April 22, 2008
This was the day we had been working towards since last May. We were in charge of coordinating the Strong Libraries-Strong Scores mini-conference for school administrators and trustees. This mini-conference has become an annual event held in conjunction with TLA. Administrators are nominated to attend by librarians. This year for the first time, the librarians attended the morning portion with their administrators. The goal was to allow librarians and administrators to learn together what the research says about how strong school library programs can impact student achievement and discuss how to strengthen the programs on their campuses. Many good things have happened as a result of this conference, so we were happy to have a hand in it. There have been some great stories of administrators in various districts that have increased library budgets, added certified librarians, added clerks, etc.
We had fabulous attendance – 180+ administrators and their librarians participated in the morning session. We were especially excited to have several administrators from our district there: our new Administrative Officer for Library Services, the AO for Curriculum, the AO for Instructional Technology and the Superintendent were all in attendance!
The day started with a welcome from TEA’s Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Anita Givens. Ms. Givens recognizes the impact that libraries and librarians can make in the learning that happens in a school. After welcoming the group, she stayed to hear what the other presenters had to say.
Dr. Keith Curry Lance was next on the agenda. He shared the results of multiple studies that he has done that show a correlation between good test scores and schools where the library program is part of the instructional program. Lance’s research can be found in detail on his web site, Library Research Service Impact Studies and a copy of his PowerPoint presentation can be found here.
Right before lunch, Dr. David Loertscher talked about what research projects should look like in a 21st century library. He cited the need for students to do much more higher-level thinking and shared a couple of his models for reaching that level of thinking during student research projects. Dr. Loertscher’s website can be found here.
After lunch, the librarians returned to the DCC and the main TLA conference, while administrators returned to hear Dr. Gary Hartzell. The topic of his presentation was Reconceptualizing School Libraries as Instruments of School Improvement. His handouts can be found here and and his presentation can be downloaded here.
Closing the day, we heard from Dr. Marla McGhee, co-author of The Principal’s Guide to a Powerful Library Media Program. As a former Texas principal, Dr. McGhee shared her experiences in learning about the library program and gave administrators strategies for doing more learning on their own. Her PowerPoint presentation can be found here. Dr. McGhee also shared three Word documents for administrators to use in evaluating their library programs: a form for evaluating the library schedule, a continuum showing activities on which librarians should be spending more and less time, and a form for reflection and next steps.
Things went very smoothly thanks to the fantastic Library Services staff. Everyone helped copy materials, stuff packets and pack up everything to be sent to the conference location, then BB and GR came down to help get everyone registered that morning. Of course, Digital Deb took care of all things technology-related. It was truly a team effort and they all did a fantastic job! Thank you, thank you!!!
After Strong Libraries, we made a quick visit to the Exhibit Hall. With hundreds of vendor exhibits, it was difficult to see them all, but we made an effort.
Next on the agenda was the Book Cart Drill Team competition. What fun that was! If you’ve never seen a book cart drill team before – you have been missing out! This year’s winner was Austin Public Library’s Bibliofiles, but my favorite was Denton ISD’s group of Super Librarians.
In the evening, we visited a couple of vendor sponsored hospitality events, then crashed into our beds. It was a very full day!!
