LIS 5100 : Collaboration between school and public libraries

As an aspiring youth librarian who works in a school library, I am interested in ways that school and public libraries might collaborate. So as part of my studies, I was interested in reading the Public Library & School Library Collaboration Toolkit. 

The toolkit emphasized that both school and public libraries share a common goal: “to provide a safe, welcoming environment for all patrons and access to information in a variety of formats” (Howard et al., 2018). Moreover, it emphasized that these collaborations matter because “When school and public library staff collaborate to meet the needs of youth, they can increase the impact of their efforts manyfold. By building a seamless bridge for lifelong learning between school and public libraries, both can work together to help the young people and families in their communities achieve their life goals” (Black, et al., 2018).

Collaboration is important to me, because I know that as much as I strive to build a comprehensive and inclusive collection in my singular school library, there is no way I can duplicate the resources available through a multi-branch or even multi-county public library system.

The public library in the community where I work has a collaborative partnership with two other neighboring counties. I got my start in libraries shelving returns and locating “holds” in one of those counties’ public libraries, and the materials I located might be destined for patrons anywhere within our three-county system. So I know firsthand what a wealth of materials is available through our public libraries.

Shortly after I started volunteering at my public library, one of the systems in our partnership calculated that during the previous fiscal year, its cardholders placed 800,000 holds (Parkhill, 2010).

Multi-branch public libraries may have more resources, but school libraries have one potential advantage, of more direct access to students. “For six hours a day, five days a week, forty weeks out of the year, most of our audience is completely out of reach, unless of course [public libraries] become a presence in schools” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 242).

One of the ways that public libraries can become a presence in schools is through presentations or promotional materials about available resources. 

Prior to COVID, local public youth librarians would come to our schools toward the end of the year to promote the summer reading program. And I recall on one occasion, there was a library card sign-up table at a back-to-school night.

Absent these librarians’ in-person visits, I’ve still done what I could to raise my patrons’ awareness of resources through the public library.

I was pleased to note that some of the ideas in the Collaboration Toolkit are already in place to serve my district’s students and educators. For example, a “ONE Access” program for K-12 students and teachers, which “uses students’ school identification numbers instead of separate library cards” and allows students to access public library databases or borrow materials from the public library (Barney et al., 2018, p. 32). 

The students at my site, and indeed, at sites throughout our district, can use their district-issued I.D. to access resources through the public library (Sonoma County Library, 2018).

Our public library also offers an Educators Card, which includes extended borrowing times and an expanded item limit (ibid). These resources are part of our public library’s student success initiatives (ibid).

Our writing prompt asked if collaboration could help with day-to-day tasks in the library. I think it depends on the task. I think that knowing what new titles are being added at the public library might help me to determine what titles might be good to add to the school library as well. (Or, conversely, identify a need that is already being met abundantly, so that I can allocate available resources in another needed area.)

I think that one way in which the staff at school and at public libraries can help each other meet their goals is by being willing to reach out and communicate. For example, an “Assignment Alert” was another one of the ideas suggested in the Toolkit. “Through Assignment Alert, teachers and school library staff fill out an online form” in order to notify the “School Corps” at Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon (Barney et al., 2018, p. 24). 

Even without anything so official as an online form, I might still reach out to somebody in Youth Services at my public library, and share with them some of the requests that teachers make for materials from the school library — especially if those materials are in subject areas where my collection needs development or update.

References:
Barney, A., Harris, S., McBride, M. & Melkonian, M. (2018). Successful school-public library partnerships: Concrete examples of collaboration that works. In the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation’s Public library & school library collaboration toolkit (pp. 22-33). https://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/professional-tools/plslc-toolkit-w.PDF

Black, D., Moreillon, J. & Rosenberg, M. Why school-public library partnerships matter: Research to support your collaborative efforts. In the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation’s Public library & school library collaboration toolkit (pp. 6-21). https://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/professional-tools/plslc-toolkit-w.PDF

Howard, J., Miles, S., & Reinwald, R. (2018). Getting started: How to initiate the collaborative process. In the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation’s Public library & school library collaboration toolkit (pp. 2-5). https://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/professional-tools/plslc-toolkit-w.PDF

Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation. (2018). Public library & school library collaboration toolkit. American Association of School Librarians, Association for Library Service to Children, and Young Adult Library Services Association. https://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/professional-tools/plslc-toolkit-w.PDF

Parkhill, C. (2010, Feb. 27). Library work: Refreshing change in environment. Cynthia Parkhill. https://cynthiaparkhill.blogspot.com/2010/02/library-work-refreshing-change-in.html

Sonoma County Library. (2018, March 6). Sonoma County Library and Santa Rosa City Schools partner to launch Student OneCard. Library news. https://sonomalibrary.org/blogs/news/sonoma-county-library-and-santa-rosa-city-schools-partner-to-launch-student-onecard

Sullivan, M. (2013). Fundamentals of children’s services (2nd ed.) American Library Association.