Win-win: When school libraries partner with local organizations, everybody benefits

Riggs, Michelle


Jacobson, L. (2015, December). Win-win: when school libraries partner with local organizations, everybody benefits. School Library Journal, 61(12), 60+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A436437268/PROF?u=pott50179&sid=PROF&xid=f19f1cae


Jacobson provides several specific examples of successful community partnerships with school libraries. He points out that relationships should be collaborative, with all parties involved participating in discussions, planning, and brainstorming. In addition, relationships should ideally be reciprocal, with the community organization receiving something in return, whether a simple thank you note, a social media post, or the opportunity for involvement with school activities. Jacobson also states that volunteers and partnerships in no way replace school librarians; instead, they offer librarians the valuable asset of more time to spend be with their patrons.

I found several of the ideas for community collaboration to be thought-provoking and worth exploring for my own school library. We are located in an area with very active animal advocacy, so the idea of bringing in therapy dogs made me think about ways that could benefit my population. We also have a wide variety of nonprofit organizations run by families in our district, which are an untapped resource for volunteers and collaboration. Prior to this class, I did not do much in the way of connection development, so this article was valuable in getting the gears turning.

Posted by Jenny Cofell
'Changing Needs, Changing Roles'

Thompson, J. (Spring 2015).  Changing needs, changing roles:  How public libraries are expanding traditional service models to best serve their communities.  Reference & User Services Quarterly, 54(3), 2 – 5.

Summary:  This article talks about trends that are impacting reference and user services in public libraries and then highlighting creative ways that libraries are coping with these trends positively.  The three main trends are listed as follows:  Data explosion, Digital divide and Early Learning Initiatives.

For all three trends, libraries are well positioned to develop partnerships, as well as provide information, materials, and programs to help communities make sense of, and thrive within their communities.  Successful libraries of the future will need to become these 4 things within the community:  Developers of Partnerships (STEAM), Content creators (Innovation Labs), Early Learning champions (Preliteracy programs and Material Advisors (Reading Clubs).  Collections need to become broader and include materials that support partnerships, content creators, early learners and material advisors.

Evaluation:  The idea of Early Learning as a trend in libraries was interesting to me.  At my library we do tons of this already.  We know that strong preliteracy skills in children help them to succeed in their academic career.  What I hadn’t thought is the positive effect strong preliteracy skills have on a community.  In this article we read, “This is also a workforce and economic development issue because an educated community is better prepared to innovate and address the challenges of the twenty-first century.”  (p.3).   I also appreciated the idea of libraries as ‘content creators’ and ‘material advisors’.