“We are our own best PR.” This resounded and carried with me from the recent AASL conference, from some amazing representatives of We Need Diverse Books, (Cornelius Minor, and some amazing authors in this closing presentation) in Tampa Bay. FLORIDA. Of all places where the misunderstanding of what librarians do to benefit the educational system, opposed to those who feel librarianship is a detriment.

As I graciously sat at the table of Giordino’s sharing the commonalities of issues that public libraries, as well as school libraries find themselves in- here is a preliminary list that had come up in discussion over the last four hours, from New Hampshire to Delaware, to Tennessee alone.

-Being asked to sign state agreements to what we would do as librarians that go against the very nature of librarians and librarianship

-The politicization of literacy, from restricting, removing, and censoring fights to the fights for being heard at local, state, and national levels of being recognized as a professional, who is certified to look out for the interests of patrons, not push political agendas.

-Encouraging librarians, parents, and community members to stand up and join together to promote literacy, respect differences, and find common ground where exposure to diverse topics is available, not being pressured to restrict.

-Protecting / and growing the organizations that help support the lack of support in librarianship – ALA, AASL, state library organization, and individual state school library organizations.

(Some past examples: https://www.njasl.org/NJ_Study/ https://cissl.rutgers.edu/impact-studies/, https://libslide.org/

-Finding justification for certified librarians to perform librarian-based duties (weeding, collection development supporting school curriculum, supporting schools through initiatives that promote literacy and media skill knowledge

-The ability to inform the general public, community members, and business leaders how librarianship has changed, morphed, and grown into a ever flexible position that many are now aware of or how it benefits students in general.

-Not having to justify (or fight for) the reasoning for obtaining a Master’s of Information Science to adequately represent this field. Individuals with Master’s, (sometimes, 3 or 4) do not have the same training, education, and/or experiences that trained Certified Librarians have – despite the.number of years going through levels of various education, the TYPE and DETAIL of the Master’s of Information Science is a completely different set of rigorous requirements that deep dives into a warehouse of skills to best activate research, investigation, promotion, implementation, and facilitation of some of the strongest aspects of what the education realm needs currently.

This was just the tip of the iceberg but by ALA finding ways to bring all states (and stats) together, as we found out on on first night of just meeting each other, when states come together, their shared communications of hurdles help generate ideas and processes forward that can be the very tools we need to have legislators also willing to hear and understand.

Certainly as a past president of the Delaware Association of School Libraries, something has to be shown to be a movement FORWARD in educating students in what librarianship WAS and what it IS – and why this matters to anyone who listens to the radio, reads a newspaper, notices information on their phone, or enters a conversation that impcts their present and future status as a community member in some format.

Certainly as was states, librarianship has NEVER just appeared to do something secret or devious. Librarianship was never made to be politicized to be a scapegoat or blame name for what is claimed now as a medium for carrying a political agenda. Librarianship has ALWAYS stood for the means to increase openmindedness, freedom of literacy, freedom of choice, freedom of speech, to celebrate the freedoms the constitution provides to us – but not to be wielded to someone’s or something’s agenda, ever.

It is up to us as librarians to continue to invite, collaborate across borders, and share the very skills that are carried in being a librarian to show that we are a hub of disseminating ways to understand and promote literacy in order to reinforce the very concepts of our educational system. Be it private, charter or public school, be it public library, medical library, professional or special collection library at the heart of librarianship are the hearts of the community needs and the professional librarians that can plan accordingly to those needs. There never have been factions or agendas beyond that now, and we do need to educate and inform our communities possibilities, creativity, and opportunities exist at every corner. This has never changed, nor is this service closed to anyone. We indeed can do that and have been doing that under the title of a librarian and need to question why, this service, that has been a part of librarianship since the 19th century.

When we get into the spotlight – it is for promoting each other and the role of librarianship, and we can each do our part to shine the light of what librarianship in the correct form, means to the community, our state, the country.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RvPYU6J6dap-aoIE7Pw5clZPe1QYDuig/view?usp=sharing