Introduction

For the past several years, I have been teaching the course LBSC 741 on school librarianship for the University of Maryland iSchool.  Each term, I have the great pleasure of meeting and working with future school librarians and educators who are working on their MLIS.  This spring, while a spring like no other, did not disappoint. The students in my class were incredible.  I enjoyed working with them so much that I asked them if it would be okay to put together a blog post for the MASL site using some of their work.  What follows is an amazing set of highlights from one of the final projects in the course: The Five Roles of the School Librarian. 

Over the course of the past year, I have been challenged with how to keep my students engaged in reading when there has been little to no access to the school library. I learned really quickly I had to get creative with my strategies with a little mix of insanity thrown in. Below are a few of the strategies that have helped cultivate a community of readers within my school.

Before Diversifying Your Library Collection- Read This!

By: Lauren Lynn 

Caution: The next few sentences will be a pearl-clutching moment for many librarians!  Is Mary Hoffman’s Amazing Grace one of your favorite books?  Well, it is not one of mine! Don’t get me wrong- the story and the illustrations are great and the book has an important message that needs to be told. As for me, it falls into the category of a “struggle book.”  A struggle book is a book that has African American/Asian/Latinx character(s) who must “struggle” to overcome segregation, racism, and/or civil rights.  Struggle books often have characters who have to prove themselves-like our friend Grace who proves to her classmates that a black girl can play the role of Peter Pan. 

During a time of social distancing and to promote National School Library Month, members of MASL wanted to think of ways to connect people and share resources that would help others foster a love of reading. Using a forum called #TalkaboutIt Tuesdays, MASL offers a webinar where various topics related to school libraries and reading are discussed. On March 31, 2020, our first #TalkaboutIt Tuesday, librarians were encouraged to check-in, discuss #MASLreads and provide more suggestions for reading and literacy.