I'm always watching for news stories about school librarians, and this week I discovered two great stories! School districts in Washington and Massachusetts are rehiring their school librarians. As in many cases nationwide, these positions were originally cut due to budget restrictions.
Check out this story from School Library Journal about the Bellevue School District in Washington, and this article about Swampscott Schools in Massachusetts. According to these stories, the roles of the restored school librarian positions will be a little different than they were in the past, but aren't our roles changing everywhere? I applaud these districts for recognizing the importance of the school librarian and making this position a priority again.
I discuss library cuts in this blog post: Are School Libraries Still Necessary?
How can we stop these cuts from happening in the future?
1. Don't be a Zombie Librarian.
2. Connect with other librarians. Start locally, but branch out to your state via library listservs, and to the entire world on Facebook and Twitter. New to social media? Check out my Twitter review and my Twitter podcast!
3. Collaborate with your fellow educators. Not sure what that looks like on a fixed schedule? Read my blog post on collaboration, or listen to my podcast with Hong Kong educator Debbie Alvarez to see what it looks like to collaborate with people who are not even on your continent.
4. Don't be afraid to change. The world is changing, education is changing, and that means libraries must change as well.
What's happening with school librarian positions in your area? What are you doing to keep your library on the cutting edge? Share with us in the comments!
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