You love me. You really love me!

If you had asked me, I would have told you. School Library Journal hosts yet one more research study, this one done at Syracuse University, showing the effectiveness of having a certified school librarian. Surprise of surprises! Having a certified person increases your test scores.

Who knew?

Quote of the Week

“[Librarians] are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man.”

—Michael Moore, filmmaker

Interview questions for librarians

I happened across this wonderful list of questions for librarian interviews. While I am not looking for a job, I know that others might be. Also, I would think this would be just as helpful to interviewers as interviewees.

101+ Commonly Asked Interview Questions

"Deal or No Deal"

By the way, I discovered that video by reading a post over at Filipino Librarian. I have found it interesting to see what the librarian profession looks like in other parts of the world and I have a particular affinity for the Philippines (having spent time there off and on about twenty years ago).

By the way, a piece of information: In order to be a librarian in the Philippines, you need to pass a national examination. In the most recent examination, they had 868 test-takers. Out of that 868, only 278 passed. That is 32%! Apparently, it is a difficult task to become a librarian in that country. I wonder why that might be. Perhaps it has to do with job availability.

"Unshelved," the library comic strip

I don't know whether most of you have come across Unshelved yet, but it is worth a read for both library and non-library folks alike.

Professional collaboration

I asked a question today over at CALIBk12 about how people professionally collaborate with other LMTs. It is a given that the vast, vast majority of us are the sole LMT on our site (and maybe even in our district). How do we work with other people who have this same job?

I am curious as to the responses and I will let you know, in a general way, what I discover.

Body art for the discriminating librarian?

Being a veteran of the U.S. Navy, I somehow managed to escape getting a tattoo. However, were I ever to reconsider the possibility, it would most definitely be one of these.

Not Your Mother's Librarian begins

I am a Library Media Teacher. A brand-new Library Media Teacher. An LMT.

Your mother would call me a librarian. Mine does. She has an image in her mind of the kind, old gray-haired lady at Central High School in Duluth, Minnesota. You remember her. I do. Or at least I remember the Covina, California version.

For the most part, those ladies of old (and the vast, vast, vast majority were ladies, and I am no lady!) checked out books, shelved books, decorated the library, and provided a place for students to get books. They did a great job.

I have someone who does that for me. In my middle school library in Fresno, California, I have a full-time library tech. She checks out books, catalogs books, shelves books, works with computers, and much more. I think she's my mother's librarian!

I do some of what she does, to be sure, but I also write grants, develop a technology plan, select books for purchase, teach library orientantion and library research to the entire school, and, in our case, develop a brand-new library program.

Most decidedly not your mother's librarian.