and then that gives the librarians some direction on curation. But it's more about bringing the books to the kids to have just a mini checkout time in class.
we have our laptop. We have our scanner. So we put that on the cart, too. And then we're off down the hall and rolling into a classroom. And then we're in business getting books into the hands of kids. And so and I. Do you know Melissa Corey?
She she's amazing and she does these amazing visual book lists and I am still for like two years now I've been saying I'm gonna make visual book lists but it's near the top of my list now so it's like it's gonna get done soon but what a great material that would be and like you're saying you could take one of those Circulate them to class, circulate them to the kids, have kids pick some stuff out and then you've got like, okay, I know what you want, let me bring it to you instead of you
having to come and get it. That's great. time and it supports administrators' of preferences on not having kids in the hallway in the middle of class. There's always so many things we're trying to work around, but I've also seen along the lines of mobile library teachers who will build that into a hall duty, perhaps, you know, their morning duty, they're in the hallway. And so they bring a cart of books with them and have their little laptop and scanner ready to go.
And they're checking out books, you know, while they're doing hall duty or perhaps testing has closed the library for. Mm-hmm. several weeks at a time. And so on Monday, we're going to be in the A hall and Tuesday, we're going to be in the B hall. You know, we have sort of a little schedule and you know, where's Waldo find the librarian and, and check out books.
So it's just the librarians being creative and trying to respond to, you know, what what's the cards they've been dealt and get books into the hands of kids. no matter what. I love the pop-up library. mean, that is just, it's pretty easy to do. And you know, like, you've already got a pretty good sense of what's gonna circulate. So you can kind of put together a cart of stuff that you're pretty sure will move.
And like you said, you just bring your mobile stuff, you get set up in a spot, pick that spot in the hall, the wide spot or the traveled spot, and you're good to go. You just hawk books to kids. That was actually how I ended up getting my physical space in my current school because we didn't have a physical library space for a long time. And I did a couple of pop-up libraries and the administrator who became the principal the following year was like, that was awesome.
Like the kids, I was sitting there just saying like, who wants, who likes sports? Who likes football? You like football? Here you go. Here's a book. And just checking stuff out to the kids in the halls. And it was amazing because when they can have that physical hands-on experience with a book, it makes such a huge difference for kids. So that pop-up can be the thing that may spark that one kid who maybe otherwise would be picking something up. Hmm. Love it.
you know, we live in a world where there's a lot of convenience and I think kids respond really well to that. just, want to make it as easy for them as possible. And then some people, know it can be a little uncomfortable because perhaps it, you know, the process, the whole checking out process could be compromised. Something doesn't get checked out properly, but Mm-hmm. believe it was Donald and Miller who said it best is I'd rather lose a book than a reader and I 100 % agree.
Yeah, yeah, man, these are awesome ideas. I love this. I think you've also got something about book baskets. talk to me a little bit about, is this a program that your school librarians are doing? So very unofficially, the way that I've seen book baskets work would maybe primarily be in our elementary grades. So perhaps this would be a good solution to consider for those where you're in the rotation, maybe for three grades, but you don't really get a chance to see the other two grades very much.
And so it is sort of taking big, I don't know, they egg crate baskets, crates, and just curating for that class. Maybe it's a first grade class or whatever. So we curate books for them, take them the basket, and as the librarian, I would check those books out to that particular teacher, you know, if anyone's worried about the logistics.
you know, students would get to read books from the basket throughout the week and then, you know, maybe the teacher puts them all back in the basket, sets them outside the door, I can get them, change them out.
I've also seen this work for maybe there's a time when a librarian is on a leave of absence for a couple of weeks and that's maybe not a situation in which a school provides a substitute, you know, and it's often hard for someone to sub for the library because you've got another circulation system and you know it requires a lot of technical training and so I have also seen a librarian
create book baskets for each classroom and then at the end of the week which is the classroom swap baskets and you know it's a it's a band-aid solution. But again, it's being flexible, it's being creative, just thinking outside the box. Is there going to be a book misplaced? I guarantee you. Will it turn up? Most likely, because it's been in the classroom. So we check the shelves, you know, it'll turn up. And if it doesn't, at the end of the day, it's not the end of the world.
And what a, I mean, that would be a pretty low stress thing to set up. Like if you had, let's say four classes, each one gets a crate and then they just rotate them for a month. Like that's a month worth of baskets that are all done. That's an easy one. And when I saw book baskets, my first thought was actually I'd seen somebody else who does them almost like a subscription box from the library. And kids can sort of like sign up for like, I want a genre, like I want sci-fi books.
And so you just put like, three or four sci-fi books in a pack that that kid picks up and they can kind of check out or hang on to you check them all out to the kid but they hang on to the ones they want they return the ones they don't and that's another kind of fun way to to maybe and get the kids almost subscribing to the library in a way you know like if you let's we can do this
every month we can do this every two weeks whatever is going to work for the kid and that way and it might even be just The idea is just keep popping into my head as we're talking this through might be a great way to circulate some of the stuff that maybe doesn't circulate as much like if you know that the kids in the sci-fi Okay, here's like one that I know circulates well, and here's a couple that maybe you're worth a look and that's Definitely some of your readers are
gonna pick those up and go. wow. This is awesome Even though they may not be the high circulation items usually, huh? boy I love that. Yeah, I think it was Shannon McClintock Miller, maybe he started that subscription idea. And I do remember that. Yeah. And I think, you know, so many of the apps we use nowadays to consume, you know, digital media, you know, curate ideas for us.
So it's the same, the same with books, except the librarian is the you know, helping generate the or find the algorithm based on the student's interests. right, absolutely. Well, and speaking of digital, I mean, I believe that leads right into the next point that you were gonna mention. So what are your thoughts on digital access? Well, sometimes, you know, we just assume anymore that, well, I mean, we're now what, 25 years as of yesterday into the 21st century.
And so we just assume that our school libraries are not only offering print materials, but also... ebooks and digital audio books. And so it always surprises me when I hear someone say, I don't use any of my budget, you know, to buy buy ebooks or, or digital audio books. And so I'm always curious about why. And I believe most districts now are one to one. Thanks to the pandemic. Yeah. So it's rare when they're not.
And so I think, well, how do we bring the library to this device and help the students have a way to know how to access the library? Let's say the scheduling is a barrier. They can't get to the library as much as they would like, but they still have to have a book to read in class, making sure that they have. some ebook and digital audiobook options. And I know more than ever in the last few years, I really went from being kind of a print reader to being an audiobook listener.
And so to me, having audiobook options are super important. And then also I have a child with ADHD and every time he has a book to read for class. He has to listen to it as well. Like he prefers that. So we have the print option. We locate the audio book option. So I think, you know, it's another way that we are thinking about how to serve the needs of all of our students.
Talking with, you know, the special ed or exceptional ed teachers and talking about just what would help your kids be most successful. Well, and there's so much research now that shows how much audio can support textual readings and really not just for students who have special needs but for all the students.
So that's an area I've been trying to build up is make sure that I've got the audio versions of our classroom tech so that the students and the staff hopefully can take advantage of that because As an example, our eighth graders do a Christmas carol and they read the original Charles Dickens, which is like, that language is pretty dense. Like it's good, but it's dense, especially for seventh or eighth graders.
Like that's, that's a lot, but being able to hear it and hearing someone who can read it smoothly. And even if you don't pick up every word, you're able to get so much from context, from intonation and the way, you know, the person is able to make the sentence flow. So it's such a great structural support and so many of our teachers play the audio of that. And I'm like, why don't you play the audio of everything that you guys read?
Cause that'd be just going to add that extra layer for the kids who that is going to be helpful for going to be helpful for all of them really. So why wouldn't you? Yeah, absolutely. That's a great point. We do need to think more about our digital collection as part of the collection. Sometimes it's easy to neglect cause we don't see it maybe, but it's there. It is. Yes. And families appreciate knowing what options they have to support their student.
And if they can get anything, you know, any sort of support with resources from their school library without having to go purchase them themselves or seek out public library options, you know, it just ties them even further. to the school community and just I think it helped it. Ultimately it helps you as the librarian. It is. this thing that supports your student. Yeah. I'll tell you, I love our new WeGotXSIT as our catalog system a couple of years ago.
And it ties our Mac and VIA right into the catalog. So if students look stuff up, they see both physical and digital copies. And then with one click from the catalog, they can open up the digital copy without having to go into a different system. So smooth. makes it so easy for the kids. Like it's great. Yeah, yeah. Really been loving that. But as you point out, like that's not just the students that we're helping. It might be the parents that we're helping with that as well.
So there's so many elements here that maybe it's easy to neglect because like we don't always see them. So we're not necessarily always thinking of them, but that's a great, I'm so glad you brought that up. Huh, man. This is why I love having conversations with you because you're always getting me thinking about things that hadn't really popped into my head before. This is so great. Hmm. So we're collaborating sort of with our students and our parents.
And I, I'm kind of bringing that in because that is your next point. love for those who you guys can't see this, but Lindsay did this amazing outline of the kind of the head point, the high points that she wanted to bring up and they just flow together so naturally and smoothly as we're having this conversation. love it. So I'm absolutely just drawing from her list of awesome ideas here. So this is not me being clever. This is all Lindsay, just so you know.
so glad I did this too because I have a little bit of winter break brain. So this helps me stay organized. Yeah. I mean, just bring the ideas to the staff. Like I love seeing librarians say, what do you need? But I also, I have pause when I hear librarians just say, what do you need? really, want to see a solution oriented approach.
And it's my hope that the librarian will take time to look through the curriculum for each grade level and subject area, create a curriculum map if one does not exist already so that the librarian just has that quick at a glance, you know, first nine weeks, I know that sixth grade is, ELA is covering this. And then we go here. So just the librarian being knowledgeable and being able to come to the teacher and say, I see that in the first nine weeks, you're going to be covering this.
Would you be open to bringing the class down for me to front load the different databases that we have or do an orientation? Or I could come to your classroom and front load the databases. but just bringing those ideas and solutions because teachers are so busy. I mean, you as the librarian are busy, but let's make these conversations and these collaborative conversations, you know, quick and efficient and just save everyone time by coming prepared.
yeah, and I think you bring up a good point too in that if we as the school librarian are able to sort of look at this and say, okay, when I look at this, here's what I see and I can bring this to the teacher. It's you're taking that mental load off of the teacher to have to figure out how can the teacher use you and like you want to be useful. You want to be part of what's going on in the classes, but when you put the onus on the teacher to figure it out, Yeah. may not know what you can do.
They may not know what resources you have. Like I've absolutely told teachers, I've told classes about something when they were in visiting and the teacher go, wait, what, we have that? They just don't always know. And so I think you're absolutely right to say, rather than making it that open question of what do you want or what can I do for you? Turning it around and saying, here's what I can do for you or here's an idea I have. Would that be useful?
Because I can tell you nine out of 10 teachers If you say, you want me to do this thing that will help your lesson? Are going to say, yes, please. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they want the help and they just want to see specifically, you know, what that's going to look like. And also I see a lot of people at the beginning of the year create menus of services. And I think that's a really great tool, especially if maybe you're not given time at the beginning of the year, like during faculty meetings or.
site-based professional development days to offer any sort of staff orientation or just information. But just making that, creating that one-pager menu of services, introduce yourself, pop that in everyone's mailboxes, something that all used to work for me. And this is my preference. Like I know that it is so important to... to set boundaries and time off.
And I did enjoy my summer, but also I usually spent about a week of my own time in the summer getting my library ready because I knew that when I walked in the doors of school, I was going to be bombarded with questions that usually start with my laptop. It's not working. What do I need to do? And so I realized that I could not get my stuff done and that I just needed to be ready to go because it was a great way to advocate, you know, for the library.
It was a great way for me to meet people and just be useful and helpful. And sometimes, yes, they needed needed specific library resources, but sometimes it might have been a brand new teacher who was given the keys to the classroom. They don't know how to plug. They don't know where anything goes or how to plug anything in. And so that was my service at the point of need for that individual at that time.
Is that something I particularly enjoy doing, crawling around on the floor and plugging things in for someone? Absolutely not. But in that moment, that's what they needed from me and that helps me sort of build a beginning relationship with them. and they will never forget that small act of kindness. Yes, my knees, my pants got dirty, but you know, I made a new friend that day and I made a new friend who may be open to working with me on an upcoming unit, you know? absolutely.
I had never heard it put as a menu until I think it was Courtney Pentland a couple of years ago had shared a menu that she had done for her students and I was like, or for her teachers. And I was like, I have got to steal that. But I did work with a teacher. Well, I got to observe a school librarian several years back and she, her orientation box, she made this little tiny orientation box for all of the teachers, for all the new teachers. And it was just this little like, was.
paper or light cardboard, and each side of the cube, she had put together little facts about the library or like one side was here's the databases we have, one side was here's our catalog and how to get to it, one side was like every side had information that was useful to the teachers and she put a couple of pieces of candy inside it.
So everybody got this little candy treat and then they had the box on their desk with the candy that also had the information so they could just, what time are they open? that's right, it's right here on the, like it was, a object on their desk. was like, so brilliant, so simple, but so brilliant, you know? And it's not like she didn't do it every year, but like when new teachers came in, hey, welcome, here's a thing for you. And so now all the teachers have this on their desk, ready to go.
Yeah. sure, all that information is on the website, but what's a little bit more personable? You know, saying, go to our website and get all the information you need or, you know, hey, I'm your librarian. Welcome to our school. Welcome back. You know, hope you had a great summer. Here's a little reminder of just basic information to help you out. You know, have a great day. I love it.
I'm going to actually jump us over your next point and get us to communication because we're talking about communication here. We're talking about how do we really touch base with our staff and our students. so you've got some real specific and thoughtful ideas here. So why don't you share some? We talked a little bit about menus. You mentioned in here a menu. I get a menu for staff, menu for students. I can also see menu for families. That's interesting.
Yeah. Sometimes, you know, families are new to the school. Like, you know, they may have a sixth grader. This is their first child to go through middle school. They may be new to the community. And so I think it is good PR to help families understand the role that the library plays in their students' education. And so I tried to often go to the, we had a PTO. So I know there's PTAs and all kinds of different names. PSG, I've not heard that one.
Okay. So I would go to those meetings and just say hello and introduce myself, get to know these families. and I also did the yearbook, so I was pretty good with everyone's names too. And I would be able to say, oh, you you're Matt's mom, you know, that's great. You know, I love seeing Matt in the library and just really putting that personal touch.
I think it is important to show families that, you know, your student not only has access to these resources during the day, but here's what we have online. Here are our databases. Here is, if your child needs additional support with finding books, please set up a time with me and for your child to come and bookshop. We can bookshop before school, we can bookshop after school. You are welcome to come along.
I know we're in the age of living through a little bit of... challenges to intellectual freedom. So it's just something that's on parents minds. So I think it helps them feel better sometimes in situations that they get to come along to and participate in in the book shopping. I certainly welcome that. I have noticed in our district just in tracking like concerns about books.
We typically get the most from a student's family who's like they're in a grade level that's brand new to a school, kindergarten or sixth grade. So I think there's just a lot of opportunity just for openness and transparency and looking for any sort of way for the librarian to show like, I'm your partner, know, I'm an ally in your child's education.
Yeah. going to be supporting your child over the course of several years, not just for these next 10 months, but I get to see your child go from a sixth grader to an eighth grader, or from a freshman to an adult who can vote. That's pretty cool. And so I want to get to know your child. I want to get to know what you need for your child and how to best support your child. helpful PR. Yeah, that's such a cool idea.
again, not something that had occurred to me, but like even tying it back to what you were saying before about helping the parents understand, there are digital resources that the kid can take advantage of. We've got the audio book of this, or we've got the digital version if you want to see it, if you want to read with your kid at home. Like so many ways that we can tie in all the different resources we have, our skills.
I love the idea of inviting, because the parents tend to be so much more excited about Getting their kids into books than the kids are sometimes and so you know if you send that home and say I am happy to you know help your kid find a book parents can be like oh I'm dropping you off tomorrow at 715 and you're gonna So why not take advantage of that enthusiasm from the parent to help the kid find something that they're gonna enjoy man
student who's now well, he just graduated from college, but when he was in seventh grade, his mom came to me and just, you know, he's really having trouble finding a book that he likes. He doesn't finish anything. So we set up a time for the student to meet me in the library to bookshop. I found out that his favorite soft drink was a Coke. You so I went to the teacher's lounge, I bought him a Coke. and he got to sip a Coke in the library and look for books and he has never forgotten that.
Those are the kind of moments, those are the ones that can really just, they stick in your mind. Man, you went out of your way to make this kid feel comfortable and to help him with what he wanted help with, and that is the thing that sticks with students. Man, that's awesome. Love that, I love that, huh? So you've also got many an orientation for new staff. That's a great idea too.
Hmm. you know, and sometimes that's possible and sometimes it's not, but sometimes brand new staff have more professional development that they are doing than other staff at the beginning of the year. So if the administrator is gathering those new teachers there for something, just ask if you could be a part of it. Could you host it in the library at least?
and then that way you could have some information on the tables because you know we know that there's downtime we know that there's awkward silence while we're waiting for things to begin and here's a handy dandy one pager for you to read about the library or there may be a chance for you to you know have lunch with them and just
Just use it as an opportunity to get to know them and just build relationships, even if it's not a time which you're actively sharing information, maybe that would just open the door for you to do so at another time. said when there are those, you know, awkward pauses while something else is getting set up, just in my mind automatically flashed you.
Imagine if you had some really like visually eye-catching books on the tables that the teachers could pick up and whether they're new staff or returning staff, like, oh, even if they just flip through it a little bit, maybe you've just landed that little hook that's going to bring them back for some of those resources. Oh boy. Man, my brain is just fizzing with so many possibilities here. So many options, I love it.
So are there any other key communication elements you think we should be kind of keeping in mind as we are trying to make people aware of, not just in the school, but maybe beyond the school too, of what we're able to do for them. You know, I think it's the things that I'm speaking about come from years of like trial and error. And so I think about somebody who may be listening to this, who's a brand new librarian and go, gosh, you know, that feels overwhelming.
That's a lot to do and think about. Like, and, know, you may not even fully know your school community yet. You know, I had 20 years to get to know this community and watch it change and grow. And so I think it, the things that I'm talking about kind of combine just your growing experience and expertise, know, what you learn year after year, what you're willing to try. It's, you know, failure's hard sometimes.
It hurts and it's definitely nothing to... to be ashamed of, like good for you for putting yourself out there and trying an idea. And so for me, I'll take those moments and I reflect and go, well, did it truly not work or does it just need a little bit more tweaking? We gotta take it back to the drawing board and tweak. So don't be afraid to try.
Good for you for... for doing so and then look for what may work for your unique community because like I said at the beginning, each and every school is different based on kind of the makeup of the staff and the students and the needs of the community as a whole. you know, so do what you can with what you have, with what you're willing to do. And then just finally, your administrator, it's just so key to everything. And sometimes that relationship is built very easily.
And sometimes that relationship can be difficult. It can take a long time to build or it may not for whatever reason ever get built. And there's, know. There's a lot of reasons why. That's right.
doing the best to keep the road plowed the other person may not be interested in keeping their side plowed so you just gotta you can only do what you can do but I'm really glad you brought that up that's a really important point Yeah, so being flexible and trying to meet the needs of the students, you know, is great, but also be sure, you know, you've got principal buy-in for those things as well, because
whatever you're doing, obviously, it needs to be in the spirit of and in alignment with what the overall goals are for the school. And sometimes, you know, You know, we know we're here to support literacy, but also there's the logistics that your principal is looking at. And sometimes those logistics can take some precedence. So just be sure that, you know, you're doing the best you can with what you have and you're working with everybody in the spirit of being a team player. Absolutely.
I'm really glad you brought up the fact that there may be people out there who have not done any of the stuff that we're talking about and are just like, holy smokes, so much. I know that I can be exhausting to people because I'm always just spinning out new ideas. Like I never even finished the first idea before I'm working on the second idea. And there's such a thing as too much and I get it and that's okay.
And like you said, you shouldn't expect, nobody should expect that you're gonna, if you're not doing any of this, that you're gonna next week do all of this. Right. Absolutely. Yes. you're gonna just tomorrow walk in and do all of. So I'm so glad you brought that up as just a point. Like, hey, if you are new, don't feel overwhelmed. Think about what sounded most interesting to you. Great, try it out, see what happens.
If it doesn't work out quite right, that doesn't mean it's not gonna ever work. You just gotta think about where did it go not quite right? Where did it go better? And work from there. But... That's right. I really appreciate it.
again, I can see why your school librarians would be so excited to have you as a supervisor, as an administrator, because you're really thinking about the bigger picture and not focused on the moment of, well, this didn't work right the first time you tried it, and therefore, terrible. No, you've gotta, it takes time. It takes effort, it takes thought. It's not gonna all work out the first time, and that's okay. Yep, that's totally okay.
Yep. Well, there's so many great, we could, I have no, we only got to about half of the things that you've got on your list here. It's amazing. I feel like we could probably talk about school libraries for the next like six weeks and we would still have stuff to talk about, but we are now going to take a 90 degree turn. We're to go into the book break. I love the book break.
So the book break, any book you want to share, whatever you've got, what is something you think people might want to know about? Well, something that I had just the joy of reading recently was the Bletchley Riddle. And it is by Rudis Cepetes and Steve Schenken. And it's for middle grade, even high school. And it's historical fiction. Rudis Cepetes lives in Nashville. So it is lovely to. run into Ruta, you know, around town. It's so fun to say that.
And just previously as a librarian, I did have her come and speak to my school and to my students when she was a new author and her book, Between Shades of Grey, had just released. So, and that was back in 2013 when she visited my school. And likewise, many years later, I hosted Steve Schenken. And so when they were on book tour for this book and they were coming through Nashville, they asked me to be the moderator for their chat about the book.
So it was just such an honor to support two authors for Kiddlet that I dearly respect and admire because so many of my students absolutely loved their books. yeah. Anyway, the Bletchley Riddle. This book, it is in the summer of 1940. So we're in World War II, we're in England, and we have 19 year old Jacob, who is just sort of a mathematical whiz, and he is working at Bletchley Park to kind of break codes of the secret messages.
that the Nazis were sending to try to interrupt and figure out the plans that they were making. And then his sister, younger sister Lizzie joins him and also is living at Fletchley Park. And Jacob and Lizzie end up having specific roles to play in this whole code breaking operation. And the true history of this is because of that operation, it saved so many lives and kind of cut the war by about two years because of these efforts.
But while all of this is super important and they're working really hard, the code that matters most to them is what happened to their mom. Where did she go? Is she still alive? So it is told in alternating chapters. So Ruder writes in the voice of Lizzie and Steve writes in the voice of Jacob and it's just so cool to see how these two characters weave together and work together and if you ever get the chance to read it I hope you will. That is on my list.
I mean, my list is about 400 books long, but it's absolutely on my list. And I've got to imagine there's so many great nonfiction tie-ins to go with that because Bletchley Park was a real code breaking place during World War II, that much I know. And I might be wrong, but I think I'm remembering that there was like a group of women specifically that were working at Bletchley Park as code breakers. They might've been called computers back at that time, actually.
I think that's because they were the human. people doing the computations of how to figure out some of the stuff. That's right. And you'll even run into kind of a famous mathematician in the book. So your math teachers at school will be just wildly impressed. Love it, love it. Anytime we can get the math teachers in the library, that's always a good thing. Man, well, that is definitely bumping up some spots on my list without a doubt, because that sounds awesome.
And like you said, two amazing authors. So I can only imagine when they are working together how amazing that must be. Well, Lindsay, it has been such a great joy to have you here. Like I said, I feel like we could probably keep talking about this stuff for weeks and weeks because you just... have so many great insights and ideas that are just so helping me to see things in a little bit of a different way. And I really appreciate that. So thank you so much for being here and sharing.
Thank you again for having me. It's such an honor to talk with you.