Notes on Ch. 1-6 Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program 2nd Ed. by David Loertscher

Library Media Specialist Taxonomy

I want to note where I have done work on the levels in this taxonomy. I'm going to take levels 1-3 as given.

"Level 4- Spontaneous interaction and gathering: Networks respond 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to patron requests and the LMC facilities can be used by individuals and small groups with no advanced notice. . . . Spontaneous services, however, might become an excuse for a lack of planning by teachers or turn into babysitting." This is one of the things that I had to get a handle on my first year-- it is very easy for the library to turn into a room for child-care. I'm still working on our catalog being accessible 24-7. We'll be subscribing to OCLC express and I'm hoping that Koha will work better than Follett CircPlus--we'll see.

Level 5-Cursory planning. I have sent out emails suggesting ideas and websites and to get feedback. I hope I'm not percieved as a pest!

Level 6-Planned Gathering. I've created pathfinders, handouts, bloglines, and saved Google searches for teachers "A clear idea of exactly what is needed is essential if success is to be achieved." As I found out in my reference class, this is much, much more difficult than you would think. The greatest obstacle to communication is the illusion that it has occured. I've found this to be true on many occasions.

Level 7-Evangelistic outreach/advocacy. There are degrees of advocacy- Advocating to just administration, to administration and faculty, to administration, faculty and students, to parents, and to the public at large. There can be some resistence when you seek to advocate to parents and the public at large. I was surprised to find this when I was trying to promote the fact that we had received the Picturing America posters from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Level 8-Implementation of the four major programmatic elements of the LMC program. I created a strategic plan for the library in my management class, but I'm not completely satisfied with it. I know I need to expand my articulation of reading programs like SSR, Reading Motivational programs, Book Club, etc. I also want to include students in this process.

Level 9-The mature LMC program. We're not there yet, but we are getting close. This is my 2nd year as school librarian and in many ways it is like my 2nd year teaching-- I still haven't quite found my footing but it is certainly not as chaotic as the 1st year!

Level 10-Curriculum development. "Curriculum development is more than just an invitation to attend curriculum meetings; it means that the library media specialist is recognized as a colleague and contributes meaningfully to planning." Yep this is the golden ring. I'm going for it. Having worked on the curriculum committee as English Department Chair will make this easier.

Teacher Taxonomy

A rough estimate of the % of teachers working with me at each level

Level 1: 42%
Level 2: 25%
Level 3: 7%
Level 4: 10%
Level 5: 5%
Level 6: 10%
Level 7: 1%

Looking at it like this, it is very disappointing. Part of this is being a one person librarian gives me little to no time to collaborate with teachers. Part of this may also be me rating too harshly-- I'd like to give the Teacher Taxonomy to each of the instructors and have them rate the level at which they feel we are collaborating to get a better picture of this. This was a very interesting way of looking at my work with teachers. One other thing to note, when looking at the level 1 teachers, the majority are math and science teachers-- I'll know I have arrived when I get a math class into the library!

Student Taxonomy

I've had students evaluate their information literacy skills on TRAILS, but I need to develop a more generalized survey that could be given school wide. This may be a challenge when there are so many competing agendas.

Administrator Taxonomy

I'm very interested to see where my principal sees himself on this taxonomy. I'm hoping it will inspire a constructive dialog about the library media program.