Erin Shinneman Introduction to Library and Information Science--Assignment #1 February 14, 2010 This assignment gave me good insight

into what it means to be a librarian or information professional in todays world. Thinking specifically about this career path I decided to interview Lauren Mlade. Laurens professional title is a Learning Resource Center Director. The state now calls people in her field Library Information Specialists. Lauren works at Forest Road Public School in La Grange Park, Illinois. I met Lauren on a previous occasion and discovered she is currently in the Library and Information Science Program at Dominican University. I wanted to conduct my interview with Lauren because she works in a school library, and I am interested in pursuing a similar career. In my conversation with Lauren, I learned a lot about the components of her job as an LCR Director. Forest Road is part of District 102 in La Grange Park, Illinois. La Grange Park is a southwest suburb of Chicago. There are five other schools that make up District 102. Laurens formal responsibilities include Collection Development to meet the information needs of students for curriculum and also for personal interest. More specifically this includes purchasing, warehousing, and weeding of new and old materials to keep the library organized and up-to-date. Lauren is also in charge of Technology Support which aims at integrating technology into the classrooms. She does a good deal of planning with teachers to help integrate information literacy and technology skills and attitudes into their units. Sometimes Lauren does this through consultations with teachers or she co-teaches with the classroom teacher to teach students new technology skills. She is also in charge of teaching the teachers new programs and troubleshooting with them. Lauren does a direct instruction of tech-based lessons if the teacher desires. We have discussed the importance of teaching technology in class discussions. Another name for this person is an Instruction Librari-

an. In this day in age it is important to have people who can teach others how to use technology. What good is having the technology if no one knows how to use it? One of the reasons for why Lauren does this is to help students with research skills. At Forest Road this is referred to as Internet Safety Curriculum. As we have learned not all information on the internet is reliable, therefore, it is important that students know how to find credible information when doing research assignments. Lauren also has important responsibilities that pertain to reading. For example, she is responsible for helping students connect with books, and promoting reading for pleasure. Lauren must help students find books that are enjoyable and also appropriate based on reading abilities. In a school setting the library is often a place to explore personal interests, discover new information, and relax with a good book! Thinking back to my experiences in the school library, I remember it being a nice break from rigorous school tasks, plus it was always exciting to find a new book. Lauren offered some insight on this saying that when she was a kid she had an aide as her school librarian. She does not remember the librarian doing anything but checking books out to students. Over the years however, the library is a more integrated and dynamic place. Librarians are more integrated into the learning process of both students and teachers now. Each building in Laurens school district has a certified teacher as the librarian, but only one of the five librarians has the endorsement. When Lauren graduates in June she will be the second librarian with the endorsement. In speaking to Lauren about this further, she thinks this should be a requirement. In beginning her coursework at Dominican, Lauren had no idea how much there is to know about being librarian. Fortunately, most of the other librarians at Forest Road have done a lot of personal studying and reading on their own, but it goes to show that librarianship has gone through, and will continue to go through, a lot of changes over the years.

Going with the topic of challenges Lauren faces in her job today, she said, I don't think the administration really understands what a library is. We're housed under the Technology Department, so they seem to think that we are primarily technology. While we have a strong technology component, library does not equal technology. Communicating that message is difficult for Lauren, but it explains why she is so busy. She tries to join lots of committees and talks informally to everyone she possibly can about what the library has to offer. Next week she will be interviewing the new Assistant-Superintendent for Curriculum for an assignment and she anticipates discussing the issue further. According to Lauren, there is no cohesive information problem-solving process or scope and sequences of skills at the district or school level. The problem with this is that she cannot inservice teachers or promote initiative without district approval. Lauren has been trying to pull the pieces of a problem-solving process out of the new Reading program so she can reassemble it as a more cohesive process and hopefully present it to the administration as something that was already there, but it still needs to be made more explicit. When discussing the topic of how Laurens professional role has changed she mentions that for the past two years she has been involved in weekly Language Arts planning with the classroom teachers. Over the five years that she been in the LRC, the school has moved from a fixed schedule to more flexible schedule. This has allowed her to visit classrooms more often or have classes can come to the LRC at the point of need. In addition, Lauren has been doing more consultation with the teachers than previously. These changes have to do with trying to apply what she has been learning at Dominican more so than an official role change. This year there is a new districtlevel administration and a new Reading/Language Arts program and as a result things have been reorganized to meet the requirements of the Response to Intervention Program. This has been overwhelming for the teachers, and a challenge for Lauren as well. She did not want to further

overwhelm the teachers and wanted to be as helpful as possible, so she had to be careful of how to push the information literacy/technology. She picked up the pieces that she could do on her own, and has been paying careful attention to the new programing so that next year, when teachers are feeling more comfortable with the new program, she will be ready to help them efficiently reintegrate more information literacy and technology. Recently however, she has been thinking that she has been going about this a bit wrong. While it is important to integrate with Reading/Language Arts because those skills and attitudes are carried and practiced across content areas, there needs to be more planning with Social Studies and Science as well because that is where more research projects fall. Since Forest Road is an elementary school, the same teachers teach all the subjects, so this keeps Lauren from missing anyone entirely. At any rate, the school system is constantly evolving and being tweaked. This can be said for the field of librarianship. New developments are coming about and technology is still finding its place among the mix. It is important that we keep up with these changes in order to provide the best service for our customers. Since Lauren works at a a school it is important to consider her responsibilities outside of the library. These consist of miscellaneous duties that come with working on a team of teachers in the school such as morning door duty, hallway monitoring, and supporting individual student behavior and education plans. In addition, Lauren works on a lot of committees. She is on Team Leaders, a building-level communication and decision-making team, the Response to Invention team, and District and Building Technology Committees. Lauren is a also a Lunch Director and Administrative Assistant. It is an understatement to say Lauren is busy, but she is a wonderful example of how one can get involved in their community of users. Although it is not required of Lauren to take on so many responsibilities, she is happy to help. This makes me think of how librarians should put fourth the extra effort for their customers. We have discussed this topic in class

and as mentioned it is important that we think of the broad picture of what it is to be a librarian or information professional. Our responsibilities should not simply consist of checking out books, but rather we should be eager to help in other ways. Marketing, Web Designing, and Technology Instruction are a few examples of responsibilities that come with working in a library or information center. These responsibilities help make a library more accessible to customers. I enjoyed talking with Lauren and felt she was a great candidate for this interview. She gave me valuable insight into what is required of a school librarian. It was interesting to hear the challenges she faces when a library competes with the demands of a school. There are also many joys in helping students find good books and a love of reading. I am excited to learn more about this field as I continue my studies at Dominican!