Managing my Librarian Hats

I struggle with managing my different roles as a teacher librarian right now. The three main roles that I have are being an information and technology instructor,  reading advocate and an information and services manager. All three are full time jobs and require my attention. I am only one person though. Which one of the three hats do I choose to wear each day and for how long?

So how do I manage my hats? Recently I have taken to prioritizing according to the most visible roles and playing to my strengths. So, my role as an information and technology instructor has risen to the top. With recent staff changes in my building and district I am the technology committee leader and the person most staff go to first with technology issues and questions. I also enjoy learning about and teaching students about technology. I believe it empowers students to be successful in this 21st Century world of theirs. I am currently taking two courses Web 2.0 and Technology Integration in the Classroom. I am learning a lot about using technology in my teaching. I am blessed with a full computer lab in my library that I have control the schedule for. This full lab of computers definitely helps sway my choice.

My reading advocacy hat takes second place in recent days. :(  Just not enough time to give it equal play time with technology. I can't be on both the literacy committee and the technology committee in the building. I also have half an hour with each class a week. (That's if they get here on time.) How do I emphasise reading to the extent that I want to with these students? Books are vital for elementary students. I feel like I have to take off my technology instructor hat and don my reading advocate hat more. I'm toying with the idea of integrating technology into some reading advocacy lessons so I can do both. I have done it in the past and it has worked successfully. The challenge is these lessons span multiple weeks. Currently I am collaborating with one teacher on creating some book reviews to display in the library. These reviews will play continuesly on a 10" photo frame. I'll share some of those in the future.

My information and services manager hat is all dilapidated and sorry looking. I find it difficult to spend time in this area while students and teachers are around. I'm always interrupted. Because of recent budget cuts my assistant has fewer hours. She is not able to help me as much as she has in the past. It is difficult when it is a time consuming area that few people see. People only notice it when it is broken. I do work hard on making the library an inviting place. I welcome students always. I make sure the shelves are neat and books are displayed on top. I try to pull books for curricular topics for teachers and create little kits for them.

I handle this area in two ways. The first is I try to develop relationships with volunteers. I rely upon them to do the time consuming job of shelving and shelf maintenance. Secondly, I focus on the areas that are again most visible. I don't spend a lot of time looking at my book records in the back room on the cataloging system.

So what to do? How do you manage your hats? I'll share more about this and other library related topics in future.

Michael - The Library Guy