Interview with a Librarian: Danielle West

Danielle West is the school librarian at Aynor Middle School. The interview process with Danielle took a bit longer than expected as her daughter contracted COVID during the time we were scheduled to interview. Thankfully, I was able to get with her last week and ask questions regarding the AASL standard “Inquire”. I really enjoyed talking with Danielle and gaining a different perspective on a librarian’s role with middle school students.

The questions I asked Danielle were as follows:

Questions:

1. What are some examples of the ways in which you are implementing these competencies in your library program?
2. What are some of the resources in your library program that you are using to implement these competencies?
3. Do any of the competencies that you are implementing include collaboration with classroom teachers? If so, please provide examples.
4. What are some of the challenges that you face when trying to implement these competencies?
5. Are there any other comments that you would like to make regarding the Shared Foundation / Competencies and Domains?

The answers Danielle provided to the questions above are outlined below:

1. Danielle informed me that she walks students through the research process each year according to the research topics they are required to do in their content-area curriculum. She provided an example with the curriculum she provides for National History Day. This is Aynor Middle School’s NHD website that Danielle created for her students to guide them through the process (see the NoodleTools and Research pages for specific examples). Last year, Danielle and her students did a weekly school-wide inquiry topic to get students to think a little deeper and do their own research. She mentioned that if schools go back face to face 5 days a week sometime this school year, she will do a weekly school-wide debate topic with her students. Danielle wanted to change it up this year and get students researching and thinking about their stances on certain topics, such as: masks vs. no masks; virtual vs. face to face; homework vs. no homework; dress code vs. no dress code; vaccine vs. no vaccine; banning violent video games or not; cell phone radiation; screen time effects; social media pros and cons; banning animal testing or not, pros and cons with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), etc.
2. Danielle said she uses NoodleTools to keep track of student research. Aside from NoodleTools, she also relayed she compiles resources and lessons as needed.
3. When collaborating, Danielle often does so with ELA, Science and SS teachers. As for collaborating on inquiry, she conveyed she usually tries to focus on the bigger research projects like soil and water conservation and National History Day research projects to tie in lessons on bias, reliable sources, databases, etc. She occasionally picks smaller unit topics to tie in inquiry lessons as well. This could be a quick lesson on why students think a certain thing happened in history to get them to formulate a question. She also ties in lessons on evaluating a website in the process.
4. Danielle expressed she is very fortunate that her teachers see her as a co-teacher and value her lessons and the input she gives them. In a normal school year, she relayed that she sees all students weekly through ELA classes and is able to accomplish these goals with ease. If students need to learn a topic through another content area, those content area teachers come instead of ELA teachers on those specific weeks. I thought this was really awesome! For example, if Danielle needs to work with students on something they are covering in SS, the 7th grade SS teachers will bring the classes that week instead of the ELA teachers. Danielle says that she and the teachers all work very well together in managing this. She shared that she has talked to many other librarians who struggle with teachers who say they do not have time to come in for library visits. She stated that in this case, she thinks it is necessary to constantly try to build those collaborative relationships and remind teachers of her role as a collaborator and teacher. She noted she usually focuses on ELA and Social Studies, but will occasionally work with science teachers on topics like soil and water conservation. She informed me that her main challenge, especially this year with a hybrid schedule, is securing the face to face time with the students to accomplish goals because their time is limited to less than an hour once a week, which also makes it difficult to go as in-depth as she would like with the lessons.
5. Danielle noted that the AASL standards are essential components to any library program and said it is our responsibility as the School Library Media Specialists to ensure that our students learn to question and formulate their own questions, teach them to find reputable sources of information, and teach them to identify biased sources with an agenda. She takes as many opportunities as possible to get her students questioning the who, what, when, where, and especially the why. She relayed that her two main goals are (1) to put the right books in the hands of her students so they develop a love of reading and (2) help them develop a love of inquiry and researching things on their own.

I found Danielle’s perspective on the duties and responsibilities of the SLM so inspiring. In our district, it is rare that teachers rely on the help of the SLM to supplement or collaborate on lessons, so to hear that her teaches want her help and she makes great strides to help them is very exciting to me! I know I will be keeping her advice in mind as I prepare to become a school librarian.