Tag: school libraries

HVLA: Independent School Librarians’ Resource in Tough Times

“What can I do?” That is the question I have been asking myself for the past month or so.  I have read the headlines chronicling the many executive orders coming out of the White House and I have felt confusion and frustration, among other feelings, and I have observed the young people I work with feeling many feelings as well, not to mention my fellow librarians and information professionals in schools, public libraries, and other organizations.  

What is the role of a school library at this time?  How do we continue providing diverse reader’s advisory, effective research instruction, while maintaining a safe, welcoming environment at this time?  School librarians might be feeling trepidation about what is in our collections, whether we should allow our catalogs to be open to the public, and what materials we feature in our displays.  We might be facing or anticipating book challenges or be forced to explain to others that book bannings are in fact real and not a hoax, as the current US Department of Education has claimed.  The article “Ready, Set, Respond: Becoming a Challenge-Ready Library Professional” by Edwards, Heindel and Calzada in the Winter 2024 issue of the Children & Libraries journal explains the need for the entire team to be prepared and have strong policies in place to face potential or current book challenges.  One recommendation they give, among the many practical and useful actions, is to Build Your Professional Network.  They recommend we “[e]stablish an active member presence in your local, state, and national professional associations. Volunteering with and learning from librarians in similar roles can provide you with an abundance of thought partners and collegial supports to get through tough times.”1 

Here is where the Hudson Valley Library Association comes in.  Many school librarians work as solo librarians or in a small team.  Reaching out and connecting with other professionals can provide us with the connection and assistance we need now and give us opportunities to learn new strategies and approaches.  As a network of passionate independent school librarians in and around the greater New York City area, plus Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island, we have a vast pool of experience, expertise, and knowledge.  If we can find and create occasions to get together both professionally and socially, we can share best practices, offer guidance, and help each other by being someone who understands what it is like to be a school librarian now.

Each school library will determine its own best approach in consultation with its administration, Diversity, Equity and Belonging directors/coordinators, and in some cases trustees.  Knowing we all have the entire network of librarians in HVLA to call on can be comforting and helpful.  Have a question?  Post it to the HVLA listserv.  Want to connect and learn from other librarians?  Attend our Winter Meeting, the biannual Small Press Preview, on March 13th at The Nightingale-Bamford School.  Be sure to join us at the social event that follows the meeting.  You won’t want to miss it!

Warmly and in solidarity,

Amy Chow, President

  1. Val Edwards, Maegan Heindel, and Becky Caldaza, “Ready, Set, Respond: Becoming a Challenge-Ready Library Professional,” Children and Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 22, no. 4 (2024): 4.

Banned Books Week and School Libraries

by Amy Chow

The Banned Books Display for upper school at The Brearley School created by library assistant and archivist Zoey Ha.

September 22 to 28, 2024 is Banned Books Week! Established by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1982, it is the annual week to promote the right to access information and the freedom to read. This is a good time — actually, it is always a good time — to advocate on behalf of the many creators whose books have been challenged and banned. 

In 2023, the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom “tracked 1,247 efforts to censor books and other resources in libraries—an increase of 65% from the year before. In total, 4,240 unique book titles were targeted, many of them representing LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC voices and experiences.” (American Library Association 2024) It is essential that school librarians are able to do their jobs and curate balanced, inclusive and diverse collections that reflect our students’ experiences as well as show all the ways in which we are different. 

I am fortunate and thankful to have the full support of my school’s administration, board of trustees, parent body, faculty and staff. With a collection of approximately 27,000 books, it is certainly safe to say that books are still at the heart of our school. Despite this supportive atmosphere, and given the increase in challenges last year, we decided to strengthen the section of the library collection development policy on Book Challenges by making a couple revisions. The roles of specific administrators were added as designated people to include on the review committee, should one be necessary, and the committee now includes our Director of Equity and Community Engagement as well as the Dean of Academics and the Dean of Faculty, in addition to the Head of School and Head Librarian. We revised our Request for Reconsideration Form to use more specific language and made it so that each request only addresses one item. Being prepared for challenges does not encourage them. It allows us to be thoughtful and prepared and intentional just as we are when we seek to acquire literature that is high quality and appealing to our students. Once the books are on the shelves, they can decide which book is the right one for them.

For ideas on how to get involved, events to attend, and ways to promote Banned Books Week, see this list of resources:

American Library Association Banned Books Week 

Brooklyn Public Library Books Unbanned

New York Public Library

PEN America Book Bans

Unite Against Book Bans Day of Action, October 19th

The Banned Books Display for middle school at The Brearley School created by library assistant and archivist Zoey Ha.

Share how you are celebrating the freedom to read at your schools in the comments.

Bibliography

American Library Association. 2024. “Banned Books Week.” Banned and Challenged Books. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/banned.

Welcome Back!

Many of us have already had our opening days of school when we welcomed smiling and nervous children and teens back to our school houses. Perhaps your summer was full of travel and discovery. Perhaps you enjoyed the comfort and familiarity of home. Either way, returning to school after the summer is a big adjustment and it no doubt takes some time to settle in. Be sure to take care of yourselves and pace yourself.

We have much to look forward to this year in terms of what HVLA is offering. We will be sending out the annual member survey so that we can use the data collected as we negotiate contracts and advocate for school librarians. We plan to hold many social gatherings in various boroughs. Look out for information on membership renewal coming from Emma and stay tuned for information on the Fall Meeting — also coming soon!

If you are interested in getting involved with HVLA, we welcome you to write to the board at hvla.librarians@gmail.com.

It’s amazing to have this group as a resource. I love how much we rely on each other for help and resources. The HVLA listserv is already buzzing with activity and the HVLA SORA Consortium leadership team does a great job curating collections and creating and sharing promotional resources. Thank you to everyone for your willingness to share and your hard work! Have a great year!

Warmly,

Amy Chow

HVLA President

Sumer Is Icumen In

Congratulations on arriving at the end of June, the end of another school year, the end of 2023-2024, academically speaking. No doubt your libraries have been tidied up, closed up, inventoried, and they sit quietly waiting for students to come back in the fall. Before we embark on our summer travels, staycations, and summer reading adventures, let us take stock of all the accomplishments, both big and small, from this past year.

We had three fabulous, well-attended meetings this year. Our Fall Meeting was hosted by Saint Ann’s School. A meeting of Round Table Idea Sharing on topics like AI, best books to read aloud, curriculum on banned books, teacher and librarian collaborations and so much more followed by time to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.

Our Winter Meeting was hosted by The Trinity School. We heard from graphic novel guru Gina Gagliano, publisher Liz Frances (Street Noise Books), and author/artist Tracy White, creator of the graphic novel, Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum, about the power of graphic storytelling. Again, we enjoyed time to chat and snack afterwards. 

Our Spring Library Symposium, hosted by The Brearley School, was our inaugural all-day library symposium on Intellectual Freedom, Libraries as Sanctuaries and Teaching Practices. With Dr. Chelsea Clinton, a panel on intellectual freedom, Mr. Tony Marx and workshops presented by both HVLA members as well as public school librarians, over 75 librarians enjoyed a day of learning and networking. Feedback has been very positive and we hope to plan another symposium in the future.

In terms of socials, Brooklyn librarians win for being the most social. Our SORA Consortium committee continues to guide our association, share beautiful and effective promotional materials, curate amazing collections, and provide professional development so we all can optimize our SORA ebook collections at our schools.

I would like to thank the HVLA board members for their dedication of time and energy. Their  commitment saw us through another successful year that included several elections, a petition to reinstate funding for NOVELny, several blog posts — with thanks to guest bloggers, board meetings, and multitudes of emails. All this extra work is done on top of their demanding full-time jobs, on top of their busy lives as people living in NYC, and on top of all the things that pop up unexpectedly that require their attention. I look forward to working with the incoming board members and wish those who are stepping down all the best. I am very grateful to you all.

Our hopes for 2024-2025 include developing our relationships with NYCSLS and public libraries and forming a planning subcommittee for the next HVLA Library Symposium. When we return in the fall, look forward to our Small Press Preview. There will be opportunities to get involved and make HVLA even stronger. Please consider volunteering.

For now, enjoy the summer! Exhale. Share your summer reading picks in the comments. I look forward to seeing you all in the fall. I hope you enjoy a restful, bookful, and as-adventurous-as-you-like summer!

Warmly,

Amy, for the HVLA board

Amy’s summer reading: Exhalation by Ted Chiang, Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks, The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers by Samuel Burr, listen to full cast recording of Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (of course I’ve already read it!)

Librarian Adventures: Exploring Other School Libraries 

By Maria Falgoust and Amy Ribakove with contributions from Tali Balas and Abbey Gans Mather

Visiting other school libraries offers valuable insights and inspiration for school librarians at any stage of their career. It’s a practical way to observe different practices, space arrangements, and collection strategies. This experience not only sparks creativity but also provides reassurance that challenges faced are shared among peers. These visits also offer networking opportunities, strengthening professional communities.

One of the significant benefits of these visits is the opportunity for self-reflection. Librarians can critically assess their methods, consider new approaches, and reaffirm their values and priorities for their own library programs. Additionally, networking during these visits can be both fun and empowering. Librarians tend to want to share and support one another in everything from lessons to good book recommendations, FAMIS order tips, ideas on their favorite conferences and symposiums, classroom management and so much more. Getting to know our colleagues at peer schools only makes our HVLA community stronger.

Amy Ribakove: This December I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon at The Town School. Karen Grenke invited me to observe her teach two 1st grade classes. I also had time to explore the Town library. I left with many ideas to bring back to the International School of Brooklyn! 

Here are a few of my key takeaways –

  • Sora can be a great tool for teaching library classes! The platform’s accessibility and visual appeal allowed all students to actively engage with the book. It was the first time in a while I didn’t hear “I can’t see” during a storytime. 
  • Celebrate early reader books! Not only are they valuable tools for emerging readers, but they also make fun read-alouds!  In her library lesson, Karen  highlighted the Geisel Awards, which recognize excellence in early reader literature. This is a library lesson I definitely plan to use. 
  • Borrow display ideas! I was inspired by the Winter Holiday and Book Award displays at Town and was able to adapt them to our library.

Maria Falgoust: This school year, I visited solo librarian, Jennifer Gladowski at the Village Community School. 

  • Exploring the creative “Butt or Face” bulletin board display, which used the book  written Kari Lavelle which cleverly integrated research work into a lesson.
  • Observing Jenn’s expert teaching methods weaving various subjects, witnessing her seamless integration of science, math, research, and technology into her lessons. 
  • Noting the practicality of the split writing utensil caddies, which I promptly ordered for my library the following day. Their implementation significantly improved organization and eliminated the contention over a single bin of markers I’d been using previously.
  • Partaking in a delicious lunch in their vibrant and well-managed cafeteria, where the atmosphere was joyful. Witnessing the smooth operation of their lunch program was both enlightening and inspiring.

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Tali Balis: We were encouraged this year to use our PD days to visit other schools, and happily did! We visited the International School of Brooklyn this spring and getting out of our environment and seeing how Maria and Amy run their program was inspiring. We went with the intention of learning more about buying and incorporating translated books and books in Spanish and French, but came back with so much more. 

  • How they use the spaces in the library for different age groups and activities made me rearrange our library to try out clipboards and standing desks instead of tables with chairs.
  • The sheer amount of programming Maria and Amy do is mind boggling! Not only do they do multiple events a month they have passive programming throughout the library to grab students and teachers attention. We plan to make flyers for each month highlighting titles available on Sora as a soft start.
  • And of course we found new books, new publishers, and new ideas for classes: from having 4th graders read to PK to using Kamishibai stories.

Abbey Gans Mather: This year I have been the queen of library visits.  I am starting a new K-12 library at a school for twice exceptional students, a population and grades (high school) I had never worked with before so I knew I needed to know what the experts knew.

  • At Park East High School Abigail Holland talked me through how her space had started and changed as she grew the library and generously shared her research syllabus.  
  • At Berkeley Carroll, Anna Murphy, talked to me about how the program changed across grades, her experience of NoodleTools, and was deeply sympathetic to my mildly obsessive concerns about sticker choices. 
  • I got insight on how to balance fiction and nonfiction collections, and working with classroom teachers from Gili Warsett at Leman.  (As well as the best view of any library in the city).
  • Finally, Brittney Falesto of Q177, a District 75 school in Queens, told me about how she had used a grant to redesign the library space to fit her student’s needs, let me sit in on classes, and discussed how she individualized her program and met the student’s where they are.

Each librarian was extraordinarily generous with their time, sharing their hard work and insights and I worry I am underselling the value of each of these conversations.  It has helped me build a community despite being a solo librarian and just shook the cobwebs out of my mind.

Practical Tips:

  • Prioritize library visits and ensure you schedule at least one a year (because it is time well spent)
  • Decide if you want to see a library similar to yours (in terms of pedagogy, school size, mission statement, etc.) or something different
  • Either reach out directly to the librarian or post an open call on the HVLA list-serv.
  • Be sure to bring a notebook to take notes and take photos
  • Always write a thank you email or card

Overall, visiting other school libraries is a practical and enriching experience that fosters professional growth and community building. Librarians are inherently curious and eager to learn, and exploring different libraries offers a simple yet effective way to stay inspired and motivated in our dynamic field. We encourage all school librarians to consider taking advantage of this opportunity to enhance their practice and expand their professional network.

BIOS

Maria Falgoust and Amy Ribakove are Librarians at International School of Brooklyn. Tali Balis is a Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart. Abbey Gans Mather is a Librarian at Quad Preparatory School.

This is part 1 of our series on exploring school libraries. If you would like to share your experiences visiting school libraries, please comment below. Or email achow@brearley.org to submit your blog post for publication. Thank you!