The Librarian Influencer of the Week is Jillian Rudes. She works in a 6th-12th grade public school in the Queens borough of New York City. She is also the Japanese Culture & Manga Cooperative Collection Development librarian for the New York City Department of Education. Click here to listen now!
Here are some key ideas Jillian shared that you can focus on as you get started in the library. She also pointed out that these things won’t all happen the first year.
Think about open access - how you will get kids in the library.
Open/flexible schedule
Circulation policies
Rules and norms for students
Your library program is important also.
Meet with teachers
Go to teacher meetings
Collaboration
Book fairs and author visits
Jillian focuses on the importance of collaboration.
Jillian embeds herself in long-term case studies (a unit of study) to meet with students throughout the project they are working on.
She describes a current authentic learning project where the students are working on advocating for funds to renovate their local public library.
AASL Collaborative School Library Award - Jillian won this award for “The Zine Project” she worked on with 9th grade teachers. The students selected community issues they were passionate about. The students created zines to share with the community and had a day of service in the area.
Teachers don’t know they need us until we show them how much they need us!
You can connect with Jillian Rudes at:
Twitter: @JRLibrarian
Website: Manga in Libraries - an international webinar series for professional development
AASL Learning Library: https://aasl.digitellinc.com/aasl/speakers/view/4213
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