"The Reflective Practitioner"

The phrase, "The Reflective Practitioner" caught my eye in the Service portion of the Improve Society thread. According to my undergraduate college, my education as a teacher required me to be a reflective practitioner. This meant that I was to be capable of doing a number of tasks including but not limited to: effectively using research-based models of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, meet the diverse learning needs of students, promote local, state, and national standards, and promote inquiry, critical thinking, and problem solving in students. (2010-2012 Guide..., 2010)
According to the Atlas, this policy gives teachers access to a wide scope of information and tools to navigate it. Basically, teachers can analyze and evaluate resources. Thus, the ERIC database and AskERIC were established. I never understood the reasoning behind the creation of these databases until now. However this policy changed under the Bush administration. Teachers spend a great deal of time teaching and were considered too busy to navigate and analyze and pick out the best resources. The What Works Clearinghouse was established to provide quality resources that were scrutinized under the peer review process and the information's publisher could prove that the information was indeed effective. This was also not effective because the standards of the material were now too high. (Lankes, 2011)
Honestly, as a trained teacher, I understand that teachers lead busy lives. However, it's part of the job. Teachers are well educated and don't need their hands held to navigate databases and find information on their own. That's where school librarians come in. I came across an article posted from a fellow library student on a social networking site discussing the elimination of school librarians due to budget constraints. I must admit I have a clear bias on the subject considering my course of study. However, as a teacher, I have witnessed how school media specialists help the entire school community. New York City's chief academic officer considers librarians as in a support position and not as a teacher. He also stated that since more classrooms are equipped with laptops, e-readers, and other technological advances that it was simply not necessary for a class to go to the library for research. The librarian teaches students valuable skills in finding quality information. Nancy Everhart, president of American Association of School Librarians, said that in this Internet age, we need trained librarians more than ever to guide students through the basics of searching and analyzing information found online. The fact that school districts see school librarians as unnecessary or disposable is a shocking discovery. It is my hope that with time, these confusions may be worked out and school officials will truly understand the value of the school librarian. (Santos, 2011)


2010-2012 guide to student teaching. (2010). Potsdam, NY.
Lankes, R.D. (2011). The Atlas of New Librarianship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Santos, F. (2011, June 25). In lean times, schools squeeze out librarians. The New York Times, p. A17.

Need for expanded definition of literacy

If you ask a primary or secondary school teacher to define literacy, you would most likely hear that literacy is “the ability to read and write.” (Tompkins, 2006). However, if you were to ask a new age librarian the same question, the answer would be much different. A librarian believes literacy is “the power to excel and when necessary, break the rules to improve society and the community.” (Smith, 2011). As an educator and a budding library student, I prefer the latter definition most.

The librarian’s vision of literacy places more responsibility on the individual to achieve literacy and less on the librarian; the librarian still plays an essential role in guiding the individual towards knowledge, however, the individual must first seek it.  Literacy empowers people to succeed in life and change the world around them for the better. Literacy brings power to the people.

On another note, I agree that READ posters are a disservice to the library. This type of promotion propels the stereotype that libraries are all about books and learning to read. Libraries should have posters that say Think, Dream, Knowledge, and Create. Those are verbs that belong on posters in libraries. 


Lankes, R.D. (2011). The Atlas of New Librarianship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Tompkins, G. (2006). Literacy for the Twenty-first Century. Columbus, OH: Prentice Hall.

Conversation Theory

Knowledge is created through conversation. These conversations may be with a teacher, friend, colleague, or even with ourselves. This exchange allows conservants to exchange ideas, come to agreements, and change what we know. When someone has little pre-existing knowledge about a topic, they are speaking in L₀. As a person learns more about a topic and they can hold a conversation concerning the topic, the person moves from L₀ to L₁. Conversation begets knowledge.
This concept reminds me of the psychological notion of schema. Schema are mental systems for organizing information. (Woolfolk, 2007) One can have a certain idea about a topic. For example, I thought the mission of the librarian was to provide books and internet access to the community for free as a public service. My frame of thinking would be very L₀. However, as I learn more about the library science field, I learn that the mission of the librarian is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities. Thus, I am making a move towards L₁. Professionals speak in L₁.
While reading about conversation theory, I was intrigued to think about the many conversations we have with ourselves. I suppose we all have internal dialogues running through our heads all the time. When I am thinking about what I am typing, while I am reading the Atlas, I am having a conversation with myself. As I read or write, I gain knowledge and then begin a sort of conversation as I type this entry.

Woolfolk, A. (2007). Educational psychology. Allyn & Bacon.

Reflection on Worldview and the Mission of Librarians

I must admit that I never really wondered what the mission of libraries or librarians was before being my graduate work and reading the Atlas of New Librarianship (2011). People used to tell me that libraries will eventually be a place of the past and that soon enough everything will be digitized. I always replied that there will always be books and therefore there will always be libraries.
In retrospect, that was a very artifact-centric of me. Libraries are much more than books. They mean much more than free computer access and free meeting spaces. These resources exist in libraries for a reason. A librarian's mission is not to watch over the books and computers in the library. According to Smith (2011), a library is a center of knowledge and a librarian's mission is to improve society through facilitation knowledge creation in their communities (p.15).  However, most librarians will not convey this mission and will stand by an artifact-centric view of their profession. I find this a bit disappointing that someone could define their profession by material things.
It is my hope that during my lifetime, we will adopt a worldview of librarianship. I also hope that we may educate the public and correct their misconceptions of the roles of librarians and libraries alike.

Smith, R. David. (2011). The Atlas of New Librarianship, Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Social Networking in Libraries

There are a variety of social networking tools librarians can use in order to communicate with patrons on the web. These tools range from: Facebook, blogging, twitter, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds. Librarians use social networking to promote libraries as well as  network on the web. Librarians can use these tools to inform patrons of new materials, special events, and other news. 
I think it's a great idea for librarians to utilize social networking in order to inform their patrons and reach out to others in the community. This new approach allows librarians to convey a great deal of information and also helps patrons step outside of the stereotypical "libraries are places for books" viewpoint. I know as a millennial user, I was already using half of the aforementioned social networking tools listed above (Facebook, blogger, and twitter) before beginning my library coursework. Young people spend a great deal of time on such sites, and other generations are also becoming more involved online; therefore, librarians need to step up to the plate so to speak in order to be heard on a new information space. I think we are up for the challenge.

About the author

My name is Shannon DeSantis. I am a distance student working on my masters at Syracuse University studying Library and Information Science with a concentration in school media. I received my bachelor's degree in Childhood Education (grades 1-6) at SUNY Potsdam in 2010. My hobbies include: reading and playing violin.