If we did not already know it was true before COVID, we definitely know it to be true now that we live in a world where information gleaned from the digital, electronic, technological, and online sphere is more important than ever. Throughout my library studies, I have read a fair bit of lamentation from those who care about books and libraries that the digital world and its content may displace the primacy of printed books. As Gorman (2015) notes in his preface to the updated Our Enduring Values, the profession of librarianship has “been rocked, socked, shaken, and stirred by all these societal, economic, and technological changes” (p. xii).
Certainly, as I move forward with my library studies and library
work in these COVID times, I have spent a good bit of time thinking about what
it means to be a librarian without a library.
Of course, I have a library (and it is brand spanking new and
gorgeous and filled with an updated, curated selection of books that I think my
students will love), but my students are home learning from my immensely
patient and innovative teacher colleagues via Zoom and Google classroom, and
they are not visiting my library.
Thankfully, Dr. Jenna Spiering, in her 2019 article looking
at the updated standards from the American Association of School Librarians
(AASL) reminds me that “’adolescent literacies’ refers to a shift from
recognizing literacy as reading and writing school-sanctioned texts toward an
acknowledgment of the myriad ways that young people make sense of text, images,
and other media in many different contexts in their everyday and (often) online
lives” (p. 46). It is not so much that
the print and digital worlds are in competition but that, increasingly, they
are being used in combination. They are,
in a very real sense for our students, merging, and effective school librarians
therefore need not only a baseline understanding of the current AASL standards that
Spiering (2019) helpfully explicates but also a firm grounding in the standards
related to using technology in learning, like those offered by the
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
COVID certainly brings home the importance of librarians keeping things relevant through the use of new technologies. (I will not say “through technology” because, really, aren’t books a form of technology, just not a particularly new form?) If students cannot access the print books in our collections (either fully or at all), how do we make sure that they nonetheless access information and “evaluate … [it] for accuracy, purpose, bias, etc.” (Spiering, 2019, p. 47)? How do we shift from building collections to creating connections (Cromartie & Burns, 2019, p. 81)?
The AASL’s National School Library Standards crosswalkwith ISTE Standards for Students and Educators (2018) helps with navigating
the shift that Spiering (2019) references, especially during the current global
pandemic. This helpful chart matches up
the AASL’s six shared foundations (inquire, include, collaborate, curate,
explore, and engage) with ISTE’s standards across the four AASL domains (think,
create, share, and grow) (AASL, 2018).
Two crossovers stand out to me as examples of how we navigate
the shift (Spiering, 2019) in a world where COVID pushes us firmly into the
digital context. We can implement the
AASL standards that apply to us as librarians, traditionally in a brick-and-mortar
context, through adherence to the ISTE standards in a digital context as
well.
1.
Under the shared foundation “Inquire,” the AASL
standards for school librarians call for librarians to “design systems that
promote flexible and collaborative teaching and learning” (American Library
Association, 2018). The ISTE Standards
for Educators call for educators to “foster culture where students take
ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group
settings” (n.d., para. 6a) and to “provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate
competency and reflect on their learning using technology” (n.d., para. 7a). Librarians, as educators, can play an
important role simply by making sure that our students have access to the
resources they need for successful inquiry.
In an online learning setting, this could include setting up a bitmoji
classroom with links to key resources, creating an online request form for students
to seek help with finding learning-supportive materials, assisting with efforts
to distribute computers or tablets to students, or doing curbside pick-up of
requested physical books, if your school and district permit.
2. Learning online is hard. No lie.
Even for students we all too often view as “digital natives,” learning
online is not the same as learning in a brick and mortar classroom with a physically
present teacher! The Include shared
foundation encourages librarians to help students develop an awareness of a
global online learning community and to develop and exhibit empathy and
tolerance within that community (AASL, 2018).
ISTE standards connect in with a reminder that we can use technology to “build
networks and customize their learning environments … use digital tools to
connect with learners …” and to “make positive, socially responsible
contributions and exhibit empathetic behavior online that build relationships
and community” (AASL, 2018). As
librarians, we can prepare digital citizenship lessons that can be shared with
students online via school YouTube channels or Google Classrooms. We can host meet-ups online for our students via
Zoom, Google Meet, or WhatsApp so that students can connect and develop and
maintain relationships within the school community.
I offer these two examples as food for thought. The AASL standards and ISTE standards provide
many more opportunities for addressing our students’ needs to develop as learners
and for navigating the shift from pure textual literacy to a multiplicity of
literacies across a variety of texts – traditional print, digital, visual, and
more. I welcome your contributions to
this effort!
References
American
Association of School Librarians. (2018). National School Library Standards
crosswalk with ISTE Standards for Students and Educators [PDF]. AASL.org. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf
American Library
Association. (2018). Shared
foundations: Inquire [Infographic].
AASL.org. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/SharedFoundations_Inquire_2017.pdf
Gorman, M. (2015).
Our enduring values revisited: Librarianship in an ever-changing world. ALA
Editions.
International Society
for Technology in Education. (n.d.). ISTE standards for educators. ISTE.org.
https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators
Spiering, J.
(2019). Engaging adolescent literacies with the standards. Knowledge Quest,
47(5), 44-49.
