Today's Member of the Month is Hannah Carter. Hannah works at Wuhan Yangtze International School in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. She has been a school librarian for 4 years.
We asked Hannah some questions about her experience as a school librarian and we would like to share them with you.
What's your favorite thing about your job as a school librarian?
There are many things I love about my job, but if I had to narrow it down to one (larger) aspect, I would say seeing students' growth. I love seeing them grow as people, especially emotionally and socially. I also love seeing them grow intellectually, as we develop their information literacy and connect library lessons with all sorts of other subjects. I really love seeing students overcome their blocks, both academic and personal, whether in light bulb moments or through gradual changes.
Name one children's book that you couldn't live without in your library.
"Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seus
Tell us why you decided to join the Elementary Librarian Community. What's your favorite thing about it?
I am my school's first school librarian. I quickly found myself overwhelmed with figuring out new systems (and a new country), standardizing cataloging, developing library policies, developing a curriculum, and doing daily circulation & maintenance. While looking for lesson ideas one day, I came across Elementary Librarian. Not only does it have scaffolded units/lessons with resources, but they also follow Common Core & AASL standards! It has saved me so much time, freeing me to do more.
What's the biggest challenge you're currently facing when it comes to your school library?
If you could give one piece of advice to a brand new school librarian (or someone considering becoming a school librarian), what would it be?
Give yourself time and space to settle in and grow. You won't be able to do everything right the first time, and that's ok. We encourage a flexible, learner mindset in our students, so why not in ourselves? Things are constantly changing, and sometimes methods that worked with one class might not work with the next one. Take time to get to know your environment before even considering making changes, and then think of what you can realistically manage before taking on a new project.
Book acquisitions & cataloging. As an international school in China, most of our students are English language learners. Some secondary students read English at a 2nd grade level, but some elementary students (mostly native speakers) read at a high school level. This means I need to find a much larger range of reading levels for book selection/acquisition (especially hard for secondary nonfiction). We also have books in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc, so cataloging is tricky & time-consuming.