Follow the Leaders
Colorado program pairs school libraries with high-performing mentors
Staff -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2001
Three years ago, the staff at the Colorado State
result: Power Libraries, a program that designates "high performance" school libraries to act as mentors to those seeking to improve their library service. Now in its third year, Power Libraries has reached 52 schools, where it's bolstered collections and given many librarians the know-how they needed to collaborate with teachers on creating lessons. An early evaluation showed that fourth-graders from participating schools saw an average 11 percent increase in their scores on the Colorado State Assessment Program, according to Eugene Hainer of the Colorado State Library.
"It's changed my view of my role" in the school, says Judy Ware, a media specialist who participated in the program in 1999-2000. "I have become directly involved with instruction, which is wonderful for me. And from the teachers' point of view, they now see me as someone who can actually help with instruction, not just provide materials."
Ware, of Centennial Elementary School in Broomfield, says she applied to the program because she wanted to collaborate with teachers but didn't know how to "jump in." She was able to see collaboration in action when she visited a mentor school with two teachers and her principal. "It was helpful in many ways because we saw an actual lesson, and we sat in on a planning session between the media specialist and the teacher."
Ware also found that the books she could buy with the $5,000 grant provided by the program helped lure teachers to the library. "It's an incentive to teachers to be able to say, you know, if you work with me on a project, we can see if we have enough materials [in that area] and we can purchase some if we need them," she says.
Librarian-teacher collaboration is one of the main requirements of Power Libraries, which, according to Hainer, borrowed key principles from the national Library Power program funded by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. Another Library Power idea is that school libraries can improve only with support from teachers and principals. So all the schools that apply for $5,000
improvement grants have to submit an application written jointly by the librarian, principal, and some teachers.
The $5,000 can be spent only to build collections. Mentor schools, for their part, are designated "power libraries" and receive a $2,000 honorarium.--A. G.
