Blog Archives

Managing and Leading – A Powerful Combination

Those of you who collaborate or cooperate regularly with teachers, who introduce new technology resources, and who use your library website and social media to promote your program are being leaders.  Many more of you are doing much of this

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

Discovering and Using Your Emotional Intelligence

I mentioned in last week’s blog (and with Inside Out from Pixar earning big bucks at the box office), Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a major factor in your success as a librarian because it affects your ability to communicate.  I

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

It’s Your Mission

The school year is over—or just about for some of you.  How do you feel as you look back on it? Do you have a sense of accomplishment over what you have achieved?  Or are you tired and exhausted, able

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

Managing Students

For the past two weeks I have been blogging about classroom management for librarians. Part three of this discussion is the hardest challenge –handling disruptive students and classes. There is no silver bullet.  No quick fix.  And nothing works perfectly

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

Classroom Management – It’s Not About Control

Last week I blogged about “Entrance and Exits” and how to manage them for a smooth transition. This week my focus is on what happens in-between the coming and going.  You have many roles as a librarian—information specialist, instructional partner,

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

Show and Tell

Do you remember “show and tell” from grade school?  You would bring something you valued to share with your classmates, letting them see the object as you talked about it.  Depending on what you brought, you might explain how it

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

Are You In Business

I have just returned from the New York Library Association/Section of School Librarians Conference, where I gave a presentation on tag lines, branding, and elevator speeches.  Later that evening I was speaking with one of the participants who said she

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life, Professional Development

Librarians and the Pareto Principle

Have you noticed that around 20% of your teachers constitute 80% of the collaboration projects you develop.  This is the Pareto Principle. Named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who observed in 1906 that 80% of Italy’s wealth was owned

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

Cooperation vs. Collaboration

School librarians are quite specific about the difference between cooperation and collaboration.  In the first case, the librarian and the teacher work independently from each other but share a common direction with each contributing content or process based on what

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life

Mentors – Get One, Be One

I mentioned this topic almost a year ago, and my stand on its importance hasn’t changed. Charting your library program, managing students, and dealing with teachers and administrators, all in addition to the your ongoing tasks and responsibilities, can cause

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Posted in Career, Librarian Life