General Management, 2008

• Proposal planning & writing by Jeremy T. Miner and Lynn E. Miner (Greenwood Press, 2008, 201 p., $_____, ISBN: 0313356580)

  In these times of downturn, teacher librarians will have to sharpen their ability to write grants. These two professional grant writers try to help by covering and making suggestions on how to write for both public and private grants. They go through the various procedures from cover letters to the proposal and with a wide variety of tips and tactics. You probably already have proposal guides on your shelf. Do you need another one? It is always good to get several points of view and in that spirit, we recommend this one as a current source. It is always somewhat of a gamble of time expended vs. success rate. Perhaps your strategy these days for grants where thousands will be applying is to concentrate on the small ones in the local community. One teacher librarian told me that he was a “bottom feeder” and was successful year after year with the small grants the lots of folks did not both to apply, so his odds were higher and he was successful at bringing in thousands and thousands of dollars. Get smart. These authors have good advice. Take it and use it.

   

• The reflective educator's guide to professional development : coaching inquiry-oriented learning communities by Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey (Corwin Press and the National Staff Development Council, 2008, 182 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781412955805)

  This book is written for leaders of professional development. Suppose you as a teacher librarian consider yourself a leader of professional development whether actually in charge or leading from the middle. Now look at the subtitle of this book: coaching inquiry-oriented learning communities. A light goes on in my own head. Suppose inquiry is the theme of many collaborative units as well as the professional learning community of the school. Wow! It’s a powerful idea and for that reason alone, it is advisable to read books like this one.  What leadership tips cold you get? What slant on perspective could you gain and promote? These authors have many ideas worth considering. Recommended.

   

• The school library media manager, 4th ed., by Blanche Woolls (Librarians Unlimted, 2008, 279 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781591586432)

  Woolls’ textbook has been used successfully in school library administration courses as the textbook for many years. In this revision, Woolls covers the same major aspects of what the school librry program is, how it is developed, managed, evaluated and promoted in the school, but she brings the program ideas up to the issuance of the new AASL Learning Standards. This book coupled with the issuance of the new AASL guidelines that have emerged from AASL in early 2009 will serve as a foundation publication about the best of ideas about school library programs as they have developed over the last half century. Highly recommended as a textbook for beginners but also as a brush-up for those who have been around for a while.

   

• Enhancing Teaching and Learning: A Leadership Guide for School Library Media Specialists, Second Edition Revised by Jean Donham (Neil-Schuman, 2008, 351 p., $_____, ISBN: 1555706479) Donham is a well-known writer and scolar in the field of school and academic libraries and is the current editor of School Library Media Research. In This revision of her book that sets out the foundational principles of the school library media program, Donham integrates the new AASL Learning Standards published in 2007. Chapters are directed at the various constituents of the library media program and then turn to the program of the LMC including collaboration, information literacy, technology, literacy among other topics. This book is targeted as a textbook for those studying to become library media specialists or can be valuable as a one chapter read and discuss for a professional learning community of teacher librarians at the district level. There are a number of texts that can be used to introduce teacher librarians to the field. This one deserves a careful comparison by instructors and those at the district level who are updating their professional development to include solid ideas and issues in the filed. Highly recommended.

• Re-designing the high school library for the forgotten half : the information needs of the non-college bound student buy Margie J. Klink Thomas (Librarins Unlimite, 2008, 78 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781591584766) Tomas’ slim volume has a single purpose: to remind the profession that the non-college-bound student is important and that library media programs should be designed in a way to fit their needs and the expectations of various national reports. She concentrates on 21st Century Skills but also a wide variety of other major reports and some research studies including her own dissertaion to point to the grounding principles that should be taken into consideration in order to serve this segment of students. This read is a check on our policies and methods of reaching everyone so it is valuable in that sense. We wish she would have added an interpretation of the new AASL learning standards and their focus on every learner, whether academically inclined or not. A volume to check out the theory of working with the often ignored learner.

• The library doors by Toni Buzzeo, pictures by Nadine Bernard Westcott (Upstart Books, 2008, 32 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781602130272)Here is another book about librarians and libraries featureing that teacher librarian with the huge dangly earrings. Here we have a rhyming repetitive account of the traditional class visit to the elementary school library for scheduled library periods with the librarian telling a story, kids looking for books, finding facts of the computers, complete with the teacher librarian checking out the books and bidding the kids goodbye until they come again. Sorry, not our idea of the exemplary library media program. Perhaps this one could be more accurate picturing the library clerk who can do the same things and should be. This one perpetuates a stereotype it is about time we discard. We liked Buzzeo’s other titles much better.

• Managing children's services in the public library by Adele M. Fasick and Leslie E. Holt. 3rd ed. (Libraries Unlimited, 2008, 248 p. $_____, ISBN: 9781591584124) Used as a textbook on the topic, the two excellent authors devote an entire chapter to working cooperatively with schools and other educational agencies. At least the theory if not the implementation is in the literature. Recommended as a reminder of what needs to happen.

• Twelve roles of facilitators for school change, 2nd ed. By R Bruce Williams (Corwin Press, 2008, 257pp. $_____, ISBN: 9781412961127)

  Teacher librarians who wish to be leaders in the school need to read the leadership literature, talk its major ideas, and walk them. Williams writes for anyone intent on school change through a very collaborative strategy. It is worth noting the chapters of the book:

  (1)    A process leader sees the big picture, builds consensus, and steers the process.

  (2)    A skills trainer devises strategies, leads the team, and announces the game.

  (3)    A resource consultant organizes the project, overcomes obstacles, and advertises success.

  (4)    A group energizer stays true to the score, harmonizes the environment, and celebrates the performance.

  The various chapters can be read individually rather than serially and what is really valuable about each chapter are the excellent graphic organizers and “worksheets” for the use of professional learning community groups who are focusing on the topic of the chapter. Thus, this book is instantly useful, not just for its ideas, but also for an immediate use with teacher, specialist, or administrative teams. The various organizers are reprinted in the back of the book for easy duplication. For teacher librarians who want to lead from the middle and not from the spotlight, read the various major ideas and pass the book to the person who will lead and together, you can plan the various techniques that will push a faculty to consider real change in the school.  Highly recommended for its combination of good ideas and practical strategies.

• We are smarter than me : how to unleash the power of crowds in your business by Jon Spector (Wharton School Pub., 2008, 156 p., $_____, ISBN: 0132244799)

  How does one capture the wisdom of many in shaping a business or organization? This book, written by thousands is an example of how one takes into account, through social networking, the reaction of customers to our library services as we try to move into the center of teaching and learning. How many organizations really listen to their customers? Recently, a student in Dallas published a critical letter in the press about how out of touch the teacher librarian was. The interesting thing was the teacher librarian’s perception was exactly the opposite of the customer.Spector’s book is a great reminder that we all must set in motion the appreciation or complaints of those we serve and use the ideas of the crowd to shape excellence.