I, as well as countless others, never realized that to effectively provide resources and to connect students to the educational artillery they need to maneuver informational minefields of today’ society. In order to become an effective member of an educational team as a librarian and navigate through informational deserts, I would have to embrace so many aspects of law in order to help maintain and preserve my presence as an Informational Specialist.

But here we are. Along the way I have found that students have wanted to advocate for their school libraries more than many have been given the opportunity to. Also, they have truly been the best champions of their own destinies. Students from all areas of the U.S. are investing more and more in why they need to maintain their school libraries.

I have never met so many parents, community members, and legislators that have been kept in the dark about what, how, and the lengths needed to be taken to provide a synthesis of education to students, from K – 12 on behalf of school librarians. I hear story after story of professional librarians that have to strategize their next move to be able to provide and maintain a presence for their students who are in desperate need of location, support, and inspiration that tie the many bits of information they receive daily – together – to simply make one connected end result.

As far back as 2020, I have realized how much of the public knows so little about the power of school librarians (power to inform, not power to deceive). Coming together as school librarians from every state and breaking down any walls of perceived competition between public and school libraries, shattering partisan issues for the sake of a student’s educational success, navigating legislation to strengthen student education, protecting students rather then jeopardizng their opportunities are what school librarians have ALWAYS been about, and nothing else.

It is easy to paint a picture of controversy, but harder to interpret a picture of intellectualism.

That involves taking the steps to be self informed, resistent to false narratives, and a willingness to be an advocate of what is true and correct. Our students are willing to take these steps every day. if challenged. The potential of organizations like the American Library Association serves as a landmark to what is possible and needed in every day education.

That is what librarians, professional librarians, who take the risks, do when they study Informational Science in the hope that they can return to their home district and support the educational institutions that provide clear maps if discerning information from simply, false narratives.

Thanks to the Mellon Foundation, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, and local state library associations, so many students receive the inspiration to take what they receive, and turn it into a creative path forward for their futures. Often, simply having a place where students mentally can check in and breathe, discover ways an onslaught of information can actually be applied into their immediate home/work/community situations, is all they need. Despite many being suspicious of the aims, goals, and presence of school librarians, we need for the supporters of young learners to resist the conspiracy theories that so easily can make their way to the front news lines; instead we need MANY to be willing to be informed, sit down and talk, question, and represent school librarians that can represent every students, from every working, educational, and social background in across our country. That has and is the only agenda school librarians are trained to do when they agree to be professional Informational Specialists.

When lawyers, attorneys, and corporations come together to express their concern for the presence of school librarians, coupled with students who want to save their holiest of places in the school – it is time for the community to come together and resist the fears that can and could be attached to what librarians do and look into what librarians and the presence of librarians ACTUALLY do for an institution.

After the last three years of being fortunate enough to share, listen and experience the struggles across the United States alone, librarians have just wanted to get their ability to further their students’ futures, I have received constant pleas from students to be a part of the learning arena. They certainly deserve the chance.

The amount of time I have seen library professionals having to figure out how to survive in opposition to school board members, administrators, and state legislators, boggles my mind way. Why does so much energy have to be put forth to have their students be successful? What happens when all of these stockholders in education join forces? I have seen that too and the difference is night and day. After 25 + years and a litany of accomplishments heaped on me FROM MY STUDENTS, yes, from my students, I have never found one conspiracy theory surrounding librarians, that has been true, in being the storyteller of my student’s successes.

The power and creativity of the librarian is UNTOLD and unparallel, but ONLY when supported by the very individuals and organizations that resist false narratives and want the law to reinforce an educated public. That is what learning Federal, State, and local statues, as well as law and policy has been able to do to support so many reasons why school librarians are fighting for the very cause they have been trained for- educating students in a new era of disbelief and doubt.

I do know one thing with all my experiences I ever have learned about education; until communities realize the strength, power, expertise and breakthroughs librarians bring to the educational arena, so many communities will never see the gains they deserve. The solutions, energy, foresight, and shared expertise of school librarians from across the United States, when they come together is similar to what occurs when educators in specific disciplines are able to connect and collaborate together. Magic. Success. Empowerment for students.

Do not confuse privacy with conspiracy. If a TRAINED and Professional individual, who parents and community members are willing to open a conversation with from the beginning about their hopes and inspirations, is willing to take a risk, then others should as well. It is easy to see the power that librarianship can have in any institution, when a school realizes that possibility. In merely opening the channels of inquiry and dialogue, the transparency of what is possible becomes crystal clear.

The landscape of how we can bolster school librarians has been an informational desert itself.

https://libslide.org/infographics/

But that can change.

Allowing more collaboration and networking to occur across every state in the United States, placing more trust in the trained professionals who want to further the educational power of their schools, is a game we all want to play.

When you allow students to be a part of the mix as ambassadors of their learning? Involve guardians to ask more questions about the status and role of their school librarian in the education process? There will not be a country around us that can rival the value we place on education and the value of our youth’s futures. Only together when dropping the misconceptions of libraries and strengthening the investment in these hubs of possibility will this occur.

Everyone wins. I cannot state enough how many amazing products of education can be created and how librarians can meet the challenges educational institutions face when supported by the legislators, parents, and administration that serves in their schools. Student voices begin to impact other student voices and address the very fears adults express every day. Areas such as AI and technology can become a launching pad for motivating students forward. Paul Allison and the National Writing Project out of New York are one small example:

~

“As we come to the end of the academic year and move into summer, we invite you to reflect on your year OR tell a story of summer learning from the past. Once we’ve written our reflections or stories we’ll practice using Writing Partners — AI Coaches to push our thinking and consider what might be next. See more in this our Community of Practice group on Writing Partners.

See more about The Art of Asking Smarter Questions and how we can use this research to coach teachers in the reflective process.

Paul Allison Join us on “Teachers Teaching Teachers“. every Wednesday evening 8E/7C/6M/5P

https://Kumospace.com/youthvoices. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel.”

~

Unless school librarians and public librarians are allowed, given permission to grow as professionals, resources like the above indeed are kept in silos across the country. We need to eliminate silos and work across the aisles in so many arenas, and we need administrators, legislators, parents, guardians, and community leaders to realize this.

Students show me this every day with their hunger to play a role in their own educational path forward. All we have to do is trust the very constituents that want to come together and utilize legislation, parenting, student advocacy, and student leadership, and educational minefields turn into meadows of possibility. The possibility is so close to us, you can almost smell the excitement that is possible, When we see graduation after graduation occurring around us during this time of year, it is difficult to not see what is possible. Let’s take the final steps to support each other across every state, and the leaps and gains we will each make as investors in our future will be realized.