On the AASL Campaign Trail with Cassandra Barnett
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Staff -- School Library Journal, 1/25/2006
SLJ speaks to Cassandra Barnett, candidate for AASL presidency and a media specialist at Fayetteville (AR) High School.
Were you in any way involved with the book challenges brought on by parent Laurie Taylor?
Yes, oh yes. Most of the 70 books that she challenged are in my high school, and yes, we were a part of the team that she wanted to bring criminal charges against.
It was an experience that was at the same time horrible and yet, I really found that I didn't just talk the talk, that I could walk the walk, meaning that I could actually stand up for the idea of intellectual freedom and do it in a professional way.
Why should someone vote for you?
I've been in AASL for quite a long time. I have pretty good basic knowledge of the organization, how it runs, the directions that we've been going.
What kind of leadership roles have you taken in AASL?
I was one of the first director-elects after the reorganization of AASL back in the mid-90s. I participated fully in affiliate assembly and helped determine the new direction that affiliate assembly would be going in. I'm currently member at-large on the AASL board.
What are the priorities you want to tackle if you become president?
My work would be helping us achieve [AASL's] strategic goal. There are five goals: updating the guidelines and standards and making them more relevant to the entire educational community.
A second goal is advocacy. We've got school districts all over the country that are dropping library programs because they don't see them as essential.
What are the other goals?
Another goal is influence within ALA. AASL is a large division and one of the things that I've sensed over the years is that members of AASL have not felt a real part of the total organization.
How do you plan to do that?
One of the things we've already started doing is working real hard to get AASL members to be on council, to be a part of ALA leadership, and also to just continue to bring our message to members of AASL and other divisions.
Do you have any suggestions for making AASL less bureaucratic and more responsive to its members' needs?
There's a certain amount of that that we're not ever going to be able to change simply because we're a volunteer organization and we all have jobs and it takes a little while to do things. But I think that it can be more efficient, and with the advent of technology and doing things virtually, I think we have moved a little faster on some things.
How big of a role does technology play in the lives of school librarians?
I work in a high school and our students are connected all the time, and if we're going to connect with them on a level that they relate to, then we need to be using the same technologies that they are. We need to be exploring blogging, we need to explore wikis—although there are a lot of issues there that have to be looked at.
Where does the role of the school librarian end and the role of the tech coordinator begin?
I would hope that we wouldn't draw a line between them. I would hope we would continue to collaborate on a high level. One can be the hardware specialist and the other one can be the learning specialist.
Can you imagine a library being largely digital?
One some levels, I can imagine that, but the students that I work with every day still want that book in their hands. I think something that's entirely digital is a long way off, and I'm not sure that it will ever happen completely.
