Notes on "How Will COVID-19 Change Your Practice?"

 

The Allen and Gilbert article “How Will Covid-19 Change Your Practice” stood out to me at a very basic level, because our library is so far behind most. Allen and Gilbert write, “The library website is used daily by me and my students. It is accessed from within the library and from classrooms. The website is how students access the catalog and loads of digital resources. When I curate digital resources for teachers, they are found there as well.” We don’t have a library website, thus our students are not regularly (if at all) accessing databases for research. This is likely the result of never having a certified Library Media Specialist, and treating the library like a common space with a collection of books that is used for all kinds of testing. Not sure if this problem is endemic to urban, Title 1 schools, but it seems to be quite common throughout the Boston Public Schools (many don’t even have libraries at all). We have no technology in the library, not even a desktop computer. The collection is not yet electronically cataloged. So… we have a long way to go. And in reading this article, I realized that any attempts to budget and plan for a 21st century library learning space will have to start at a very basic level. I am in the process of bringing awareness to the issue via the school’s governing board and strategic planning committee, but sadly, it seems that only myself and the soon-to-retire library paraprofessional are the only ones concerned about it. Hoping for a better outcome if we are able to raise some awareness within the school community.

Allen, James and Gilbert, Jen. How Will COVID-19 Change Your Practice?