AASL Standards - Explore

I had the privilege of speaking with Deborah Oswald, a high school librarian, about her implementation of the Explore standards. She works to create creative spaces, and especially uses the library website and Destiny Discover to create virtual spaces that invite conversation and wondering. The library advisory club and assistant create physical displays and bulletin boards to encourage reading. When students walk into or through the library they are greeted by new materials that are updated regularly. One of the additional ways that she has been able to support this standard is by being part of the school leadership team and contributing to schoolwide decisions. This also allows her to see the big picture of what is happening at the school. 

Collaboration is a key to her work in the library. She collaborates with ELA teachers to provide orientation at the beginning of the year. This has provided opportunities for creative programming to encourage student use of the library for class-specific uses and individual interests. For example she has done material speed dating, book buffet, makerspace, genre personality quizzes and more to promote schoolwide reading. She collaborates virtually with other content areas and provides needed materials. For example, she finds materials for specific science research projects that develop in AP Science. Some of the key resources used are Destiny Discover, Sora, FinalSite website manager, Canva, Google Slides Discus, J-STOR, TeachingBooks, and Gale in Context.

The biggest challenge that she faces is time, which is a common concern among school librarians. Oswald’s library serves over 2,500 students and, while they use an online calendar to book their 3 available spaces in the library, they cannot meet the needs of every teacher. They had one assistant cut last year, so it has been a challenge to have excellent customer service with only one assistant and one librarian in such a big school. The numbers continue to grow each year, so she anticipates this will continue to be a challenge. She aims to provide all students with the best library experience every day.