#futurereadylibs

School librarians are perfectly positioned to implement responsive scheduling to better support staff and student academic performance.

Here is a short ignite-style presentation explaining some finer details.

Evaluate a Library's Comics Collection

Choose a library and a specific subsection of the comics collection to assess.

Spend 20 minutes examining the physical collection and 5-10 minutes examining the catalog entries.

Create a report that includes a brief evaluative description of the collection's scope, currency, diversity, and indicators of use.

Consider the following factors: location, organization, signage, and displays.

The Library:

The Harvard Diggins Library (HDL) houses two graphic novel collections; one for junior readers and another in the teen space. There is not an adult graphic novel section. So, I took a shallow dive into the collection in the YA department, hoping to find some superhero comics!

The Comic Collection @ HDL:

Graphic novels, manga, and comics were all shelved together in the teen space using an A-Z organization style by author name. Apart from the signage at the top of the display and the 4 outfaced books, there was no further marketing for the comics collection or an implication anywhere else in the library pointing to the comics collection. The shelving pictured on the right of the display is not a continuation of the collection but the YA nonfiction display.

Oh, superheroes? Where did y'all go?!

The first item on the shelf was Thor: The Goddess of Thunder by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman. The call number for this title was listed as YA FIC AAR. Found one!

However, this can be problematic, especially for teen readers, for individuals who may not be familiar with the authors of their favorite comics but rather the characters and franchise.

Now off to find more superheroes!

Scope:

The collection is small; however, the scope of a library collection needs to reflect who it is serving. That said, the HDLs comics collection is representative of the smaller teen population in Harvard, IL (Total Population: 9,477). Additionally, HDL subscribes to Libby (OverDrive), which creates a virtual access point to a larger professionally curated digital collection that expands HDLs comics collection exponentially.

The collection mainly consisted of Manga, with popular graphic novel titles and barely any superhero comics.

After a brief catalog search, I discovered that HDL only owned 11 superhero comics.

Currency:

The comics collection at HDL noticeably made an effort to include current popular media within their collection efforts. The intended reader would immediately notice and gravitate to several of the manga available from hit anime shows. Some examples include Attack on Titan, Tokyo Gouhl, and Naruto; however, it is essential to note that these titles are older and act as a visible anchor to HDLs collection. Some examples of superhero comics on the shelves were Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013-2016), Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon (2013), and Marvel's Civil War (2006-7).

Diversity:

This was an area of opportunity for the comic collection. This collection focuses on hit anime shows to attract readers and passersby. While manga includes all genres as an art form and literary medium, the physical presence of these manga series is particularly powerful and takes away from the other titles on the shelf. When I think of diversity in relation to a library collection, Professor Rudine Sims Bishop's words about windows, mirrors, and doors come to mind, and from that context, this collection could be more inclusive of the lives of others. Ms. Marvel was a gem in the collection and on loan at the time of my investigation.

Usage:

Some of the more popular titles were worn and tattered. For example, this copy of The Walking Dead has seen some wear and tear that is common for paperback circulation in public and school libraries. The paperbacks in the collection did not have any additional life-preserving covering added, such as hard laminate. The majority of the manga collection was intact and had minimal signs of damage. The concern here was whether or not the resources were seeing any movement in circulation.

Overall, HDL represents popular media and teen inclusivity well, but there is room for improvement regarding shelving and location for their comics collection.

One way to improve the comics section would be to move it to a more prominent location in the library. The comics section is located in a small corner of the library in the teen space, which makes it easy to miss. Moving the comics section to a more central location would make it more visible to library patrons and encourage more people to check out comics.

Currently, the comics are organized by author (A-Z), which can make it difficult for patrons to find specific titles. Reorganizing the shelves by genre, theme, or publishing house would make it easier for patrons to find the comics they are looking for.

Despite these minor criticisms, the comics section of this public library is a valuable resource for library patrons of all ages in the community. The library does an ok job of selecting a variety of titles.

Recommendations:

Add more graphic novels to the collection. Graphic novels are a great way to introduce people to comics who may not have read them before.

Offer more programming related to comics. This could include author visits, workshops, or discussion groups.

Partner with local comic book stores. This could help the library to get more new comics into its collection and to reach a wider audience.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to the wayward Tumblr librarian!

The task put before the school librarian group was to design a lesson plan centered around standards that taught technical skills through a collaborative instructional session. The thought process behind choosing this topic was to introduce students to diverse literature that expresses several essential literary elements through the lens of award-winning literature while integrating technology skills. The topic produced after a brainstorming session was not readily agreed upon at first and required more communal finesse an agreement to come to a final agreement. The group was comfortable with a younger age group and had to step out of members' comfort zones to design a lesson plan for freshmen in high school. The final decision driver was the age limitation of thinglink is 13, thus making the high school student the requisite age group for the assignment. This a perfect example of how technology can have limitations within school library settings.

Thinglink effectively conveyed to students different ways to create a multimedia object that can include linked, embedded, or uploaded information. Additionally, the literary topic paralleled alongside these skills acted as a conduit to further expand students' critical thinking and hands-on technical skills at the same time, which is often a more effective form of learning.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe was the graphic novel our group selected for our book cover; however, the assignment required the students to come to class prepared with a screenshot of the cover of an award-winning book. From there, the school librarian group walked the students through navigating the technical aspects of thinglink while offering perspectives about the importance of award-winning literature and an analysis of the symbolism associated with the book cover.

Gender Queer proved to be an excellent resource to spark analysis of symbolism and award-winning books with our target audience. However, I did not expect in-the-moment technical difficulties from our students. This oversight was quickly attended to during the virtual session; however, in the future, it would be wise to expect this and have a strategy to alleviate the stress technical difficulties caused. For example, in a collaborative group situation, it would be wise to assign the role of dealing with technical difficulties to a specific individual.

The discussion about symbolism revolved around the concepts of color and contrast. The goal of this dialogue was to guide students to an analysis of their chosen book and to spark an inspiration to interpret what the book cover "says" about the text inside, a critical skill for budding freshmen. A critical lesson component was engaging the students through dialogue, which sometimes felt like pulling teeth. Constantly engaging your students is a great tactic to avoid static moments that can lessen your authority as an expert. The following article, What a Book Cover Can Do, by Peter Mendelsund and David J. Alworth, was a great resource to build the conversation about symbolism in book covers.

This was the final outline for our instructional group project.

Gamification and game-based learning is the answer to engaging reluctant learners.

Designing a breakout-style activity encompassing several puzzle activities was an excellent way to introduce gamification and game-based learning instructional strategies. The school librarian group decided to use the Questioneers series by Andrea Beaty once again as our literary anchor for this project. Creating several connections to the same literature can create a relationship that can be used as a learning tool.

Google sites was a relatively straightforward application to create our breakout activity. I was glad for the experience because several school libraries use the application for their school library website, and I can see myself using the platform.

Collaboration with the school librarian group members was also not an obstacle. Our collaborative initiative started with a brainstorming process that led us to our familiar theme, and a democratic vote on the types of puzzles being completed finalized our plan. Google workspace creates a collaborative work environment that leaves project contributors free to work at their own pace and on their own time.

This is our end result:

This learning activity has so much promise inside and outside the library; moreover, this activity can be leveraged in a digital environment when in-person physical learning is impossible.

The puzzle-making process was a blast to explore! Creating your own work using digital tools is empowering and gives the librarian more decision-making power over their lesson. I used superteacherworksheets.com to generate the cryptogram I provided to the breakout room. I used the character Aaron Douglas Slater mentioned in the author's notes as the main character's inspiration as the critical component of the puzzle. The tricky part of the process was modifying it to the correct amount of characters for what you were designing. The design process was made easy by using automated technology; however, the technology has limitations; for example, the word renaissance would not fit onto one page correctly. that said, I had to reword my original puzzle.

Task 1: Create a hypothetical paper promotional flyer (from scratch) for a school library event using design theory and digital tools.

The process:

I started with the print flyer and I decided to use Canva, a free to use graphic design tool, as my medium to complete the design task at hand. The instruction for the printed flyer indicated that a template could not be used. First things first, Robin Williams, in her design book, The Non-Designer's Design Book, suggests to, "Experiment with the graphic image or photograph at least twice the size you originally planned." That said, I used a minimalist approach with a large graphic to create a strong focal point in order to more easily draw attention to my promotional flyer. The text I used was minimal and meant to guide you visually through the design. For example, I used the acronym SLM (School Library Month) as my header and then expanded the acronym on the lower half of the flyer. Additionally, I took inspiration from the original manifesto for SLM from the ALA website dedicated to SLM as a way to brand the event as well as the library space. From a color standpoint, I chose to maintain my minimalistic approach with minimal color and keep the large center graphic as the star of the show. I built the design from the center out.

From there, I used a familiar "table of content" layout to display the series of fictitious events being held by my school library. I chose to do this because I felt it reiterated a visual theme of literacy and reading from familiar visual schemas. The final touches included personalizing the flyer with a bitmoji graphic (teacher branding at its finest), a Twitter handle, and fine print directions for further questions. Can I see this flyer on a bulletin board in my school? Yes. Do I see student's and staff stopping after glancing at the flyer? Yes.

Task 2: Create a hypothetical DIGITAL promotional flyer for the same school library event using design theory and digital tools.

The process:

The digital promotional flyer that I designed was also created using Canva. Canva is a great tool that is user friendly, easy to use, and intuitive. For this segment of the design process I used a free template that was available from a stock selection on Canva and chose to use a template with deeper, richer colors. Being that this flyer is digital, I felt that it was a wise move to use a bold color story that draws attention to the content, but also gave me the opportunity to create negative space with my text. This was effective at creating contrast and helped draw attention to the written content of my flyer. In doing this, a harmony between graphics and text was created. Furthermore, the ALA website dedicated to SLM also provides graphics, a PowerPoint template, and a poster that can be used to design in-house SLM celebrations provided that no alterations are made and that the posting is for education, noncommercial purposes only; moreover, these free resources shaped the official "tone" of my flyer and provided further effective event branding.

Additionally, the use of shapes (squares and circles) provided further contrast and supported the additional graphics used (bitmoji & Twitter handle).

I was tasked to design a subscription database brochure for a hypothetical school library space that would stand as a resource for students and their families. Two-dimensional shapes and harmonizing colors easily identify flat designs. The brochure produced as a result of this project uses flat design concepts and the four basic design principles from The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. They are as follows: 

Contrast

Repetition

Alignment

Proximity

Here is the finished product.

First, I decided to use a google slides template to start my brochure. Google slides was a convenient application because of the familiarity with google workspace and the design-friendly features such as line guides that kept my brochure balanced and formatted correctly.

I used contrasting colors and line theory to bring contrast into my work. According to Williams, "Contrast is often the most important visual attraction on a page- it's what makes a reader look at the page in the first place." To do this, I used the Google Chrome extension Color Dropper to obtain the Hex Code for the exact color (#dd4451) on the background for the template I used. Then, I traveled to color inverter.imagineonline.co and used the website functionality to obtain the opposite color (#22bbae) throughout my design. Here is a color swatch from the brochure.

Shapes were the following strategy that I used to render contrast throughout my brochure. I modeled the hypothetical library space after my current place of employment, an elementary school in School District U-46, and used several images from my school's website. That said, I used a wolf and moon image specific to the school on the cover and repeated the circle theme alongside rectangular and square shapes throughout the brochure.

The resources I chose were relative to my school district and what they offer to my current students. Again, I designed this brochure in the hopes that I would be able to use it as a prototype for my current place of employment. School District U-46 offers literacy and research database subscriptions and uses Follett Destiny Library Manager. I chose to highlight Encyclopedia Britannica, Tumble Books, Gale Resources, Newsela, Axis360, and Destiny because I felt they represented a large enough spectrum of the school's offerings.

This is where I really drove in on:

Repetiton

colors, shapes, line thickness, fonts, and sizes

Alignment

clean, sophisticated, and connected

Proximity

organized and structured

This brochure will help my students and their families to become more familiar with some of the subscription databases that School District U-46 currently uses. Furthermore, flat design and the CRAP design model by Robin Williams can be used to produce visually appealing as well as effective marketing/visual displays. For example, below is a visual pathway from the brochure that I used to help guide students and families to navigate the literacy applications on their student's Chromebooks. Note the consistent use of line thickness, contrasting colors, and alignment.

Everyone knows that libraries and makerspaces go together. A professionally managed school library makerspace is a multi-dimensional project requiring several areas of planning.

The typical elementary school library makerspace, when pictured in a mind's eye, typically invokes images of Lego bins, craft supplies, and maybe even a 3D printer. However, if you have spent the day in an elementary school, you know that a space like this just doesn't appear and isn't maintained and operated without effort. Furthermore, what is the point of the space, and how does it add value to the learning happening across all grade levels? These were some of the concepts that my team and I were tasked to contemplate when we accepted the charge to design a hypothetical elementary school makerspace.

First, a concept was needed for the makerspace. The thought of using Andrea Beaty's Questioneers book series was brought to the idea roundtable during initial brainstorming sessions. It was agreed upon eagerly because of the library's mission to promote literacy and connect it with the makespace. Additionally, the book series highlighted community roles and STEM-related careers, which we thought were perfect for influencing relevant inventory choices. It was decided to use a group member's current place of work, Ideal Elementary School in Countryside, IL, as the physical location for our makerspace.

Second, the inventory for the space needed to be created. The budget for our makerspace was $3,000. The document produced was the defining document needed to guide the rest of our project. The inventory-building process was complex because, as budding school librarians, it was required to connect the tools and items we selected for the space and draw parallels to ISAIL standards.

Finally, the group collaborated virtually to design and create our presentation/proposal. The process included effective communication, scheduling, time management, personal/team accountability, and skill leveraging. Moreover, this part of the process proved that more significant design tasks can be tackled using digital platforms and collaboration best practices.