May 1998

Staff -- School Library Journal, 5/1/1998

Creative Collaboration

"Yes, it is up to us librarians to get the recognition we deserve."

I was interested when I read librarians' comments in regard to Gary N. Hartzell's "The Invisible School Librarian: Why Other Educators are Blind to Your Value" (November 1997, pp. 24-29). Yes, it is up to us librarians to get the recognition we deserve. How do we do it?

I believe the stereotype the media created must be erased. We have to create programs and research projects in collaboration with faculty. They are busy -- so we librarians have to approach them. What a better way to make our library a window to the world?

PR begins in the library. Be vocal, visible, and include parents and community members in your programs. My multicultural programs have been covered on local television and in the newspapers. I have presented at conferences and conventions on how visible librarians can be working in collaboration with classroom teachers. We illustrate this with videos of classroom cooperation. When you excite students, they in turn excite their teachers and parentsÑof course, then the administration shares the excitement, too.

Correction

The publisher for Deborah Hopkinson's Birdie's Lighthouse is Atheneum/An Anne Schwartz Bk., 1997 (Up for Discussion: "Libraries for Youth: Lighthouses or Ivory Towers?" March 1998.