SLIS Teacher Librarian Interview 4 Carol Smith ENGAGE

Carol Smith is the teacher librarian at North Charleston Creative Arts Elementary.  She operates the library on a partially flex schedule.

Carol states that teachers have a better appreciation for flex scheduling because they come in the library and see what has to happen to make checkout occur.  She states that the flexible scheduling has engaged staff members more because there is time for staff members to talk with her to set up lessons or request materials. She also states that students are more engaged with the library now that it operates on a partially flex schedule.  Carol has been able to talk with students more about the books that are in the library and she states that students were amazed that the librarian has to review all the books before they are purchased.  It was a light bulb moment for the student to see the amount of work that went into collection curation and Carol believes that educating her students about how the collection is curated engages them further as readers.

Looking to engage students in makerspace, Carol could not figure out how to get a makerspace going in her library in an Arts focused school.  Now she has a Tinker Tub club for an hour once a week. In terms of engaging with more reluctant teachers, Carol states that every year her schedule is different and their school has high turnover, so levels of engagement with staff looks different each school year. She states that teacher librarians have to realize that relationships are more important than the paycheck.

To engage students, Carol simply talks to them and asks them what they like to read.  She states that every teacher librarian's first priority is to know their school. Her school needs help with all the students- all hands on deck.  Her top priority is to teach students to love reading. She states that even though she doesn't get credit when the reading scores go up, she is not there for the pat on the back. he job is to cultivate eager readers before any other duty such as news show, PD for staff, or other library programming.