Transforming My Perspective

A library supervisor for the Anchorage (Alaska) School District, credits five things with transforming her perspective throughout her school library career and helping her develop a clear vision and clearly articulated core values. Each of the five required her to move beyond her library and even beyond her district. The most critical opportunity she had was being invited to go into 80+ school libraries to help librarians do collection development and weeding. Another critical area was being involved in various positions with the Alaska Association of School Librarians while she was still in a school library position. A third transformative experience occurred when she was selected to participate in the Lilead Fellowship, the focus of which was transformational change. It provided a framework for thinking about library services and change that she implemented in her district. Through a connection she made while a Lilead Fellow, she had an opportunity to run for the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Region 8 Director position on the AASL Board of Directors. Finally, she was given the opportunity to work with a group of her district librarians to revise the school librarian job description. She notes that those in the profession must always strive to rethink practices and priorities and remember that most of them were not trained in the type of librarianship that students need today--and they do not even know what type of librarianship students will need in ten years.